A quiet backwater of the Mississippi River in the Quad Cities is the setting for a new novel. Chuck Oestreich of Rock Island will hold a reading and book signing for "Sylvan Slough" on Saturday.
Since he retired from teaching English at Rock Island High School, Oestreich has become an avid bike rider who often rides along Sylvan Slough on the Great River Trail between Rock Island and Moline. And that's the setting for a story about a homeless man and others who walk and ride on the trail.
He says the book brings "an aura of mystery along Sylvan Slough's mostly pleasant and bucolic surroundings" - meaning it's not so bucolic all the time.
Oestreich writes a newspaper column for the Moline Dispatch and Rock Island Argus. And he published his first novel three years ago. "Bicycle Moon" was a murder mystery involving a man riding across the country.
His reading and book signing will be held next to the slough, at Sylvan Greenway Park, on the Moline-Rock Island border, from 1:30 to 3:30 pm Saturday. Copies are also available through Amazon and local libraries.
