Palmerston North’s Bing Turkby pens cosy murder mystery String Theory

Palmerston North author and musician Bing Turkby says he writes stories with a 95 per cent chance of guitars and a 45 per cent chance of cats. Photo / Judith Lacy

Bing Turkby doesn’t just write about guitars - he plays one and writes his own music, too.

The Palmerston North author launched String Theory this month at Central Library.

It is the second book in his Guitar Store Mysteries series. Rockingham West guitar store owner Dana Osborne returns with her assistant Brody and cat Paws McCartney.

Dead Man’s Axe, the first book in the series, was released last year.

Turkby says he found a really good cover designer for that book. He asked Jeroen ten Berge if it was cheaper if he ordered two covers at once. It was, so Turkby ended up with a cover with a rocking chair on it. He not only had to write a second book, but include a rocking chair in the story.

The hardest part was getting to the end and thinking he did not know who had committed the murder.

Turkby is the 50-year-old’s pen name. He knows a fair bit about books as he works at Palmerston North City Library.

The cover of the second volume of Bing Turkby's Guitar Store Mysteries.

He makes music with Heavy Blarney and the Bing Turkby Ensemble.

All the band names in the book, including Cranial Bypass, are ones he has not used over the years in real life.

The guitar shop is called Pick Me, as he likes “puns and stupid dad jokes”.

Turkby sang two songs at the launch. No Indication is about drivers who don’t use their indicators.

“The road belongs to me and I am indestructible. I don’t need to give no indication.”

Sustainable Growth is an Oxymoron argues humankind cannot outgrow the planet. “Save the whales and eat the sheep?”

Turkby and his wife live with “an assortment of feline landlords”.