Year: 2024

Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, recently welcomed Janice Hallett for a virtual event. You’ll have to watch the event, and hear the discussion of Agatha Christie. Hallett’s latest book is The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels. There are copies available in the Webstore. https://bit.ly/3S9R0sh

Here’s the summary of The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels.

INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER

“The queen of found footage thrillers.” —Julia Bartz, New York Times bestselling author

A whip-smart and “fast-paced mystery” (The Daily Telegraph, London) from the internationally bestselling author of The Twyford Code and The Appeal about a true crime journalist who revives a long-buried case about a cult—and finds herself too close to the story.

Everyone knows the story of the Alperton Angels: the cult who brainwashed a teenage girl into believing her baby was the anti-Christ. When the girl came to her senses and called the police, the Angels committed suicide and mother and baby disappeared.

Now, true crime author Amanda Bailey is looking to revive her career by writing a book on the case. The Alperton baby has turned eighteen; finding them will be the scoop of the year. But rival author Oliver Menzies is just as smart, better connected, and also on the baby’s trail.

As Amanda and Oliver are forced to collaborate, they realize that the truth about the Angels is much darker and stranger than they’d ever imagined, and in pursuit of the story they risk becoming part of it.

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Janice Hallett is a former magazine editor, award-winning journalist, and government communications writer. She wrote articles and speeches for, among others, the Cabinet Office, Home Office, and Department for International Development. Her enthusiasm for travel has taken her around the world several times, from Madagascar to the Galapagos, Guatemala to Zimbabwe, Japan, Russia, and South Korea. A playwright and screenwriter, she penned the feminist Shakespearean stage comedy NetherBard and cowrote the feature film Retreat. She lives in London and is the author of The Examiner, The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels, The Appeal, The Christmas Appeal, and The Twyford Code.

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Enjoy the conversation with Barbara Peters and Janice Hallett.

Patrick Millikin welcomed author Duane Swierczynski and film critic Jen Johans to The Poisoned Pen. Millikin and Johans tag-teamed to question Swierczynski about his new book California Bear. There are signed copies of California Bear available in the Webstore. https://bit.ly/3HtU8ub

Here’s the description of California Bear.

This “fresh, exciting, and brilliantly unpredictable” thriller (James Patterson) from a “great storyteller” (Michael Connelly) follows four unlikely vigilantes who pit themselves against the villain behind California’s coldest case when they decide to take justice into their own hands.NONE OF YOU ARE SAFE

“KILLER”: Jack Queen has been exonerated and freed from prison thanks to retired LAPD officer Cato Hightower. But when guilt gnaws at Jack, he admits: “I actually did it.” To which Hightower responds: “Yeah, no kidding.” You see, the ex-cop has a special job in mind for the ex-con…

THE GIRL DETECTIVE: Fifteen-year-old Matilda Finnerty has been handed a potential death sentence in the form of a leukemia diagnosis. But that’s not going to stop her from tackling the most important mystery of her life: Is her father guilty of murder?

GENE JEANIE: Jeanie Hightower mends family trees for a living, but the genealogist is unable to repair her own marriage. And her soon-to-be ex may have entangled her in a scheme that has drawn the bloody wrath of…

THE BEAR: A prolific serial killer who disappeared forty years ago, who is only now emerging from hibernation when the conditions are just right. And this time, the California Bear is not content to hunt in the shadows…

From two-time Edgar nominee Duane Swierczynski, California Bear is clever, moving, and surprising as it takes aim at the true crime industry, Hollywood, justice, and the killers inside us all.

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Duane Swierczynski is the two-time Edgar-nominated author of ten novels including Revolver, Canary, as well as the graphic novel Breakneck, many of which are in development for film/TV. Most recently, Duane co-authored Lion & Lamb with James Patterson, and co-scripted James Patterson’s The Guilty, an Audible Original starring John Lithgow and Bryce Dallas Howard. He lives in Southern California with his family.

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Enjoy the conversation with Duane Swierczynski.

While Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, welcomed Stephen Hunter for a virtual event at the bookstore, Jack Carr acted as guest host. Peters said they’re talking about the Swagger-verse, three generations of the Swagger family in Front Sight. Hunter structured the book around films. You can order a signed copy of Front Sight through the Webstore. https://bit.ly/3tXrjTQ

Here’s the description of Front Sight.

This collection of three interconnected novellas follows each generation of the iconic Swagger family—grandfather Charles, father Earl, and fan favorite hero Bob Lee—from New York Times bestselling author, Pulitzer Prize winner, and “true master at the pinnacle of his craft” (Jack Carr, #1 New York Times bestselling author) Stephen Hunter.

In The Night Train, Charles Swagger is on the hunt for notorious bank robber Baby Face Nelson when he traces a tip to the Chicago stock yards. While there, he’s brutally assaulted and discovers that the madman who attacked him is involved in a nearby narcotics ring with plans to spread its new drug to the residents of the disenfranchised 7th District of Chicago. Worse, this is no ordinary drug—it makes some users happy, drives others insane, and kills many of the rest. Will Charles be able to stop the ring before it’s too late? Or is he in over his head among the dark streets of Chicago?

Earl Swagger investigates a violent bank robbery in Johnny Tuesday that left two dead and a fortune missing in small-town Maryland. At every turn, however, he’s met with silence and hostility from the townsfolk, which makes sense when he uncovers municipal corruption, working-class exploitation, gang politics, jaded aristocrats, scheming gamblers, a hitman, a femme fatale. And a whole bunch of men with guns. Luckily, Earl has brought his own guns in this unputdownable noir mystery.

Finally, in Five Dolls for the Gut Hook, a thirty-two-year-old Bob Lee Swagger is back from Vietnam nearly broken over good men lost for nothing. He’s turned hard down that whiskey road to hell. But one afternoon he’s wakened from his nightmares by two men with a problem. As nearby Hot Springs tries to retool its image from gambling paradise to family resort, a butcher has begun to prey on the city’s young women, a figure straight out of a horror movie. Hot Springs Homicide is baffled. “I’m a sniper,” says Bob, “not a detective.”

“But,” comes the reply, “you are the son and grandson of two of the greatest detectives this state has ever produced.” On that premise alone, Bob takes up the hunt for a killer who not only kills but desecrates. Using his sniper’s mind, Swagger is able to see things others have missed, drawing ever closer to a showdown. But equally, we understand, Bob Lee Swagger is hunting his own salvation.

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Stephen Hunter has written over twenty novels. The retired chief film critic for The Washington Post, where he won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Distinguished Criticism, he has also published two collections of film criticism and a nonfiction work, American Gunfight. He lives in Baltimore, Maryland.

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Enjoy the conversation about film and Stephen Hunter’s work.

Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, welcomed Jonathan Santlofer to talk about his historical fiction, The Last Mona Lisa, and his current book, The Lost Van Gogh. There are signed copies of The Lost Van Gogh available in the Webstore. https://bit.ly/3vIXWoO

Here’s the description of The Lost Van Gogh.

THE NATIONAL BESTSELLER!

“Ingeniously plotted, irresistibly readable, brimming with inside information about the high-stakes art world of theft, forgery, and murder…Also included are brilliantly rendered drawings by the author, who is as accomplished an artist as he is a writer of suspense thrillers.” —Joyce Carol Oates

From the author of the much-praised The Last Mona Lisa comes another thrilling story of masterpieces, masterminds, and mystery.

For years, there have been whispers that, before his death, Van Gogh completed a final self-portrait. Curators and art historians have savored this rumor, hoping it could illuminate some of the troubled artist’s many secrets, but even they have to concede that the missing painting is likely lost forever.

But when Luke Perrone, artist and great-grandson of the man who stole the Mona Lisa, and Alexis Verde, daughter of a notorious art thief, discover what may be the missing portrait, they are drawn into a most epic art puzzles. When only days later the painting disappears again, they are reunited with INTERPOL agent John Washington Smith in a dangerous and deadly search that will not only expose secrets of the artist’s last days but draws them into one of history’s darkest eras.

