num_pages: 346
description: A bouncy story of love and war, friends and frenemies, madness and malevolence--all in a small North Florida town. This book was a finalist in the Next Generation Indie Book Awards in 2 categories. Sue-Ann McKeown returns to her home town of Pine Oak after a crushing six months of war reporting in Iraq. Her mother has died in a tragic riding accident and her father has sold most of the family's possessions and run off to Italy. Sue-Ann herself has broken up with her long-time photographer boyfriend. And, oh, yeah, she is also suffering from a mysterious disease that makes it difficult for her to focus on her new job as reporter for The Pine Oak Courier. And it doesn't help that the office manager for the small newspaper is Sue-Ann’s old high school rival. But unexpected and mysterious things begin to happen: a dead goat is found in a dumpster, wild horses roam the woods behind Sue-Ann’s house, and a pirate radio station sends her weird, cryptic messages, convincing Sue-Ann that something terrible is about to happen in her little town. But what Sue-Ann finds runs deep into the history of Pine Oak and teaches her new and important lessons about courage, perseverance, and love—even if that love is for the last person she would have expected. Bonus: The e-book version of this novel contains Chapter 1 from the next volume in the Small Town Series, Madness in Small Towns."
language: English
title: The News in Small Towns
publisher: Black Bay Books