Author Johnny Gunn’s ‘So Young ... So Dead’ available Dec. 9

Solstice Publishing has announced Johnny Gunn’s newest Mystery/Suspense novel, “So Young ... So Dead,” will be released Dec. 9, in time for Christmas.

In the book, the vicious murder of a young girl leads to the disintegration of the Sandesta County Sheriff’s Department. A homophobic district attorney, a misogynist sergeant of detectives, and a serial killer all come together. A former sheriff, loved and respected, who retired because of “personal” issues, “comes out,” the district attorney is attacked by a detective sergeant and goes home with a broken nose, a deputy has her shirt ripped off by that same sergeant, and through this entire melee, detective Claude Perkins manages to keep a handle on himself, on the cases piling up around him, on threats of early retirement, even a hint of romance. Can he solve all the legal issues?

Gunn has lived in Nevada for well over fifty years. He and wife Patty live in Cold Springs, north of Reno. Gunn most recently was editor of The Nevada Observer, Internet news magazine, and in the early 1970s published the Virginia City Legend weekly newspaper. If you’re a real Nevada old-timer, you might remember him as a radio personality and newsman back in the mid-sixties and seventies.