title: Leaving Unknown: A Novel
author:  Kerry Reichs 
description: In this easy but uneven read, Reichs (<i>The Best Day of Someone Else's Life</i>) spends 150 pages spinning her wheels with quirky, appealing characters before revealing a plot-enriching secret about protagonist Maeve Connelly. Maeve's story begins when she loses her job and vows to stop being flighty and irresponsible (flitterdegibbety). With her talking cockatiel in tow, Maeve heads west from the Carolinas, planning to reconnect with a friend who's found success in Hollywood. Her plan is predictably derailed when her car breaks down outside the town of Unknown, Ariz., where she's embraced by the locals and takes on a series of jobsin a funky boarding house, at a bookstore owned by a handsome children's book author, at the local photo shopwhile waiting on auto repairs. Chronic hypochondria leads her to seek out the town's doctor, and before long they begin a comfortable romance. Gentle humor and insight drive the sleepy story until a jarring but momentum-building conflict turns up, pushing the story toward a satisfying conclusion. <i>(Apr.)</i> <br />Copyright  Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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  ## [About the Author](contents.xhtml#aboutauthor)
  
  
  **KERRY BARRETT** is the author of eight novels, including the _Strictly Come
  Dancing_ themed _A Step in Time,_ and _The Girl in the Picture_ , about a
  crime novelist who solves a 160-year-old mystery.
  
  
  Born in Edinburgh, Kerry moved to London as a child, where she now lives with
  her husband and two sons. A massive bookworm growing up, she used to save up
  her pocket money for weeks to buy the latest Sweet Valley High book, then read
  the whole story on the bus home and have to wait two months for the next one.
  Eventually she realised it would be easier to write her own stories …
  
  
  Kerry’s years as a television journalist, reporting on _EastEnders_ and
  _Corrie_ , have inspired her novels where popular culture collides with a
  historical mystery. But there is no truth in the rumours that she only wrote a
  novel based on _Strictly Come Dancing_ so she would be invited on to _It Takes
  Two._
  
  
  When she’s not practising h