MATT DRISCOLL: THE KING OF KING’S BOOKS >>>

For a literary event, Pierce County Deputy Prosecutor and professional novelist Mark Lindquist usually expects 10 people. For a political event, he hopes for 50. So for a literary-political event, Lindquist was expecting 5 people, he joked last night at King’s Books.

Maybe it was the free beer from the Harmon Hub, or maybe it’s because it’s a good year to be a Democrat (as Pierce County Democratic Party Chair Nathe Lawver and Rep. Adam Smith pointed out near the start of the evening), but Lindquist must have been pleasantly surprised when he saw the line of check writing Democrats stretched out the door last night for the Democratic fund raiser he put together at King’s Books. The event was hotter than all hell and featured a who’s who of Pierce County Democrats, as well as Lindquist reading from his just released in trade paperback novel The King of Methlehem.

Baarsma. Strickland. Goings. The Ladenburgs. McCarthy. Horne. Walker. The list goes on. In all probably 125-150 democrats filled King’s Books, making finding a seat out of the question, and fears of a beer shortage seem legitimate.

Luckily, the beer never ran out, and as Lindquist read two chapters from the King of Methlehem, one about a cat shed and one about cooking meth, the full house sat happily entertained if not comfortably seated.

During a question and answer period near the end, Lindquist was quick to tout Pierce County’s accomplishments in reducing meth cooking. When Lindquist began writing The King of Methlehem, Pierce County was third in the country when it comes to number of meth labs. Thanks to the work of law enforcement, community involvement, aggressive prosecution and the legislature, Pierce County has been able to reduce the number of meth labs by 80 percent, Lindquist said and drove home with pride.

His work as deputy prosecutor has had a lot to do with it, after all. It’s the reason he has the street cred to draw every important democrat and their brother to King’s on a Thursday night for a literary reading, and the reason he can get two kegs flowing in a book store without a question asked. It’s certainly the reason he has the expertise to write a book like the King of Methlehem.

Highlights of the evening included when Lindquist told the crowd that, in his experience touring schools and talking about the dangers of meth, the thing that usually deters kids the most from the dangerous drug is the fact that it “makes you look ugly and ruins your teeth.” Aint that the truth.

Then there was Connie Ladenburg’s concluding question for Lindquist, asking the writer if, after “trashing” Pierce County and its meth problem in the beginning of his book, if he ever redeemed it in the end?

Lindquist answered the question politely, pointing once again to all of Pierce County’s impressive accomplishments since the book was written.

I would have just told her to read the 256 page book, but that’s just me. Lindquist has more class.

His Democratic fund raiser last night was a good example of that.