Reese Thompson has a husband and a house and what appears to be a normal life. But deep down, she knows she's nothing but a scab. After she kills a man in self-defense, Charlie appears at her door, offering her the opportunity to work for him as a contract killer. He tells her she was made for this work-and Reese has never felt she was made for anything. She leaves her life behind and begins to work for Charlie. THE KILLING MACHINE is a disturbing take on the road trip novel, a violent and visceral story of two people brought together by their own dissolution. The novella combines the perversity of Ottessa Moshfegh's with the slyly brutal tone of , in a spare style that evokes Joan Didion's .