Coal Town

Coal Town, a small, fading community in the bituminous coal region of central Pennsylvania, includes a handful of local citizens intent on either escape or refuge from the demands of contemporary urban America. Preservation of the memory of the town's celebrated past engages the energies of some, while others struggle simply to keep the dying community alive. Personalities clash and tempers become enflamed as local issues intrude on the otherwise orderly and unhurried conduct of daily life.

Allen Meade, a successful west coast hi-tech entrepreneur, arrives in Coal Town to research his ancestral line and within days finds himself entangled in the town's web of local disputes. Violent death stalks the otherwise peaceful town during Meade's brief stay, making him both a suspect and a key informant to the Pennsylvania State Police criminal investigator struggling to bring clarity to the events he's charged with solving.

With a cast of tightly interconnected characters and a small town setting, the book offers the reader an intimate and fast moving plot filled with the kind of whodunit suspense favored by crime fiction enthusiasts everywhere.