It had been a few years since Rex Begonia ran Bloomsday, but the morning ritual was familiar, one that no doubt many Bloomies can relate to.
He carbo-loaded on spaghetti the night before. He skipped his morning coffee in hopes of fighting off dehydration, and trips to the Port-O-Potties along the race route. He cranked up the Rocky theme to get amped before leaving the house, pinning on his race number before heading to downtown Spokane to meet up with his corporate cup teammates.
Everything was normal — until the dead body was found at the start of Doomsday Hill, forcing the best detective in Spokane out of the race and into a murder case that stretches from Browne's Addition to the South Hill, Hillyard to Airway Heights, in a new book by local author Chris Bieker.
Blood on Bloomsday is a work of fiction — you'd probably remember if a grisly murder was discovered in the middle of Spokane's annual road race extravaganza — and it's Beiker's second Spokane-set mystery, arriving two years after Murder at Manito. She'll celebrate the release Saturday, April 30 (the night before Bloomsday 2022) at Auntie's at 7 pm.
Like its predecessor, Blood on Bloomsday revolves around the adventures of Rex Begonia as he solves a case with the help of — and occasionally at odds with — characters like Police Chief Barney Blueblood, Mayor Sammy Prosciutto, fellow cops Ivy Lizei and Phil O'Dendren, an outfitter named Boone Crockett, and others. Begonia is a memorable protagonist, a plant-loving cop who loves nothing better when he's off-duty than a fancy coffee drink at his neighborhood cafe — except for maybe a certain dreamy local newscaster who makes him feel like a smitten teen again.
Bieker decided to write another Rex Begonia mystery after getting a lot of positive feedback on her first self-published mystery, one inspired by long walks in a favorite Spokane park.
"I really didn't start out to be a writer," explains Bieker, 59, who's lived in Spokane 35 years and spent most of her professional life working for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
"It was during weekly walks to Manito Park with a friend, and we were in the conservatory, and I was looking at the little labels on the plants. And it just struck me that Rex Begonia would be a good name for a detective.
"So my friend and I would make up stories about Rex. Maybe there would be a murder right there in the conservatory! And who would get killed? It would have to be the head gardener at Manito. From there, it was just a story that kind of asked to be written. The characters just wanted to come to life on the page."
Like many writers, Bieker attributes her interest in crafting stories to a childhood spent as an avid reader growing up in Dillingham, Alaska, on Bristol Bay, a place she describes as "the premier fishing area in Alaska." It was a town that didn't get its first paved road until she was in college.
"From the time I was little, I can remember the bookmobile coming around and that being the highlight of my week," Bieker says. "Our house was filled with books and newspapers. If there's a cereal box in front of me, I'll read it. And I read everything from fiction to nonfiction. Obviously, I liked mysteries quite a bit."
Louise Penny is a contemporary inspiration, Bieker says, and she delved into Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie plenty when she was a kid, as well as true-crime tales about Al Capone and John Dillinger. When she decided to try writing her own novel a few years ago, there was little doubt what genre she'd tackle.
With lessons learned from sessions at the Get Lit! festival and classes through the local library and community college systems, Bieker decided to get to work on her Manito murder story. In the process of putting it together, she decided to use events like the city's Lilac Festival and regular garden tours to help structure her story.
She found that technique agreeable enough that she tried it again in Blood on Bloomsday, using the preparation and running of the race as a setup for a story that eventually involves missing local young men, drug traffickers, wildlife poachers and a chase that pulls Rex Begonia out of Spokane into the wilds of North Central Washington. It's a breezy read across 158 pages that offer more than a few chuckles along the way.
Like her main character, Bieker is a longtime Bloomie, running it every year until, as she puts it, "my T-shirt drawer got full and I took a break." You can tell from her descriptions of the race that she's a veteran, and she tapped Spokane artist Megan Perkins to illustrate the cover with the iconic Bloomsday vulture overlooking the racers coming up Doomsday Hill alongside the river.
"She does a lot of iconic scenes in Spokane, and she also paints a lot of nature, plants. It just seemed like a really good fit for the story," Beiker says.
"A big part of both these stories is community. And Spokane does such a great job of putting on these large events. I'm hoping that I've portrayed Spokane in a positive light. Even if there is a murder." ♦
Blood on Bloomsday Release Party • Sat, April 30 at 7 pm • Free • Auntie's Bookstore • 402 W. Main • auntiesbooks.com • 509-838-0206
