NATCHEZ — On Saturday, the George W. Armstrong Library is hosting a close-to-home writer whose latest novel — with characters and locations loosely based on people and places in Natchez — is hot of the press.

Marianne Raley, the library’s circulation manager, said attendees will meet R.J. Lee, also known as Robert Kuehnle, as he introduces the first novel in new mystery series called “Grand Slam Murders: A Bridge to Death Mystery.”

The library will be open from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday afternoon for a book talk and signing only, Raley said, and computers and book checkouts would not be available during the presentation.

“Grand Slam Murders takes place in the town of Rosalie Mississippi, which I will openly admit is a tweaked version of Natchez — my hometown,” Kuehnle said. “I still have relatives on both sides of my family and a lot of friends and classmates who live (in Natchez).”

The protagonist is an amateur sleuth and columnist, Wendy Winchester, who investigates the mysterious murders of four ladies and members of the local bridge club with the help of her “sometimes boyfriend” who is a detective and her father who is the chief of police, Kuehnle said.

The novel has a similar genre to the works of Agatha Christie, Kuehnle said, in that it presents clean writing, no profanity, no graphic sexuality and minimal blood and gore.

“It relies more on … the sleuth figuring things out,” he said. “(In cozy mysteries) the desire of the writer is not to shock the reader, but to entertain them and enhance the mystery through character development. It makes it more of a ‘cozy’ read. … I have a female protagonist, and she’s an amateur sleuth and she makes mistakes — but you pull for her because she’s charming and feisty.”

Though the story was written with an adult audience in mind, Kuehnle said a high school student or even ambitious junior high student would enjoy the story.

Kuehnle has written with two other aliases originated from family names — as Ashton Lee for the “Cherry Cola Book Club” series and as Robert Dalby in his earlier works beginning in the early 1990s.

Kuehnle decided the “Grand Slam Murders” series needed a more authoritative pen name, and therefore used his initials and a family name to create R.J. Lee.

“It is my intention, from here on out, to write nothing but cozy mysteries under the pen name, R.J. Lee,” Kuehnle said.

Saturday’s presentation is free to attend, Raley said. However, attendees have the option to purchase a copy of the novel for $15.95, and all book sale proceeds will benefit the library.

Kuehnle said he would provide a personal donation to the library as well — a dollar for dollar match to the book sales at Saturday’s event.

“There are characters who are blends of people I grew up with or knew. … No one specifically is a character, but people will enjoy that (the story) is Natchez, culturally,” Kuehnle said. “They’ll not only get a good read with a surprise ending, but they’ll be supporting the library when buying the book. All in all, that makes for a good outing.”