ISBN: 1-4327-0236-X

Publisher: Outskirts Press

The build up and descriptions of the small newspaper office, characters and town were very authentic in this novel.

 Perry in Florida becomes like your hometown as you read about its history, buildings and its more unusual characters. 

Kasey graduated from Florida State University and wanted a career in newspapers, especially wanting to unveil a scandal if at all possible. She loved perfection in her life and thought the paper always printed the same type of stories. She was determined to write a human interest story.

Scoffing donuts wasn’t having the desired effect Kasey thought, eating the last one. Eventually after much thought she travelled to Steinhatchee to write about a hermit fisherman. There are some wonderful descriptions as the author describes this place which really gives you the atmosphere, especially all the activity on the river and in the fish house. The detail and observation are outstanding. 

Kasey met J.P Garon who is seventy years old but fit and attractively greying. He wasn’t all that interested in being interviewed but Kasey persevered. He enjoyed Kasey’s laughter - this made him realize how much he missed his daughter. J.P still insisted he was not the story Kasey was after. Kasey however still enjoyed her fishing trips with him still persisting in interrogating him for the big story about his life which she remained convinced there was.

I liked the layout of this book and the nostalgic photos too. You want to read on as you finish the end of each chapter. Your curiosity gets keener to discover just who the fisherman who Kasey has befriended can be.  

Kasey very quickly endears herself to the reader - you sense her eagerness to move on in life from a small town girl to make a success of journalism.  After pushing J.P for quite some time to tell her the story of his life, she gets what she hoped for but was uncertain how to react.

J.P tells her his story which seemed so amazing but she just had to believe him.

He told her that someone had been hired to take over J.P’s life but the big mystery was J.P was really the King, Elvis Presley. J.P then went to live in a monastery in order to detox and get his life back on track.  

The story then reverts to telling the tale of Elvis’s impersonator and the tragic end to this deception but will Kasey keep this confession to herself or will her journalistic instinct take over?

This fantastic novel is excellent but I leave you to discover that for yourself. 

 It is a very cleverly written debut novel from Pat Cook and I look forward to others following. The title of this book I thought was attention grabbing and if Elvis Presley interests you in any way, you must read this story.

The King still lives on through his music and his charismatic personality. Pat Cook has not been slow to make the most of this in her book. I simply cannot praise this novel enough.