Huron Expositor, 2009-02-04, Page 9ice•.«.+......! • .srt j.r
The Huron Expositor • February 4, 2009 Page 9
News
Death at the Bend author shares wisecracking
sense of humour with character in mystery novel
Dau Schwab
Although Rick Hundey denies it,
those who've read his new book and
know him well claim the author has
a few things in common with his
wisecracking main character — Jack
Beer.
Although Hundey is not a private
eye solving murder mysteries like
Beer, Hundey is told he shares the
character's "twisted sense of hu-
mour."
The Exeter author read the first
chapter of his book Death at the
Bend and signed copies at the Sea -
forth Library Monday night.
The story is set in Grand Bend,
where Hundey says he spent a con-
siderable amount of time during his
teenage years.
The main character Jack Beer, a
former small-town police chief, owns
a coffee shop with his girlfriend on
Grand Bend's main street, working
part-time as a gumshoe.
When a client's husband is mur-
dered, Beer is hired to find the kill-
er.
"There's a structure to myster-
ies. It's almost like a four or five act
play," Hundey told the small group
attending the reading. "You need
a murder, a motive, and a problem
to be solved. The detective must go
through failure; then rebirth, then
find a solution."
Published two months ago by Faux -
Pop Medial, Death at the Bend took
the first -tune author about a year to
write.
'Hundey intends to make it the first
of a series of Jack Beer mystery nov-
els.
He's currently working on the sec-
ond installment, which takes place
Dan Schwab photo
Rick Hundey poses with his book Death at the Bend at the Seaforth Library. $P`
t
in Collingwood and involves the
death of an Elvis impersonator.
"It's darker," Hundey says.
Writing for about three to four
hours everyday, Hundey says he's
constantly coming up with new story
ideas.
He told the group at the library
that although it may seem strange,
he has "arguments" with his charac-
ters about plot twists.
"Jack keeps going and I can't seem
to pull him back," he says. "I wrote
`Devil in the details' of benefits
of last week's federal budget
From Page 1
can certainly move on it," he says.
Paul Nichol, manager of the Huron
Business Development Corporation,
agrees that "the devil will be in the
details" whether Huron County will
benefit from the federal budget.
"One billion dollars is a lot of mon-
ey but it remains to be seen if Huron
County will benefit," he says, refer-
ring to the funding earmarked for
economic development in Southern
Ontario.
He notes that while no one asked
for a new rural development agency
in Southern Ontario, the money will
flow through the new bureaucracy
rya th4
malt didn't take advantage of the al-
ready existing Community Futures
program and its business develop-
ment corporations to distribute fund-
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"There was no mention of the 260
Community Futures programs al-
ready lending money to small busi-
nesses and I'm a little let down about
that," he says.
As the last chance lender for small
businesses in Huron County, Nichol
says the HBDC needs $1.5 million to
meet current demands.
"With the reduced access to credit
right now through the banks, we
have people knocking down our doors
right now," he says.
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biographies of the main characters.
Then as I went along, the charac-
ters would tell me what to do next ...
these characters surprise me."
Hundey's tendency to get lost in
his work has him keeping a voice
recorder handy for when inspira-
tion strikes, whether he's going for a
walk or driving his car.
He also says he's lucky enough to
never to have gotten writer's block.
He draws on his experiences as a
former town administrator in Ex-
eter and automotive plant assem-
bly line worker _and
from the people he's
known in real life to
create some of the
book's characters.
"I just exag-
gerate them," he
says. "That's what
makes it real."
A biker and
ex -con that Hundey
worked with while
at the automotive
plant in his native
Windsor ended up
becoming the basis
for Jack Beer's side-
kick.
But it's the
sections of the book
where he added "lo-
cal flavour" that
Hundey says has
generated the most
interest among
readers.
"There's a
different culture
almost in rural ar-
eas," he says. "I've
lived here almost
20 years and I feel I
understand it."
Some of the
darker and steamier sections of the
book had Hundey's church minister
raising an eyebrow.
"He . asked me if I'm as twisted as
my character," he said. "I was con-
cerned they might fire me as a Sun-
day school teacher."
So far, 380 copies of the book have
been sold and Hundey says plans for
a second printing are in the works.
To order a $20 copy on the web,
visit www.rickhundey.fauxpop.ty
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