New York Times bestselling author S.A. Cosby of Gloucester, will be featured during a talk at 3 p.m. Saturday at Essex High School, 833 High School Circle, Tappahannock.

Cosby will discuss his life and work, followed by a question-and-answer session and a book signing.

His works focus on the rural Southern experience, including themes of race, religion, heritage and masculinity, said a press release. In a feature on the author, the New York Times’ Dwight Garner wrote that Cosby’s books are “about fathers and sons, and sex and race and class, and the stain of Southern history.” His voice has been celebrated as part of a new and diverse wave of Southern noir crime fiction.

“All the Sinners Bleed,” Cosby’s latest murder mystery, follows the first Black sheriff of the fictional Charon County, Virginia, as he investigates a complicated string of killings. Throughout the story, Cosby uses religious undertones to illustrate the effects of zealotry.

His other bestselling novels ar...