Buxton Books is excited to host author Christopher Chambers in the bookstore to celebrate the release of his upcoming novel, StreetWhys: A Dickie Cornish Detective Mystery! Joining Christopher in conversation is local lawyer and fellow author Caroline Cleveland. Please join us for signed books and great conversation!
Please email rsvp@buxtonbooks.com to let us know you’re coming so we can save you a seat and a refreshment!
About StreetWhys:
Washington DC’s notorious detective, former drug-addled street denizen Dickie Cornish, faces off with bloodthirsty cops and the justice department in the latest thrilling release by award-winning noir author Christopher Chambers.
In StreetWhys, underground detective Dickie Cornish faces a vindictive murder rap from his past if he doesn’t agree to help prove that the fentanyl ravaging the streets of DC is bankrolled by shadowy donors of a certain former president. Broke and desperate, Cornish soon finds himself on a collision course with shady public defenders and corrupt police officers, forcing him to use his street connections to flip their plan. Or die.
Chambers’s Dickie Cornish series has met with widespread critical acclaim. Publishers Weekly dubbed the series debut, Scavenger, “[A] no-holds-barred crime novel…a 21st-century twist on traditional hardboiled noir.” The Strand Magazine selected Standalone, the second book in the series, as one of the “Top 25 Mystery Novels of the Year,” adding “It’s apparent that the modern heir to Chandler, Woolrich, and Cain is Christopher Chambers, enough said.” And renowned crime author George Pelecanos raves that the series “really nails Washington, DC in the current environment.”
Chambers is an award winning author of mystery, noir, pulp, and graphic novels. He sits on the board of the Bouchercon World Mystery Writers Convention and is a judge for Mystery Writers of America’s Edgar Awards. He lives in Washington, DC.
About Christopher Chambers:
Christopher Chambers is a Shamus and PEN-Malamud -nominated author. He’s a DC native born at Old Freemen's Hospital at Howard University. He was raised on 17th and D Streets NE where he was protected by his 5 ft 10 great aunt Mattie nicknamed “Deuce” and her 100 pound albino German Shepherd “Nero” even during frequent trips to Hechinger’s on Maryland Avenue. This no was buffer from riots in DC, and indeed from the frying pan the fire when Chris’ dad went into the Air Force the family moved to an airbase outside of Detroit and the upheavals and destruction continued. After returning to his parent’s native Brooklyn and DC, he settled in Baltimore, so now Chris is he's equally charmed by half smokes, knishes or crab cakes…Frank Ski, Grand Master Flash or the Junkyard Band. Chris’ first hardcover thrillers for Random House Sympathy for the Devil and A Prayer for Deliverance were published in 2001 and 2003, featuring a young naïve black female FBI agent who current fans will recognize as older and corrupted in his new work. He’s collaborated on a number of pulp, hardboiled crime and graphic novel projects with Gary Phillips, Gar Anthony Haywood, Lorenzo Carcaterra, Mike Gonzales, Tananarive Due, the late Eleanor Taylor Bland to name a few. He’s a prolific short story author and his work’s been included in the Bouchercon Anthony award-winning anthology from Three Rooms Press The Obama Inheritance. Three Rooms Press published the first two novels in the DC noir trilogy Scavenger and Standalone, featuring the once unhoused addict Dickie Cornish, now a private investigator. Streetwhys is the capstone in that trilogy. Chris is an attorney for Student Housing of America, a former Georgetown University faculty member, and a graduate of Princeton University.
About Caroline Cleveland:
Caroline Cleveland credits growing up in the rural South and its quieter way of life for her lifelong passion for books and storytelling. As an adolescent, she devoured classics like Old Yeller and The Yearling, discovered Agatha Christie and Steven King in her teenage years, and, later, was mesmerized reading thrillers by authors including John Grisham, Michael Connelly, Karin Slaughter and Mary Kubica.
Her dedication to the written word led her to law school at the University of South Carolina, where she earned her degree in 1991. She is certified by the South Carolina Supreme Court as a specialist in labor and employment law and is the founding partner of Cleveland & Conley, LLC. Caroline’s practice for over thirty years has been dedicated exclusively to employment law with an emphasis on public sector, including law enforcement and local governments. Many of her clients she has represented for more than two decades. Those years together forged a trust and turned those clients into friends who shared their personal insights, opening her mind – and her writing – to different ways of looking at the world.
Caroline draws on her rich and varied life experience working in the law for her writing. She elaborates, “Law school students are warned the first day that the law is a jealous mistress, and there is a reason for that. But I have always made time to read for pleasure. Eventually, it dawned on me that I, too, have entertaining and powerful stories to tell. As a writer, I gravitate toward mystery and suspense, as I cannot resist a character who has a dark secret or is wrestling with inner demons. I have lived in the South all my life, so my stories inevitably come from a Southern perspective, featuring deceptively peaceful small towns and strong, complex characters who rely on their Southern sense of values.”
Her debut novel, When Cicadas Cry, about a high-profile murder case in a small South Carolina town rife with racial tension, will be published by Union Square Publishing on May 7, 2024.
Caroline Cleveland lives in Charleston, South Carolina with her husband, David. If you’d like to know more about her law practice, visit the firm at www.ClevelandandConley.com