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Don Bentley recently hosted authors Beau L”Amour and Ryan Pote at The Poisoned Pen Bookstore. L’Amour wrote Skyring Water along with his late father Louis L’Amour. The Ghost City is Ryan Pote’s latest book. There are signed copies of both books available through the Webstore. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

Here’s the description of Skyring Water.

Louis and Beau L’Amour present a collaboration across time, an epic novel of Cold War suspense—a pair of unlikely heroes, a woman without a name, and the undefeated agents of the Third Reich find themselves locked in a deadly race to control the greatest secret of the twentieth century.

“I tip my hat and bow to the amazing talents of Louis L’Amour and Beau L’Amour.”—C.J. Box, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Crossroads

“A masterful Cold War adventure.”—Elliot Ackerman, New York Times bestselling author of Sheepdogs

1961. The world is on the brink of nuclear war. Empires are crumbling. And in Barcelona, chaos is unleashed when a rogue officer of the East German Stasi attempts to blackmail a pair of struggling arms dealers. The secret—thirty tons of stolen gold hidden in an icebound wilderness at the end of the world.

Mike Fowler is a former Navy salvage diver and OSS assassin. Anton Voss is an expatriate German scientist whose past grows darker the closer anyone looks. Once they might have been enemies, yet the two share an inseparable bond: They have saved each other’s lives. But all of that is put at risk when Mike discovers Anton standing over a midnight visitor with a gun in his hand.

Now they’re on the run, allied with gangsters, pursued by the CIA, Israeli intelligence, and a shadowy cabal bent on creating an invisible empire. The trail leads from the rain-soaked docks of Marseilles to the futuristic towers of Caracas and the ruins of a secret island laboratory in Argentine Patagonia. The only way for Mike Fowler to save his oldest friends, and the woman he loves, is to unlock a decades-old mystery buried in his partner’s Nazi past . . . before it destroys them all.

Includes a special postscript by Beau L’Amour detailing the history of the original unpublished manuscript and the process of collaborating with his father both before and after his passing.

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America’s master of adventure, the late Louis L’Amour has also thrilled readers with his work in the adventure, crime, and science fiction genres. There are more than 300 million copies of his books in print around the world.

Beau L’Amour is a writer, art director, and editor. He has written and produced several films, including USA Network’s The Diamond of Jeru. Since 1988 he has been the manager of the estate of his father, Louis L’Amour.

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Here’s the description of Ryan Pote’s The Ghost City.

An ancient secret hidden in a forgotten city holds the key to modern riches in this exhilarating sequel to Blood and Treasure.

Once you’ve made your first ten billion, what’s more money? What any billionaire really wants isn’t money, it’s power, and Shan Zhang has the perfect plan to achieve that. The discovery of a manuscript from the renowned explorer Marco Polo leads to an ancient city buried under the snows of Antarctica. Within that city lies the key to a forgotten technology that will transform modern society, but that transformation may cause the deaths of millions.

Professional treasure hunter and adventurer Ethan Cain is working on the Mekong River in Vietnam when the massive waterway suddenly goes dry. It’s a stunning ecological disaster. One that Ethan can’t ignore. His quest for answers will lead him to Zhang and ultimately a confrontation from which only one of them will emerge.

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Ryan Pote is a twelve-year veteran Navy helicopter pilot who was part of a joint interagency special operations task force deployed throughout Central and South America combating drug cartels and transnational criminal organizations. After being medically separated from the Navy, he investigated prototype aircraft development programs for six years with the Department of Defense. Before his time in the Navy, he lived and worked in Hawaii as a scuba diving instructor and a lab assistant conducting microbiological research for Shell Oil. He has a master’s degree in history and lives with his wife and kids in Maine.

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Message from:Patrick M. @ The Poisoned Pen

One grand prize winner will receive: a first edition 19th century publication of travels by Marco Polo. Leather bound and 24k gold gilded pages that ties into the novel.

