Chuck Kelso grew up in the little town of Colby City, Illinois and figures he’ll probably never leave. He attends church, runs the lumber yard, loves his wife, and presides over the 2:30 Club at the Sweetpea Café every afternoon. He loves his hometown but doesn’t understand why it seems to be growing more insular, provincial, and frightened. From the invasion of Iraq to the disaster of 2016, this novel takes a wry and insightful peek behind the smalltown curtain and finds phony preachers, subtle racism, fearmongers and fanatics, sleazeballs and seekers of truth, murder, and one more slice of banana cream pie.