When a grieving teacher is blackmailed over the death of his brother, he decides to silence the blackmailer and frame his widow?s new lover for the murder.

I like this. It starts strong. It ends strong. There?s a lot of intrigue here, and as I reread it, I can?t help but be slightly confused. What drives a character to escalate so quickly from being blackmailed to murdering and framing the murder on someone else? I wonder if you could tie the characters closer together in the story.