Monte Schulz - Naughty

Veteran Joe Krueger is drifting in 1950s California, looking for work wherever he can find it. Tired after a long drive, he stops at a boardinghouse and meets sweet — and sexy — Ida, who rents him a room. That very night, Ida tells him “Mother” and “Father” have run their auto over a cliff, then seduces him in the teary aftermath. Smitten now, Joe starts helping out around the boardinghouse, and the two marry. The honeymoon is over when a shocking series of events force the Kruegers down to San Francisco, where Ida is injured in a bus accident. Soon enough, insurance investigators have chased them out of the city to another town where Ida schemes to swindle a motel owner out of her property.

Based on the true story of Iva Kroeger and her husband Ralph, who were indicted for the murders of Mildred and Jay Arneson in 1962, Naughty ($35.00) culminates in a trial: Ida, whose crimes have (only just) begun to catch up to her, is at her zenith, pleading insanity and playing the part to the hilt. The reader learns Joe’s and Ida’s fates via excerpts from authentic court documents. Naughty explores exactly what happens when “a swell-looking babe” is unleashed on real life, leaving marks, patsies, and bodies in her wake. 

Monte Schulz received his M.A. in American Studies from UCSB. He published his first novel, Down By the River, in 1990, and spent the next twelve years writing a novel of the Jazz Age—This Side of Jordan. He wrote it for his father, the late cartoonist, Charles M. Schulz. It is followed by The Last Rose of Summer and a third book in the trilogy.

 

Location: 

51 Tamal Vista Blvd
94925 Corte Madera
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Naughty By Monte Schulz Cover Image
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ISBN: 9781606996829
Published: Fantagraphics - October 18th, 2013