With “The Vaults,” local author Toby Ball created a fictional 1930s-era metropolis filled with crime and corruption, and populated by a cast of memorable characters. Ball is following up his debut novel with a sequel titled “Scorch City.”

Set for release at the end of August, the book brings back some of the characters from “The Vaults,” including renowned investigative journalist Frank Frings. The story begins with Frings mysteriously asking a police lieutenant to relocate the body of a dead blonde found on the bank of a river. The investigation reveals a string of possibly related deaths and disappearances with racial, religious and political undertones.

Ball, who lives in Durham and works as a business manager at the Crimes Against Children Research Center and the Family Research Laboratory at the University of New Hampshire, will unveil “Scorch City” with a reading at RiverRun Bookstore in Portsmouth on Tuesday, Aug. 30 at 7 p.m. Other events will follow at Gibson’s Bookstore in Concord on Sept. 15 and Water Street Bookstore in Exeter on Oct. 4. For more information, visit www.tobyball.com.