Shooting Out the Lights

A Memoir. After twenty-four-year-old Kim falls in love with and marries fifty-six-year-old Vern, she quickly becomes pregnant—only to have their love tested by the ghosts of Vern’s past, his failing health, and the unexpected arrival of a troubled young boy. Kim Fairley was twenty-four when she fell in love with and married a man who was fifty-seven. Something about Vern—his quirkiness, his humor, his devilish smile—made her feel an immediate connection with him. She quickly became pregnant, but instead of the idyllic interlude she’d imagined as she settled into married life and planned for their family, their love was soon tested by the ghosts of Vern’s past—a town, a house, a family, a memory.

Shooting Out the Lights is a real-life mystery that explores the challenges faced in a loving marriage, the ongoing, wrenching aftermath of gun violence and the healing that comes with confronting the past.