Book Launch: Paul McHugh

LEFT COAST WRITERS BOOK LAUNCH: Paul McHugh, author of Deadlines

Saturday, February 13, 2009 || 7pm
Book Passage-Corte Madera || 51 Tamal Vista Dr.
Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com

It’s a party!! Join us for major festivities as veteran journalist Paul McHugh celebrates the publication of his new novel, DEADLINES (Lost Coast Press), a tale of murder, conspiracy, and the media. McHugh, a Northern California writer, has worked in journalism for 30 years, eight as a freelancer and 22 at the San Francisco Chronicle where he was an outdoor features writer and editor, focused on sport, environment and state resource issues. Over his career, he wrote for all sections of the paper, including Metro, where he conducted several major investigative series. Adventure has been a way of life for McHugh. He ran his first marathon in 2003, at the age of 53; he celebrated his 50^th birthday by kayaking down 270 miles of the Grand Canyon; he was on the first U.S. Kayak Surfing Team when it won a world championship in Ireland in 1988; he arrived in California after wandering across the U.S. on a motorcycle in the summer of 1973. McHugh undertook many outdoor adventures for the Chronicle. The most striking was a 40-day, 400-mile sea kayak voyage from the Oregon Border to San Francisco Bay, resulting in the popular North Coast Series. Over the course of that  voyage, McHugh filed 36 print and online stories, four podcasts and five videos. This epic series can be found posted at: www.sfgate.com/northcoast/

DEADLINES begins when a land-use activist is slain on a stretch of California shore. The killers work for Cornu Point, an equestrian resort seeking to boost profit from public land along the coast. A young reporter, Sebastian Palmer, pegs the death as a clever murder. When Palmer is killed a friend with a hankering for police work and a veteran columnist team up to solve the murders. Not just lives, but the California coast are at stake when they face the determined killer.

Praise for DEADLINES:

“Every reporter worth his or her notepad is a sleuth at heart. McHugh brings this truth to life…

—Dan Rather, TV anchor

“Rock-solid and soul-satisfying mystery… A superior story.”

—John Lescroart, NY Times best-selling author