RUSS COOPER thinks he's hit bottom until he witnesses a random murder in the alley outside his bathroom window. This event triggers a chain of incidents including a squalid mission through the heart of Valley View trailer park, a journey inside one of the country's last video stores, and a crusade to save an immigrant family from the outlandish obstacles invented by the minds of diehard fanatics. With the help of his bumbling but beloved best friend, Richie, Russ sets out on an expedition across the imaginary small town of Wellton in search of a murderer, a homeland worth fighting for and a job worth caring about in the midst of a new and absurd American ethos. The barriers, as Russ and Riche discover, are more than just awkward church ladies, crooked cops, slippery bosses and their own neuroses, but readers won't mind and in fact, will relish the peculiar diversions along the way.

A stirring, heartwarming yarn about small-town misfits finding their people and purpose. Wellton County has arrived on the map, and I can't wait to go back.
- Chris L. Terry, author of Zero Fade and Black Card


SIMON A. SMITH teaches English and debate to high school students. He holds a BA in creative writing and an MAT in secondary education. His stories have appeared in many journals and media outlets, including Hobart, PANK, Whiskey Island, and Chicago Public Radio. He is the author of two novels, Son of Soothsayer and Wellton County Hunters: Book One of The Search Team Trilogy. He lives in Chicago with his wife and son.


Title: Wellton County Hunters

Author: Simon A. Smith

Publisher: Adelaide Books

Publisher Website: https://adelaidebooks.org/

Publisher Email: [email protected]

ISBN: 978-1955196932

Price: $19.60

Page Count: 202 pages

Format: Paperback


Description of the company: ADELAIDE BOOKS LLC is a New York based independent company dedicated to publishing literary fiction and creative nonfiction. It was founded in July 2017 as an imprint of the Adelaide Literary Magazine, with the aim to facilitate publishing of novels, memoirs, and collections of short stories, poems, and essays by contributing authors of our magazine and other qualified writers.

We believe that in doing so, we best fulfill the mission outlined in Adelaide Magazine – “to promote writers we publish, helping both new and emerging, and established authors reaching a wider literary audience.”

Our motto is: We don’t publish classics, we make classics.