PoisonedBlogger

All these virtual events allow participants to appear from four different locations, as happened when Jesse and Jonathan Kellerman appeared to talk about their latest book, The Burning. But, before they talked about books, they answered questions from Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, questions about kosher wine. But, going back to books, there will be signed copies of The Burning available through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/31AlZTy

Here’s the summary of The Burning.

Things get personal for Deputy Coroner Clay Edison when a murder hits close to home in this riveting, emotional thriller from the bestselling father-son team who write “brilliant, page-turning fiction” (Stephen King).

A raging wildfire. A massive blackout. A wealthy man shot to death in his palatial hilltop home.
 
For Clay Edison, it’s all in a day’s work. As a deputy coroner, caring for the dead, he speaks for those who cannot speak for themselves. He prides himself on an unflinching commitment to the truth. Even when it gets him into trouble.
 
Then, while working the murder scene, Clay is horrified to discover a link to his brother, Luke. Horrified. But not surprised. Luke is fresh out of prison and struggling to stay on the straight and narrow.
 
And now he’s gone AWOL.
 
The race is on for Clay to find him before anyone else can. Confronted with Luke’s legacy of violence, Clay is forced to reckon with his own suspicions, resentments, and loyalties. Is his brother a killer? Or could he be the victim in all of this, too?
 
This is Jonathan and Jesse Kellerman at their most affecting and page-turning—a harrowing collision of family, revenge, and murder.

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Jonathan Kellerman is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of more than forty crime novels, including the Alex Delaware series, The Butcher’s Theater, Billy Straight, The Conspiracy Club, Twisted, True Detectives, and The Murderer’s Daughter. With his wife, bestselling novelist Faye Kellerman, he co-authored Double Homicide and Capital Crimes. With his son, bestselling novelist Jesse Kellerman, he co-authored Crime Scene, A Measure of Darkness, The Golem of Hollywood, and The Golem of Paris. He is also the author of two children’s books and numerous nonfiction works, including Savage Spawn: Reflections on Violent Children and With Strings Attached: The Art and Beauty of Vintage Guitars. He has won the Goldwyn, Edgar, and Anthony awards and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Psychological Association, and has been nominated for a Shamus Award. Jonathan and Faye Kellerman live in California and New Mexico.

Jesse Kellerman won the Princess Grace Award for best young American playwright and is the author of Sunstroke, Trouble (nominated for the ITW Thriller Award for Best Novel), The Genius (winner of the Grand Prix des Lectrices de Elle), The Executor, and Potboiler (nominated for the Edgar Award for Best Novel). He lives in California.

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Here’s the virtual event featuring Jesse and Jonathan Kellerman.

A Darker Reality is Anne Perry’s third Elena Standish mystery set in the 1930s. She just finished signing copies of the book so you can order a signed copy through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/3lY0p66

Here’s the description of A Darker Reality.

A personal trip turns perilous for Elena Standish after the murder of a British spy forces her to face dark family secrets in this exciting 1930s mystery by bestselling author Anne Perry.

On her first trip to Washington, D.C., Elena Standish finally gets to visit her American mother’s wealthy parents and their magnificent home. Elena’s grandparents are marking a milestone anniversary by throwing an elaborate party with the influential friends of her grandfather, a prominent political industrialist. Even President and First Lady Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt are there, and Elena takes pride in capturing the illustrious guests on camera. But the festivities come to a sudden and tragic end when one of the guests, Lila Worth, is run over by a car in the driveway outside. Elena believes Lila was trying to tell her something before her death, and when a call from her employer back home, MI6, confirms that Lila was a British spy, Elena pairs with a fellow agent to find out what vital information the young woman had in her possession.

Soon an arrest is made in Lila’s murder, and to Elena’s horror, the accused is none other than her own grandfather, who claims his political enemies are trying to frame him. But who are these enemies, and how can Elena defend this man she barely knows? Nevertheless, determined to clear his name and save her family from disgrace, she delves into the details of her grandfather’s investments and discovers that his business secrets run deep. As Elena begins to question his loyalties, she wonders if she can trust anyone in this threatening new world order.

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Anne Perry is the New York Times bestselling author of two acclaimed series set in Victorian England: the William Monk novels and the Charlotte and Thomas Pitt novels. She is also the author of a series featuring Thomas and Charlotte Pitt’s son, Daniel, including One Fatal Flaw and Death with a Double Edge; the Elena Standish series, including Death in Focus and A Question of Betrayal; five World War I novels; nineteen holiday novels, most recently A Christmas Legacy; and a historical novel, The Sheen on the Silk, set in the Byzantine Empire. Anne Perry lives in Los Angeles.

