Image by Flickr user sarahmichael

Local author Brad Crowther will read excerpts from his recently released novel "The Ninth Man" and sign copies of the book, all to benefit abused and neglected children in the tri-county area.

The event will be held on Thursday, October 6th, 5:30 to 7:30 pm at the Primrose House, 332 East Bay St., L. R. Burtschy & Company. Books will be available for purchase and proceeds will support HALOS, a local nonprofit organization meeting the needs of child victims of abuse and neglect.

The Ninth Man, from Ingalls Publishing Group, Inc., is a modern-day Charleston mystery involving a Yankee spy’s secret diary about the Confederate submarine, Hunley. Russ Berard, a retired Rhode Island police detective, returns home to Mt. Pleasant to investigate the murder of his father, a Hunley enthusiast, and is confronted by a descendant of the spy, determined to keep the diary secret, and by an old friend planning a Hunley reality show, who is determined to obtain the diary.

The book has received early praise from authors, including a Publisher’s Weekly review that noted, "…Crowther's solid first novel-length mystery…gripping extracts from the diary concerning a secret Union mission to sabotage the submersible (Hunley)."

Brad is a fiction writer and consultant residing in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina. He was the 2010 winner of the Black Orchid Novella Award, an international contest sponsored by Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine and The Wolfe Pack, a literary society devoted to the fictional detective Nero Wolfe. For more information on the Ninth Man or Brad Crowther, visit www.bradcrowther.com.