Jimmie Ruth Evans/Dean James

Meet Houston's mystery man

Comments (0) By Olivia Flores Alvarez Thursday, Jan 15 2009

Life in a trailer park isn’t all about bingo and lite beer — at least not in the new comedic mystery novel Leftover Dead by Jimmie Ruth Evans. In Leftover, the ink is barely dry on the marriage license before waitress and blushing bride Wanda Nell Culpepper and her new hubby Jack are up to their elbows digging into a decades-old cold-case murder. When someone else drops dead, Wanda and her husband figure maybe the case isn’t as cold as they thought. Even with all the dead bodies piling up, Leftoverstill has plenty of laughs.

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Leftover Dead is the fifth installment in the Trailer Parkseries by Evans, who, it turns out, doesn’t exist. “She” is actually a “he,” Anthony Award-winning Houston author Dean James. Readers also know him as the man behind the lighthearted Simon Kirby-Jones mystery series that features a gay vampire as an amateur sleuth. A popular figure on the national mystery scene, James writes mysteries, writes about mysteries and works as a librarian. He’s a very busy guy. Thankfully, he’s not too busy to show up whenever there’s a Jimmie Ruth Evans reading or signing to be done. 4:30 p.m. Murder by the Book, 2342 Bissonnet. For information, call 713-524-8597 or visit www.murderbooks.com. Free.

Sat., Jan. 17, 4:30 p.m., 2009