Tryon resident Adrian Pratt, writing under the name James Hargreaves, will sign copies of his first novel Friday, May 24, at La Bouteille. 

Book and wine lovers alike are invited to come to 10 N. Trade St. at 7 p.m. to enjoy a glass of wine and pick up a copy of “Overlords of K Street.”

Pratt was born in Glasgow, Scotland, but moved to the states to study journalism at the University of Georgia. After Athens he began a long career in newspapers that took him to Georgia, Florida, South Dakota and Pennsylvania.

“This book marries my love of journalism, America, travel and politics. It took me three years to write,” Pratt said.

Book synopsis:

All Joel Wilson had ever wanted was to be a newspaperman. And after years of struggling in various small-town Minnesota papers, he’d made it all the way to the New York Herald. But after years of budget and staff cuts and nothing but a depressing future on the horizon for the newspaper business, Wilson had taken a buyout.

He’d moved to Costa Rica looking for a new life. A little seaside town, a Costa Rican girlfriend, and a relaxed, inconsequential existence had given life a sweeter smell. Soon the world he’d once covered for the Herald, the world of political corruption and power-mongering, came calling in the form of an old friend with awful news: His ex-wife, a U.S. attorney, has gone missing. The police, thinking her dead, have all but called off their inquiries.

Joel and his old newspaper friends do not give up so easily. Their search uncovers a web of corruption that leads from a plot of land in St. Augustine, Fla., all the way to the hallowed halls of Washington, D.C.

– information submitted by Amy Pratt