Fatal Deadline

Fatal Deadline is a novel about murder and terrorism during the housing crisis, as told through the eyes and ears at an understaffed, small weekly newspaper. The terrible consequences in this fictional story could have happened in any county in America as a few unsavory builders and lenders became desperate facing the Great Recession.With the kind of zany humor of "His Girl Friday" and perilous risks taken in 'All the President's Men," this newspaper mystery arrives with a unique twist. The only reporter on the trail of the big story is a wide-eyed, 19-year-old neophyte. At a time when newspapers were in a freefall, and the housing market had collapsed, Christopher Gilley—new real estate reporter for the Maryland Inquirer—is the real deal. His skills are the envy of veteran reporters at the suburban weekly. In this, his first, real job, Chris has simple goals: to get out of poverty, write good copy, and make Ma proud back home in their small town in West Virginia. His humble goals are dashed at high noon on May 14, 2007 when the paper's story of the century drops squarely into his lap.To report the big story, however, his only sources are hardcore criminal gangs, drug dealers, predator lenders, strippers, thugs, and crafty urban women—the likes of which he'd never known back home.