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New mystery set at UWM
Pivotal scenes take place in Curtin Hall, says author
By Kevin Lessmiller
“It’s basically natural, if you’re writing about Milwaukee, to bring a local public university into it” – Michael Bowen, author of Shoot the Lawyer Twice
A new fictional mystery book will be set at the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee, and is set to hit bookshelves in October.
The book, Shoot the Lawyer Twice, is written by Michael Bowen and will be published by Poisoned Pen Press. It will feature characters Rep and Melissa Pennyworth, also found in three other Bowen mysteries.
Bowen is a lawyer with Foley & Lardner LLP, having practiced law for over 30 years. He graduated from Harvard Law School in 1976 and served on the Board of Editors of the Harvard Law Review during his time there.
Bowen decided on UWM as a setting for numerous reasons. For one, his wife is a graduate from UWM, who used to commute from Cedarburg. Secondly, he wanted to write a mystery set in Milwaukee and felt that the school was a local icon of sorts.
“I finally wanted to bring the main characters in my mystery to Milwaukee”, said Bowen, 57. “If you’re going to write about Milwaukee, you have to bring in to play all of those things distinctive about Milwaukee. It’s basically natural, if you’re writing about Milwaukee, to bring a local public university into it.”
While the book also takes place in other various Milwaukee settings, as well as Chicago, much of the action takes place here on campus. One scene involves a meeting between UWM representatives and members of a fictional group. Also, UWM students and faculty should recognize the name of one building found in the book.
“Critical scenes take place at Curtin Hall”, he said. “But the Curtin Hall I describe in the book is different from the real thing – it doesn’t have seven floors, so I put someone’s office on the seventh floor.”
Bowen describes his mysteries as “puzzle” mysteries. In a “throwback to the old style”, he says, his books are about figuring out who committed the crime, as well as how it was committed. More often than not, they focus on how it was done.
As for the title, Bowen says it comes from an old joke directed at, of course, lawyers.
“It comes from one of many, many anti-lawyer jokes in the world,” said Bowen of the book’s title. “And this anti-lawyer joke goes: ‘It’s 1933. You’re in a locked room with Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and a lawyer. You have a revolver with two bullets. What do you do? You shoot the lawyer twice.’”
Bowen will be at Harry W. Schwartz bookstore, located at 2559 N. Downer Ave, on Oct. 21 for a Shoot the Lawyer Twice booksigning.
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