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Kernersville icon John Staples' latest book, "Perfect Imperfection," is a keeper, especially for longtime Kernersville residents who can make a game of trying to figure out if they are among the fictitious characters.

Or maybe they can guess the identity of the characters that a native son has created from his life among them.

It is a mystery about power, illicit sex and varying philosophies of life.

Staples has a disclaimer in the book, saying that it is a work of fiction, and "characters, places and incidents" are products of his imagination. Nonetheless, the book is a double mystery for Kernersville old-timers. "Who is who" and "what's going to happen" provide that double edge.

The contradiction of "Perfect Imperfection" also is explained by none other than Cee Edmunds, a quiet, eccentric recluse who becomes an unlikely hero.

It's not giving away the plot to offer the book's description of Edmunds, one of the most intriguing characters invented by Staples: "He believes information based in linguistic concepts tends to distort the average human's view of reality, creating misunderstanding and chaos. Ironically, he also believes that nature's direction is fundamentally chaotic and that 'varieties of imperfection in the universe constitute the perfection that God intended, for' as he says, 'that is what She got.'"

Staples said of the Edmunds character: "While his philosophical bent is hypothetical, his mentality and personality are derived from several people I have known in Kernersville and other places."

Politicians in this book doubted that North Carolina would ever elect a female governor, and Staples cites the real Beverly Perdue as the first to attain that status on the final page of his book. The mayor of Connors Hill also emerges as someone well-known in past Kernersville politics.

The big question is who could Staples have known that fits the role of the main female character, Vivian Blaine, the married woman ho has sexual escapades with most of the power brokers of Connors Hill. (Said real fast -"Connors Hill" - sounds almost like "Kerners Ville!")

Staples, who says that many of his characters are "composites of people I have known," found Vivian Blaine in a story told to him by a friend. Did she live in Kernersville? Well . . .

Blaine tapes conversations from those romantic affairs - and how she will use the power gained from those tapes lends a surprising ending to Staples' story.

It is easy to figure that Staples himself is the alter ego of character Jesse Stallings, editor of the Connors Hill weekly newspaper. Staples, who spent 30 years as an editor and writer at the Kernersville News, describes himself very well in the book. He's an easy-going guy who not only loves his community but has an infinite knowledge about the town and its people - much of which he probably will never write.

He has emerged as author of three books since his retirement, and includes another author and private detective, David Schaeffer, among his friends. Could detective Dave Devlin also be the sleuth in Staples' latest book?

Staples admits that he, like fictional editor Stallings, had to finish one last history paper and turn it in before he could graduate from Duke University. Stallings and Staples wrote their papers from Charleston.

Staples likes Charleston. His two earlier books, "White Lies and Other Deceptions" and "Make Love, Drive Freeway, Now and Then," are in the Charleston Library Society library. "White Lies" also was set in Connors Hill.

Real places, such as some restaurants and geographical locations that are easily recognizable, provide an extra interest for local people. Yet, readers don't have to be from Kernersville, Oak Ridge, Bunker Hill or Colfax to get caught up in the escapades of the vivacious Vivian Blaine and the other characters that Staples has crafted.

And this may not be the last that readers will hear about strange happenings from Connors Hill. Staples leaves unanswered one major question about Vivian Blaine - and only readers are privy to that question.

Contact Bob Burchette at burchette@triad.rr.com