Tom Shawver, owner and operator of the former Bloomsday Books, becomes a published author on May 13, when Random House releases his new e-book “The Dirty Book Murder.” It’s the first of a three-volume series, featuring murder and mayhem set in a Brookside used book store.
Tom will be at Aixois Bistro, 301 E. 55th Street, from 3-5 p.m. on Saturday, May 17. He’ll do a brief reading from the novel at 3:30 p.m. and will take your questions after the reading.
The e-book is available from your favorite e-book store for $2.99.
Follow Thomas Shawver, Author, on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/ThomasShawverAuthor) and sign up for the Bloomsday Barflies email newsletter.
Tom Shawver's Blog 
Just finished The Dirty Book Mystery. What a delight. I enjoyed it from first to last. I,too, am an Alibi author. I write The Justice Series. First book is “The Fixer”, second is “The Red Hot Fix”, and my third is coming out in October. We share the same agent and editor. Here’s hoping our paths cross sometime. Til then, bravo on Dirty Book! I’m going to start on your next right away. Teri Woods (writes as T.E.Woods)
Teri,
Thank you for your kind words. I’ll be reading and enjoying your work as well.
Tom
I really enjoyed reading your Dirty Book Murder last week. Having lived in Kansas City throughout the seventies, I could identify and identify with many of the locations you mentioned. Being an incurable bibliophile, I look forward to more in your Michael Bevan series. (I don’t think Bloomsday Books was in business then, but I remember a very good antiquarian bookshop in Brookside. Great on regional history.) There are, however, two points that I would like to raise with you “for the second edition.”
1. (And I’m sure you know this.) Brush Creek is mostly dry most of the time—it’s a little trickle in the middle of the cement that Boss Pendergast put there. When the body was dragged from the creek, you reported it as ten feet deep and twenty feet (?) across. It reaches proportions like that only in a severe flood. It’s just too much for a Kansas Citian to swallow.
2. The officers and wives who came from Ft. Leavenworth were not from the Army War College, as that’s located in Carlisle Barracks, PA. It’s for people who are going to be generals. The school at Leavenworth is the Command and General Staff College, and it’s for people who are going to be COLs and LTCs.
Still and all, it’s a good yarn and I enjoyed it immensely. I plan to read the next one ASAP.
Robert,
Thank you for your kind comments. Sorry it took so long to get back to you, but I just got back from a two week rugby tour in Argentina. Bloomsday Books was in business from 1995 to 201l, first in the Brookside shopping district and later a mile north in Crestwood, another charming 1920’s center built by J.C. Nichols.
I’m delighted that you brought up those two points. You were absolutely correct regarding the second one, and would have been correct on the first had the novel been set prior to the 1990s. However, subsequent to 1998 the waterway is as described in The Dirty Book Murder. Here’s why: following the devastating flash flood of September 1977 that claimed the lives of 26 people and nearly destroyed the Country Club Plaza, the Brush Creek Flood Control Project set about lowering the water channel, modifying the channel slopes, replacing bridges and generally beautifying the entire waterway for ten and a half miles. Started in 1990, The project was completed in 1998 by the Army Corps of Engineers at a cost of over $112 million (it’s thought to have saved far more than that in successively protecting the area from subsequent heavy storms). Today it’s a beautiful complement to the Plaza as you can see by the photos in this Wikipedia site. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brush_Creek_%28Blue_River%29
Thanks again for your comments.
Tom