Mystery writer Mark de Castrique grew up in the mountains of western North Carolina, where his mysteries are set.  An adjunct professor at UNC-Charlotte, he is a veteran of the television and film production industry, and he’ll be at Malaprop’s to sign his book The 13^th Target.  In this latest de Castrique, mystery, Russell Mullins quits the Secret Service and joins a Washington, D.C. private protection company.  After the suspicious death of a Federal Reserve executive who is chief liaison with the U.S. Treasury, Mullins follows a conspiratorial trail of killing and kidnapping that leads from a shadowy mastermind to the possible destruction of America’s financial system.  In an age of Wall Street meltdowns and downgrading of the U.S. credit rating, the secretive Federal Reserve has a pivotal role. Twelve targets are known. The clock is ticking. What, or who, is the thirteenth?