C.J. Box, in Conversation

Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, recently spoke with C.J. Box about the new TV show, “Big Sky”, based on his book, The Highway, and the Cassie Dewell novels. Box said he provides the source material for the series. They also talked about the next Joe Pickett book, Dark Sky. Dark Sky comes out March 2, and it will debut at The Poisoned Pen. You can pre-order Dark Sky, and Box’ other books through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2zWvYIM

Here’s the introduction to Dark Sky.

Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett must accompany a Silicon Valley CEO on a hunting trip–but soon learns that he himself may be the hunted–in the thrilling new novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author C. J. Box.

When the governor of Wyoming gives Joe Pickett the thankless task of taking a tech baron on an elk hunting trip, Joe reluctantly treks into the wilderness with his high-profile charge. But as they venture into the woods, a man-hunter is hot on their heels, driven by a desire for revenge. Finding himself without a weapon, a horse, or a way to communicate, Joe must rely on his wits and his knowledge of the outdoors to protect himself and his companion.

Meanwhile, Joe’s closest friend, Nate Romanowski, and his own daughter Sheridan learn of the threat to Joe’s life and follow him into the woods. In a stunning final showdown, the three of them come up against the worst that nature–and man–have to offer.

*****

There were a few technical difficulties, but here’s the conversation between C.J. Box and Barbara Peters.

Poisoned Pen Podcasts

Have you listened to the Poisoned Pen’s podcasts on podbean? You can find them at https://poisonedpen.podbean.com/

Recent podcasts include a conversation with The Detection Club in England, Barbara Peters and C.J. Box in conversation, and Sujata Massey talking with Nev March about March’s debut novel set in India. There’s a wealth of conversations on the podcasts. Once you listen to them, you might want to check out the books in the Web Store. https://poisonedpen.com/

Rick Bragg’s Essays

I have nothing to write about – no new virtual events at The Poisoned Pen, no Hot Book of the Week. So, I’m going to write about one of my two favorite storytellers (Craig Johnson, author of the Longmire books is the other). Pulitzer Prize-winning author Rick Bragg has a new collection of essays, Where I Come From: Stories from the Deep South. You can order it through the Web Store. Or, if you really want a treat, buy the audiobook and listen to Bragg himself read it to you. https://bit.ly/3eXKpgw

I can give you the summary of Where I Come From.

From the best-selling, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of All Over but the Shoutin’ and The Best Cook in the World, a collection of his irresistible columns from Southern Living and Garden & Gun

A collection of wide-ranging and endearingly personal columns by the celebrated author, newspaper columnist, and Pulitzer Prize winner Rick Bragg, culled from his best-loved pieces in Southern Living and Garden & Gun.

From his love of Tupperware (“My Affair with Tupperware”) to the decline of country music, from the legacy of Harper Lee to the metamorphosis of the pickup truck, the best way to kill fire ants, the unbridled excess of Fat Tuesday, and why any self-respecting southern man worth his salt should carry a good knife, Where I Come From is an ode to the stories and the history of the Deep South, written with tenderness, wit, and deep affection–a book that will be treasured by fans old and new.

*****

Or, I can give you my comments about Where I Come From: Stories from the Deep South.

If you read Southern Living, you’ve probably read most of the essays in Rick Bragg’s book Where I Come From: Stories from the Deep SouthI’m not from the South. I’m not from the mill towns and hills and country that Bragg describes with so much love. But, it doesn’t really matter because his poetic descriptions of his home and family bring me to tears. And, sometimes I nod when I think of my grandfather who was a farmer and wore his bib overalls, and my grandmother in her housedress. Those salt-of-the-earth relatives and Sunday dinners live in memories, whether you’re from Alabama or northern Ohio.


Rick Bragg is a little younger than I am, but I laughed at his memories of the old black-and-white monster movies,Frankenstein and The Mummy. He’s right when he admits the ones that still scare him are the ones about creatures that grow to “insane proportions”. He doesn’t mention Them by name, but he mentions the giant ants. I’m still haunted by the sound of those creatures at the beginning of the movie.