Beneath the paint and canvas, beneath the beauty and the legend, the artwork has become linked with something evil, something that continues to flourish on the dark web and on the shadiest corridors of the underground art world.

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JONATHAN SANTLOFER is a writer and artist. His debut novel, The Death Artist, was an international bestseller translated into 17 languages. His fourth novel, Anatomy of Fear, won the Nero Award for best crime novel, and his most recent novel is The Last Mona Lisa. Jonathan created the Crime Fiction Academy as The Center for Fiction. As an artist, Jonathan has been making replications of famous paintings for wealthy clients for more than 20 years. www.jonathansantlofer.com

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Enjoy the conversation about art and history.

Guest host Olivia Fierro welcomed Rachel Hawkins to The Poisoned Pen. Hawkins is the author of the Gothic thriller, The Heiress. There are signed copies of the book available in the Webstore. https://bit.ly/3S6BP2X

Here is the description of The Heiress.

A January Indie Next Pick and LibraryReads Pick

“The reigning queen of the Gothic thriller.” —Entertainment Weekly

THERE’S NOTHING AS GOOD AS THE RICH GONE BAD

When Ruby McTavish Callahan Woodward Miller Kenmore dies, she’s not only North Carolina’s richest woman, she’s also its most notorious. The victim of a famous kidnapping as a child and a widow four times over, Ruby ruled the tiny town of Tavistock from Ashby House, her family’s estate high in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

But in the aftermath of her death, her adopted son, Camden, wants little to do with the house or the money—and even less to do with the surviving McTavishes. Instead, he rejects his inheritance, settling into a normal life as an English teacher in Colorado and marrying Jules, a woman just as eager to escape her own messy past.

Ten years later, his uncle’s death pulls Cam and Jules back into the family fold at Ashby House. Its views are just as stunning as ever, its rooms just as elegant, but the legacy of Ruby is inescapable.

And as Ashby House tightens its grip on Jules and Camden, questions about the infamous heiress come to light. Was there any truth to the persistent rumors following her disappearance as a girl? What really happened to those four husbands, who all died under mysterious circumstances? And why did she adopt Cam in the first place? Soon, Jules and Cam realize that an inheritance can entail far more than what’s written in a will––and that the bonds of family stretch far beyond the grave.

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Rachel Hawkins is the New York Times bestselling author of The Wife Upstairs, Reckless Girls, The Villa, and The Heiress, as well as multiple books for young readers. Her work has been translated into over a dozen languages. She studied gender and sexuality in Victorian literature at Auburn University and currently lives in Alabama.

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Enjoy the conversation with Rachel Hawkins.

The Mystery Writers of America recently announced the nominees for the 2024 Edgar Allan Poe Awards, honoring the best in mystery fiction and nonfiction. Check out the list, and then check the Webstore for copies of the books. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

Congratulations to all the nominees!

BEST NOVEL

Flags on the Bayou by James Lee Burke (Grove Atlantic – Atlantic Monthly Press)
All the Sinners Bleed by S.A. Cosby (Flatiron Books)
The Madwomen of Paris by Jennifer Cody Epstein (Penguin Random House – Ballantine Books)
Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll (Simon & Schuster – Simon Element – Marysue Rucci Books)
An Honest Man by Michael Koryta (Hachette Book Group – Little, Brown and Company – Mulholland Books)
The River We Remember by William Kent Krueger (Simon & Schuster – Atria Books)
Crook Manifesto by Colson Whitehead (Penguin Random House – Doubleday)

BEST FIRST NOVEL BY AN AMERICAN AUTHOR

The Peacock and the Sparrow by I.S. Berry (Simon & Schuster – Atria Books)
The Golden Gate by Amy Chua (Macmillan Publishing – Minotaur Books)
Small Town Sins by Ken Jaworowski (Macmillan Publishing – Henry Holt and Co.)
The Last Russian Doll by Kristen Loesch (Penguin Random House – Berkley)
Murder by Degrees by Ritu Mukerji (Simon & Schuster)

BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL

Boomtown by A.F. Carter (Penzler Publishers – Mysterious Press)
Hide by Tracy Clark (Amazon Publishing – Thomas & Mercer)
The Taken Ones by Jess Lourey (Amazon Publishing – Thomas & Mercer)
Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto (Penguin Random House – Berkley)
Lowdown Road by Scott Von Doviak (Hard Case Crime)

BEST FACT CRIME

In Light of All Darkness: Inside the Polly Klaas Kidnapping and the Search for America’s Child by Kim Cross (Hachette Book Group – Grand Central Publishing)
Number Go Up: Inside Crypto’s Wild Rise and Staggering Fall by Zeke Faux (Penguin Random House – Crown Currency)
Tangled Vines: Power, Privilege, and the Murdaugh Family Murders by John Glatt (Macmillan Publishers – St. Martin’s Press)
Crooked: The Roaring ’20s Tale of a Corrupt Attorney General, a Crusading Senator, and the Birth of the American Political Scandal by Nathan Masters (Hachette Book Group – Hachette Books)
I Know Who You Are: How an Amateur DNA Sleuth Unmasked the Golden State Killer and Changed Crime Fighting Forever by Barbara Rae-Venter (Penguin Random House – Ballantine Books)
The Lost Sons of Omaha: Two Young Men in an American Tragedy by Joe Sexton (Simon & Schuster – Scribner)

BEST CRITICAL/BIOGRAPHICAL

Perplexing Plots: Popular Storytelling and the Poetics of Murder by David Bordwell (Columbia University Press)
Spillane: King of Pulp Fiction by Max Allan Collins & James L. Traylor (Penzler Publishers – Mysterious Press)
A Mystery of Mysteries: The Death and Life of Edgar Allan Poe by Mark Dawidziak (Macmillan Publishing – St. Martin’s Press)
Fallen Angel: The Life of Edgar Allan Poe by Robert Morgan (LSU Press)
Love Me Fierce in Danger – The Life of James Ellroy by Steven Powell (Bloomsbury Publishing – Bloomsbury Academic

BEST JUVENILE

Myrtle, Means, and Opportunity by Elizabeth C. Bunce (Hachette Book Group – Workman Publishing – Algonquin Young Readers)
The Ghosts of Rancho Espanto by Adrianna Cuevas (Macmillan Publishers – Farrar, Straus and Giroux BFYR)
Epic Ellisons: Cosmos Camp by Lamar Giles (HarperCollins Publishers – Versify)
The Jules Verne Prophecy by Larry Schwarz & Iva-Marie Palmer (Hachette Book Group – Little, Brown BFYR – Christy Ottaviano Books)
What Happened to Rachel Riley? by Claire Swinarski (HarperCollins Publishers – Quill Tree Books)

BEST YOUNG ADULT

Girl Forgotten by April Henry (Hachette Book Group – Little, Brown BFYR – Christy Ottaviano Books)
Star Splitter by Matthew J. Kirby (Penguin Young Readers – Dutton Books for Young Readers)
The Sharp Edge of Silence by Cameron Kelly Rosenblum (HarperCollins Publishers – Quill Tree Books)
My Flawless Life by Yvonne Woon (HarperCollins Publishers – Katherine Tegen Books)
Just Do This One Thing for Me by Laura Zimmerman (Penguin Young Readers – Dutton Books for Young Readers)

THE SIMON & SCHUSTER MARY HIGGINS CLARK AWARD – Presented on behalf of Simon & Schuster.

Play the Fool by Lina Chern (Penguin Random House – Bantam)
The Bones of the Story by Carol Goodman (HarperCollins Publishers – William Morrow)
Of Manners and Murder by Anastasia Hastings (Macmillan Publishers – Minotaur Books)
The Three Deaths of Willa Stannard by Kate Robards (Crooked Lane Books)
Murder in Postscript by Mary Winters (Penguin Random House – Berkley)

THE G.P. PUTNAM’S SONS SUE GRAFTON MEMORIAL AWARD – Presented on behalf of G.P. Putnam’s Sons.

