Jim Williamson will be at Burke's on Tuesday, December 4th from 5:30-7:00pm signing copies of his debut novel, The Architect (Cold Tree Press, $16.95 softcover).

The reading at 6:00 will be held at Sweet Desserterie (right next door to Burke's). Mr. Williamson will be signing at the bookstore before and after the reading.

Struggling architect Ethan Cotham may have just won a prestigious competition to design the new Center for Southern Culture on the banks of the Mississippi River—but his troubles are only beginning. Now his unconventional ideas must survive a withering attack by the conservative Memphis Board of Design Review and the schemes of his former mentor, a bitter professional rival.

To make matters worse, Cotham must fend off the amorous advances of the ravishing but predatory director of the Brooks Museum of Art while trying to meet the pressing demands of his other clients. Not only do social climbers Roberta and Thurston Quonset have their heart set on a gargantuan trophy house, but the Bishop of North Mississippi has enmeshed his architect in a cynical web of church politics.

As work on the Center for Southern Culture finally commences, Cotham begins to suspect that his plans are being undermined—literally—by the Colonel, an unscrupulous construction manager for a huge St. Louis contractor notorious for cutting corners. Isolated and desperate to save the project and his reputation, Cotham’s only ally is the beautiful and psychic Pallie Pelham.

Written with a solid ring of authenticity, the story builds to a suspenseful and tragic climax amidst its setting in Memphis and Mississippi, a region peopled by colorful characters where the past is inevitably in conflict with the present.

"The Architect is a thoughtful, moving novel about the realities of building, particularly when style collides with money, politics, and the demands of the less than enlightened. Also, this interesting portrait of Memphis embodies a lively treatise on architecture itself."