Murder mystery at the library
Bill Lenderking brings his more than 35 years as a senior foreign service officer into sharp focus in his book, “The Soul Murderer: A Psychological Mystery,” published in 2013.
The long-time Shelter Island homeowner will talk about the book — a work of fiction but based on an actual incident in Equatorial Africa — at Friday Night Dialogues at the Library on November 14 at 7 p.m.
The story is set in a U.S. embassy in a small fictional African country in the 1970s and zeros in on the tensions between two of the post’s staff members and the frustrations, and even danger, of functioning in an unfriendly and repressive country — both more or less ignored by the State Department.
It traces the murder of the junior officer by his supervisor, the murder’s aftermath and subsequent trial back in the United States. It is “a chilling and thought-provoking read,” the Foreign Service Journal wrote in its review.
One reader-reviewer, a retired diplomat, said, “Bill Lenderking has captured perfectly the nuances of
American foreign service life … a well-written, finely crafted, literary thriller, drawing on a wealth of political, psychological and social background. Bill tells it like it is …”
Between 1959 and 1994, Mr. Lenderking was posted in nine countries on four continents, followed by an assignment with FEMA in Washington D.C. Now retired, Mr. Lenderking is a freelance writer and book dealer, living with his family in Washington D.C. and on Shelter Island.
Six generations of Mr. Lenderking’s family have spent the summers on the Island, first arriving around 1860. “We think we had a hand in building Union Chapel in the Heights,” he said. For the past 20 years, he has lived in a cottage on Spring Garden Avenue. His memoir about the family is available on Amazon where you can also find “The Soul Murderer.”
The Friday Night Dialogues series is free but donations are welcome.
Coming Up: On Friday, November 21, Bliss Morehead will present “Goldengrove Unleaving: Poems for Fall – and Beyond,” a project of the Shelter Island Poetry Project with Island readers.
On Friday, November 28, P.A.T. Hunt will share her recent experiences on the ancient pilgrimage route in Spain, “Walking the Camino de Santiago de Compostela.”