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Enjoy Don Bentley’s conversation with Beau L’Amour and Ryan Pote.

Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen Bookstore, welcomed three authors from Texas, Linda Castillo, Ashley Winstead, and Kelsey Cox. There are signed copies of their books in the Webstore. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

Barbara Peters agreed with my opinion of Linda Castillo’s books, and her current short story collection, A Dark Path. The short stories aren’t as dark as her Kate Burkholder mysteries. Here’s the summary of A Dark Path.

For the first time in print comes a collection of five short stories in the Edgar award-winning Kate Burkholder series, PLUS one new, never-before-published story, from New York Times bestselling author Linda Castillo.

When two young boys don’t return home from an innocent afternoon of fishing, Chief of Police Kate Burkholder must track them down before the first winter storm of the season bears down on Painters Mill in THE PACT.

In DISAPPEARED, Kate races against the clock to find a two-year-old who has vanished during a violent thunderstorm. Was the little boy swept away in the rising creek waters? Or is his disappearance even more sinister?

In BLOOD MOON, a man is brutally attacked by a large beast in the woods. Throughout the night, reports of similar incidents escalate and Kate must confront the creature terrorizing the town before violence tips over into tragedy.

When a family dog brings home a human bone, Kate finds herself on a desperate search for answers to end the macabre rumors and ghost stories inundating Painters Mill in the Edgar award-winning short story HALLOWED GROUND.

In DARK STORM RISING, Kate must brave a dangerous blizzard to save an elderly Amish woman from a sinister foe. Will Kate reach her in time to save her life?

In A DARK PATH, a brand-new story, an Amish couple disappears while enroute to town. They’d recently been threatened by their granddaughter’s troubled boyfriend—and there’s heavy weather moving in. Kate rushes toward their remote farm, but a dog on the road causes her to crash into a ravine, where she discovers a shattered buggy. Together, she and her new canine friend must find the couple before it’s too late.

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Linda Castillo is the author of the New York Times and USA Today bestselling Kate Burkholder mystery series, set in the world of the Amish. The first book, Sworn to Silence, was adapted into a Lifetime original movie titled An Amish Murder starring Neve Campbell as Kate Burkholder. Critically acclaimed as “the master of the genre” (People magazine), Castillo is the recipient of numerous industry awards including an Edgar Award, the Sue Grafton Memorial Award, a nomination by the International Thriller Writers for Best Hardcover, a nomination for an Audie Award for best mystery audiobook, and an appearance on the Boston Globe’s shortlist for best crime novel. Her books have sold over 4.5 million copies worldwide.

In addition to writing, Castillo’s other passion is horses. She lives in Texas with her husband and a menagerie of animals, and is currently at work on her next book.

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Ashley Winstead’s new book is Hot Girl Murder Club.

AN INDIE NEXT PICK • A LIBRARY READS SELECTION • An Apple Books Best of the Month and Must-Listen Pick • Named a Most Anticipated Book of Summer by Goodreads • PEOPLE • Newsday • The Everygirl • Zibby Owens • SheReads • Scary Mommy • Murder & Mayhem • CrimeReads

“Prepare to meet your next summer binge read.” —May Cobb, bestselling author of The Hunting Wives

From national bestselling author Ashley Winstead comes a buzzy, bloody new thriller about success, sisterhood, and demanding justice…by any means necessary.

What’s a girl got to do to get some fame, a few million record sales, and justice for murder?

Ten years ago, aspiring singer-actress Scout Sage lost the only thing that mattered: her sister, Georgia. Ever since Georgia’s mysterious death at a Hollywood party, Scout’s done her best to honor her memory, clawing her way through the industry and collecting a network of climbers along the way, fellow hot girls in stilettos with cutthroat ambition, a new Hollywood order.

But when a slew of targeted murders makes headlines across L.A., all pointing to Scout as the killer, she turns overnight from a mid-tier pop star into the world’s most famous (alleged) murderer. Now everything she’s worked to build—including the justice she wants for Georgia—will fall apart unless Scout can prove she’s not guilty.