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Enjoy the conversation about fashion, history and mystery with Anne Perry and Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen.

Scottish writer Denise Mina’s latest book is a novella, Rizzio. Barbara Peters and Patrick Millikin from The Poisoned Pen are long-time fans, so they have so much to talk about including books and theatre. This is a fun virtual event for anyone who enjoys crime fiction and the arts. You can find copies of Rizzio in the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2EjTFgH

Here’s the description of Rizzio.

From the multi-award-winning master of crime, Denise Mina delivers a radical new take on one of the darkest episodes in Scottish history—the bloody assassination of David Rizzo  private secretary to Mary, Queen of Scots, in the queen’s chambers in Holyrood Palace.

On the evening of March 9th, 1566, David Rizzio, the private secretary of Mary, Queen of Scots, was brutally murdered. Dragged from the chamber of the heavily pregnant Mary, Rizzio was stabbed fifty six times by a party of assassins. This breathtakingly tense novella dramatises the events that led up to that night, telling the infamous story as it has never been told before.

A dark tale of sex, secrets and lies, Rizzio looks at a shocking historical murder through a modern lens—and explores the lengths that men and women will go to in their search for love and power. 

Rizzio is nothing less than a provocative and thrilling new literary masterpiece.

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Denise Mina is the New York Times bestselling author of The End of the Wasp Season and Gods and Beasts. Her recent novel Conviction was a Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick and a national bestseller She is a regular contributor on the subject of crime fiction for television and radio. Denise lives in Glasgow.

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Here’s the fascinating discussion with Denise Mina.

Road of Bones is the 16th Billy Boyle WWII novel by James R. Benn. Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, is a fan of the cover art, and she pointed out the woman on the cover of the latest book, meant to be one of the Night Witches. You can still order a signed copy of Road of Bones through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/3ATWBJz

Here’s the description of Road of Bones.

Billy Boyle is sent to the heart of the USSR to solve a double-murder at a critical turning point in the war in this latest installment of critically acclaimed James R. Benn’s WWII mystery series.

It’s September 1944, and the US is poised to launch Operation Frantic, a shuttle-bombing mission to be conducted by American aircraft based in Great Britain, southern Italy, and three Soviet airfields in the Ukraine. Tensions are already high between the American and Russian allies when two intelligence agents—one Soviet, one American—are found dead at Poltava, one of the Ukrainian bases. Billy is brought in to investigate, and this time he’s paired, at the insistence of the Soviets, with a KGB agent who has his own political and personal agenda.

In the course of an investigation that quickly spirals out of control, Billy is aided by the Night Witches, a daring regiment of young Soviet women flying at night at very low altitudes, bombing hundreds of German installations.

It’s a turning point in the war, and allied efforts hang by a thread. Unless Billy and his KGB partner can solve the murders in an atmosphere of mutual distrust, Operation Frantic is doomed.

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James R. Benn is the author of the Billy Boyle World War II mysteries. The debut, Billy Boyle, was selected as a Top Five book of the year by Book Sense and was a Dilys Award nominee, A Blind Goddess was longlisted for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, The Rest Is Silence was a Barry Award nominee, and The Devouring was a Macavity Award nominee. Benn, a former librarian, splits his time between the Gulf Coast of Florida and Connecticut with his wife, Deborah Mandel.

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Here’s the conversation between James R. Benn and Barbara Peters.

Hank Phillippi Ryan has acted as host several times recently for The Poisoned Pen’s virtual events. This time, though, she was guest author talking about her latest standalone novel, Her Perfect Life, as well as her career as a multi-award winning journalist. Ryan has a fascinating background, and Barbara Peters, owner of the bookstore, discusses that with Ryan. Signed copies of Her Perfect Life are available through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2RXT88e

Here’s the description of Her Perfect Life.

The next thrilling standalone novel by USA Today bestselling author Hank Phillippi Ryan.

Everyone knows Lily Atwood—and that may be her biggest problem. The beloved television reporter has it all—fame, fortune, Emmys, an adorable seven-year-old daughter, and the hashtag her loving fans created: #PerfectLily. To keep it, all she has to do is protect one life-changing secret.

Her own.

Lily has an anonymous source who feeds her story tips—but suddenly, the source begins telling Lily inside information about her own life. How does he—or she—know the truth?

Lily understands that no one reveals a secret unless they have a reason. Now she’s terrified someone is determined to destroy her world—and with it, everyone and everything she holds dear.

