Author holds Independence Day signing

Kalispell author Jim Satterfield will sign copies of his latest novel, “Saving Laura,” at The Bookshelf July 4.

Satterfield will be at the book store, located on Main Street in downtown Kalispell from noon to 2 p.m.

“Saving Laura” opens in Aspen, Colo., in 1979, when 21-year-old Lee Shelby robs the town’s most notorious cocaine dealer, Tom Tucker, and flees the scene with 5 kilos of Peruvian flake and $75,000.

Shelby escapes to the sagebrush hills of southwestern Wyoming, hoping to disappear into the wilderness until after the furor dies down. Then he plans to return and wrest his old girlfriend, Laura, from Tucker’s clutches. Shelby’s half-baked scheme goes awry when a chance encounter with a teenage Bonnie and Clyde implicates him in a roadside shootout with the highway patrol.

Shelby evades local and state police, returning to Aspen only weeks after the robbery. He quickly reunites with Laura, on the run herself after surviving a brutal assault at the hands of Tucker, who has determined her old beau is behind his recent loss.

Shelby’s simple plan is complicated by an unscrupulous DEA agent, Clyde Blackwood, who is willing to sacrifice Laura to make his case. In the inevitable showdown, Shelby outwits Tucker and Blackwood, who both underestimate him and his love for Laura.

Satterfield’s first novel, “Soon You Will Cry,” won the Pacific Northwest Writers Association’s Zola Award for historical fiction. His second adult novel, “The River’s Song,” was published in 2012 by Amazon Publishing.

Satterfield holds a Ph.D. in fishery and wildlife biology from Colorado State University and worked for more than 10 years as a biologist for the Colorado Division of Wildlife. During this time he also taught at the University of Denver and received the Colorado Governor’s Award for his work with inner city youth.

In 1995, he moved to Montana to work for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. He has served on the faculties of Montana State University and the University of Montana, and is president of Authors of the Flathead.

“Saving Laura” was published by Oceanview Publishing in Florida. For more information, visit facebook.com/oceanviewpub.