Another bank is moving to town. Banner Bank, headquartered in Walla Walla, says it has purchased property here and expects to open a branch late this year or early next year. There are nine banks in Anacortes now.

Palahniuk's audacious ninth novel tells the story of Cassie Wright, an aging porn queen who intends to put an exclamation point on her career by having sex with 600 men in one day on film.

From the master of literary mayhem and provocation, a full-frontal Triple X novel that goes where no American work of fiction has gone before.

Cassie Wright, porn priestess, intends to cap her legendary career by breaking the world record for serial fornication. On camera. With six hundred men. Snuff unfolds from the perspectives of Mr. 72, Mr. 137, and Mr. 600, who await their turn on camera in a very crowded green room. This wild, lethally funny, and thoroughly researched novel brings the huge yet underacknowledged presence of pornography in contemporary life into the realm of literary fiction at last. Who else but Chuck Palahniuk would dare do such a thing? Who else could do it so well, so unflinchingly, and with such an incendiary (you might say) climax?

Chuck Palahniuk’s eight previous novels are the bestselling Rant, Haunted, Lullaby, Diary, Choke—which was made into a 2008 film by director Clark Gregg, starring Sam Rockwell and Anjelica Huston—Survivor, Invisible Monsters, and Fight Club, which was made into a film by director David Fincher. He is also the author of the nonfiction profile of Portland, Oregon, Fugitives and Refugees, published as part of the Crown Journeys series, and the nonfiction collection Stranger Than Fiction. He lives in the the Portland, Ore. area.

Shop locally: Find Snuff at Watermark Books in Anacortes or order online from Anacortes-based northwest-books.com . 

Four Northwest authors are on this week's bestsellers list. Garth Stein's The Art of Racing in the Rain and Jo Dereske's Index to Murder are both recent releases. Also on the list are: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie and Chuck Palahniuk's Snuff. Week ending May 25, 2008.

Anacortes-based Alaska Ocean Seafood, which owns and operates the largest and most sophisticated pollock catcher/processor in the United States, has been sold to Seattle-based Glacier Fish Company.

A Guemes Island resident found the nude body of an unidentified woman floating near the northeast tip of Guemes Island on Friday evening.

A weekly roundup as prepared by the Anacortes Police Department.

Are you staying home and looking for some light summertime reading this holiday weekend? Well, Jo Dereske’s Index to Murder may be what you’re looking for.

No one could be more orderly or organized than dedicated librarian Helma Zukas. No one could be more rash and raucous than avant-garde artist Ruth Winthrop. Yet the two women are best friends and a resourceful, ingenious, crime-solving team. So when two of Ruth's latest paintings—each depicting an ex-lover who met a very untimely and mysterious end—are stolen, the amazing amateur detectives get to work.

But digging through Ruth's romantic rendezvous turns up more than broken hearts. There's an angry ex-wife, a jealous fellow artist, and a rampaging group of local tree-huggers. There's trouble brewing in Bellehaven . . . and only Helma and Ruth can make certain that mayhem doesn't lead to murder.

Index to Murder is a mass market paperback and priced at just $6.99. Look for it at Watermark Books in downtown Anacortes or order it from Anacortes-based northwest-books.com.

Jo lives in Everson, north of Bellingham. 

Four Northwest authors are on this week's bestsellers list. Seattle author Garth Stein's The Art of Racing in the Rain and Everson writer Jo Dereske's Index to Murder are both new releases. Also on the list are: The Hearts of Horses by Oregon author Molly Gloss; and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, a Seattle writer. Week ending May 18, 2008.

The Course of Love Never Did Run Smooth (a line from Midsummer Night's Dream)
Class ACT: young performers look at Shakespeare's scenes of love. This weekend at ACT.

Seattle author Garth Stein hit it big with his How Evan Broke his Head and Other Secrets. Now he's back with The Art of Racing in the Rain, a nice little novel where a dog, on the eve of his death, tells his life's story. 

"Not all dogs return as men, they say; only those who are ready. I am ready."