Reporter Tom Valle overslept one day and made up a story to
meet his deadline. Then he made up another, and another...
until the lies caught up with him more than 50 articles
later. Forced to leave the paper in disgrace, two years
later Valle is an exile in the desert, working at a small-
town California newspaper, reporting on local residents and
community events. A fiery car crash on the highway
interrupts the monotony and then triggers Valle's
journalistic instincts when he discovers that the victim
allegedly killed in the crash is apparently still alive in
Iowa. As he investigates, Valle begins to realize that he's
stumbled onto a complicated conspiracy, one that may have
been going on for years. It's the biggest story of his
career, but it seems almost too incredible to be true --
especially coming from a journalist who based much of his
career on lies. Even if he can manage to expose the truth,
who will believe him?
This is a fascinating story based on the old adage that the
truth can, indeed, be stranger than fiction. It's also a
tale of redemption for Tom Valle, an unlikely hero
surrounded by eccentric small-town characters. Although
readers may figure out some elements before Valle does (and
he admits as much in his "journal" entries addressed to the
reader), there are plenty of twists and turns to keep
people interested. I found myself totally absorbed in
Valle's adventures as he traced the roots of a decades-old
conspiracy. I liked the combination of dark humor, suspense
and mystery.
A disgraced journalist.
The scoop of a lifetime.
If it doesn't redeem him…
It'll kill him.
It looks like just another car crash: a head-on collision
on a lonely stretch of desert highway that leaves one
driver dead. But Tom Valle, the local newspaperman
assigned to the story, is damned good at spotting lies.
And for Valle, once a star reporter at America's most
prestigious daily, this so-called accident may be just the
ticket he needs to resurrect his career and get him out of
the aptly named town of Littleton, California, for good.
Yet as Valle eagerly starts investigating, he finds
himself the only one who cares about getting the story
right. As he starts checking facts, and unveiling lie
after lie, he finds himself completely alone-and
negotiating a dark trail of corruption, cover-ups, fraud,
and murder that stretches back for decades.
The more he discovers, the closer he gets to the heart of
a conspiracy that threatens to destroy him. From a seedy
after-hours bar in L.A. to a remote cabin in the woods to
the dark corridors of a psychiatric ward, Valle is
desperately seeking redemption in the truth.
But, as the boy who cried wolf so many times before, will
anyone believe him?
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