Bike messenger Rex Carlton has a new girlfriend and discovers he has cancer. He takes his frustration out on those he loves and must decide if he wants to continue his career. He visits his cousin in the Pacific Northwest after discovering a letter hidden behind a painting for over 100 years. The letter leads them on a wild chase for the truth and into the sights of a serial killer. Rex and his best friend Neumann travel to the small town of Devils Corner in western Washington where his cousin Kelly Martin lives. With Kelly's help, they try to unravel the meaning behind a mysterious letter Rex found behind an old painting Kelly had sent him. While digging through old newspaper articles and family trees Rex examines his own life before deciding if he wants to return to his girlfriend and the job he loves. The trio finds themselves the target of a killer and exposing the truth could destroy them as well as the small town.

The Dictionary of Southern Appalachian English is a revised and expanded edition of the Weatherford Award–winning Dictionary of Smoky Mountain English, published in 2005 and known in Appalachian studies circles as the most comprehensive reference work dedicated to Appalachian vernacular and linguistic practice. Editors Michael B. Montgomery and Jennifer K. N. Heinmiller document the variety of English used in parts of eight states, ranging from West Virginia to Georgia—an expansion of the first edition's geography, which was limited primarily to North Carolina and Tennessee—and include over 10,000 entries drawn from over 2,200 sources. The entries include approximately 35,000 citations to provide the reader with historical context, meaning, and usage. Around 1,600 of those examples are from letters written by Civil War soldiers and their family members, and another 4,000 are taken from regional oral history recordings. Decades in the making, the Dictionary of Southern Appalachian English surpasses the original by thousands of entries. There is no work of this magnitude available that so completely illustrates the rich language of the Smoky Mountains and Southern Appalachia.