The Set Up

Ally, an aspiring actress, is about to give up on getting her big break. But then, after another disappointing audition, a charismatic scene partner says he has a fun gig for her. Soon, Ally is making easy money working for a guerrilla-marketing outfit called The Set Up. Now she's getting lots of practice pretending to be someone she's not-but each job seems more suspicious than the last. Marshall is a washed-up journalist, teaching a summer class at the university and struggling to keep his students (and himself) focused on his planned lessons. Someone has been leaving copies of his old articles on his lectern every morning, forcing him to revisit the story of a decades-old tragedy and mistakes he's made ... both personal and professional. Web, a quirky loner, has always been ready to pick up and go at a moment's notice. In fact, he's very good at not being noticed, at least not unless he wants to be. That's been helpful in his years working for the Set Up, but the new hire's questions are starting to make Web feel less confident about his work as a con man. What is the Set Up, and who's playing whom? The search for answers leads Ally, Web, and Marshall from the glitz of the Strip to the grit of Sin City's strip-mall suburbs, and from an abandoned Unification compound to a deadly bar mitzvah. As their paths converge, this unlikely trio uncover the shadowy power dynamics and shifting personalities that shape a city.

Jon Wynn is a professor and the department chair of sociology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He has written The Tour Guide: Walking and Talking New York and Music/City: American Festivals and Placemaking in Austin, Nashville, and Newport, and co-authored The City & The Hospital: The Paradox of Medically Underserved Communities. His work has also appeared in The Guardian, The Atlantic, Salon, the Washington Post, and other venues. The Set Up is his first novel.