"Journalist Reding tells the story of Oelwein, Iowa (pop. 6,159), which, like thousands of other small towns, has been left in the dust by the consolidation of the agricultural industry, a depressed local economy, and an out-migration of people. As if this weren't enough, an incredibly cheap, longlasting, and highly addictive drug has rolled into town." -- from publisher description.
"When Shaw and Romeo pull up at a convenience store off I-95 in Georgia, their only thought is to fix a leaky tire and be on their way again to Florida--away from their dull Ohio tech-support jobs. But this happens to be the store from which a $318,000,000-million jackpot ticket has been sold. When a pretty clerk accidentally reveals to Shaw the identity of the winning family, he hatches a ferociously audacious scheme: he and Romeo will squeeze the family for half their prize." --From publisher description.
"Much has changed on Mount Everest in recent years. This is the first book to detail how the recent infusion of wealth into the mountains is reacting with the age-old lust for glory to draw crime to the highest places on the planet, and how a mountain's ability to reduce climbers to their essential selves is revealing villains as well as heroes, greed as well as selflessness . . . "
--From publisher description.