Like the tagline says, this is "the mad misadventures of two English lads crossing America as the Rolling Stones." The rapscallions in the delightful novel find posing as famous rockers was an aphrodisiac to midwestern girl on their cross-country journey ... until facts of their impersonation catches up with them. But there is a prize waiting at the end of this pilgrimage: a slender blonde living in a treehouse. "Mark Howell is a gifted storyteller who will take you through an emotional gamut from laughter to tears," says Bill Craig, author of the Marlow and Chandler mysteries.

It was in Key West, joining the world of Solares Hill newspaper with David Ethridge at the helm, that Mark Howell, as senior writer and ultimately editor of that countercultural publication, would win 17 awards from the Florida Press Club. Among the winning entries was his weekly must-read column Soundings as well as incisive interviews with world celebrities such as Mikhail Gorbachev. Howell had become, in the words of Bob Kelly's blog, "a marvelous example of the old-school reporter, furiously scribbling notes in his small, spiral-bound notepad, interjecting questions when needed but hearing the nuances of the melody behind the beat, then rushing off for one more interview before writing to deadline."