LITERATURE + LECTURES

Thursday, May 31 at 6:30pm, Murder by the Book presents Ricky Bush. Ricky Bush will sign and discuss his debut novel, River Bottom Blues (Barking Rain Press; $11.95).

Mitty Andersen knows that rising blues star Bobby Tarleton didn't die of a heroin overdose. He'd blown enough blues harmonica notes with Bobby to know that he would never let anything get in the way of his music. So when he gets the news in the middle of his blues set at Little Queenie's, he suspects a cover-up-and he's determined to put his ex-investigative reporter skills to work to find out what really happened. Mitty hits the blues circuit with his "partner in chime," Pete Bolden, and rounds up a posse disguised as a blues band.

They gig the juke joints and blues bars throughout Southeast Texas and Louisiana, hoping to uncover the truth about Bobby T's death. It doesn't take long for Mitty to figure out that Bobby T just might be the latest in a decades-long string of serial murders aimed at eliminating "those who play the Devil's music."Now Mitty must race against the clock to put an end to the madness before another harmonica player succumbs to a deranged psychopath who has managed to avoid capture for far too long.

RICKY BUSH has been reading about, writing about and playing the blues for most of his adult life. His articles have highlighted the careers of blues musicians in magazines such as Blues Access, Hittin’ the Note, Southwest Blues and The American Harmonica Newsmagazine. He has also written over a hundred reviews of recorded blues music and brings his view of the blues to readers at www.bushdogblues.blogspot.com.

He spent twenty nine years teaching Texas high school students journalism, world geography, and English. After retiring from teaching, his love of the blues and writing fiction met at the crossroads, and he began fulfilling his lifelong goal to author the novel that he always said that he would. He is an active member of the Sisters in Crime organization and maintains an author website at www.richardbushbooks.com, a Facebook page under Ricky Bush, and a Twitter account @bushdog51.

Richard hangs his hat in his self-built log home in rural Texas, where he and his wife, Virginia, raised two daughters and a son. He can occasionally be coaxed into assisting with the small family oil and gas operation that they helped build. When he’s not applying his fingers to the keyboard, he puts a harmonica to his lips and practices what he preaches by blowing the blues.

Jeffrey Kinghorn will sign and discuss his Ted Mitchell mystery series set in Houston.

Author Jeffrey Kinghorn is a novelist and playwright. In addition to his detective series featuring Houston P.I. Ted Mitchell, his novel for young readers, WHEN WE WERE HAPPY, tells the story of a young boy who discovers the secret to happiness. His plays, SHOULDERS and IN A COAL-BURNING HOUSE, are dramas, to be sure, leavened with generous good humor, dealing with family reconciliation and the scars of war. Kinghorn lives with his wife, Deborah, a university professor, in a small New England seacoast community. They are the proud owners of five rescued dogs.