Belle Isle Lib/E: A Willie Black Mystery

When two teenage lovers find a human leg while cavorting in the thickets of Belle Isle, can Willie Black be far behind? Belle Isle, in the middle of the James River, was one of Willie's party spots growing up wild in Oregon Hill, and it's a short walk from where he now resides in the posh Prestwould. Now, as the fifty-something night cops reporter for the local daily, he returns to his old haunts to try to unravel a mystery. When it becomes known that the dismembered member belonged to Teddy "T-Bone" Delmonico, a state college football legend, whose now-widow is running for a seat in the House of Representatives, the plot thickens. The deceased had plenty of enemies: the investors who lost their nest eggs in a scheme fronted by T-Bone and an associate, a former wife with an axe to grind, and, among others, the grieving widow. Who did it, and why, will consume Richmond's most dogged journalist, who drinks too much, smokes too much, and hopes the fourth time is a charm, marriage-wise. Willie Black, whose first-person voice has been called by the New York Times "a crisp and colorful urban idiom we can't wait to hear again," is on the prowl, looking for answers.

Howard Owen is a novelist and journalist living in Richmond, Virginia, where he and his wife are editors for the Free Lance-Star. His numerous novels, including Littlejohn, Fat Lightning, Rock of Ages, and Oregon Hill, have received critical praise from Publishers Weekly, Booklist, Kirkus Reviews, and more.