The Fact Checker

Kelley debuts with an amusing tale inspired by his work as a fact-checker for the New Yorker. It’s 2004, and the unnamed narrator is “drowning in a storm of information and doubt” at his fact-checking job for a weekly magazine. His assignments range from verifying a slain CIA officer’s favorite shirt and marital transgressions to scrutinizing a food critic’s review of the Union Square Greenmarket. The latter task sparks the narrator’s curiosity after he comes across a note from farm vendor Sylvia about “nefarious business” at the market. Eager to ferret out the details, he reaches out to Sylvia. After a drunken night at a secret supper club, she goes home with him and they make out. The next morning, he finds a cryptic note from her. As the days pass and he’s unable to reach her, the increasingly suspicious narrator slips into a tailspin. Kelley’s droll and pithy narration propels the story, as does the impressive plotting as the narrator uncovers clues about illicit opioid sales at the farmer’s market, which he worries is connected to Sylvia’s disappearance. Readers will be swept up. Agent: Chris Clemans, Janklow & Nesbit Assoc. (Apr.)