In less than four full days, I will be winging my way from my South Florida redoubt northward to the great and sovereign state of Iowa for a high-school class reunion in the town of Newton (famous original home of Maytag appliances). It’s my 20th (oh my gosh, my tongue is drilling a hole in my check). All right, so I’m being a little cheeky. Get over it – please (as in: Take my wife – please). While luxuriating in the view of undulating hills with geometrically perfect rows of burgeoning corn stalks, and breathing in the intoxicating fragrance of new-mown alfalfa curing before the baling, I will make eight book-signing appearances. Which brings me to the subject at hand.
If anybody happens to be cruising through the green maze of pastoral pastures and fertile fields of dreams, and wonders, “Is this heaven?” stop in at one of the six bookstores or two libraries where I will be delivering a reality check with a reading from Murder in Palm Beach: The Homicide That Never Died and Breaking Out, a coming-of-age novel set mainly in Iowa. Murder is my current baby, and there’s nothing dreamy about it: The novel closely follows a real murder in 1976 in the posh, ocean-side town. And if you happen to live in central Iowa, one of these six locations surely is right in your back yard – or the back 40 (acres for uninitiates), or whatever.
Here’s a list of the places and times:
Tuesday, June 7, 7 p.m.
Pageturners Bookstore
101 East Salem Ave.
Indianola, Iowa
515-961-0391
Wednesday, June 8, 6:30 p.m.
Beaverdale Books
2629 Beaver Ave., Ste. 1
Des Moines, IA
515-279-5400
Thursday, June 9, 4 p.m.
Newton Public Library
103 N. 3rd Ave. W.
Newton, IA
641-792-4108
Thursday, June 9, 7 p.m.
Barnes & Noble
Shoppes at Three Fountains
4550 University Ave.
West Des Moines, IA
515-226-0162
Saturday, June 11, 1 p.m.
Mattingly Music & Book Store
113 W. 2nd Street N.
Newton, IA
641-792-3250
Sunday, June 12, 2 p.m.
The Book Vault
105 S Market St.
Oskaloosa, IA
641-676-1777
Monday, June 13, 2 p.m.
Drake Community Library
930 Park St.
Grinnell, IA
641-236-2661
Monday, June 13, 7 p.m.
Pella Public library
603 Main Street
Pella, IA
641-628-4268