Histria Books is pleased to announce the release of Murder Happens by James Courter. This book is published by Histria Fiction an imprint of Histria Books dedicated to outstanding original works of fiction.
Solving murders isn’t part of Devin Cleary’s job description. As a security guard at Lincoln Court, a small boutique shopping mall in Urbana, Illinois, he has busted shoplifters, prevented the homeless from making the mall their home, and even rousted a few bathroom dope-smokers. When the mall becomes the site of multiple murders, Cleary is caught up in a web of intrigue that may involve a contractor’s ambitions for redeveloping Lincoln Court into a megamall. He is positioned to sniff out clues that the police miss. By the world’s standards, Devin Cleary is a loser. The only hope for Lincoln Court’s survival lies with that contractor’s plans, which the owners of the mall oppose, and on support for them, if elected, of a candidate for governor who sets up campaign headquarters there— until those murders cast a pall over that hope.
Jim Courter is a writer and emeritus writing instructor at Western Illinois University. His short stories have appeared in the United States, Canada, and England. He won an Illinois Arts Council award for short fiction. His essays have appeared in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Smithsonian, and on the op-ed pages of the Chicago Tribune and The Wall Street Journal. His mystery novel, Rhymes with Fool, was published in 2018 by Peasantry Press.