How much will she risk to keep her perfect life?

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USA Today bestselling author HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN has won five Agatha Awards in addition to Anthony, Macavity, Daphne du Maurier, and Mary Higgins Clark Awards. As on-air investigative reporter for Boston’s WHDH-TV, she’s won 37 Emmys and many more journalism honors, and her work has resulted in new laws, criminals sent to prison, homes saved from foreclosure, and millions of dollars in restitution for victims and consumers. A past president of National Sisters in Crime and founder of MWA University, her novels include Trust Me, The Murder List, the Charlotte McNally series (starting with Prime Time), and the Jane Ryland series (which begins with The Other Woman). Ryan lives in Boston with her husband, a nationally renowned civil rights and criminal defense attorney.

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Here’s the recent virtual event featuring Hank Phillippi Ryan.

Craig Johnson actually appeared in person for the release of his latest Longmire novel, Daughter of the Morning Star. There are still signed copies available through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2Qmogf5

Here’s the description of Daughter of the Morning Star.

A new novel in the beloved New York Times bestselling Longmire series.

When Lolo Long’s niece Jaya begins receiving death threats, Tribal Police Chief Long calls on Absaroka County Sheriff Walt Longmire along with Henry Standing Bear as lethal backup. Jaya “Longshot” Long is the phenom of the Lame Deer Lady Stars High School basketball team and is following in the steps of her older sister, who disappeared a year previously, a victim of the scourge of missing Native Woman in Indian Country. Lolo hopes that having Longmire involved might draw some public attention to the girl’s plight, but with this maneuver she also inadvertently places the good sheriff in a one-on-one with the deadliest adversary he has ever faced in both this world and the next.

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Craig Johnson is the New York Times bestselling author of the Longmire mysteries, the basis for the hit Netflix original series Longmire. He is the recipient of the Western Writers of America Spur Award for fiction and the Mountain & Plains Independent Booksellers Association’s Reading the West Book Award for fiction. His novella Spirit of Steamboat was the first One Book Wyoming selection. He lives in Ucross, Wyoming, population 25.

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I was waiting to watch the Facebook virtual event, and I wondered why it didn’t start on time, and those of us watching virtually came in partway through the event. Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, explains the technical problems at the beginning of the virtual event below. Even if the event starts partway through, Craig Johnson is always worth listening to. He’s a true storyteller. Enjoy the event!

There’s nothing better to attract readers than the word “Haunted”. For some of us, it’s Arizona’s history. Debe Branning combines both in her latest book, Arizona’s Haunted Route 66. She was Patrick Millikin’s guest for a recent virtual event at The Poisoned Pen. You can reserve a copy of the book through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/39qsQ6Q

Here’s the description of Arizona’s Haunted Route 66.

Arizona claims one of the longest segments of the famous Route 66. Along the nearly four hundred miles of road are stops filled with legends, history, superstitions and spirits of travelers who experienced untimely accidents and murders. Meet Leorena Shipley, an aspiring actress whose career was cut short by tragedy. Discover how the Apache Death Cave became the haunted site of a mass grave. Visit the Monte Vista Hotel, one of the most haunted hotels in Arizona. Learn how the Grand Canyon Caverns were discovered and became a favorite attraction. Travel to Oatman, a ghost town with a multitude of spirits. Join author and paranormal historian Debe Branning on a haunted road trip across Arizona and discover the spooky history of the Mother Road.

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Debe Branning has been the director of the MVD Ghostchasers since 1994, conducting investigations of haunted, historical locations throughout Arizona. She is a paranormal journalist and has been a guest lecturer at several Arizona universities and community colleges, science fiction and paranormal conferences, historical societies and libraries. She has shared her expertise on several television shows and is the author of six previous books on the paranormal and three children’s books.

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Enjoy the discussion of ghost stories in Arizona.

Julia Dahl’s latest novel is The Missing Hours. Award-winning author Julia Spencer-Fleming hosted the virtual event on behalf of The Poisoned Pen. You can order signed copies through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/3lOs4pR

Here’s the description of The Missing Hours.

From the critically acclaimed author of Invisible City and Conviction, The Missing Hours is a novel about obsession, privilege, and the explosive consequences of one violent act.

From a distance, Claudia Castro has it all: a famous family, a trust fund, thousands of Instagram followers, and a spot in NYU’s freshman class. But look closer, and things are messier: her parents are separating, she’s just been humiliated by a sleazy documentary, and her sister is about to have a baby with a man she barely knows.

