DAPHNE, Ala. — On Thursday, May 17, August “Gus” Palumbo will discuss his new true crime title “Assassin Hunter” on Thursday, at 6:30 p.m., at the Daphne Public Library. There will be a booksigning afterward. Palumbo is a councilman for the city of Daphne. He has served two terms, and was president of the council. He is a former New Orleans Police homicide detective and retired Special Agent of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). His career assignments included U.S. Secret Service presidential protection protocols; cases involving bombings and gun smuggling; and extensive, long-term undercover work within the Dixie Mafia. His book recounts a gripping, true story of a clandestine operation. “I was physically and mentally braced for whatever death brings. Then I began to think rationally, and gained control of the thought process. If he intended to kill me, would he do it in a public place?” The reader is taken inside a federal agent’s undercover world, and witnesses a life-and-death race against time to prevent a contract killing. His mission is to hunt down a paid assassin, only to find that he himself is hired as the killer. He encounters the New Orleans mafia, cop killers, bank robbers, gamblers, race fixers, and eventually, Interpol. He struggles to maintain his own moral compass; and at one point prays silently as a killer presses a sawed-off shotgun to his head. The story exposes the underworld of the Cajun French. The characters and events are based on an extraordinary, hard-hitting, true crime story.