Hard Rain by Samantha Jayne Allen (Macmillan Publishers – Minotaur Books)
An Evil Heart by Linda Castillo (Macmillan Publishers – Minotaur Books)
Bad, Bad Seymour Brown by Susan Isaacs (Grove Atlantic – Atlantic Monthly Press)
Past Lying by Val McDermid (Grove Atlantic – Atlantic Monthly Press)
A Stolen Child by Sarah Stewart Taylor (Macmillan Publishers – Minotaur Books)

THE LILIAN JACKSON BRAUN MEMORIAL AWARD – Endowed by the estate of Lilian Jackson Braun.

Glory Be by Danielle Arceneaux (Pegasus Books – Pegasus Crime)
Misfortune Cookie by Vivien Chien (Macmillan Publishers – St. Martin’s Paperbacks)
Hot Pot Murder by Jennifer J. Chow (Penguin Random House – Berkley)
Murder of an Amish Bridegroom by Patricia Johns (Crooked Lane Books)
The Body in the Back Garden by Mark Waddell (Crooked Lane Books)

Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, welcomed Ariel Lawhon to the bookstore for her first in-person event with the Pen. Lawhon’s The Frozen River is sold out, so you’ll have to contact the bookstore to see if they have any available copies. Here’s the store’s phone number, 888-560-9919.

You might not be able to get a copy of The Frozen River immediately, but you’ll want to hear Lawhon’s story about the background of the book.

Here’s the description of The Frozen River.

GMA BOOK CLUB PICK • AN NPR BOOK OF THE YEAR • From the New York Times bestselling author of I Was Anastasia and Code Name Hélène comes a gripping historical mystery inspired by the life and diary of Martha Ballard, a renowned 18th-century midwife who defied the legal system and wrote herself into American history.

“Fans of Outlander’s Claire Fraser will enjoy Lawhon’s Martha, who is brave and outspoken when it comes to protecting the innocent. . . impressive.”—The Washington Post

“Once again, Lawhon works storytelling magic with a real-life heroine.” —People Magazine

Maine, 1789: When the Kennebec River freezes, entombing a man in the ice, Martha Ballard is summoned to examine the body and determine cause of death. As a midwife and healer, she is privy to much of what goes on behind closed doors in Hallowell. Her diary is a record of every birth and death, crime and debacle that unfolds in the close-knit community. Months earlier, Martha documented the details of an alleged rape committed by two of the town’s most respected gentlemen—one of whom has now been found dead in the ice. But when a local physician undermines her conclusion, declaring the death to be an accident, Martha is forced to investigate the shocking murder on her own.

Over the course of one winter, as the trial nears, and whispers and prejudices mount, Martha doggedly pursues the truth. Her diary soon lands at the center of the scandal, implicating those she loves, and compelling Martha to decide where her own loyalties lie.

Clever, layered, and subversive, Ariel Lawhon’s newest offering introduces an unsung heroine who refused to accept anything less than justice at a time when women were considered best seen and not heard. The Frozen River is a thrilling, tense, and tender story about a remarkable woman who left an unparalleled legacy yet remains nearly forgotten to this day.
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See all editions of The Frozen River

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ARIEL LAWHON is a critically acclaimed, New York Times bestselling author of historical fiction. Her books have been translated in numerous languages and have been Library Reads, One Book One County, Indie Next, Costco, Amazon Spotlight, and Book of the Month Club selections. She lives in the rolling hills outside Nashville, Tennessee, with her husband and four sons. Ariel splits her time between the grocery store and the baseball field.

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Enjoy the conversation with Ariel Lawhon.

Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, recently welcomed Thomas Perry back to the bookstore to discuss his new book, Hero. There are signed copies of the book still available in the Webstore. http://tinyurl.com/bdzm6yw9

And, if you listen carefully to the beginning of the event, you’ll hear Peters welcome author John Sandford and his wife to the event. You never know who will be in the audience at the Pen.

Here’s the description of Hero.

A private security agent finds that being branded as the City of Angels’ latest hero could also make her its next victim.…

Justine Poole takes her job seriously providing security for wealthy and high-profile Hollywood stars. When she prevents a brazen robbery at the Beverly Hills home of two of her clients—killing two of the five armed robbers in the process—she is initially lauded in the media as a local hero. But the spotlight soon puts her in the crosshairs of the crime kingpin behind the burglaries.

Unable to stand the embarrassment of his lackeys having been defeated by a lone woman, Mr. Conger puts in a call to the one man who can make his problems disappear. Known for his swiftness and subtlety, Leo Sealy will kill anyone for a price. All he needs is a name and a face, any starting point to pick up his victim’s trail. Luckily for him, the local news is as eager as he is for any information about the heroic bodyguard—and quick to broadcast their findings, regardless of what it might mean for her safety. But Sealy isn’t prepared for just how quick and resourceful Justine can be. So begins a cat and mouse game between two people who know more about how to take down one’s enemies than anyone else in the business.

Justine finds herself up against both a hardened killer and a fickle media landscape that can just as soon turn on her as celebrate her in this high-stakes thriller from the author of The Old Man.

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Thomas Perry is the bestselling author of over twenty novels, including Murder Book, the critically acclaimed Jane Whitefield series, The Old Man, and The Butcher’s Boy, which won the Edgar Award. He lives in Southern California.

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Enjoy the conversation with Thomas Perry.

Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, recently welcomed Stacy Willingham for a live event at the bookstore. Willingham’s latest book is Only If You’re Lucky. There are signed copies of the book available in the Webstore. https://bit.ly/47Evvph

Here’s the description of Only If You’re Lucky.

A sharp and twisty exploration of female friendship from the New York Times bestselling author of A Flicker in the Dark and All the Dangerous Things.

Lucy Sharpe is larger than life. Magnetic, addictive. Bold and dangerous. Especially for Margot, who meets Lucy at the end of their freshman year at a liberal arts college in South Carolina. Margot is the shy one, the careful one, always the sidekick and never the center of attention. But when Lucy singles her out at the end of the year, a year Margot spent studying and playing it safe, and asks her to room together, something in Margot can’t say no—something daring, or starved, or maybe even envious.

And so Margot finds herself living in an off-campus house with three other girls, Lucy, the ringleader; Sloane, the sarcastic one; and Nicole, the nice one, the three of them opposites but also deeply intertwined. It’s a year that finds Margot finally coming out of the shell she’s been in since the end of high school, when her best friend Eliza died three weeks after graduation. Margot and Lucy have become the closest of friends, but by the middle of their sophomore year, one of the fraternity boys from the house next door has been brutally murdered… and Lucy Sharpe is missing without a trace.

From the author of A Flicker in the Dark and All the Dangerous Things comes a tantalizing thriller about the nature of friendship and belonging, about loyalty, envy, and betrayal—another gripping novel from an author quickly becoming the gold standard in psychological suspense.

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STACY WILLINGHAM is the New York Times, USA Today and internationally bestselling author of A Flicker in the Dark, All the Dangerous Things and Only If You’re Lucky. Her debut, A Flicker in the Dark, was a 2022 finalist for the Book of the Month’s Book of the Year award, Goodreads Choice Best Debut award, Goodreads Choice Best Mystery & Thriller award, and ITW’s Best First Novel award. Her work has been translated in more than thirty languages. Before turning to fiction, she was a copywriter and brand strategist for various marketing agencies. She earned her B.A. in magazine journalism from the University of Georgia and M.F.A. in writing from the Savannah College of Art and Design. She currently lives in Charleston, South Carolina, with her husband, Britt, and Labradoodle, Mako.

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Enjoy the discussion of Stacy Willingham’s book.