Meanwhile, the young and unusual detective assigned to her case, herself no stranger to tragedy, begins to unearth secrets not even Scout knows, let alone her millions of new fans. Particularly about the ways Georgia’s death connects to an even older pattern of crimes long hushed over in Hollywood—an old reign of terror that, if brought to light, could be the fuel that ignites a reckoning the world over.

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ASHLEY WINSTEAD is the national bestselling author of many beloved thrillers, including This Book Will Bury Me, The Last Housewife, In My Dreams I Hold a Knife, and Midnight Is the Darkest Hour. In addition to being an acclaimed thriller writer, Ashley is also the author of two romantic comedies, Fool Me Once and The Boyfriend Candidate, with more on the way. Her novels have been optioned for television; chosen as Book of the Month, Best of Amazon, LibraryReads, Indie Next, Apple Books, and Lone Star picks; and received attention from major outlets, from The New York Times to The Washington Post.

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Pretty Dead Things is Kelsey Cox’ latest book.

Secrets emerge as a Texas beauty pageant turns deadly in this rich and addictive novel with a jaw-dropping twist from psychological suspense author Kelsey Cox.

2000: Isabelle Whitmore vanishes at Sherman Ranch in Anhalt, Texas, without a trace.

2025: The Lone Star Princess Pageant is about to begin, but this year it’s offering more than an annual dose of rhinestone heels and plunging necklines. Competition is stiffer than ever —and long standing grudges are about to resurface. Ingrid fled Anhalt in the wake of her sister Isabelle’s disappearance and has now returned, just in time for a construction crew to start digging up Sherman Ranch; the pageant brings up past traumas that Melanie can’t forget; Cat, newly sober, starts to feel threatened in ways that bring back old demons; and Sarah Lynn, who comes from a long line of pageant winners, knows that losing is not an option.

When old resentments and new confrontations reach their boiling point, temperatures drop to deadly degrees as a record-setting storm brings down the state’s power grid. With everyone trapped under one roof, scores will be settled, and more than one person will end up dead.

Beauty dies. Secrets never do.

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Kelsey Cox (she/her) received her MFA in fiction from Purdue University and works from home in the Texas Hill Country. You can often find her writing at Mammen Family Public Library, chasing around her two young daughters, or watching British mysteries with her mom and aunts. On nights when bedtime goes as planned, she enjoys curling up on the sofa, glass of wine in hand, and a book with complicated characters and a killer twist in her lap. Party of Liars is her debut novel.

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Enjoy the conversation with the authors.

Critic Oline Cogdill takes readers to Florida with her review of Elaine Viets’ latest novel, Beach Blonde Betrayal. You can order a copy of the mystery through the Webstore, https://shorturl.at/Z7R2h

Check out the review of Beach Blonde Betrayal.

Book review: Elaine Viets’ ‘Beach Blonde Betrayal’ capitalizes on the antics of Florida Man and Woman

‘Beach Blonde Betrayal: A Florida Beach Mystery’ by Elaine Viets; Severn House; 240 pages; $29.99

Florida is such a fertile ground for mystery fiction — beginning with the quirky, unbelievable behavior the state seems to attract, often summed up as the cultural phenomenon of Florida Man and Florida Woman.

Florida-centric mysteries are having a resurgence, with books such as Elaine Viets’ “Beach Blonde Betrayal,” the second in her A Florida Beach Mystery series.

Viets’ series is long on Florida lore, utilizing its landscape, culture and — of course — eccentric residents. The author sets all of that within the Florodora, a beachside apartment building more than 100 years old in the fictional town of Peerless Point, which Viets locates between Fort Lauderdale and Hollywood.

The Florodora is owned by Norah McCarthy, who inherited it from her late grandmother, a former Florodora Girl — “a superstar chorus girl” in 1920. Like her grandmother, Norah fills the four-story, eight-apartment building with people she likes and feels will fit in with the others. As a result, the residents are more like family than neighbors.

