The Competition

The Competition is a new kind of novel -- a fast-paced, sophisticated architectural thriller. The book's dry humor and intriguing characters, along with its intricate, suspenseful plot, provide all of the necessary ingredients for a brilliant new genre. When washed-up architect William Lightstone Travers enters a design competition for the new Governor's Mansion in Indianapolis, he discovers graft and murder are part of the process. Can Travers save his troubled career and win the competition, despite corrupt officials determined to ruin him? Or will the large Chicago firm, where his daughter works, buy its way to the winning competition entry? In the end, Travers must choose between a victory that could save him or a secret that might kill him.

Michael R. Shoulders is an architect, digital artist, city planner and writer who lives, with his wife Becky, in Southwestern Indiana and on the Gulf Coast of Florida. Sons Ben, an athletic administrator, and Jon, a musician, live in Bloomington, Indiana. The author's professional interests include affordable housing, neighborhood design and urban agriculture. His digital photographic art is displayed throughout the Midwest. Michael's short fiction has been included among the top 30 in the Writer's Digest Writing Competition and his articles have been featured in professional magazines concerned with design, planning and the environment. The Competition is his first full-length novel.