Special Topics in Calamity Physics is a mesmerizing debut, uncannily uniting the trials of a postmodern upbringing with a murder mystery, heralds the arrival of a vibrant new voice in literary fiction. It has received rave reviews around the world and was shortlisted for the 2007 Quills Awards. As teenager Blue van Meer tells her story we are hurled into a dizzying world of murder and butterflies, womanizing and...
On a cold, miserable night in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, a night that wouldn’t feel so unusual if it wasn’t the Fourth of July, an antique wooden boat runs full-speed into a line of old railroad pilings in the shallow waters of Waishkey Bay. When Alex McKnight helps rescue the passengers, he finds three men. The driver is out cold, the other two are dazed but conscious. When they’re all finally back on dry land and sent...