After Dan Silas's advertising company is bought out, his invitation to his thirty-year high school reunion arrives with perfect timing, and he leaves London to return to the small Michigan town he has not seen since 1968. With wit, humor, and compassion, Whitbread Award-winner and Booker Prize-nominee Justin Cartwright takes Dan through the mounting stages of both culture shock and mid-life crisis. Back in Michigan, he discovers his best friend now believes he is a reincarnated Shawnee Indian and his high school sweetheart claims she had a daughter by him - who has just been murdered by the Hollybush's new celebrity, a small-town serial killer. With brilliantly evoked characters and crackling dialogue, Leading the Cheers comically explores what people want out of life - and what they get instead.