Food. Rick Bragg can describe food so that you want to jump in the car and head south. Fortunately, I’ve lived places where I could get good biscuits and gravy, and good sweet tea. I agree with him. I don’t understand people who don’t appreciate a tomato sandwich on white bread with mayo, salt and pepper. You don’t get those kind of good tomatoes much any more, the ones that make you stand over the sink and eat that sandwich. He appreciates the city so much that there are three chapters about the food in New Orleans. 


There’s a section that is a tribute to the deceased. He wrote two essays about Harper Lee, one about his friend, Pat Conroy. But, the longest essay in that section is about a dog, a stray that showed up, and stayed, and protected the property from animals and deliverymen. There are a lot of people who will acknowledge that a favorite animal deserves an essay or two.


And, personally, as someone who loved the country music of Johnny Cash and the Carter Family, Patsy Cline, and Marty Robbins, I agree with Bragg about the decline of country music. But, he could have written an entire book on that subject.


Rick Bragg’s essays make me smile and cry. I had no plans to go home for Thanksgiving this year, but he makes me yearn to be there in a year when no one should be visiting family this holiday. When it comes right down to it, that’s what Rick Bragg does best. He brings back memories of family and the past. He doesn’t stir up memories of “the Deep South”, of Southern rights and Confederacy and flags. He stirs up memories of the people and food and stories that mean home, no matter where you’re from. Where I Come From really means the roots and people we come from, no matter who we are. That’s what Rick Bragg does best.

JP Pomare, in Conversation

JP Pomare, author of In the Clearing, recently discussed his book with Betty Webb. Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, asked Webb to read the book because Webb wrote two books about Arizona’s cult. Pomare explains his interest and the history of a cult that led to his book. You can order a copy of In the Clearing through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2Ueevmo

Here’s the summary of In the Clearing.

A ticking-clock thriller that braids together the stories of a girl raised in a terrifying cult, and of an overprotective single mother whose fears for her child are about to come true.


Amy has only ever known what life is like in the Clearing, with her brothers and sisters–until a newcomer, a younger girl, joins the “family” and offers a glimpse of the outside world. Freya is living an isolated life with her son and their dog, going to great lengths to keep contact with the outside world like an “everyday mum” while being utterly terrified by it. When a news breaks of a missing girl–a child the same age as Freya’s son, Billy–Amy and Freya’s stories intertwine, and the secrets of the past will crawl inexorably into the present.

*****

Here’s the conversation with JP Pomare and Betty Webb.

A Week of Author Appearances

The Poisoned Pen has a full slate of virtual author events for the next week, beginning tonight. You’ll want to order or pre-order copies of the books by your favorite authors. Check the Web Store. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

Here’s the current schedule of virtual author appearances.

Nev Marsh
C.J. Box
Lynn Truss
Cameron / Rawlings
David Baldacci

Diane Kelly’s Distractions

Diane Kelly, author of the Paw Enforcement novels and the House-Flipper mysteries, was so distracted she forgot to send me her “Distractions” post! However, during this pandemic and an election year, we’re all distracted. I told her we’re always eager to see what’s keeping an author’s attention. You can find Kelly’s latest Paw Enforcement novel, Bending the Paw, in the Web Store. Her next House-Flipper mystery, Murder with a View, is due out Feb. 9. You can pre-order it as well. https://bit.ly/2Ip7f4B

Diane Kelly is a former state assistant attorney general and tax advisor who spent much of her career fighting, or inadvertently working for, white-collar criminals. She is also a proud graduate of the Mansfield, Texas Citizens Police Academy. The first book in Diane’s IRS Special Agent Tara Holloway series, Death, Taxes, and a French Manicure, received a Romance Writers of America Golden Heart Award. Book #2, Death, Taxes, and a Skinny No-Whip Latte, won a Reviewers Choice award. Diane has combined her fascination with law enforcement and her love of animals in her K-9 cop Paw Enforcement series.

