Don’t wait until dark to hear Steve Oliver

As a culture, we are fascinated by crime. Whether in classic cinema ("Scarface," "The Godfather"), true-crime books ("Helter Skelter"), magazines (True Detective) or cheesy television shows ("Snapped"), we devour crime stories the way teenagers devour pizza.

Steve Oliver is no different. Oliver, though, has found a way to meld crime and art. Or at least a kind of art.

The author of the "Moody" mystery series, Oliver doubles as a publisher. He's published books, reprints of old newspaper crime stories and, now, he's been printing an old-school-type mystery magazine titled “The Dark City Crime and Mystery Magazine,” which specializes in mystery/crime stories boasting West Coast settings. Including Spokane.

Oliver will share some of those stories at Auntie's Bookstore tonight at 7. The program is free and open to the public.

There's only one thing wrong with the timing: The sun won't set until 7:29. So the event title needs a slight edit.

Call it Steve Olievr's "Near Dark City" reading.