The Theoretics of Love

By Joe Taylor

In The Theoretics of Love, Joe Taylor turns his fierce wit and storytelling talents to love, death and murder in the Bluegrass state. Fresh out of school, anthropoligist Dr. Clarissa Circle finds herself thrust into a mysterious forensics investigation after exposing what was thought to be a Native American burial ground as a mass grave of not-so-recently murdered bodies. Is a cult behind the killings? Were these ritual murders? Hired as a consultant to the local police department, Circle spends half of her time dusting bones and the other half knocking boots with homicide detective Willy Cox and an aging hippie who goes by the name of Methuselah. A double suicide is discovered. And the plot thickens from there as other disturbing events unfold and people of questionable character surface and collide in this kaleidoscopic murder mystery/love story that is also madcap fun.

Part Hunter S. Thompson, part Woody Allen, Joe Taylor’s tilted realism and quirky humor combine in this fast-paced novel that gleefully exposes our human foibles and heart. In The Theoretics of Love the motives behind the ritual murders rocking Kentucky are obscure and difficult to identify. Intimacy and love, as it turns out, prove to be every bit as theoretical. Joe Taylor gives love and passion a workout in the Bluegrass state in this new novel, which may be his best. Charles McNair, award-winning author of Pickett’s Charge and other novels, asks "Why isn’t Joe Taylor famous? I laughed out loud three times in the first chapter of Theoretics of Love. A few chapters later, I felt my heart would break. There’s nothing theoretical about Taylor’s talent. You’ll love this love story."

• Language: English
• Publisher: NewSouth Books
• Release date: Sep 3, 2019
• ISBN: 9781603064262

Joe Taylor

With three previously published novels emphasizing form, and three previously published story collections, JOE TAYLOR moves to realism, love, and murder with his new novel, The Theoretics of Love. Taylor has taught at the University of West Alabama for nearly thirty years and has been the director of Livingston Press at UWA for almost as long. He has edited numerous books, including eight short story anthologies, among them the popular Belles’ Letters and Tartts One through Seven. He lives and loves with Tricia Taylor in Coatopa, Alabama, which is Choctaw for “wounded panther.” He finds the name appropriate enough. Taylor graduated from the University of Kentucky with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy; he later earned a PhD in creative writing from Florida State University.