But not all is peaceful at the Florodora. Several young women have been murdered at the nearby beach. One resident is planning a wedding to a man she’s known briefly. And Norah is having troubles with her boyfriend, who also lives in her building. Add in a wealthy woman, a beloved cat who could win a prize for shedding, and a restaurateur specializing in alligator for an involving plot that showcases Florida and a sense of community.

Viets’ five series are known for wide swaths of humor. “Beach Blonde Betrayal” contains some well-placed humor, especially when referencing the antics of Florida Man and Woman. But Viets’ more serious approach here serves this story well, showing that while a lot of funny things happen in Florida, so do a lot of somber events.

“Beach Blonde Betrayal” is a solid addition to Florida crime fiction.

Leslie S. Klinger, a Sherlockian expert, was the guest host when Arvind Ethan David appeared virtually for The Poisoned Pen. You’ll want to watch the video to hear about David’s background. It’s fascinating, especially his relationship with Douglas Adams. There are iconic characters in David’s new book, The Great Game. You can order a copy through the Webstore, https://shorturl.at/boJux.

Here’s the summary of The Great Game.

An outsider in London investigates a series of brutal murders targeting English aristocrats in a timely and provocative historical novel brimming with intrigue, wit, and rage.

London, 1905: Law student and military veteran Balvinder dev Singh has found an extralegal way to fund his studies. As friend and accomplice to the infamous gentleman thief AJ Raffles, he rubs shoulders with the upper crust—and steals their valuables. That is, until their next mark, an imperialist general, is grotesquely murdered in the library of his Mayfair mansion. Bal and Raffles find themselves implicated in a series of killings that soon attracts the attention of Scotland Yard—and the aging Sherlock Holmes himself.

As Bal works to clear his name, he must hide his checkered past from a new acquaintance, the beautiful Irish violinist Maud Adler. Her fiery views lead Bal to question his own place in the world. But when he comes face-to-face with a plot to strike at the very heart of the British government, he must decide how much he’s willing to risk for his adopted city.

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Enjoy the conversation with Arvind Ethan David.

Critic Oline Cogdill often shares her reviews here after they originally appear in the South Florida Sun Sentinel. We’d like to congratulate her for being named the 2027 Thriller Fan by the International Thriller Writers Organization.

Here was the announcement.

Congratulations, Oline!

Julie Clark was enlisted to ask as guest host for a virtual event for The Poisoned Pen. She welcomed Jessica Knoll , author of the just released thriller, Helpless. There are signed copies of Helpless available in the Webstore, https://tinyurl.com/2ac8wer9.

Here’s the description of Helpless.

A NEW YORK TIMES, OPRAH DAILY, CRIME READS, TOWN & COUNTRY, AND BOOKPAGE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK!

From the New York Times bestselling author of Luckiest Girl Alive and Bright Young Women comes a “sexy new thriller” (New York Post) with a “shocking and mindbending” (SheReads) last page.

It’s been twelve years since Faye Heron broke Henry Spalding’s heart. Henry was her college boyfriend, her first love, but Faye was in danger of being subsumed by him and the intensity of their connection—a connection that took her beyond boundaries she’d only dreamed of crossing.

Now, Faye is one half of a power-producing duo with her Hollywood husband. Henry is a married father running the family business. On the surface, both of their lives have essentially gone to plan.

When a former and beloved college professor suddenly passes away, Faye and Henry find themselves back on campus for the funeral, circling something old and dangerous. Something, if Faye is honest with herself, she has been trying to duplicate for years. But Henry is one of a kind.

The kind who delivers a hypnotic apology for the way things ended.
The kind who suggests they go back to the hotel for a drink.
The kind who drugs and kidnaps her.

