Even though my years working in public relations and marketing has now surpassed my full-time newspaper days, I still feel like I belong in a newsroom. Despite all the problems the industry has and the way I know it would make me eat Tums like they are M&Ms if I ever went back there on a daily basis, I still believe in the power of print journalism.

So does Russell Wiley. Or the titular character of Richard Hine‘s novel “Russell Wiley Is Out to Lunch” at the very least believes that the people who have the future of the industry above their own interests have their priorities in line. I could definitely see myself hanging out with this guy.

Russell has to deal with corporate weasels, disingenuous co-workers and a wife interested in everything, but him. He just wants to do a good job and go home at the end of the day to a nice life, but everyone else seems to prevent him from making all that happen.

In reality, Russell realizes that he needs to get out of his own way before he can push those distractions aside. He bumbles and stumbles a little, but ends up coming out on top in the end even though Hine has you wondering if that will actually happen.

My wife bought the book for me as a Christmas present, so I did not know what to expect. She knows I like stories about guys dealing with midlife-ish crises so I felt pretty confident I would enjoy the book. It also introduced me to the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest, which I’m submitting something I wrote years ago to just to try my luck.

Hine tells a really nice story and seemed to know when to go for the cliche and went to take a different path to keep the reader interested. He passed my test when I was leaning forward as I read, preparing in my head an angry screed if he screwed up what I thought was a fun novel. He didn’t, and I can’t wait to see what he has up his sleeve next.