Rides a Stranger

Until his death, Don Kurtwood’s father was known as a simple family man, defined by his blue collar career and obsessive, albeit pedestrian, reading habits. When a rare book dealer who seems to know more about the late Mr. Kurtwood than his own son does turns up at the wake, Don jumps at the opportunity to see a part of the man he hardly knew. However, before he can speak with him, the book dealer is murdered in his own shop, setting into motion a slow unraveling of the life of a man who everyone thought they knew. The imagined life of Don’s father as a distant conservative with his nose stuck in a Louis L’Amour novel becomes shrouded in mystery when the police suggest that Don’s father is the author of a highly coveted pulp western novel.

In Rides a Stranger, David Bell crafts a fascinating family drama in which even the most obvious character is not what he seems.

The Bibliomystery Series is published for and by the legendary Mysterious Bookshop in New York. These short stories feature books and those who write them, buy them, read them, collect them, sell them or are in some way involved with them. The individual books are small format pocket sized (ca. 10cm x 17cm).

Gumshoe Books is able to offer the Bibliomysteries exclusively in the UK.