Two book signings at Bookworks on Saturday

When a top Nazi scientist arrives at a POW camp in the Shenandoah Valley, he begins to redraw plans for a lost weapon. The device, Germany believes, will disable the U.S. East Coast, leading to America’s surrender or at least a neutrality pact.

Cadets at Waynesboro’s Fishburne Military School uncover the plot, also involving a top German spy and a Mennonite farm boy who is building the device, and their diligence earns the support of the U.S. Chief of Staff George C. Marshall and number of American scientists and operatives.

Device and Deceit, Elizabeth Tidwell’s second novel based in Augusta County, is a page-turner … from a French farmhouse and U-boats in the North Atlantic, through intricate travels in New England and the Mid-Atlantic states, to tunnels in the Blue Ridge. The action moves through Augusta County, Virginia Military Institute and the Pentagon. Plot twists are abundant, affecting individual and communities in surprising ways.

Tidwell will be at Bookworks, 101 W. Beverley St., Downtown Staunton, for an 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 14, book signing.

A second book signing at Bookworks that same day is scheduled for 2-4 p.m. featuring Arlynda Boyer, author of Buddha on the Backstretch, which uses Buddhism as a lens to examine NASCAR racing, and NASCAR as a means to illustrate Buddhist teachings.

Boyer, a native of Virginia, has been a race fan most of her life and a practicing Buddhist for more than ten years. She has been a guest commentator on NPR, a contestant on “Jeopardy!,” and has hiked the Grand Canyon. She lives in Staunton with her husband, James Rogauskas, author of Office Haiku.