Shortlisted for Best Trade Fiction at the 2020 Alberta Book Publishing Awards!

When an accident jeopardizing the family farm draws Amiah Williams back to Kingsley, Alberta, population 1431, she doesn’t expect her homecoming to make front-page news. But there she is in The Inquirer, the mysterious tabloid that is airing her hometown's dirty laundry. Alongside stories of high school rivalries and truck-bed love affairs, disturbing revelations about Amiah's past and present are selling papers and fuelling small-town gossip. As the stakes get higher, Amiah must either expose the twisted truth behind The Inquirer or watch her life fall apart again.

Jaclyn Dawn's debut novel provides an incisive look at the lingering consequences of past relationships and the price of both staying silent and speaking up.

Jaclyn Dawn grew up in a tabloid-free small town in Alberta. With a communications degree and creative writing masters, she works as a freelance writer and instructor. She now lives somewhere between city and country outside Edmonton with her husband and son. The Inquirer is her debut novel.

Jaclyn Dawn's profile page

• Nominated, Best Trade Fiction at the Alberta Book Publishing Awards!

Praise for The Inquirer:
"A bildungsroman that never drags, Dawn's debut novel is appealing both in its innovation—it intersperses newspaper articles from the Inquirerthroughout—and its unexpected insights from Amiah, its well-drawn narrator."
~ Kirkus Reviews
"This is an excellent beginning for a new writer, with a good eye for detail and intriguing plots."
~ Margaret Cannon, Globe and Mail
"The Inquirer is a refreshing departure from so many tired Canadian literary tropes."
~ Steven Sandor, Avenue Edmonton
"Dawn's depiction of family dynamics set against vividly accurate rhythms of rural life is the book's strongest feature. Anyone who has left their small community to strike out in search of greater horizons [...] can relate."
~ Jay Smith, Alberta Views
"Jaclyn Dawn’s debut novel is one that intrigues and delights.... Think of this one as the small-town Alberta answer to Gossip Girl."
~ Edmonton Journal
"...a fast read that’s light-hearted, funny, and sweet."
~ Worn Pages and Ink Blog
"A clever novel that reveals both the anxieties and strengths woven into tight-knit communities. The Inquirer is a thoroughly enjoyable read."
~ Lisa Guenther, author of Friendly Fire
"In The Inquirer, Jaclyn Dawn has crafted something so rare—a great story full of fascinating characters, sly humour, and understated intelligence—that news of its appearance might just get reported in the tabloids her novel so lovingly satirizes. Amiah Williams's journey back to her hometown of Kingsley, Alberta, is funny and winning, neither of which factors obscure the troubling realities young women too often face.”
~ Curtis Gillespie, author of Almost There