The Bookplate is continuing their Authors & Oysters event series at The Retriever Bar on Wednesday, June 28th at 6pm. All are invited to The Retriever to welcome local author Peter Heck as he discusses his series of Mark Twain mysteries.
“There was a ghastly murder in New York City, and Mark Twain’s address was in the dead man’s pocket. But even more alarming was that Twain had just received a message sent by an old friend from his riverboat days – and the handwriting matched the note found on the corpse.
So with his new secretary, Wentworth Cabot, Twain caught a steamboat bound for New Orleans. On board were all matter of people – wealthy tourists and old river rats, literary amateurs and high-stakes gamblers…and a determined killer whose only goal was to bring Mark Twain’s celebrated career to a stop!”
Peter J. Heck has been a writer and editor since 1983. He designed, wrote, and edited two marketing newsletters for the Waldenbooks chain, then became an editor at Ace Books, where he worked with popular science fiction authors including Spider Robinson, Rob Sawyer and Harry Turtledove. He worked as a free-lance editor for several New York publishers, has written for the Washington Post and Newsday, and is a regular book reviewer for Asimov’s Science Fiction and Kirkus Reviews.
He launched his own fiction career in the 1990s with a series of six historical mysteries featuring Mark Twain as a detective. He also collaborated with Robert Asprin on four books in a humorous science fiction series, “Phule’s Company,” a bestseller in the genre.
For 10 years, Peter was a reporter for The Kent County News, covering local government, the arts, and other general topics. Following that, he and his wife Jane Jewell were co-editors of the Chestertown Spy for three years. Together, Peter and Jane have written and produced four plays on historical subjects, including The Great War and The Lost Generation and two plays based on incidents of the War of 1812.
Peter also plays guitar in a variety of styles, and was a founding member of the Chestertown Chess Club. Peter and Jane now live in Chestertown, Maryland, where he grew up.
For more event details contact The Bookplate at 410-778-4167 or [email protected]. This event is free and open to the public and reservations are not required. The next Authors & Oysters event is scheduled for 7/5 with author Joseph Koper. All events are held in the back room of The Retriever, located at 337 ½ High Street in Chestertown, Maryland.
Write a Letter to the Editor on this Article
We encourage readers to offer their point of view on this article by submitting the following form. Editing is sometimes necessary and is done at the discretion of the editorial staff.