Shakespeare & Co. is pleased to host a reading and reception with local author, Russell Thayer, on Tuesday, May 13 at 6:00 pm. Thayer will read from his first book Bop City Swing (Cowboy Jamboree Press, April 2025), which was co-authored by M.E. Proctor. This event is free and open to the public.

Bop City Swing is a rip-roaring tale of San Francisco in 1951, a crime novel infused with jazz that harkens back to the golden age of noir fiction, with its femmes fatales, fedoras, and shady characters. The story begins with the assassination of a campaigning politician during a fundraiser. Tom Keegan is the Homicide detective on the case. Gunselle was the killer hired to take out the candidate, but somebody beat her to it. Who did it and why? Tom and Gunselle are both eager to crack the case. The trail will lead them down paths of darkness that echo with the memories of war.

Author Biographies:
Russell Thayer’s work has appeared in Brushfire, Tough, Roi Fainéant Press, Guilty Crime Magazine, Mystery Tribune, Close to the Bone, Bristol Noir, Apocalypse Confidential, Cowboy Jamboree Press, Hawaii Pacific Review, Shotgun Honey, A Thin Slice of Anxiety, Rock and a Hard Place Press, Revolution John, Punk Noir, Expat Press, Pulp Modern, The Yard Crime Blog, and Outcast Press. He received his BA in English from the University of Washington, worked for decades at large printing companies, and currently lives in Missoula, Montana. You can find him lurking on “X” @RussellThayer10.

M.E. Proctor (www.shawmystery.com) was born in Brussels and lives in Texas. The first book in her Declan Shaw PI series, Love You Till Tuesday (2024), came out from Shotgun Honey, with the follow up, Catch Me on a Blue Day, scheduled for 2025. She’s also the author of a short story collection, Family and Other Ailments. Her fiction has appeared in Vautrin, Tough, Rock and a Hard Place, Bristol Noir, Mystery Tribune, Shotgun Honey, Reckon Review, and Black Cat Weekly among others. She’s a Derringer nominee.

Russell Thayer

M.E. Proctor