NORWAY – CNN “The Situation Room” editor/writer John DeDakis will speak as well as read from and sign copies of his mystery/suspense novel “Fast Track” Thursday, Aug. 23, at Books N Thing.

His lecture topic will be “From Journalist to Novelist (Or How I Learned to Stop Telling the Truth and Start Making It Up.”

He will be at the bookstore, 430 Main St., from 6 to 8 p.m.

“Fast Track” is the story of 25-year-old Lark Chadwick, a strong-willed, strong-minded woman who solves the mystery surrounding the car/train collision that orphaned her as an infant.

Set in southern Wisconsin, the story begins with the carbon monoxide poisoning death of Annie, the aunt who raised Lark after her parents were killed. The trauma of discovering Annie’s body propels Lark on a quest to learn more about her past.

Lark’s search takes her to Pine Bluff, the nearby town where the fatal crash happened. At the office of the local newspaper, she discovers a news clipping that describes the accident. To her astonishment, Lark learns she survived the accident – a fact she’d never been told.

Lark convinces Lionel Stone, the newspaper’s irascible publisher, to let her write a follow-up story about the accident. Someone is lying. And why is someone trying to kill her?

“Fast Track” tackles tough issues, including suicide, finding purpose in life, journalistic integrity, anonymous sources and mentoring relationships.

“Fast Track” is one of those rare novels that you simply can’t put down. I was hooked on page one and it was nonstop until the very end – an emotional roller coaster,” said Wolf Blitzer, anchor of CNN’s “The Situation Room.”

DeKakis has been with CNN since July 1988. As a former White House correspondent, he has interviewed such luminaries as Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and Alfred Hitchcock. Two incidents in his life inspired DeDakis to write “Fast Track”: a car/train collision he witnessed as a child in 1959 and the suicide of his sister in 1980. “Fast Track” is his first novel. He is currently at work on a sequel. He lives with his wife and son in Washington, D.C., and has two grown children.