Bobbie Faye's Very (very, very, very) Bad Day

Set in Lake Charles, La., Causey's hilarious, pitch-perfect debut chronicles one day in the life of 28-year-old Bobbie Faye Sumrall, a magnet for mayhem who feels "a day without disaster would be a day in someone else's life." For starters, a faulty washing machine floods the trailer home she shares with her five-year-old niece. Then she learns that kidnappers are holding Roy, her rogue of a younger brother, for ransom and want nothing less than the tiara inherited from her mother that Bobbie Faye plans to wear as the queen of the upcoming pirate-themed Contraband Days Festival. After a simple bank trip turns into a nightmare and thieves get away with the tiara, Bobbie Faye commandeers a truck and its hunky driver, Trevor, for a wild chase through bayou country. Friends cheer her on, while others take bets on her next calamity. Causey doesn't miss a beat in this wonderful, wacky celebration of Southern eccentricity. (May)