Travel Writing (2008)

A man tries to piece together the life and death of a beautiful young woman, and finds himself in the throes of obsession: It's the fertile conceit of masterpieces such as Laura, Vertigo, and Twin Peaks. Travel Writing adds postmodernist cleverness to the mix. The tale of the haunted schoolteacher ''Pete Ferry'' (yes, it's also the author's name) and the doomed Lisa Kim is framed as a story told by Ferry to his English class, with travelogue interludes that include nonfiction material previously published in the Chicago Tribune. Shockingly, it succeeds as both a rich character study and a twisty whodunit, adding one more voice to the lively conversation about the boundaries between memoir and fiction. A-