Claudia starts the school year resolved to find a path toward something positive, maybe even meaningful ““ and then one drunken night everything changes. Reeling, her memory hazy, Claudia cuts herself off from her family, seeking solace in a new friendship. But when the rest of school comes back from spring break, Claudia is missing.

Suddenly, the whole city is trying to piece together the hours of that terrible night.

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Julia Dahl is the author of Conviction, Run You Down, and Invisible City, which was a finalist for the Edgar Award for Best First Novel, one of the Boston Globe‘s Best Books of 2014, and has been translated into eight languages. A former reporter for CBS News and the New York Post, she now teaches journalism at NYU.

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Enjoy the conversation about the works of both authors, with a focus on The Missing Hours.

Let me share Sri Lankan author Amanda Jayatissa’s short bio because Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, asked her about cookies.

Amanda Jayatissa grew up in Sri Lanka, completed her undergrad at Mills College in California and lived in the UK before moving back to her sunny little island. She works as a corporate trainer, owns a chain of cookie stores, and is a proud dog mum to her two spoiled huskies.

Jayatissa talks about cookies and her new book, My Sweet Girl, in a recent virtual event. It’s a fun event, and Jayatissa spoke for readers in the morning from her home in Sri Lanka. Her book is available through the Web Store, and there are signed book plates that will accompany your books. https://bit.ly/3AwyMHl

Here’s the description of My Sweet Girl.

“Fiendish, full-of-twists…Sri Lankan author Amanda Jayatissa keeps us guessing and worrying until the very end”—The New York Times

“A thriller centered on the meaning of identity and all the layers it can have.”—NPR

A Most Anticipated Novel of Fall 2021 by Entertainment Weekly, NPR, New York Post, The Boston Globe, Fortune, Buzzfeed, Goodreads, Shondaland, PopSugar, Bustle, Crime Reads, BookRiot, Crime by the Book, The Nerd Daily, The Every Girl, and more!

Paloma thought her perfect life would begin once she was adopted and made it to America, but she’s about to find out that no matter how far you run, your past always catches up to you…

Ever since she was adopted from a Sri Lankan orphanage, Paloma has had the best of everything—schools, money, and parents so perfect that she fears she’ll never live up to them.

Now at thirty years old and recently cut off from her parents’ funds, she decides to sublet the second bedroom of her overpriced San Francisco apartment to Arun, who recently moved from India. Paloma has to admit, it feels good helping someone find their way in America—that is until Arun discovers Paloma’s darkest secret, one that could jeopardize her own fragile place in this country.

Before Paloma can pay Arun off, she finds him face down in a pool of blood. She flees the apartment but by the time the police arrive, there’s no body—and no evidence that Arun ever even existed in the first place.

Paloma is terrified this is all somehow tangled up in the desperate actions she took to escape Sri Lanka so many years ago. Did Paloma’s secret die with Arun or is she now in greater danger than ever before?

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Enjoy the conversation with Amanda Jayatissa.

Dennis Palumbo’s sixth Daniel Rinaldi thriller, Panic Attack, is due out on Sept. 21. You can order it through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/3tRYpjc

Because of the release date, it seemed the perfect time to interview Palumbo. He’s written several guest posts here, but I’ve never interviewed him.

Thank you, Dennis, for taking the time to answer some questions.

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Dennis, you have a whole other life other than as a crime writer. Would you introduce yourself?

1.  I’m a former Hollywood screenwriter (MY FAVORITE YEAR; WELCOME BACK, KOTTER, etc.) who is now a licensed psychotherapist in private practice, specializing in creative issues. I’ve been in practice almost thirty years, working primarily with writers.

Why did you want to write mysteries?

1. I’ve always loved mysteries, since my father got me THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES when I was ten years old, home sick from school. Even while on staff at network sitcoms in the 1970’s, I was selling mystery short stories to ELLERY QUEEN’S MYSTERY MAGAZINE. Since then, my short stories have appeared in THE STRAND, WRITTEN BY, MYSTERY WEEKLY, BLACK CAT MAGAZINE and the recent collection of original stories called COAST TO COAST NOIR. I have a collection of my short stories in a book called FROM CRIME TO CRIME. So, apparently, once the bug bit, it lingered!

Would you introduce us to Daniel Rinaldi?

