(HUDSON, N.Y.) – Author Frank Lentricchia will read from his new crime novel, The Accidental Pallbearer (Melville House), on Sunday, January 13, 2013, at 4 pm, at the Spotty Dog Books and Ale in Hudson. A native of Utica, N.Y., Lentricchia us the son of working class, first-generation Italian-American parents. He is a chaired professor of literature at Duke University, and his highly acclaimed and often controversial critical studies caused the New York Times to dub him the “Dirty Harry of literary criticism.” He is the author of seven novels and a memoir, The Edge of Night. The Accidental Pallbearer is the first in a series of crime novels set in Utica and featuring ex-academic and private investigator Eliot Conte.

Don DeLillo says, “Frank Lentricchia’s new novel ranks as entertainment of a high order—funny, fast-moving and hot-blooded. It’s also the kind of novel that will appeal to readers who like their fiction to carry depth and range.”

Washed-up private investigator Conte would rather be teaching American literature and listening to opera than taking pictures of spouses in flagrante delicto. But he flamed out of an academic career when he hung the Provost of UCLA out a window, and he had to come home—to bleak Utica, N.Y., where his aging father, a political kingmaker, is still cutting deals and hustling appointments, and his all-but-in-blood brother Antonio Robinson is the city’s first black Chief of Police.

Frank Lentricchia

But now Antonio’s asking him for a favor, a favor that, to Eliot, doesn’t seem like the kind of thing a police chief should ask for…especially as he begins to uncover a trail of evidence leading back to the most sensational hit in local Mafia history. In a Utica marked by economic devastation and racial tensions, Eliot picks up one strand after another, weaving his way through a web of allegiances, grudges, and his own dark demons. Who is the spider at the center of it all?

The Spotty Dog Books & Ale is a full service independent book store featuring over 10,000 titles.  The Spotty Dog also features a selection of craft beer and an art supply department running the gamut of supplies from student to professional.  Open seven days, the Spotty Dog frequently hosts events, including live music, author meet-and -greets, book clubs, craft days, and more. Spotty Dog Books & Ale is located at 440 Warren Street in Hudson, N.Y.