Breaking Stories

If you enjoy political intrigue, mixed with tales of crime and the law and a dash of romance, you will not want to put "Breaking Stories" down.

 "Morris! Get your Ivy League ass in here!"

That's how "Breaking Stories" begins, and from there it moves at a brisk pace. Jake Morris is a talented young journalist. At the outset, he faces down his editor who seems to want to kill his story about a corrupt state senator. Jake rashly quits on the spot. He meets and falls in love with a young Irish woman, but his reckless behavior causes her to break off the relationship. Feeling adrift, Jake takes an assignment reporting on a logging crew in Montana. There, he lives and works with men who rely upon each other to stay alive while pursuing the most dangerous occupation in America today. Jake barely survives a wildfire while coming to terms with the demons in his life.

Meanwhile, his editor presides over a newspaper struggling to survive in the digital age. His reporters pick up on Jake's investigation of the dirty politician while covering other dramatic events, including a mass shooting at a Black church, a Roman Catholic cardinal shielding a pedophile priest, debates over gun regulation and criminal investigations of both the senator and the cardinal.

When Jake returns, he is a different man, trying to take up the life he left behind. But he has more to learn about himself, revelations that will cut to his core and finally answer the question of why his editor was reluctant to run Jake's story of the state senator.

"Breaking Stories" is not just about the news we read today. It's about the stories behind the news and the people who cover them. Some stories break well and others badly, leading either to redemption or perdition.