The Paperboy

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What to expect

The sun was rising over Moat County, Florida, when Sheriff Thurmond Call was found on the highway, gutted like an alligator. A local redneck was tried, sentenced, and set to fry.

Then Ward James, a 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 and aims to free—and meet—her convicted "fianc├®."

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 backseat to headline news.

Critics Review

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u201cAn eerie and beautiful novel. Its secrets continue to reveal themselves long after the book has been finished.u201d
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New York Times Book Review

u201cDexternexcels in giving us characters that we as readers try to avoid. Sean Runnettentakes Dexteru2019s cues and runs with them through the thick Moat County, Florida,nbackwaters of the mid-u201960s. Highly regarded news reporter Ward James is drawnnback to his hometown to investigate the shady trial of a murdered sheriff by anmember of the most notorious family in Moat County. The listener can feel thenhumidity and buzzing mosquitoes as Runnette describes how deeply this story hasnaffected so many lives and continues to do so many years later. Dexter andnRunnette paint a vivid picture, just as relevant today, of the publicu2019s neednfor shocking headlines, regardless of the truth.u201d

AudioFile
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u201c[Dexter] has written as sparsely here as in any of his previous books, and most of what carries the reader along so irresistibly lies beneath the surface of his prose.u201d
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New York Times
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u201cWith clarity and an amazing capacity for simplicity of language and down-home metaphor, Dexter weaves a tale that exposes the extremes of goodness and nastiness that exist in newspaper life.u201d

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Washington Post
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u201cWhat deepens and darkens [Dexteru2019s] writing, so that art is the precise word to describe it, is a powerful understanding that character rules, that we live with our weaknesses and die of our strengths.u201d

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Time
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u201cDexter is a writer who cuts to the bone. There is not a spare word in this searing taleu2026A bravura performance by one of Americau2019s most original and elegiac voices.u201d
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People
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u201cA fierce, beautifully configured family tragedyu2026As sardonic and lyrical about the newspaper business as Nathaniel Westu2019s 1933 classic Miss Lonelyhearts.u201d

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Boston Sunday Heraldu00a0
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u201cA moving and suspenseful novelu2026Dexteru2019s well-drawn characters are a believable mu00e9lange who interact realistically and inhabit his plot with great strength and mobility.u201d

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Oregonian
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u201cDexteru2019s writing is rock solid, he offers acute observations about the nature of reporting, and his grip on the Southern male psyche is unquestionableu2026A provocative offering from one of the most exciting novelists around.u201d

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Publishers Weekly
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u201cThe kind of book you catch yourself unable to stop thinking aboutu2026A gripping mystery and a thoughtful examination of all that modern journalism has wrought.u201d
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Commercial Appealu00a0(Memphis)
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u201cDexter is a taut storyteller who keeps the pages turning. Though he offers a cast of characters recalling the best of Carl Hiaasen and Elmore Leonard, his chillingly satisfactory new work should not be relegated to the ranks of genre writing. Highly recommended.u201d

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Library Journal
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u201cA National Book Awardu2013winning novelist whose last tale was set among mobsters in Philadelphia here proves his ability to shift to completely different venues with easeu2026Dexter has created vibrant characters who fit snugly in their hot, languid setting.u201d

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