When Faye comes to Henry’s remote mountain cabin, she’s beside herself. Has Henry brought her here to punish her? She did, after all, write and star in a lauded episode of television based on their indelicate appetites and vicious breakup. As her week of captivity unfolds, Henry’s wanton demands intensify, and Faye finds herself pulled back into his irresistible gravity. But as Faye and Henry spiral into their old dynamic, a sprawling, years-old mystery begins to take shape—one that will rewrite history as Faye remembers it and reveal an astounding, cataclysmic truth.

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Jessica Knoll is the New York Times bestselling author of Bright Young Women, The Favorite Sister,  and Luckiest Girl Alive—now a major motion picture from Netflix starring Mila Kunis. She has been a senior editor at Cosmopolitan and the articles editor at Self. She lives in New York City with her family.

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Enjoy Julie Clark’s conversation with Jessica Knoll.

Critic Oline Cogdill recently reviewed Gary Phillips’ heist novel, The Haul, for the South Florida Sun Sentinel. Her timing was perfect because Patrick Millikin just interviewed Phillips’ for The Poisoned Pen. You can watch that interview at the end of this post, after Cogdill’s review of the book. The Pen is almost sold out of signed copies of the book, but Phillips has agreed to sign more if necessary. You can order the book through the Webstore, https://shorturl.at/H6zp1.

Thanks to Oline for the review of The Haul.

Book review: In Gary Phillips’ ‘The Haul,’ the reader is firmly on the criminal’s side

‘The Haul’ by Gary Phillips; Soho Crime; 304 pages; $28.95

Theories abound about why people turn to crime. For the single-named O’Conner, making his return in Gary Phillips’ action-packed “The Haul,” crime was a matter of survival.

“The Haul” works well as a heist tale, an origin story, a look how a community and area businesses deal with crime and loyalty. The author also shows how O’Conner, who is Black, deals with racism as a teenager and as an adult.

Phillips introduces O’Conner when he’s not quite 14 years old, living in a group home after being orphaned, working in a convenience store in South Central Los Angeles. The teenager, known then as OC, learns how to pick locks, how to maneuver street code intricacies, and the value of loyalty. He also self-educates by reading and visiting museums.

OC used his street education to reinvent himself as O’Conner, his real name, and to become a master thief, which became a lucrative career. He poured his stashes of cash into legitimate businesses, off-shore accounts and bank accounts around the country under different aliases. Now retired, he lives with his girlfriend, regularly plays pickleball and enjoys gardening and taking care of his suburban L.A. townhouse. He has no desire to return to crime; “he had to admit he’d gotten used to laying his head on a pillow in his own house at night. Always on the move, always looking back … just didn’t get him energized like before.”

But he’s intrigued when he’s approached with a plan to rob tech billionaire Palmer Van Noy, who has stashed more than $20 million in cash beneath a basketball arena. Although O’Conner has enough money, his cut of the payout is irresistible. Plus, Palmer is a horrible person — in this case, the victim is much more despicable than the thieves.

Phillips doesn’t miss a step as he pits O’Conner against past enemies and a gang of deputies-turned-criminals in the suspenseful “The Haul.”

O’Conner is definitely a criminal, and Phillips never lets us forget that. But the reader is firmly on O’Conner’s side.

Behind the plot: Gary Phillips featured O’Conner in his novel, “The Warlord of Willow Ridge,” but has said he views “The Haul” as a “reset” for the character, not as part of a series. In addition, a museum in “The Haul” features the photography of Harry “One-Shot” Ingram, the subject of two books by Phillips, making the novel “less a series and all a world,” the publisher said in an email.

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Phillips talked about The Warlord of Willow Ridge and The Haul in his Poisoned Pen interview. You can watch it here.

Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, welcomed David Ellis, author of Keep Them Close, and Alex Finlay who acted as host for the virtual event. There are signed copies of Keep Them Close available to order through the Webstore, https://tinyurl.com/4bn4nm65.

Here’s the description of Keep Them Close.

A USA TODAY Bestseller

From the author of Look Closer comes a new domestic thriller about betrayal and murder inside one twisted family.

