Mystery novelist Brad Parks will have a reception and book signing on Monday, 6:30 p.m. at 27 Mix, 27 Halsey Street in Newark.

Parks' latest volume is "The Girl Next Door," the third book in his Carter Ross series, which are set in Newark and follow the adventures of the eponymous hero/reporter as he stumbles on trouble. Parks takes some of the books' inspiration from his years working at the Star-Ledger, where he reported on various news stories from Hurricane Katrina to an anniversary special on the Newark riots.

The book description is as follows:

Reading his own newspaper’s obituaries, veteran reporter Carter Ross comes across that of a woman named Nancy Marino, who was the victim of a hit-and-run while she was on the job delivering copies of that very paper, the Eagle-Examiner. Struck by the opportunity to write a heroic piece about an everyday woman killed too young, he heads to her wake to gather tributes and anecdotes. It’s the last place Ross expects to find controversy—which is exactly what happens when one of Nancy’s sisters convinces him that the accident might not have been accidental at all.

It turns out that the kind and generous Nancy may have made a few enemies, starting with her boss at the diner where she was a part-time waitress, and even including the publisher of the Eagle-Examiner. Carter’s investigation of this seemingly simple story soon has him in big trouble with his full-time editor and sometime girlfriend, Tina Thompson, not to mention the rest of his bosses at the paper, but he can’t let it go—the story is just too good, and it keeps getting better. But will his nose for trouble finally take him too far?

Books will be available for purchase at the restaurant. The Children's Literacy Initiative will receive a portion of the sales.

For more information on Brad Parks, go to his website.

To attend the 27 Mix event, interested people should RSVP by Friday to thegirlnextdoor@jaffecom.com

-Patch Staff