Lost In The Ivy

Reporter Charley Hubbs has the story that any reporter would kill for. The problem is that he may have done just that. As the dead bodies pile up around him, Charley sets out to prove to himself that he’s not the homicidal maniac the press has made him out to be. Enlisting the aid of seductive, whip-smart bartender Elizabeth “Lizzy” Parker, he makes a daring courthouse escape. From that point on, it’s a race against time for the truth. Along the way, Charley discovers that he can run, but not hide, from his past. Against the backdrop of Chicago’s storied Wrigley Field, a baseball shrine cursed by a billy goat, Charley is caught in a deadly game of cat-and-mouse. Only by unlocking the mysteries of his past and opening his heart again will he be able to find if hope truly does spring eternal.

Reporter Charley Hubbs has the story that any reporter would kill for. The problem is that he may have done just that. As the dead bodies pile up around him, Charley sets out to prove to himself that he’s not the homicidal maniac the press has made him out to be. Enlisting the aid of seductive, whip-smart bartender Elizabeth “Lizzy” Parker, he makes a daring courthouse escape. From that point on, it’s a race against time for the truth. Along the way, Charley discovers that he can run, but not hide, from his past. Against the backdrop of Chicago’s storied Wrigley Field, a baseball shrine cursed by a billy goat, Charley is caught in a deadly game of cat-and-mouse. Only by unlocking the mysteries of his past and opening his heart again will he be able to find if hope truly does spring eternal.

An attorney and award-winning journalist, Randy Richardson was a founding member and first president of the Chicago Writers Association. His essays have been published in the anthologies Chicken Soup for the Father and Son Soul, Humor for a Boomer’s Heart, The Big Book of Christmas Joy, and Cubbie Blues: 100 Years of Waiting Till Next Year, as well as in numerous print and online journals and magazines. His second novel, Cheeseland, was published by Eckhartz Press in 2012.