“David Ellis is a master of layered, complex thrillers. A fast-paced, twisty, wild ride.” —Mary Kubica, New York Times bestselling author of It’s Not Her

Two siblings. One murder. So many lies.

Siblings Allison and Luke have been through a lot together. They’ve always stood by each other. They’d do anything for each other.

Or so it seems.

When Allison’s husband, Finley, is murdered, the investigation threatens to expose the siblings’ darkest secrets. An illicit affair. A decades-old accident. A stunning deception. How do these events explain Finley’s death? How far will Allison and Luke go to keep their secrets buried? And can the siblings even trust one another anymore?

As the investigation winds tighter and past and present collide, the most shocking betrayal might lie a little too close to home…

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David Ellis is a judge and a #1 New York Times and USA Today bestselling, Edgar Award–winning author of twelve novels of crime fiction, including Look Closer, as well as ten books coauthored with James Patterson. He has served as a justice of the Illinois Appellate Court since 2014. Ellis lives outside Chicago with his wife and three children.

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It’s fascinating to hear David Ellis talk about his characters. Enjoy the conversation with Alex Finlay.

Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, welcomed Victoria Christopher Murray, co-author of A Pair of Aces. The book, written with Marie Benedict, was a Reese’s June Book Club pick as well as the Pen’s History pick. That means the bookstore only has a few signed copies left in the Webstore, https://tinyurl.com/ytzxzzbk.

Here’s the description of A Pair of Aces.

REESE’S BOOK CLUB PICK • A gripping novel about two trailblazing women on opposite sides of the law—a prosecutor and a madam—who team up to bring down notorious Mob boss Lucky Luciano in 1930s New York, from the New York Times bestselling authors of the million-copy bestseller The Personal Librarian.

Eunice Carter, assistant district attorney for the City of New York and Manhattan’s first Black female prosecutor, has her sights set on the one and only Lucky Luciano, head of New York City’s five largest organized crime families. Other prosectors have tried to bring down Lucky, but they’ve all focused on the crime syndicate’s traditional businesses—bootlegging, gambling, loan sharking, and drug dealing—or tax evasion. No one has thought to approach the mob through its role in prostitution. Until Eunice. But she can’t get Luciano alone.

Polly Adler has worked long and hard to build up her high-class brothel business. Her client list is filled with well-known names, both the famous and the infamous, who all know her booze is top-notch, her music first-rate, her food exquisite, and her girls the best. But Lucky has gone too far, putting her girls in danger, and Polly finally sees the chance to end his reign once and for all.

Together, Eunice and Polly fashion a case utilizing a network of women. Bridging the enormous divide between them and risking their own lives, they assemble evidence bit by bit, under the nose of the man they’re trying to convict. It is this very alliance—of two women from vastly different worlds—that launches the most sensational trial New York City has ever seen.

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Victoria Christopher Murray is a New York Times bestselling author of more than thirty novels, including her most recent release Harlem Rhapsody. With Marie Benedict, she coauthored The Personal Librarian, a Good Morning America book club pick, and The First Ladies, Target’s 2023 Book of the Year. She is an NAACP Image Award Winner for Outstanding Literary Work for her novel Stand Your Ground, which was also a Library Journal Best Book of the Year. She holds an MBA from the NYU Stern School of Business.

Marie Benedict is a lawyer with more than ten years of experience as a litigator. A graduate of Boston College and Boston University School of Law, she is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of Daughter of Egypt, The Queens of Crime, The Mitford Affair, Her Hidden Genius, The Mystery of Mrs. Christie, Lady Clementine, The Only Woman in the Room, Carnegie’s Maid, and The Other Einstein. She has also coauthored with Victoria Christopher Murray the New York Times bestselling The Personal Librarian, a Good Morning America book club pick, and The First Ladies, Target’s 2023 Book of the Year. All have been translated into multiple languages, and many have been selected for national book clubs. She lives in Pittsburgh with her family.

