Don't Step into My Office

by David Fishkind

A gripping debut novel of literary suspense and a vivid portrait of wealth's hidden violence.

Aspiring writer and general layabout Jacob Garlicker doesn't expect—walking along the beach on the night of his twenty-sixth birthday—to witness a murder. After a hapless attempt to help the victim, Jacob decides to forget the incident entirely. And for a while, he does, returning to his bohemian life in NYC as if nothing of consequence had occurred.

Seven years later, Jacob is blissfully married. Now mostly sober, and mostly at peace with his failed writing career, he's feeling alright as he heads to his father-in-law's birthday celebration in the Hamptons, even as he knows the well-heeled WASPs that populate his in-laws' social circle will spend the weekend treating him with polite disdain. Everything shifts, however, when Jacob arrives on Long Island and begins to realize that those well-heeled WASPs are not as harmless as they seem.

Over the course of this propulsive, at times blackly comic narrative, Jacob wavers between addled narcissism and earnest commitment as he searches for the brutal, booze-soaked truth. Indebted to the suspenseful, page-turning plotwork of Patricia Highsmith and the operatic madness of Dario Argento, Don't Step into My Office is a mesmerizing literary puzzle.

Genres: Fiction, Mystery

360 pages, Hardcover

First published January 13, 2026

Reviews

[Maggie Clark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Offbeat prose and vocabmaxxing will save us from AI

[ari · Rating 3 out of 5]

The prose was thick & it felt like I had to wade through the words to get to the actual meaning. But I enjoyed this.

[Remi · Rating 2 out of 5]

this one hooked me at first with its lightly sardonic, self-aware narrator telling a mystery. it felt promising. And to be fair, David Fishkind can write. when the book slows down and lets the prose breathe, there’s a calm, almost meditative beauty to it. parts of the early chapters even reminded me of David Szalay’s Flesh in the way they linger on mood and interiority.

but once the dialogue ramps up, the experience changed for me. conversations stretch on and on, dense to the point of feeling stuck. the pacing becomes so slow that i genuinely struggled to push through. i can see the intention, combining a literary-fiction sensibility with a crime/mystery setup. however, the blend didn’t work for my reading rhythm. i kept wishing the plot would move, or that the tension would tighten rather than meander.

it’s a bold idea, and the writing itself shows real talent, especially for a debut, but the structure and pacing just weren’t for me. readers who enjoy character-driven literary mysteries with long conversational detours might click with it far more than i did.

-------

to-read:

using a humorous tone to tell a mystery literary fiction is always golden

*thank you to Arcade for the ARC*

[John Gordon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not for me!

[Ryan Diederich · Rating 4 out of 5]

Combination of parodic downtown auto-fiction and Under the Silver Lake-core paranoia stumblebum detectivities. Strongest as a relapse comedy, weakest in its plotting and pacing as the mystery comes together. Of course its long winded stretch and its sardonic humor give the book its personality, so it’s not so much a discredit as it’s a comment on structure. For example, it discards its phenomenal first chapter that establishes the mystery by stuttering ahead several years. Sure, it all ties together, but the book never really considers the honest pleasures of a mystery, instead using them as a grindstone to burr out the mundanity of its memoirities.

Looking forward to any and all future works by the author.

[Leah Meyer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Possibly an unfair review as I quit with 150 ish pages remaining but Jeeeeeeeeeez. I’m a pretty pretentious reader, I enjoy good, artistic prose, but this is simply too far. It seems as though this author went through every sentence individually and replaced 2-3 words with a word from a thesaurus that truly no one has ever heard of. At first I thought “what a good opportunity to learn some new vocabulary” but halfway through the story I had no clue what was going on, no idea where in the timeline we were, and had no relationship with any of the characters.

There is such a thing as being too wordy and trying too hard and that’s exactly what’s going on here. I had an inkling that the book may lean this way because the author uses dashes to mark dialogue vs. quotation marks which, in my opinion, is a red flag for a book where the author is just doing too much.

