Bookplate Author Event: John Wasowicz’s The Old Town Mystery Series

John Wasowicz

The Bookplate are opening their 2025 season of author lectures on January 22nd with author John Wasowicz for a 6pm event at Sultana’s Holt Center. His “Old Town Alexandria” mystery series has a new installment; Spite House. 

Spite House, book seven of the Old Town mystery series, continues the series begun by John Adam Wasowicz in 2017 with “Daingerfield Island,” which introduced readers to attorney Mo Katz and his entourage of crime solvers. Katz, now returned to private practice after service as U.S. attorney, accepts the case of Roxie Neele, a local curmudgeon who lives in a ‘spite house,’ one of a handful of tiny structures built in Old Town in the 1800s to “spite” the neighbors.

Roxie stands accused of murdering her neighbor Trudy Vine with a poison cupcake. Roxie’s case unfolds against the backdrop of the ongoing killing spree of “Rose Bud”, a serial killer who terrorizes the community. Unknown to others, Roxie has elicited Mo’s support in an effort to end Rose Bud’s reign of terror. She believes that only Mo Katz possesses the legal acumen to spin a defense to catch a criminal in an unrelated case. Once Mo discerns Roxie’s motivation, the twosome unite in a spirited effort to expose the serial killer, who is hiding in plain sight.

Spite House is a continuation of the series based in Old Town Alexandria, VA. Additional titles in the series include Jones Point (2019), Slaters Lane (2020), Roaches Run (2021), Gadsby’s Corner (2022), and Hazel Falls (2023).

“There are a lot of issues to unpack in this work by John Wasowicz. Although fiction, this marvelous book raises questions applicable to real-life situations. The despair someone wrongly convicted goes through, especially when lacking the means for a solid defense counsel. The wealth and status disparity in the advocacy of the accused. Is the effort, quality, and honesty of detective work equal across every social stratum? Same question when it comes to the care and feeding of evidence. Does an easy path to a socially popular conviction win out over diligence in pursuit of the truth?” — Ralph Peluso, Review, The Zebra Press, Alexandria’s #1 monthly newspaper.

“Like the four spite houses in Old Town, Spite House is a local treasure.”— Jeffrey James Higgins, author of The Forever Game

John Adam Wasowicz is a practicing attorney and author of the Old Town Loves Mystery series set in Alexandria, VA. He is a former Virginia state prosecutor and criminal defense attorney; a retired intelligence officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve; and former Congressional aide for the late great Edward W. Brooke. He currently works as a Federal attorney. Spite House is his most recent book.

For more event details contact The Bookplate at 410-778-4167 or [email protected]. These events are free and open to the public, but reservations are recommended. The Bookplate will continue their 2025 event series with a partnership lecture at Washington College’s Rose O’Neill Literary House on January 29th. Nationally renowned author R. O. Kwon will be discussing her new book Exhibit, as well as her first novel, The Incendiaries. Copies of her works will be available at the shop before and after the event. Sultana’s Holt Center is located at 200 S. Cross Street in Chestertown, Maryland, where the Wasowicz event will be held in Havemeyer Hall.