The Last Annual Slugfest

Vejay investigates the poisoning death of one of the town’s most powerful citizens during its oddest annual event

Though it sounds violent, Henderson’s annual slugfest is less vicious than it is slimy. The regional festival honors the normally detested California banana slug with competitions to prove which slug is the biggest, fastest, or—in the event that gives the festival its notoriety—the tastiest. Rather than eat crow, the area’s local politicians atone for their sins by eating slug hot dogs, slug chili, and slug pie. This year, one dish will prove murderously foul.

Edwina Henderson is the last of her family to live in the town that bears their name. A committed environmentalist, she is also the woman responsible for this year’s slugfest, and will take her place at the judge’s table. When a slug-pizza knocks her flat, the crowd assumes it was just an especially gross slice. But when she doesn’t get up, meter-reader Vejay Haskell must confront the devious murder of the town’s leading treehugger.