Russell Atwood: East of A

I thought I would check this one out in anticipation of a sequel later this year on Hard Case Crime. The intriguing thing is this one was written in 1999, the sequel is coming out in 2009, ten years later. I am curious about the history behind this one, if the sequel was written years ago but not published, or if this is a new novel the author just waited ten years to publish?

New Hard Case Title Announced

Appears to be a new book from an author I am not familiar with - although notes indicated that the book is "by the author of the cult classic EAST OF A, and featuring the same detective, Payton Sherwood" which appears to be a book from 1999. I'm not able to find out much about this author online. Since the book won't come out until next September, that should give me plenty of time to check out the other book first!