Body Language

A midlife crisis sends Chicago Journal reporter Mark Manning back to his Wisconsin hometown—and into a morass of lust, lies, and lethal family secrets

An unexpected windfall has given burned-out Chicago journalist Mark Manning the chance to reconnect with his boyhood roots. With the blessing of his lover, Neil, he leaves the Windy City to return to Dumont, Wisconsin, to take over the town paper. His long-awaited family reunion is cut short when his cousin Suzanne is bludgeoned to death just before Christmas dinner. Before she dies, she whispers something to Manning: the name of her son.

Was she expressing a mother’s dying wish for the future welfare of her child? Or revealing the identity of her murderer? When Manning ends up in the local law’s sights, he’s suddenly racing against time to clear his own name and smoke out a killer. With no lack of suspects, from a troubled homophobe to a lesbian activist to a housekeeper, the clock is ticking on a story that could be the biggest of Manning’s career—if he lives long enough to write it.

Body Language is the third book in Michael Craft’s Mark Manning series, which begins with Flight Dreams and Eye Contact.