Dirt Cheap: A Novel

by Lyn Miller-Lachmann

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.

365 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2006

About the author

I've practiced writing ever since I was six years and invented an entire classroom of 24 kids who wanted to be my friends. The following year, my mother gave me a typewriter, and I started putting my stories on paper. It was my way of creating a world where everything worked out the way I wanted it to.

When I became a high school teacher, I started collecting my students’ stories, and I incorporated these into my first efforts to write for others. I taught English to refugees from Latin America and organized concerts of Latin American music, and the people I met inspired and encouraged me to write the novel that years later would become Gringolandia. After Gringolandia came out in 2009, I enrolled in the MFA program in Writing for Children & Young Adults at Vermont College of Fine Arts and there gained the confidence to write the story I’d been avoiding or skirting for my life up to that point—growing up with Asperger’s Syndrome, a mild form of autism that made it so hard for me to make and keep friends. My 2013 novel, Rogue, is based on two incidents that happened to me as a teenager.

In addition to my published fiction for preteens and teens, I have complete drafts of two young adult novels, one of them a companion to Gringolandia, and am writing a middle grade novel. I am also working on a graphic novel featuring a Lego town I’ve built, Little Brick Township, and the minifigures who live there and/or visit. The stuff that happens in Little Brick Township sometimes appears on my blog, along with tips for other Lego builders. While I occasionally offer writing advice, my blog mainly features my other interests, including the experience of living abroad and learning another language (I spent the last four months of 2012 in Portugal and hope to return), my work as assistant host of a bilingual radio show of Latin American, Spanish, and Portuguese music, and what’s new in Little Brick Township.

Reviews

[Francine Apollo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I started this book on December 15 and just finished. It was a compelling read! Look for this one in your library!