Dirt Cheap: A Novel Book

Lyn Miller-Lachmann's novel, Dirt Cheap, is an eco-thriller that will strongly appeal to anyone interested in ecology and the crime novel genre. In this suspenseful novel, Nick Baran, a middle-aged professor, pursues the chemical company that he believes gave him leukemia and contaminated his suburban neighborhood. His wife feels isolated, exhausted and frightened by her husband's obsessive pursuit, and ultimately begins an affair with a powerful local attorney who opposes her husband's efforts. When Sandy (the idealistic teacher of Nick's son) joins Nick's crusade, she allows herself to be drawn into a retaliatory affair and into his messy and tragic life.

Told from multiple points of view, Dirt Cheap explores the loss of innocence, the nature of courage, the price of material comforts, the place of faith and community, and the power of the individual to change lives.

Lyn Miller-Lachmann is editor in chief of MultiCultural Review and an author and editor of reference books, textbooks, and books for young readers. Among these are the award-winning multicultural reference title Our Family, Our Friends, Our World and Once Upon a Cuento, a collection of short stories for children by Latino authors. She lives in Albany, New York.

School Library Journal

Adult/High School-A tale of personal betrayal and corporate neglect. Nicholas Baran lives in a suburb where cancer is more common than car accidents. Hometown Chemical has a history of polluting the river and adjacent lands. Now that the plant is shut down, local developers are happy to forget the area's toxic past in favor of building upscale housing developments. But the past will not be forgotten in the number of children stricken with cancer at the local school or in the numerous victims in the surrounding neighborhoods. Having recently survived leukemia himself, Nicky is willing to risk everything-marital strife, public scorn, even a relapse-to expose the truth about the facility. Marc Martineau, local real-estate developer and president of the homeowners' association, is just as prepared to stop him. Their families and the local community are caught in the middle. This absorbing novel is as much about the price a family must pay for a man's personal crusade as it is about environmental pollution. Readers are offered realistic truths that can lead to intense debate: Which is more important-responsibility to family or fidelity to a cause?-Brigeen Radoicich, Fresno County Office of Education, CA Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.