The Paperboy | Pete Dexter

This title is now a major motion picture directed by Academy Award-nominated Lee Daniels and starring Nicole Kidman, John Cusack, Matthew McConaughey, Zac Efron, David Oyelowo, and Macy Gray. The sun is rising over Moat County, Florida, when Sheriff Thurmond Call is found on the highway, gutted like an alligator. A local redneck is tried, sentenced, and set to fry. Then Ward James, hotshot investigative reporter for the 'Miami Times', returns to his rural hometown with a death row femme fatale who promises him the story of the decade. She's armed with explosive evidence, aiming to free - and meet - her convicted 'fiance'. With Ward's disillusioned younger brother Jack as their driver, they barrel down Florida's back roads and seamy places in search of The Story, racing flat out into a shocking head-on collision between character and fate as truth takes a back seat to headline news. This title is suitable for readers of big American contemporary fiction such as Harper Lee's 'To Kill a Mockingbird', Carson McCullers' 'The Heart is a Lonely Hunter' and Truman Capote's 'In Cold Blood'.