AFGA: A Mystery Set in Harrisonburg

Afga Somerset, graduate of JMU and onetime promising poet has become something of a town character. When his best friend is found dead, he becomes the center of an investigation. His boss makes him privy to her own strange involvement in the case, causing him to believe that a vicious killer-gang is stalking him. Meanwhile, long-standing pre-occupations continue to haunt Alga's life: his emotional battle over a failed marriage; his ex-wife's new lesbian romance and its impact on her eight year old daughter for whom Afga has become the official baby-sitter; his prodding aunt who carries on a blistering correspondence while seeking advice about her own issues; and above all else, the surreal dialogue he conducts with a father who disappeared long ago. The story is an intriguing, touching and humorous excursion into a world of an irrepressibly buoyant and somewhat zany web-weaver, filled with the hero's offbeat takes on the many thorny issues of our times.