First World Problems: 1 (Shady Park Chronicles)

Emma has lost her job but keeps her sense of humor as she struggles to keep her family going, even if they can’t match the pampered lifestyle of her friends from “the Estates.”Her naïve, idealistic husband Charles is no help. His only concern is seeing that there are no preservatives, pesticides, or growth hormones in his food.Their friend Andre, an unmarried, eccentric intellectual, is even less concerned with what he calls Emma’s first world problems. He’s content to live on pizza and donuts in his shack by the river.When Emma uncovers a conspiracy of real estate developers to get Charles away from her and get Andre’s property away from him, it is up to her to stop it.

Rea Keech has lived in Severna Park, Maryland, in the same house since 1980. He enjoys sailing on the Severn River and writing.His previous novel, AHundred Veils, about an American living in Iran, was the 2017 BookLifefinalist in the general fiction category and won the Maryland Writers'Association award for best literary novel in the same year.