PRESS RELEASE

April 1, 2005                                       FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Orson Welles…Macbeth…and murder?  That is the hook for King of Harlem, the new mystery-adventure paperback by Cedar Rapids writer Steven Philip Jones.

In 1936 20-year-old Orson Welles rocks Harlem with an all-Negro production of Macbeth for the WPA’s Federal Theater Project.  Many residents, convinced Welles intends to embarrass the Negro race with minstrel Shakespeare, protest the production.  Some send Welles death threats.  One man even attacks Welles in the Lafayette’s lobby.

In King of Harlem, the WPA hire Sassafras Winters to bodyguard Welles.  Winters, a retired Chicago Cubs pitcher struggling to launch a new career as a private investigator, unexpectedly gets his chance to play detective after one of Welles’ actors, Ben Kanter, is arrested for murdering a white socialite seen stepping out with Kanter’s girlfriend.   Kanter insists he is innocent but cannot prove it.  Many Harlem residents believe the police are railroading Kanter.  As tensions in the borough swell, Welles insists Winters investigate and prove Kanter’s innocence or guilt before Harlem erupts around Macbeth.

King of Harlem is Steven Philip Jones’ first novel.   Jones’ previous writing credits include over 60 comic book scripts for Marvel Comics, Malibu Graphics, and Caliber Comics, as well as two young adult novels featuring Todd McFarland’s popular Spawn character. Jones also edited Malibu Graphic’s Reanimator: Tales of Herbert West paperback, and created over 20 intellectual properties that were incorporated into the launch of Rightsline.com (ASP) of Beverly Hills and debuted at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival.

King of Harlem is a 249-page paperback coming from MUNDANIA PRESS May 2005

Contact:  Steven Jones, 319-366-5176, Maxandbuddy@aol.com.