Kelly gives us a slightly different take on reading during a pandemic. Check out the audiobooks she’s listened to. You can order the audiobooks, or the books, through the Web Store. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

*****

My reading habits have definitely changed during the pandemic. Because there’s not much we can do for fun these days, and because staying cooped up in the house gets old, I’ve been taking many more walks than I used to. While the exercise is good for me, it cuts into what would otherwise be my reading time. To remedy the situation, I’ve shifted from reading primarily in print or e-book format to listening to audiobooks while I’m strolling the neighborhood. It’s a great way to multi-task! The exercise and distraction also help relieve stress. These are some of the books I’ve listened to and enjoyed:

Keep Moving by Dick Van Dyke ““ this autobiography is light, uplifting, and inspiring, just the thing we need right now. I’ve been a Dick Van Dyke fan since he appeared in the movies of my childhood, and it was nice to hear him read his own work.  

How to Be Good by Nick Hornby ““ I love Nick Hornby’s stories. They’re about people with real problems, but who approach solving them in unique ways. They don’t have ideal endings, but they usually end on a hopeful note, with the characters having grown even if things don’t turn out exactly perfect or as expected. This book follows that format. It’s about a couple having marital problems, and working through them, trying to figure out what’s best for them and their children. Some odd people come into their lives and offer them new perspectives.

Dough or Die by Winnie Archer ““ this is a fun cozy mystery set in a bread shop called Yeast of Eden on the California coast. The shop is being featured in a reality TV show, but things heat up when someone attempts to kill the cameraman. It’s an enjoyable mystery, with a touch of romance and a very adorable dog. And who doesn’t love bread?

*****

As I said, you can find Diane Kelly’s own books in the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2Ip7f4B

Here’s her latest Paw Enforcement mystery, Bending the Paw.

Make way for the long paw of the law as police officer Megan Luz and her K-9 partner Brigit investigate a baffling new mystery in Bending the Paw, by Diane Kelly.

A MURDER WITHOUT A BODY IS LIKE A DOG WITHOUT A BONE

A bloodbath is a shocking new challenge for Megan and Brigit when Detective Audrey Jackson calls them to the scene of what could only be a brutal murder. But the one thing the nightmarish scene is missing is a victim. The frantic homeowner’s husband is gone, seemingly without a trace—and so is the money he was holding. Has a vicious killer committed what might just be the perfect crime?

Meanwhile, it’s hailing cats and dogs all over Fort Worth, and roofing contractors have descended on the city in droves. With plenty of damage and continuing storms, work delays are building up like so much runoff, but Megan is suspicious that one roofer may be a scam artist. Determined to leash every lawbreaker she and her K-9 partner find, Megan is building a case for prosecution, all while Brigit has her nose to the ground for a murderer…

“Be prepared for a laugh fest. Diane Kelly is first class.”—Night Owl Romance

*****

Murder with a View is due out Feb. 9, but you can pre-order it.

Murder With a View is the third book in the delightful cozy mystery series from Diane Kelly set in Nashville, Tennessee—where the real estate market is to die for…

Jacqueline Winspear’s Hot Book of the Week

I just love the cover of Jacqueline Winspear’s memoir, This Time Next Year We’ll Be Laughing. It’s the current Hot Book of the Week at The Poisoned Pen. You can still find a signed copy in the Web Store, along with copies of Winspear’s Maisie Dobbs books. https://bit.ly/2JDLy0W

Here’s This Time Next Year We’ll Be Laughing.

“Jacqueline Winspear has created a memoir of her English childhood that is every bit as engaging as her Maisie Dobbs novels, just as rich in character and detail, history and humanity. Her writing is lovely, elegant and welcoming.”—Anne Lamott

The New York Times bestselling author of the Maisie Dobbs series offers a deeply personal memoir of her family’s resilience in the face of war and privation. 

 
After sixteen novels, Jacqueline Winspear has taken the bold step of turning to memoir, revealing the hardships and joys of her family history. Both shockingly frank and deftly restrained, her story tackles the difficult, poignant, and fascinating family accounts of her paternal grandfather’s shellshock; her mother’s evacuation from London during the Blitz; her soft-spoken animal-loving father’s torturous assignment to an explosives team during WWII; her parents’ years living with Romany Gypsies; and Winspear’s own childhood picking hops and fruit on farms in rural Kent, capturing her ties to the land and her dream of being a writer at its very inception.
 
