Book excerpt: Life is just time spent between bouts of self-pity and his next drink for Dirk Crandell, a salty small-town newspaper writer. Then an intriguing letter crosses his desk from a young woman in LA. What follows for Crandell is a life-changing series of twists and turns as the promise made to the young woman in the letter leads him into a web of conspiracy, deception, and deception. As he delves further into this small towns sinister series of events, some going back twenty years, he begins to unravel a cover-up of deadly proportions. Joining forces with his seductive managing editor, Kristen Harden, he discovers not only that Looks Can Be Deceiving but hazardous to your health as well.