A story of corruption in a news desert.

Lenore Goodman, a television news reporter in Iowa, rebels against new station management and creates her own digital news channel, struggling to gain access to news stories from the entrenched local political structure. When Clifton, a homeless veteran, takes advantage of an unexpected opportunity, it seems the two are destined to connect. He travels from skid row in Los Angeles through Grand Junction, Amarillo and Oklahoma City looking to put his life together.

Meanwhile, a small group of friends meet weekly to share a meal and outlooks on life in a small Iowa town. A couple of newcomers push the group to expand their horizons, and to ponder the relevance of local news coverage.

Media staff in Topeka and Oklahoma City run into conflicts with station ownership and absentee management, who demand ever-increasing profits.

In Des Moines, local politicians and their deep-state coterie become nervous about Lenore getting too close to exposing their modus operandi, and she is called on to expand her investigative skills to seek the truth.

This is Bruce’s second novel. He has written extensively for almost every known advertising and public relations medium. To the best of his knowledge, every word he wrote during his advertising career was true. Which is what inspired him to write fiction.

In his first novel, Red Fabric Chairs, Arvin Miller is an accountant in a small midwestern town who gets fired, gets desperate, then finds himself in a position he doesn’t want to be in.