I can’t even get into the plot because it appears to be about nothing. Maybe a deep profile of one troubled individual who reminded me of 100 other characters I’ve read before. Anyway, if you manage to finish this book and you manage to enjoy it, congrats, you are better and smarter than everyone else and also, probably lying.

[Sami Cappitelli · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars, what an odd book

[Karen S · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not so much “gripping” as incomprehensible, with a protagonist who behaves bizarrely and is likely an unreliable narrator. I have a low tolerance for this sort of thing but forced myself to finish despite several urges to abandon this book. I was rewarded at the very end where it ludicrously wrapped up all the loose ends, revealing the villain who caused most of Garlicker’s woes (that name though!!).

[Conor McAuliffe · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maybe this is exactly what it’s trying to be. Maybe the amateurish, thesaurus-drunk prose of the first-person narrator is supposed to convey something about his character or state of mind. “Then the rain ceased, and everything was eclipsed in umbrage.” None of the characters talk or act like real people. Rough stuff.

[Gina O.C. · Rating 5 out of 5]

My first encounter with David Fishkind’s writing came from an anthology about suicide. His entry “Rapture at the Parkview Diner” caught my interest immediately with its raw, bleak, and at times gross honesty.

When I learned he would finally be publishing his first novel, I immediately added a signed copy to my cart and set my expectations high. I can truly say “Don’t Step Into My Office” has exceeded them. Jacob Garlicker feels a lot of the things I feel, and thinks a lot of the things I think, and somewhere in this equation Fishkind fleshes out a character who is simultaneously relatable, off-putting, and for me, as a person with one year clean and sober, cautionary.

I found myself straining to not read the next paragraph before finishing the previous out of pure hunger for what happens next. I hope this is the first of many novels I get to read from this unique and talented writer.

[Loure · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don’t Step Into My Office is a strikingly original novel that blends literary fiction, suspense, dark comedy, and surrealism into a distinctive and unsettling reading experience. At the center of the story is Jacob Garlicker, a deeply flawed and often difficult protagonist whose narcissism, aimlessness, and self-destructive behavior challenge the reader’s sympathy while keeping the narrative compelling.

Fishkind demonstrates impressive control over tone and structure, balancing moments of humor, discomfort, and tension with a tightly constructed plot. The result is a complex and memorable work that resists easy categorization, building toward a satisfying conclusion with a sharp metafictional edge. Bold, strange, and skillfully executed, this is a novel likely to appeal to readers who appreciate ambitious, unconventional fiction.

[L]

Great writing and a truly fearsome vocabulary. I liked the ending, but the rest of it…? Struggle to have nice things to say…how kafkaesque the Hamptons can be? How much in control rich people are of the world? It IS kind of impressive how every single thing and person was somehow involved in the central mystery of the book…in that way it AMOUNTED to something that a lot of newer fiction which are just amalgamations of observations doesn’t…but maybe it was all a little too orchestrated? And the very dramatic reveal was too knives out…with the villain explaining every single detail. Also a lot of…unnecessary caricaturing of women into types and ageism which might be the character, but reads as the author…

[Eileen Sullivan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I did not want to put this mystery type book down. From the very start, I was rooting for Jacob Garlicker to get his life together. The beginning of the book grabs you in with an event and the journey to figure out what happened is the masterful part of this unique book. The reader follows Jacob as he tries to find solutions to some of the many situations that arise. Read carefully as there are clues and such situations blend into each other. Well done David Fishkind. I highly recommend this book. Your first novel will be the first of many and I look forward to seeing this as a mini-series or movie.

[tara · Rating 5 out of 5]

some of these reviews are troubling. personally, i think it’s a good thing if an author knows more words than me. why would i be mad about the trickle down effect of an intelligent, educated person teaching me words while i read their book. also the complaints of using complicated words when others could be used instead just didn’t ring true to me, i was tickled and charmed by the specificity of the language throughout the whole book.

anyway! i read this because it was recommended by molly young. it reminded me of her writing. very funny and i look forward to reading more from this author in the future. a treat

[Matthew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Congrats to David Fishkind for pulling this off. I can't believe all this stuff really happened to you.

