Michael Graves recently retired from Emporia State University where he taught Intensive English to international students and TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) courses to teachers in Kansas. He has written two detective novels set in 1937 Wichita: To Leave a Shadow (a Kansas Notable Book for 2016) and Shadow of Death, published in December of 2017. Both books feature the character of detective Pete Stone, created as a memorial to the author’s grandfather. When life conjures its riddles, Mike turns to back roads and baseball for answers.
His grandfather’s last words, uttered over fifty years ago, inspired the author to create a life in honor of a man he barely knew. In his presentation, “A Life in the Shadows,” Graves will read excerpts from his historical novels, To Leave a Shadow and Shadow of Death. He will discuss the story, the character, and the place, as well as the research, backstory, and truth vs. fiction. A Q&A session will follow his presentation.
To Leave a Shadow, introduces detective Pete Stone. He hadn’t always been a private eye. He’d lost his dairy business at the toss of a coin when the depression hit. His children grew up, as children do, and his wife left him for a chinchilla farmer. He had learned to like his solitude. When Mrs. Lucille Hamilton walked through his door searching for her missing husband, Pete was the only one who believed her husband’s death hadn’t been a suicide.
In the next novel, a cop killer strikes Wichita and Pete Stone, Private Investigator, is on the case. He has to be. He wakes up in jail, battered and bruised and accused of a murder he’s almost certain he didn’t commit. He must prove his innocence before he’s abandoned by his clients, his friends, and one special lady. When Stone is not getting knocked around by cops, he’s getting roughed up by love.
A unique opportunity awaits the 2019 conference attendees. Coordinating with the City of Wichita, KAC District 5 is arranging a trolley tour of several settings found in the historical Wichita crime novels. You won’t want to miss the tour, personally guided by the author himself.
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I’m looking forward to learning from this author at the Wichita convention. His books sound appealing.
I loved reading both books, there was a sense of excitement, romance and of course mystery in both novels. I liked the fact that Mike used Wichita as the setting, a town where I had been in as as child several times and could relate to the history.