Beautiful and charismatic, nineteen-year-old Checker Secretti is the most gifted and original drummer that the club-goers of Astoria, Queens, have ever heard. When he plays, conundrums seem to solve themselves, brilliant thoughts spring to mind, and couples fall in love. The members of his band, The Derailleurs, are passionately devoted to their guiding spirit, as are all who fall under Checker's spell. But when another drummer, Eaton Striker, hears the prodigy play, he is pulled inexorably into Checker's orbit by a powerful combination of envy and admiration. Soon The Derailleurs, too, are torn apart by latent jealousies that Eaton does his utmost to bring alive. "A bittersweet, graceful, poetic, yet clear-sighted vision....A tale about good and evil, and about the promise and pain of being nineteen." - Cleveland Plain Dealer "More compelling even than the plot turns are Shriver's insights into human nature....Checker and The Derailleurs, like its beguiling protagonist, is hard to forget." - People