Bruce Holsinger’s Culpability is an of-the-moment novel about one family’s involvement in a fatal car accident and how it was ultimately caused by many layers of guilt and negligence. When the Cassidy-Shaw family – dad Noah, mom Lorelei, and kids Charlie, Alice and Izzy – is en route to Charlie’s lacrosse tournament on the Eastern Shore, their car, which was being driven by Charlie but had been taken over by self-driving mode, swerves and strikes an oncoming car, killing an older couple. In the aftermath of the accident, each of the family members sits on his or her own grief and feelings of guilt about what happened, keeping secrets from the others that threaten their relationships. When they rent a house on the Chesapeake Bay to try to recover and get past what happened, things only get more complicated between and among all of them, as well as their mysterious wealthy neighbor. Holsinger is a shrewd observer of modern relationships and expert at weaving current events and ethical questions into compelling contemporary fiction. I especially appreciated his realistic dialogue, which made Culpability feel immediate and relatable.