The residents of Wormwood, West Virginia, have seen their once-thriving town slip into obscurity and decay. Under the abysmal direction of the business and civic leaders, life has sunk to new lows. Of course new ideas are always welcome—as long as they line the pockets of those in charge. So most everyone has pretty much come to accept things as they are. Besides, what else could go wrong in a town with no future? Who would even bother trying to make a bigger mess of things?Mayor Little Dick Fleming is trying to unload his methane gas-filled coal mines on the city so he can get out from under the enormous cost of fixing them, hopefully before the town goes up in flames—and he wants a convention center built in his honor in the process.Karl Lamb, a self-styled marketing guru and slaughterhouse owner, is making one last desperate attempt to stay afloat financially—by using the town's pets as the key to his demented, cost-reduction solution.
Returning home after his last employer was shut down by the FBI, private investigator Ty Svenson launches his own business from a single-wide trailer with some serious structural issues. As Ty races to solve a murder and prevent a fresh round of civic atrocities, he falls for a former high school classmate—and a twenty-something librarian. While flood waters bear down on the city, Ty's dating dilemmas are resolved on live TV.
It's just another day in Wormwood—and that's the problem.
Robert Van Kirk spent his formative years in a small West Virginia city along the Ohio River, a delightfully quirky spot that inspired this, his first novel. He is a retired investment industry executive who currently lives in New Bern, North Carolina, with his wife, Michelle, and their two dogs.
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