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Enjoy the conversation with Victoria Christopher Murray.

Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, welcomed Allison Brennan and Paul Doiron to the bookstore. Brennan’s latest standalone is Whisper Creek. Paul Doiron’s sixteenth book in the Mike Bowditch series is Storm Tide. You can order signed copies of both books through the Webstore, https://store.poisonedpen.com/.

Here’s the description of Allison Brennan’s Whisper Creek.

New York Times bestseller Allison Brennan delivers a pulse-pounding thriller about one family fighting for their land against both human enemies and Mother Nature.

After the sudden death of her husband, Ellen McKenna is doing everything she can to keep her Texas farm afloat. She and her family hope to expand their operation, but times are tough and making ends meet is more expensive than she imagined, much less trying to grow. Many of their neighbors in Cooke County have thrown in the towel and agreed to sell their farms to a local businessman, but despite similar pressure, Ellen refuses to let her dreams die.

On top of the usual hardships, a series of recent storms has left the region partly flooded, and as the heavy rain begins again one morning, all the members of the McKenna family jump into action to protect their land and animals. Ellen’s oldest son discovers an injured dog—and the dog leads him to a man barely clinging to life, the apparent victim of a brutal home invasion. Then, Ellen’s younger kids go to check on a nearby neighbor and walk into a threat none of them saw coming.

Before anyone can figure out what’s really going on in their idyllic rural valley, the storm picks up again in intensity, and the McKenna kids find themselves in over their heads with no way to call for help. To protect her farm–and her family—Ellen must face down all the forces trying to tear them apart.

Allison Brennan’s talent for twisty, tense pacing combines with a deeply drawn family drama and the unforgiving power of nature in this compelling standalone thriller.

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ALLISON BRENNAN is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of over fifty novels, including the Lucy Kincaid and Max Revere series. She was nominated for Best Paperback Original Thriller by the International Thriller Writers and is a two-time winner of the Daphne du Maurier Award by Kiss of Death. Married for more than a quarter of a century, Allison and her husband Dan raised five children, and currently live in Arizona where they enjoy baseball’s spring training and exploring the Grand Canyon.

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Here’s the summary of Storm Tide, the new Mike Bowditch mystery.

Game Warden Mike Bowditch investigates a series of brutal killings during a life-changing year in Storm Tide, the harrowing new thriller from Edgar Award-nominated author Paul Doiron.

When the magnificent home of entrepreneur Brian Malloy mysteriously goes up in flames, Maine game warden Mike Bowditch tries to pull Malloy’s burning body from the fire but is too late. Malloy was suspected of murdering his young, illegitimate son. Now it looks like someone else has delivered a verdict.

Miles away, on a lonely stretch of icy railroad track, the body of Axl Deming, once accused of a brutal rape, is found literally cut in half. Though the two murders seem unrelated, a cryptic text from an unknown number draws Bowditch to the scene—and hints at a chilling connection. He believes someone is orchestrating the executions of criminals who escaped justice, and for reasons he can’t explain, his own name is on the list, but the state police aren’t convinced. His search for the truth takes him through frozen harbors, trackless forests, and remote islands, far from rescue.

Meanwhile, Bowditch is facing a disciplinary hearing that could end his career. His wife Stacey, just weeks from giving birth, is being stalked by a stranger in a white van. And when he realizes someone has also been watching their home, the case turns increasingly personal.

To protect his family, Bowditch must work alone to uncover who’s behind the killings—and stop them before he becomes their next victim.

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A native of Maine, bestselling author PAUL DOIRON attended Yale University, where he graduated with a degree in English. The Poacher’s Son, the first book in the Mike Bowditch series, won the Barry award, the Strand award for best first novel, and has been nominated for the Edgar, Anthony, and Macavity awards in the same category. He is a Registered Maine Guide specializing in fly fishing and lives on a trout stream in coastal Maine with his wife, Kristen Lindquist.

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Enjoy the conversation with Allison Brennan and Paul Doiron.