Author will sign book set in Bigfork, Whitefish

Painters, sculptors, jewelers and musicians won’t be the only artists featured at the 35th annual Bigfork Festival of the Arts. Award-winning mystery novelist Marilyn Jax will also have a table at the event this year, where she will be signing copies of her books.

The author of “Sapphire Trails,” a mystery set in Bigfork and Whitefish, is returning for the second year in a row. She debuted her latest novel at the festival last year.

“Sapphire Trails” is the third installment of the mystery series featuring private investigators Claire Caswell and Gaston "Guy" Lombard. In this book, the investigators receive an invitation from longtime friends to visit their lodge in Bigfork, a respite far away from the frenzied pace of Miami Beach. But shortly after the two arrive, a cold-blooded murder occurs at the lodge.

It’s a crime bearing similarities to a recent rash of burglaries plaguing a well-to-do enclave in the neighboring community of Whitefish, but Caswell and Lombard do not believe the crimes are related. The local sheriff calls on the investigators to help solve the crimes in this riveting whodunit.

Since its release in 2012, “Sapphire Trails” has won seven awards, including being named the first-place winner in the mystery categories of the 2013 National Indie Excellence Awards, the 2013 International Book Awards, the USA Best Book Awards and the Beverly Hills Book Awards.

“I vacation in Montana every summer, and the Bigfork Festival of the Arts is an event I have been attending for years. I really enjoy the variety of artwork and am excited to be a vendor again this year,” Jax said.

“Sapphire Trails” is Jax’s third novel. Her other two highly acclaimed titles, “Road to Omalos,” published in 2010, and “The Find,” published in 2007, are also multiple national award winners.

For more information, visit www.MarilynJax.com.