Jamie Swift, owner of a local South Carolina newspaper, and her enigmatic partner, millioniare playboy Max Holt, posing as husband and wife as they become involved with a corrupt minister, a gang of gangsters on the loose, a hound dog named Fleas, and a wise-cracking computer whiz.

In 1970, one of Mississippi's more colorful weekly newspapers went bankrupt. To the surprise and dismay of many, ownership was assumed by a 23 year-old college dropout, named Willie Traynor. The future of the paper looked grim until a young mother was brutally raped and murdered by a member of the notorious Padgitt family. Willie Traynor reported all the gruesome details and the paper began to prosper. The murderer, Danny Padgitt was tried before...

From the author of The Italian Teacher, this acclaimed debut novel set in Rome follows the topsy-turvy lives of the denizens of an English language newspaper.
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY 
Janet Maslin, The New York Times • The Economist • NPR • Slate • The Christian Science Monitor • Financial Times • The Plain Dealer • Minneapolis Star Tribune...

Newspaper moguls Richard Armstrong and Keith Townsend, one in Europe and the other Australia, find themselves on the verge of ruin when their ambitions collide and their profits fall.

Not even in Alpine, Washington, could the death of octogenarian Jack Froland be considered big news--except by his drinking buddies at Mugs Ahoy. But that suddenly changes when in the middle of his funeral, Jack's widow hysterically insists that he was murdered. Emma Lord, publisher of The Alpine Advocate, who is already investigating a threatening letter received by the town's beautiful blonde judge, now suspects she has two hot stories to unravel....