STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK

Hailey author Julie Weston will read from “Moon Bones,” the fifth book in her Nellie Burns and Moonshine mystery series on Thursday.

Weston will discuss the background behind her book at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 2, at Town Center West.

“Julie writes great page-turning mysteries, but she’s also a history buff,” said Kristin Fletcher, the library’s programs and engagement manager. “What makes her in-person presentations extra special are the local historical images and fascinating insights that she weaves into her reading.”

Indeed, Weston has set her mystery books in a plethora of familiar locales, including Ketchum, Craters of the Moon National Monument and the Sawtooth Valley near Stanley.

Her latest book has Nellie Burns and her beau—Sheriff Charlie Asteguigoiri—trying to solve a mystery surrounding the death of a Chinese miner near Vienna, a ghost town in the Stanley Basin in the 1920s.

She uncovered a lot of lore about the Chinese in the Wood River Valley in researching her novel, including the existence of dugouts near Bellevue’s Howard Preserve where Chinese used to live.

Weston grew up in the Silver Valley in North Idaho, writing about it in her memoir of place, “The Good Times Are All Gone Now: Life, Death and Rebirth in an Idaho Mining Town.”

Her mysteries have won several awards, including the 2017 WILLA Literary Award in Historical Fiction. “Miner’s Moon” recently won a Bronze Wills Rogers Medallion, as she placed third to “Longmire’s” Craig Johnson’s first in the mystery category. 

POP-UP BOOK SIGNING

Julie Weston will do a pop-up book signing at Chapter One in Ketchum from 3 to 5 p.m. on Valentine’s Day. She will have all her “Moon” books, as well as “The Magical Universe” coffee table book that she collaborated on with her husband/photographer Gerry Morrison depicting America’s Southwest.