Livingston author Jamie Harrison returns to her enduringly popular Blue Deer mystery series with The River View, the fifth novel featuring Sheriff Jules Clement. She will discuss the book, in conversation with author John Taliaferro, at Elk River Books on Thursday, Aug. 22.
The publisher notes, “Jules Clement is back in Blue Deer, working as an archaeologist and private investigator. He’s a happy man but everything that can go wrong will, in terms of money, love, and murder, neighbors, and Russian businessmen dying horrible deaths. All of it pulls Jules back to the central tragedy of his life: the murder of his father.”
Fans have waited 24 years since the last book in the series, Blue Deer Thaw, and according to a starred review in Publisher’s Weekly, it’s “worth the wait.” The review continues, “The episodic structure [of the novel] works wonders, with each vignette highlighting Jules’ damage as well as his brilliance. Here’s hoping the PI’s next case arrives sooner than this one did.”
When the series debuted with The Edge of the Crazies, and then Going Local, the New York Times exclaimed, “You haven’t been west in any meaningful sense until you’ve been to Blue Deer, Montana.” These were followed by 1998’s An Unfortunate Prairie Occurrence. All four previous novels have been re-issued with an eye-catching common design in anticipation of the release of the new installment of the series.
Harrison has lived in Montana for more than 30 years. In addition to the Jules Clement novels, she is the author of The Center of Everything and The Widow Nash, winner of a Reading the West Book Award and a finalist for the High Plains Book Award. She is the daughter of the novelist and poet Jim Harrison.
Taliaferro is a former senior editor at Newsweek and the author of several works of historical biography, including Charles M. Russell: The Life and Legend of America’s Cowboy Artist, and Tarzan Forever: The Life of Edgar Rice Burroughs.
Elk River Books is located at 122 S. 2nd St. in downtown Livingston. The free event begins at 7 p.m., and a book signing and reception will follow.
