OTHER PEOPLE'S SECRETS

Madcap energy and an inimitable voice are as irresistible as the protagonist, Baby - an impulsive, stubborn, 29-year-old wild child, fighting to save the town and chosen family she loves. Baby brawls, drinks, and schemes in a world stacked against her from the moment she was found as an infant in a dumpster. The writing here is vivid and visceral.

Baby's heart is in the right place, but she's got problems - namely, a fierce taste for booze and an on-again, off-again boyfriend who can't commit. She's living and working at Oakwood Hills, a crumbling lakeside resort, with her friends, Crystal Nugget and DJ Overalls, reeling since her adoptive mother died of a stroke. And now, the return of the local drug kingpin, Bad Mike, is about to throw her already unstable summer into full-blown chaos. To make matters worse, the owner of Oakwood Hills announces plans to sell the resort to Amelia, her boyfriend's wealthy twin sister, who plans to renovate it, sucking the life out of the only home Baby's ever known. Desperate to thwart the sale, Baby and her friends decide to try to recover a sunken treasure rumored to be sitting at the bottom of the lake. But Bad Mike also has his eyes on the prize and when the search gets criminal, Baby will be forced to walk down a road full of hidden secrets that will change how she sees herself - and her life - forever. Meredith Hambrock is a Canadian fiction and television writer who grew up in Toronto and now lives in Vancouver. Her short fiction has appeared in several magazines including Maisonneuve and Descant. She's been a finalist for the CBC Short Story Prize and most recently wrote for the sitcom "Corner Gas Animated."