Between the Covers: “BOOKSnBEERS” Sunday

09 Dec Between the Covers: “BOOKSnBEERS” Sunday

BOOKSnBEERS is a collaboration between Between the Covers Bookstore with Smuggler’s Brewpub  that takes place at Between the Covers on Sunday, December 14, 6 p.m. The event features a tasting of their brand new Chanterelle Ale, a locally sourced mushroom brew, plus a visit from Denver-based author Mark Stevens, who writes mysteries based on the Western Slope, incorporating regional issues. For example, “Buried by the Roan,” the second of the Allison Coil Mystery Series, touched on natural gas development and fracking. Renown Colorado author Margaret Coel referred to Book 2 as “flat-out terrific.” “Trapline,” book three, tackles for-profit prisons and immigration. A little bit of beer sipping, a little bit of live reading, what a fantastic way to close out the weekend.

Mark Stevens, courtesy Cyrus McCrimmon

THE BOOK PART

“Trapline,” the third book in the Allison Coil Mystery Series by Mark Stevens, was released in November, 2014. “Antler Dust” and “Buried by the Roan” are the first two and all take place on the Western Slope of Colorado.

The spark for “Buried by the Roan” is a dead hunter found on the shore of Oyster Lake, deep in the Flat Tops Wilderness. Josh Keating’s demise could be a case of a hunter drinking too much and stumbling late at night. Or it could be something much worse. Plenty of other strange things are going on to make hunting guide Allison Coil think the death is no accident. Someone is lurking around, leaving odd notes and maps. Hunters and guides are turning up violently ill from drinking the Flat Tops water. Four of the buffalo on Keating’s ranch are slaughtered. And there’s word that Keating and his neighbor were tangled up in a property dispute triggered by a centuries-old doctrine known as adverse possession. The future of the way of life in the rugged Colorado mountains is at stake. Allison finds the killer’s trail but doesn’t avoid being trapped in the simple but wicked device that murdered her client.

Both “Antler Dust” and “Roan” elicited favorable comparisons to works by John Grisham and James Patterson for the beguiling protagonist, fast-paced narrative, tense environmental drama, corporate villain, breathtaking setting and “Trapline” is on track to garner an equal number of superlatives.

“Trapline” starts with a badly chewed-up corpse high in the Flat Tops Wilderness. Colorado hunting guide Allison Coil (and her wilderness-savvy approach) once again) is on it. The plot involves a political shooting in downtown Glenwood Springs and a look into for-profit prisons and immigration.

“Coil is not only a standout protagonist; she’s a vivacious wilderness guide, the kind James Bond would admire. She hasn’t lost a step on black bears nor even the lightning swift cougar … Mark Stevens has written a fine tight narrative worth reading,” said Peter Kelton, Albuquerque Literary Examiner

“Allison’s third adventure (Buried by the Roan, 2011, etc.) combines a loving portrait of a beautiful area with an ugly, all-too-believable conspiracy that could have been ripped from today’s headlines,” Kirkus Review

“This has got to rank up there with some of my all-time favourite books … I’m hoping that you will, like me take time to read this beautifully crafted book and like me, find bits of writing that are so descriptive, you never want to forget them, but maybe want to go back to the book and re-read it, just to once again spot Mark Stevens extraordinary play with words,” raved Best-Selling Crime Thrillers.

About Mark Stevens:

The son of two librarians, Mark Stevens was raised in Lincoln, Massachusetts. He graduated from Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School in the suburbs of Boston and from Principia College in Illinois. He worked as a reporter for The Christian Science Monitor in Boston and Los Angeles; as a City Hall reporter for The Rocky Mountain News in Denver; as a national field producer for The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour (PBS) and as an education reporter for The Denver Post. After journalism, he worked in school public relations before starting his own public relations and strategic communications business. Mark lives in Denver with his wife and has two grown daughters. He is a member of: Mystery Writers of America, Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers, Colorado Authors League, Pike’s Peak Writers, and Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. Mark is also a regular contributor to Telluride Inside… and Out.

THE BEER PART

In conjunction with the author event, there will be a tasting session for the much anticipated CHANTERELLE ALE brewed up by Smuggler’s Brewpub with local product from Telluride Mushroom Company. Sustainably harvested, locally brewed. It was an epic Chanterelle mushroom season this past fall and both TJ the Brewmaster and Scott the Mushroom Man knew they had something worthy when mulling over their next myco-brew project. Their last collaboration was the Polypour this past summer, a medicinal mushroom beer created with the conks of local bracket fungi.