DAPHNE, Ala.—Robertsdale author Bert Brun will be autographing copies of his recently published novel “Murder in the Pulpit” at the Barnes and Noble bookstore in Daphne from 2-3:30 p.m. Thursday.

The murder mystery’s first scene describes a small southern Alabama town’s church where 14 people die due to drinking arsenic-laced coffee.

When asked to describe the small town, Brun said, “Imagine the city of Riverton, Ala.”

The town’s new bi-racial police chief must uncover the mystery surrounding the murder, determining which of the 65 potential suspects committed the crime in the Unitarian church.

“The (chief’s) grandmother, an activist black woman whose daughter married a (New York City) Jewish philosopher professor, has deep roots in town,” Brun said when asked if the fact that the chief is bi-racial played an important part in the story. “Each of the 65 church member suspects theoretically had a chance to poison the coffee, though there's an important wrinkle to this: the main suspects include the wronged spouses of an adulterous couple; a man wrongfully accused of embezzlement; and a man who suspects another man of improper remarks to the other's teenage babysitter.”

Brun said his writing influences come from author John MacDonald’s mystery series. MacDonald used fictional detective Travis McGee in many of his works.

Brun said the influence for this book’s plot comes from a true event.

“The main impetus for this is a news story some years back of fatal coffee poisoning in a Maine church,” he said.