1. I’d always wanted to create a series character, especially one whose traits and experience mirrored my own. I also wanted to set a series in Pittsburgh, my home town, and to use the books as a way to explore and comment on the state of the mental health system. Like me, Daniel Rinaldi is from a blue-collar family, born and raised in Pittsburgh, and a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh. Unlike me, he’s a former amateur boxer (Golden Gloves, Pam Am Games). In his present life, Rinaldi is a psychologist and trauma expert who consults with the Pittsburgh Police. His specialty is working with victims of violent crime—those who may have survived the kidnapping or assault, but are still traumatized by their experience. These patients have many of the symptoms we associate with PTSD. Moreover, Rinaldi is himself a victim of such trauma: his wife was killed during a mugging, and though he was grievously injured, Daniel survived. This was the source of his mission to help other victims of violent crime, while he himself struggles with significant survivor guilt. His friends and colleagues believe it’s this guilt that propels him into numerous dangerous situations.

Tell us about Panic Attack, without spoilers.

1. This latest Rinaldi thriller concerns an unknown rooftop sniper who’s seemingly choosing his targets at random. Dubbed the Steel City Sniper by the media, he’s managed to escape detection for weeks while his list of victims mount. Until, at some point, he’s captured by the police, which should bring the killings to an end…except that’s when the real mystery begins.

How do you keep Pittsburgh fresh in your books?

1. That’s pretty easy, since Pittsburgh itself is constantly changing. Its endured significant birth pains as it’s transitioned from an industrial, blue-collar town into a white-collar, sophisticated hub of state-of-the-art medicine and high tech. This tense, uneasy relationship between the old Pittsburgh and the new makes the city a fascinating character itself in the series.

What kind of research do you do for your books?

1. A fairly wide range, from being up-to-date on the latest clinical thinking in the psychology field to police procedure to the topography of Pittsburgh itself. With a city undergoing such upheaval, with old neighborhoods being gentrified to such an extent that many citizens can no longer afford them, I tend to count on my friends in Pittsburgh to keep me posted on changes. I’ll often call one of them to ask questions like “Is the Penn Hotel still there?” One funny thing: I hear from a lot of readers living in Pittsburgh, and they never seem to have a problem with my characters or the plots. But I’ll get an email that says, “Hey, you have Rinaldi making a left on South Street. You can’t do that after five o’clock.” With every book, I get schooled on at least one traffic error. When you write about a real place (where, admittedly, I haven’t lived in many, many years), such comments come with the territory.

COVID and isolation affected authors differently, just as it did for the rest of us. Some were paralyzed while others found a burst of creativity. How did the last year affect you and your writing?

1. I was lucky in that the lockdown enabled me to devote myself to writing PANIC ATTACK. Because of the demands of my therapy practice, it usually takes me forever to come out with a new Rinaldi. But the lockdown seemed to give me more breathing room to write. That said, many of my writer patients were indeed paralyzed during the lockdown, crippled by anxiety and/or depression. Even writers who are on the whole introverted and accustomed to the solitude of writing found the pandemic restrictions to be psychologically upsetting. Then again, an equal number relished the “freedom” occasioned by the COVID virus and reported that the lockdown seemed to be like a writer’s retreat.

What books first brought you to the mystery field? Books you read as a child, or as an adult?

1. As I mentioned, Conan Doyle’s Holmes stories gripped my boyhood imagination, as did the Hardy Boys series. By high school, I was reading Chandler and Hammett, plus James M. Cain and Erle Stanley Gardner. As an adult, my interest in creating my own series character was fueled by reading Michael Connelly, Dennis Lehane, Robert Block and John Lescroart. Then there’re beautiful writers like Richard Price and George V. Higgins, and the new crop that includes Gillian Flynn, Tara French and S.A. Cosby. The list of crime writers I admire grows daily!

In a related question, if you had to recommend 5 books to a person so they could get a feel for our reading taste, what 5 would you recommend?

1. Just whittling it down to five is a difficult task, but I’ll give it a go: THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE by George V. Higgins; THE POET by Michael Connelly; GONE GIRL by Gillian Flynn; THE MALTESE FALCON by Dashiell Hammett and THE CHILL by Ross MacDonald. But ask me on another day and you’d get a different list (probably one that includes Chandler, Sue Grafton, Sara Paretsky, Raymond Chandler, Dennis Lehane, and on and on).

What’s on your TBR pile?

1. THE REVENGE OF GEOGRAPHY by Robert D. Kaplan; TWO KINDS OF TRUTH by Michael Connelly; HER PERFECT LIFE by Hank Phillippi Ryan; SCHOPENHAUER: A Biography by David E. Cartwright; STREET MUSIC by Tim Hallinan; RAZORBLADE TEARS by S.A. Cosby