Aug. 23, 2003 — Hull Bay resident Walt Herring has published his first novel, "Picasso Was a Punk."
The novel is a fact-based detective story set in Philadelphia where Detective Joe Scanlon is dispatched to the brutal crucifixion murder of a young black boy. Shortly after that murder, he is called to a double homicide of a white couple at the Philadelphia Art Museum.
In "Picasso was a Punk" (now available through 1stBooks, Amazon and Barnes & Noble), author Walt Herring tells the story of a police detective trying to solve grisly murders and nab a mass murderer in a city pulsing with anger over the racial killings it has endured, a release from the author said.
As Scanlon tries to uncover the killer, he falls in love with the sister of the woman murdered in the art museum. Tracy Walls is a Grace Kelly look-alike and turns out to be another target on serial killer Jesus Martinez's list. Scanlon is in close pursuit of Martinez, but the killer throws more wrenches into the machine as a fellow police officer and former lover of Scanlon's, Nikki Ruiz, is ambushed by the killer, paralyzed and left for dead in an abandoned factory.
Despite the detective's attempts to solve the murders before a race riot erupts, the city breaks out into violence. A second boy is found crucified. Scanlon suspects either a priest or a cop is conducting the heinous acts against children.
Martinez stalks Tracy in the closed museum, bringing this powerful novel to an explosive ending for both Scanlon and the reader. This fast-paced criminal suspense novel will have readers pulled into the mysteries surrounding the "City of Brotherly Love" as Scanlon tries to solve these cases and save the woman he loves.
Herring is an award-winning writer and editor who worked at major newspapers across the United States, such as the St. Petersburg Times, Philadelphia Daily News and the Detroit News. He has won many state and national writing awards during his career as a journalist and while he taught writing at the University of Washington in Seattle.
Herring currently lives above Hull Bay on the North Side of St. Thomas. He can be reached at 715-3605, or by e-mail.
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