Crime takes a detour at ‘The End of the Road’ | Book Talk

Myles has been out of the Mansfield Correctional Institution for less than a day when he’s shot on the street, leaving him on a ventilator. His girlfriend Penny knows who shot him, but she’s not telling the detectives who arrive at the hospital. In “The End of the Road,” a crime novel by Andrew Welsh-Huggins, Penny is out for payback.

The shooter was Pryor, a sociopathic criminal who wanted revenge on Myles for testifying against him after a bank robbery in which Myles drove the getaway car, but it was Myles who got the jail term while Pryor’s case resulted in a hung jury and his freedom.

Pryor is planning another bank job, in an Ohio town where Deputy J.P. Darby is suffering the hazing of his superiors and their ringleader, who tries to get a rise out of insulting J.P.’s wife. An elderly brother and sister who live outside town have been claiming that someone is watching their house, and J.P. draws the low-level assignment of responding to their complaint.

Penny knows that if Pryor learns that Myles is still alive, he’ll come back and finish the job, so she sets out to wreck Pryor’s plans. She tracks down his associates, entering a world of which she has only limited knowledge, and her resourcefulness and tenacity make the book a winner.

Though “The End of the Road” has noirish elements, Welsh-Huggins works in contemporary issues like the opiate epidemic and sex trafficking. J.P. could be portrayed as bumbling, but instead he is just slow to display some backbone.

“The End of the Road” (312 pages, hardcover) costs $26.95 from Mysterious Press. Andrew Welsh-Huggins is a reporter for the Associated Press, editor of “Columbus Noir” and author of the Andy Hayes detective series; “An Empty Grave,” the seventh book, was nominated for a Shamus Award in the Best Original Paperback PI Novel category by the Private Eye Writers of America.

Welsh-Huggins is one of more than 120 authors who will appear at the 2023 Ohioana Book Festival from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. April 22 at Columbus Metropolitan Library, 96 S. Grant Ave. See the schedule at http://www.ohioana.org/.

‘How Do You Spell Unfair?’

“How Do You Spell Unfair? MacNolia Cox and the National Spelling Bee” by Carole Boston Weatherford is a storybook about the 13-year-old Akron girl who faced discrimination in 1936 when she competed in Washington, D.C.

The story incorporates vocabulary words to express MacNolia’s experience, as she is “N-E-R-V-O-U-S” before the Beacon Journal-sponsored city bee that qualified her for the national contest, “E-X-C-I-T-E-D” as she sets off on her first train ride and “R-A-C-I-S-M” as she and her mother are forced to change train cars in Maryland and stay in a different hotel than the other contestants.

A scene, from the perspective of a seat high up in the auditorium, shows MacNolia and the only other Black contestant seated at a small table placed far apart from the others, underlines the treatment she received.

The rich illustrations, in burnished shades of gold, olive and copper, are by Atlanta artist Frank Morrison, whose work for “Clayton Byrd Goes Underground” won a 2018 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work in the Youth/Teens category.

“How Do You Spell Unfair?” (40 pages, hardcover) costs $18.99 from Candlewick and is recommended for readers age 7-10. Carole Boston Weatherford won the 2022 Coretta Scott King Award for “Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre.”

Awards

Among the finalists for the 2022 Benjamin Franklin Award are former Cleveland resident Kristin Ohlson, author of “Sweet in Tooth and Claw: Stories of Generosity and Cooperation in the Natural World” in the Nature & Environment category; the book also is nominated in the Cover Design: Nonfiction category. The winners will be presented May 5 by the Independent Book Publishers Association.

Events

Loganberry Books (13015 Larchmere Blvd., Shaker Heights): Richard Hawley talks about “On My Way Out vol. IV,” 1 p.m. Sunday. At 3 p.m. Sunday, Karl Wegener signs “Grown Men Cry Out at Night,” set in postwar Germany. At 7 p.m. Thursday, Jeff Benedict talks about and signs his biography “LeBron.”

Wadsworth Library (132 Broad St.): Canton native Julie Ann Lindsey, whose books include the Seaside Café and Cider Shop mystery series, and four romantic suspense series, presents “Hey! How’d That Book Get There: Steps to Getting Your Book Published,” 7 to 9 p.m. Monday.

Rocky River Public Library (1600 Hampton Road): Poet Jack Marschall (“From the Heart: Words to Inspire a Weary World”) talks about his work and his career as a broadcast journalist, 7 to 8 p.m. Monday.

Kent State University Bookstore (1075 Risman Drive): Jamie Capuzza launches “The Fifth Star: Ohio’s Fight for Women’s Right to Vote”), noon to 2 p.m. Tuesday.

Medina County District Library (Buckeye branch, 6625 Wolff Road, Medina): Angie Hockman, author of the romances “Shipped” and the Cleveland-set “Dream On,” discusses and signs her work, 6:30 p.m. Thursday. Register at mcdl.org.

Hudson Library & Historical Society: New York Magazine columnist David Wallace-Wells talks about “The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming” in a Zoom event at 7 p.m. Thursday. Register at hudsonlibrary.org.

Music Box Supper Club (1148 Main Ave., Cleveland): Vince Guerrieri joins the Cleveland Stories Dinner Parties series, talking about “Weird Moments in Cleveland Sports: Bottlegate, Bedbugs, and Burying the Pennant, and More!,” 7 p.m. Thursday. Dinner is $25; the lecture is free. Go to musicboxcle.com.

Cuyahoga County Public Library (Parma-Snow branch, 2121 Snow Road): Princeton professor Matthew Desmond, whose “Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City” won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction, talks about “Poverty, by America,” 7 to 8 p.m. Thursday. The $30 admission includes a copy of the book. Register at cuyahogalibrary.org.

Literary Cleveland (13002 Larchmere Blvd., Cleveland): Openings may remain for the 2023 Literary Cleveland Poetry Festival, beginning at 7 p.m. Friday and continuing through Saturday. Most events take place at Case Western Reserve University’s Bellflower Hall, 11427 Bellflower Road, Cleveland. See the schedule and participants at litcleveland.org.

Geauga County Public Library (Chardon branch, 110 E. Park St.): A local author fair will be held from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday.

Learned Owl Book Shop (204 N. Main St., Hudson): Middle-grade and young adult author Hope Bolinger signs “Dear Hero” and “Dear Henchman,” 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday.

Cleveland Public Library (East 131st Street branch, 3830 E. 131st St.): Ethan Avery talks about his debut young adult novel “Sword and Sorcery: Frostfire,” 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday.

Mac’s Backs (1820 Coventry Road, Cleveland Heights): Music photographer Pat Johnson talks to Anastasia Pantsios (“Girls to the Front: 40 Years of Women in Rock” about “Blue Collar Photographer,” 2 to 3 p.m. Saturday.

Ben Franklin Mindfair Books (13 W. College St., Oberlin): Cleveland State University alumnus Richard Koloda signs “Holy Ghost: The Life & Death of Free Jazz Pioneer Albert Ayler, 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday.

Visible Voice Books (2258 Professor Ave., Cleveland): Former CIA counterterrorism officer Brittany Butler talks about her debut spy thriller “The Syndicate Spy,” 3 p.m. Saturday.

Email information about books of local interest, and event notices at least two weeks in advance to BeaconBookTalk@gmail.com and bjnews@thebeaconjournal.com. I tweet at @BarbaraMcI.

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This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: ‘The End of the Road’ is new crime novel by Andrew Welsh-Huggins