NORTH

NORTH, the debut critically acclaimed novel of award-winning playwright and poet Roy Robbins, begins when Hal Parker, a market research executive delivered into therapy by his divorce, returns to his childhood home in northern Florida. He has arrived too late for his mother's funeral—but early for another. The small rural town of North is in shock over the death of local kingpin Leon Putnam, murdered days earlier.

Claire Austen, a reporter who may or may not be in love with Hal, arrives in ...