Hubert Schuze is a treasure hunter. He only became a thief when Congress redefined treasure hunting as thievery, and -- as Hubie likes to say -- who knows more about thievery than Congress? He's a pleasant fellow who enjoys the ironies of life and the company of his friends and neighbors. Hubie doesn't count his lawyer Layton Kent and Detective Whit Fletcher of the Albuquerque Police Department as part of his inner circle, but they are both good people to know given his penchant for becoming a murder suspect.

In "The Pot Thief Who Studied Ptolemy", the pot thief is back, but this time Schuze's larceny is for a good cause. He wants to recover sacred pots stolen from San Roque, the mysterious New Mexico pueblo closed to outsiders. An easy task for Hubert Schuze, pot digger. Except these pots are not under the ground -- they're 150 feet above it. In the top-floor apartments of Rio Grande Lofts, a high-security building which just happens to be one story above Susannah's latest love interested. Hubie's legendary deductive skills lead to a perfect plan which is thwarted when he encounters the beautiful Stella. And when he is arrested for murder. Well, he was in the room where the body was found, everyone heard the shot, and he came out with blood on his hands. Follow Hubie as he stays one step ahead of building security, one step behind Stella, and one step away from a long fall down a garbage chute.

Award-winning author Mike Orenduff grew up in a house so close to the Rio Grande he could Frisbee a tortilla into Mexico from his back yard, a practice frowned upon by his mother. Like his protagonist, Hubert Schuze, Orenduff studied anthropology but never completed a degree in that subject. He did eventually receive a masters degree from the University of New Mexico and a doctorate in mathematical logic from Tulane. While a college professor, he published a number of works with such scintillating titles as A Partially Truth-Functional Modal Calculus and Are Modal Contexts Referentially Opaque?

In 1993, Orenduff's second short, Slivi, was published in the Sandy River Review. His first story was the grand prize winner in a short-story contest he entered in high school, but he believes he has now tracked down and destroyed all copies of that work. He wrote a regular column for the Bermuda Sun for three years while serving as president of Bermuda College.

In addition to murder mysteries, Orenduff also writes for the stage. His play, The Christmas Visitor, won first prize in this year's Jewel Box Playwriting Contest and has garnered prizes in two other playwriting contests in addition to being selected as one of the "Top 100" by Writer's Digest in 2008.

Orenduff is married to the noted art historian Lai Chew Orenduff.

If you cannot make the signing, you can reserve a personalized copy of any of Mr. Orenduff's book by contacting Fiction Addiction in advance at 864-675-0540 or at [email protected].

Fiction Addiction is a local, woman-owned, independent bookstore established in 2001. The store carries a mixture of new and used fiction and nonfiction, including children's books, as well as gift items. We recently moved from E. North Street to 1020A Woodruff Road (across from Costco).

(Image provided by Fiction Addiction.)

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