Jack Mearns

Deadline News Jack Mearns

After being acquitted of his wife's brutal murder, celebrity television news anchor Wade Newsome claims to be targeted by an assailant bent on exacting divine justice. Is this mysterious Righteous Avenger a figment of Newsome's guilty conscience, a publicity stunt intended to speed his return to the Deadline News anchor desk, or a genuine threat?A skeptical LAPD detective, Carl Pope, must determine the truth of Newsome's claims. Deadline News combines suspense with Hollywood satire, in the vein of Seth Greenland's The Bones. Deadline News is also, more broadly, a social satire, taking on America's media culture and the public's obsession with celebrity trials. With its focus on the intersection of societal alienation and the entertainment industry, Deadline News also recalls the work of Nathanael West. In this era of Robert Blake and O. J. Simpson, Deadline News is a topical, humorous, and readable novel of suspense.