Award-winning author releases new suspense novel
Local award-winning author Leslie Budewitz, writing as Alicia Beckman, is releasing her second suspense novel, “Blind Faith,” on Oct. 11.
Long-buried secrets come back with a vengeance in Beckman’s newest novel. For decades, the unsolved murder of Father Michael Leary has haunted Billings, Montana, the community he served. Who summoned the priest late one autumn night, then left his body in a sandstone gully for the ravens and other wild scavengers?
The crime has haunted no one more than Lindsay Keller, who admired and confided in him as a teenager. Compelled by his example to work for justice, she became a prosecutor. But after a devastating case left her shattered, she fled the rough-and-tumble for the safety of a desk, handling real estate deals and historic preservation projects. Good work, but not what she’d dreamed of. Now Keller finds herself in possession of the priest’s wallet, the photo of a young girl tucked inside. She’s sure she knows the girl in the photo, and that it’s tied to his death. But how?
Detective Brian Donovan, a hot-shot Boston transplant, would like nothing more than to solve the county’s coldest case. Probing the life and death of Father Leary takes Keller and Donovan deep into long-simmering tensions in this seemingly-peaceful place. Then another woman far away digs up unexpected clues about her own family’s past — a history rooted in a shocking truth — and her questions bring her to Lindsay and the detective. But the dangerous answers could rock the community to its very core.
About the author
Alicia Beckman loved living in Seattle as a college student and young lawyer, but is happiest back home in her native Montana, living in Ferndale with her husband, a musician and doctor of natural medicine, and their
full-figured gray tuxedo cat. As Leslie Budewitz, she’s the bestselling author of the Seattle Spice Shop and Food Lovers’ Village mysteries. A three-time Agatha Award winner, for Best Short Story (2018), Best First Novel (2013), and Best Nonfiction (2011), she is a past president of Sisters in Crime and a current board member of Mystery Writers of America.
SPECIAL EVENT
A book launch party for Leslie Budewitz will take place from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 11, at the Bigfork Art and Cultural Center, 525 Electric Ave., Budewitz will also give a presentation focusing on her writer’s perspective and how it has evolved.
“Blind Faith” is the perfect title for the process, Budewitz says. “I’ll be talking about how this book, which is quite different from my earlier books — particularly the light-hearted Food Lovers’ Village mysteries set in Jewel Bay, my fictional version of Bigfork — and how it sparked a shift in my understanding of the creative process and my own work as a novelist and short story writer.”
For more information, email director@baccbigfork.org
