***SHAWN COOPER***

His father was a man on every poster in the town. A politician. Everyone mourned the day after he got elected. Sherman Cooper shot in the head, in a private art gallery. An event for his first mayoral disposition. His older siblings split the fortune and left him with a bookstore.

He tried handling the business. A week in he sold it to some best-selling author of the New York Times. That is what you all call yourselves, you published writers. He always caught a good game with the guys at the bar. They’d grab a beer or two. He would leave before it got too late. His...