AUTHOR TO READ FROM BOOK

History and mystery will come together tonight in Cape Girardeau at a special reading from a soon-to-be-released novel.

Spear Morgan, professor of creative writing at the University of Missouri in Columbia and editor of "The Missouri Review," will be at Barnes and Noble Booksellers at 6 tonight to read from his latest novel, "The Freshour Cylinders."

The novel, Morgan's fifth, tells the story of Tom Freshour, an assistant prosecuting attorney from western Arkansas who becomes involved in a murder case that revolves around the discovery of an ancient Indian mound in eastern Oklahoma.

The mound, called the Spiro Indian Mound, is an actual site that was discovered in Oklahoma in the 1930s.

"The story I tell is based on history," Morgan said. "But it's fiction."

Morgan said that all of his novels are based on history and genuine research. Because of the amount of research he does, the novels often take a long time to produce. "The Freshour Cylinders" was three years in the making.

In addition to reading from the novel, Morgan hopes to have a question-and-answer period and a time to discuss the process of writing.

Morgan's reading is a part of the Writers' Harvest program sponsored by Barnes and Noble and is open to the public.