2022 Best of Lake Erie: Author
Meet Lake Erie author Bob Adamov and learn more about his latest releases.
Celebrating the 20th anniversary of his first book release of Rainbow’s End this year, Put-in-Bay author Bob Adamov is unleashing a trifecta of his mystery-adventure novels in 2022 that follow local personalities and incorporate island character that is inspired by his growing up days visiting Lake Erie’s South Bass Island.
April 1 marked the release of Sunset Blues, and White Spider Night hit the shelves on July 1. A new edition of Rainbow’s End will be released in October. Meanwhile, Adamov’s Alzheimer’s disease-based novel, Memory Layne, won Best Fiction Novel of 2022 at the Next Generation Indie Book Awards, the largest international book program for independent and self-publishing authors.
Lake Erie Living sat down with Adamov for a preview of his titles and to learn more about his island inspiration.
Q: Tell us about how Middle Bass Island crops up in White Spider Night.
A: Throughout the years, I’ve had several folks who live on the island ask why I don’t include Middle Bass Island in my adventures. So, I went over for a speaking engagement, met many people and they arranged interviews for me. It felt like a family reunion. I was working on a murder mystery set in Put-in-Bay and found a way to work Middle Bass Island into the story.
Q: How did you come up with the concept for White Spider Night?
A: It came from a legend of Put-in-Bay’s Roundhouse Bar. On Labor Day, after the Miller Ferry has a big send off for the last ferry that marks the end of the vacation season, people would return to the Roundhouse Bar and take all of the half-empty white liquor bottles and mix them together in a vat. Then they would drink it. The next day, they would ask each other, ‘Did the white spider bite you last night?’ It became White Spider Night.
Q: What makes Sunset Blues an interesting mystery?
A: It involves the disappearance of our hero’s aunt after her house explodes on Put-in-Bay. There’s a chase that leads our hero from the island to Detroit to Key West and involves a Russian taxi cab company that was running London-style cabs on Put-in-Bay and Key West. There is a link and interesting twists.
Q: Tell us about the hero of your books and how you incorporate local flavor.
A: The novels include the misadventures of Emerson Moore, an investigative reporter who lives with his aunt on Put-in-Bay. He’s not a James Bond, just a regular guy who makes stupid mistakes like we all do. Readers tell me they’d enjoy sitting down with him and having a beer. I have a knack for placing real people in my novels and enjoy the looks of surprises on their faces when they find themselves while reading.
