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Featured Author -
July 2005
Dean James aka Jimmie Ruth Evans |
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Featured Author -
July 2005
Dean James aka Jimmie Ruth Evans |
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Dean James set out to become a college history professor, spending
twenty-one consecutive years in one sort of educational institution or
another, finally emerging with a Ph.D. in medieval history from Rice
University. The fact that the job market for medieval historians was at an
absolute nadir did not deter the intrepid young man from Mississippi. Ever
impractical, he forged ahead with his degree, only to find himself working
in a medical library to pay the bills. His library stint eventually led him
back to graduate school to earn a master's degree in library science. After
ten years as a librarian, he gave up his glamorous and thrilling job as head
of serials and cataloging at a major medical library to become manager of a
bookstore.
Not just any bookstore, however. Since 1996 Dean has been the manager of
Murder by the Book in Houston, one of the nation's oldest and largest
mystery specialty bookstores. He started working there part-time in 1984 to
supplement his meager graduate school stipend and somehow never completely
left.
Along the way, perhaps influenced by his experiences in graduate school, he
started killing people on paper. He completed his first adult mystery
novel in 1985, but it wasn't until 2000 that one of his novels was finally
published -- Cruel as the Grave (Silver Dagger Mysteries). He had already
published several works of non-fiction, written with his fellow librarian,
Jean Swanson, including two editions of By a Woman's Hand (Berkley Prime
Crime) and the recent Dick Francis Companion.
In July Dean's not-so-evil twin, Jimmie Ruth Evans, debuts with the first in
a series of "trailer-park cozies" with Flamingo Fatale (Berkley Prime Crime;
PBO). Single mom Wanda Nell Culpepper finds herself the chief suspect in
the murder-by-flamingo of her ex-husband. Charlaine Harris calls the book
"a real down-home treat." Carolyn Hart commented "Heroine Wanda Nell
Culpepper is a steel magnolia to cherish."
Jimmie Ruth is currently working on the third book in the trailer park
series, while Dean is hatching ideas for another new series.
"A well-crafted mystery combines with whimsical characters to create an
imaginative spoof on the classic locked-room mystery."
"Cheeky prose, delicious innuendo and wit, the clever juxtaposition of
characters, and a preposterous hero result in great entertainment."
"A delight from start to finish. Everything you could wish for in a British
cozy."
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Two more novels followed from Silver Dagger Mysteries, including the recent
Death by Dissertation, inspired by his grad student days. In 2002 he
published the first of a series of four novels featuring gay American
vampire, Simon Kirby-Jones, who resides in a small English village and who
stumbles over bodies with a Fletcherian regularity. The most recent of
these is Baked to Death (Kensington, 2005).