The H. L. Mencken Murder A Literary Thriller

1948 is a leap year and a good one for Harry S. Truman. The second-hand book dealers on Manhattan’s Fourth Avenue are in full swing. Howard inherits his father’s shabby bookshop, but Howard isn’t a true bookman, and he knows how little money there is in the business—until a seemingly priceless manuscript falls into his lap. But there’s something odd about it. Howard decides to check out his treasure with an acerbic fellow in Baltimore, a man Howard’s late father believed could solve all literary problems: H. L. Mencken. The results are deadly.

Don Swaim’s “Book Beat” was broadcast on major radio stations through the CBS Radio Stations News Service, and can be heard on the Internet at Wired for Books: http://www.wiredforbooks.org/index.html.
 
After a career at CBS in New York and Baltimore, Swaim founded the Bucks County Writers Workshop. He edits the web’s definitive Ambrose Bierce Site: http://donswaim.com/.