by Dave Barry
First published 2007
Ray Turnage works as a reporter for a small-town newspaper where nothing much happens until everything does. When a routine assignment leads him into unexpected territory, Ray discovers that his sleepy community harbors secrets that challenge everything he thought he knew about the people around him. Barry brings his trademark observational humor to this fictional world, creating a protagonist who must navigate between his cynical reporter instincts and his growing investment in the lives of his subjects. As Ray digs deeper into his story, he finds himself questioning not just the facts he uncovers but his own assumptions about truth, community, and what it means to tell someone else's story. The novel examines how ordinary people become extraordinary when circumstances push them beyond their comfort zones, and how a journalist's quest for the truth can transform both the storyteller and the story itself.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, mystery, contemporary
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, unreliable-narrator
Setting: United States
Period: 21st-century
203 pages · Spiral-bound · Pearson Custom Publishing