I was initially annoyed with our slacker protagonist Jacob Garlicker, but I soon realized it's because he exists as a dark, alternate universe version of me where I drink alcohol and smoke weed.

This is a fun book about Gatsby being Jewish, true love, mystery, paranoia, and the dangers of booze.

Stayed in on New Year's Eve to finish it. Showered, got in bed by 9, and by 10:30 the holocaust was complete.

[Gaby · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish I had started reading this before I got pregnant, because at the time I just could not tolerate a self-victimizing whiner like Jacob who seemed intent on ruining all the good things he had going for him. Eventually though, with a little persistence, I was able to make it to a point where all the references to places I know, eye-rolling conversation, and tedium of tri-state travel really captured me and finally the mystery part of this really began to unravel. Read the last hundred pages this afternoon and felt very satisfied. Well done David!

[Nora Obeid · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jacob Garlicker's life was a sublime train wreck. I haven't read anything quite like Don't Step Into My Office before, by turns literary, suspenseful, comic, repulsive, surreal and hyperreal. Garlicker's bumbling, narcissistic stoner-dilettantery challenges the reader's ability to empathize, while the tight plotwork refuses to let you look away. Fishkind tells a complicated and compelling story that comes together miraculously with a satisfying, metafictional wink.

[RJ Hanson · Rating 4 out of 5]

really fun!!! great debut, in the beginning i did feel like fishkind was trying a little too hard with the prose but once i settled in i notice a lot less of that. really well written, really fun. devoured this, great drug and alcohol addled little mystery reminding me a cross between emma cline and thomas pynchon, highly recommend!

[Izzy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A riveting modern mystery novel with genuine humor and self awareness, told from the POV of the hapless narrator and main character. I've never read anything like this before, and I tore right through it. Two thumbs way up

[JR]

“All my cells had regenerated. Ostensibly, there were things on which I might reflect. How, though, could I hope to communicate the horrors since incurred? Fiction demanded authenticity. Even to myself I was unreal. When had the world become the terror world?”

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

the middle of his odyssey finding out everything was quite gripping but the end felt rushed and a bit cringe ngl plus all the namedropping of extravagant brands to show how rich they are i dunno felt a bit lazy
yes it’s a page turner but not great literary efforts, still a fun read i guess

[Zach · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sometimes the blurbs are by great writers even when it's a small press because the book is great. Sometimes it's because the author has lots of great writers in their orbit. This one seems to split the difference.

[JXR · Rating 5 out of 5]

intense and impressive thriller with some great characters and a very literary-y, lyrical flow to it. 5 stars. tysm for the arc.

[Zoe Dubno · Rating 5 out of 5]

Can't help but love that Garlicker.

[Daisy Grant · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was silly and i enjoyed it ! thesaurus prose stylings were tongue in cheek in a way that actually tickled me

[Andrea Horn · Rating 2 out of 5]

yeah I won’t. 2.5

[Mary Bridget Welch · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my jam

[Jordan Fox · Rating 4 out of 5]

So well written and loved the beginning. The ending seemed lazy and didn’t have the grasp I was looking for

[Patrick King · Rating 3 out of 5]

“As a child, I’d fantasized about getting lost in a house. The allure of equivocal doors. Underground passageways. False walls and hidden tunnels. Stuff like this didn’t exist. My fixations did though. The world was not designed for mystery. Yet mystery designed the world.”

An interesting debut that I couldn’t ever quite pin down. Both an examination of the fading upper class (and the various striations within) and a murder “mystery” and a story of recovery and relapse and also and also. While the language was interesting and the writing very solid, I just hated the narrator. That usually doesn’t bother me, Iove a sucky narrator, but this guy just seemed so self-defeating and… annoying?

[Catherine Drake · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was my first experience with a more literary writing style, and it just wasn’t for me. I struggled to follow the prose and found myself looking up unfamiliar words throughout, which kept pulling me out of the story. DNF’d at about 20 pages.