A wonderfully written book that encompasses all the ratcheting tension you’d expect from a first-rate mystery—and at the same time incorporates the layered and bittersweet revelations about life in a small town.

We’re excited to announce GLiBA’s first Great Lakes, Great Reads pick – Starvation Lake by Bryan Gruley, a paperback original, published by Touchstone.

A highly entertaining first novel … a haunting story of harsh reality in a small town. The well-developed characters make it easy for the reader to become embroiled in their lives.

Debuts don’t come much more polished than this tale of corruption and redemption. Gruley gets the details right, from the goofy-endearing features of small-town journalism, to the complexities of lifelong friendship.

His characters are genuinely flawed and, Carpenter especially, honestly likable. Gruley’s gripping plot unfolds like a piece of investigative journalism…