Contact: Christina Chapple, SLU Public Information, 985-549-2341, [email protected]
SLU'S LOUISIANA LITERATURE PRESS PUBLISHED MYSTERY-THRILLER BY PAUL RUFFIN
HAMMOND -- Poet and short story author Paul Ruffin's first novel, Pompeii Man, a mystery-thriller set on the Mississippi Gulf Coast and in New Orleans, has been published by Louisiana Literature Press at Southeastern Louisiana University.
The novel is also a first for the press, which has previously published poetry chapbooks by Darrell Bourque, Albert Davis and Vivian Shipley.
"Pompeii Man" is the story of the descent of an innocent couple into a hell of fear and violence, a world that neither of them could have imagined in the Big Easy, city of music, good food, and Old South charm. Jack Stafford loses his wife to a terrifying night of assault and rape in the dark heart of New Orleans, manages to get her back home, then loses her again, perhaps forever, except for the imagination and determination of a detective. Together, he and Stafford set off to find the woman and destroy the drug lord and pimp who holds her, a man whose villainy has earned him the street name Satan.
"Paul Ruffin's "Pompeii Man" reminds me of all those wonderful film noirs of the forties," writes Richard Bausch, author of Good Evening Mr. and Mrs. America and All the Ships at Sea. "His New Orleans is steamy and mysterious. This novel is a page-turner, and I couldn't put it down."
George Garrett, author of Death of the Fox and The Magic Striptease, said, "I have long admired and enjoyed the work of Paul Ruffin. Here, in the form of a solid, page-turning thriller, are the qualities that mark his writing -- a strong, clear story line, a deep and accurate sense of place, characters dimensional enough to contain contradictions and to offer surprises, and, above all, a style that moves easily between the lyrical and the satirical, the colloquial and the elegant."
"Pompeii Man ...is a compelling, white-knuckle read that, like all the best stories, takes you on a trip you didn't expect to take to a place you didn't expect to go, and leaves you breathless at the ride," wrote Janet Peery, author of Alligator Dance and The River Beyond the World.
Ruffin, author of four collections of poetry, two books of stories, and editor or co-editor of eight other books, has had poetry, fiction and essays published widely in journals and magazines such as Southern Review, Southwestern American Literature, Poetry, and Southeastern's own award-winning literary magazine, Louisiana Literature.
His work also appears in such well-known university texts as W.W. Norton's "Introduction to Literature," Harcourt Brace's "College Handbook of Creative Writing," and Little Brown's "Introduction to Literature." Born in Alabama and raised in Mississippi, Ruffin teaches at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas, where he edits The Texas Review, and directs Texas Review Press.
For more information or a media review copy of Pompeii Man, contact Louisiana Literature Press at 985-549-5022 or [email protected].
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