Chris Grabenstein celebrated the publication of Hell Hole, the fourth in his series of mystery novels about a pair of police officers in a tourist town along the Jersey shore, with a party at the base for New York Fire Department’s Engine Company 23, right around the corner. (The book is dedicated to Capt. Dave Morkal and the rest of the station’s crew, some of whom make a dramatic appearance in the story.) The firefighters made their house chili—I spotted at least three different types of bean—and in honor of the novel’s boardwalk setting, they served deep-fried Oreo cookies for dessert. All the proceeds from the book sales last night were donated to the New York Firefighters Burn Center Foundation, which supports medical treatment for burn victims at New York’s Cornell Medical Center; Grabenstein also raised $1400 by auctioning off two character names for the next novel in the series, which will be called Mindscrambler.
(And after that, he promised me, he’s going to fulfill the request I made when I met him shortly after the publication of his debut novel, Tilt-A-Whirl, and told me that all the books in the series would be named after amusement rides—he’s finally going to use Wall of Death as a title.)