Arts & Sciences (Z)

Leonard “Kris” Krishtalka, director emeritus of KU’s Biodiversity Institute and professor emeritus of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, will talk about The Body on the Bed, an historical novel set in Lawrence. It’s his fifth book (published in September) and focuses on a real 1871 murder, the lurid trial that gained national attention, and the female reporter whose “investigative mind leads her to uncover desperate lives torn by lust, obsession and deceit, a trail of dead victims, the diabolical plot behind the body on the bed, and a final act of perverse justice.” The book was “impeccably researched” – utilizing period newspapers, photographs, maps, and the thousand-page court transcript. The characters are vividly drawn, and bring to life a riveting 150-year-old mystery. You may never again drive down Kentucky Street, between 8th and 9th, without thinking about the house that once stood there and the late Mr. Isaac Ruthman. (He was poisoned, you know.)