The Dead Man's King - Paperback

Fifty-nine homeless men are living in Central Park in a hidden city with its own boundaries, laws and governance. The "Misfits" of Misfit City live in comfortable, discreet "abodes" inconspicuously carved into the terrain. Misfit City (which occupies twenty of Central Park's 840 acres) is morally-quarantined from the corrosive influences of power, greed and plutocracy. That seems to change one day when a drifter wanders into Misfit City and dies of a heroin overdose. He is brought back to life by paramedics - a miracle that inspires Granger, the one Misfit who witnessed it, to go searching for life's deeper meaning on, of all places, the streets of Manhattan's Upper East Side. He writes philosophical panhandling signs -- and quickly learns that, the more arrogant and self-centered his signs are, the more money he earns. The Park Avenue crowd nurtures his thinking. As time goes on, Granger changes from a mild-mannered people-pleaser to a menace. He gets mouthy and defiant with his Mentor, Virgil, and even picks a fight with a local politician Every day for months, he brings a little bit of what he's learned on the streets of Manhattan back to Misfit City. After fifteen years of relative harmony in Misfit City, there's a mysterious rash of infighting, quarreling and suspicious deaths. One shocking development leads to another and, eventually, to Misfit City's breaking point.