An eye-opening and heartfelt portrayal of a post-War England we rarely see, This Time Next Year We’ll Be Laughing chronicles a childhood in the English countryside, of working class indomitability and family secrets, of artistic inspiration and the price of memory.

On Your Calendar – Michael Connelly’s The Law of Innocence

Are you ready for the virtual book launch of Michael Connelly’s latest Mickey Haller novel, The Law of Innocence? It’s Tuesday, November 10 at 6 PM (8 PM ET) on The Poisoned Pen’s Facebook page. Signed copies should be still available through the Web Store, but you’ll want to order soon. They probably won’t last. https://bit.ly/2IlXgwY

Here’s Michael Connelly to tell you about the book.

Asha Lemmie, in Conversation

Asha Lemmie is the debut author of Fifty Words for Rain whose novel was a Good Morning America book club pick, and New York Times bestseller. Bestselling author Lisa See recently hosted her for The Poisoned Pen. You can enjoy that conversation here.

Signed copies of Fifty Words for Rain are available through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2TIkv6F

Good Morning America Book Club Pick and New York Times Bestseller!

From debut author Asha Lemmie,  “a lovely, heartrending story about love and loss, prejudice and pain, and the sometimes dangerous, always durable ties that link a family together.”—Kristin Hannah, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Nightingale

Kyoto, Japan, 1948. “Do not question. Do not fight. Do not resist.”

Such is eight-year-old Noriko “Nori” Kamiza’s first lesson. She will not question why her mother abandoned her with only these final words. She will not fight her confinement to the attic of her grandparents’ imperial estate. And she will not resist the scalding chemical baths she receives daily to lighten her skin.

The child of a married Japanese aristocrat and her African American GI lover, Nori is an outsider from birth. Her grandparents take her in, only to conceal her, fearful of a stain on the royal pedigree that they are desperate to uphold in a changing Japan. Obedient to a fault, Nori accepts her solitary life, despite her natural intellect and curiosity. But when chance brings her older half-brother, Akira, to the estate that is his inheritance and destiny, Nori finds in him an unlikely ally with whom she forms a powerful bond—a bond their formidable grandparents cannot allow and that will irrevocably change the lives they were always meant to lead. Because now that Nori has glimpsed a world in which perhaps there is a place for her after all, she is ready to fight to be a part of it—a battle that just might cost her everything.

Spanning decades and continents, Fifty Words for Rain is a dazzling epic about the ties that bind, the ties that give you strength, and what it means to be free.

Mary Anna Evans’ Wrecked – The Backstory

I love to be able to share the backstory of a book. Mary Anna Evans, author of the Faye Longchamp Archaeological Mysteries, took the time to write about Wrecked, the thirteenth in the series. You can order Wrecked, and the other books in the series, through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2IrcqLo

Mary Anna Evans is the author of the Faye Longchamp archaeological mysteries, which have received recognition including the Benjamin Franklin Award, the Mississippi Author Award, and three Florida Book Awards bronze medals. She is an assistant professor at the University of Oklahoma, where she teaches fiction and nonfiction writing. Winner of the 2018 Sisters in Crime (SinC) Academic Research Grant.

Here’s Mary Anna Evans’ backstory about Wrecked.

Going Underwater with Archaeologist Faye Longchamp

by Mary Anna Evans

I’ve been writing about an archaeologist, Faye Longchamp, for more than seventeen years. I’ve taken Faye (or should I say that Faye has taken me?) into old catacombs underneath Oklahoma City and into the romantic, spectral past of New Orleans. She’s traveled to rural Alabama, urban Tennessee, and small town New York. Faye gets around.

Faye swims like a fish, and she handles boats like the experienced sailor that she is. She’s a good mechanic who keeps her old car running and keeps her boat motors singing. She can operate a sewing machine. She knows her way around rare book libraries. She lives in an old house, so she can patch a tin roof and repair broken shutters. She has lived off the grid and, although she never wants to be without air conditioning and cell phone service again, she could manage if she didn’t have a choice.

When I began planning the latest Faye Longchamp archaeological mystery, Wrecked, I knew that I wanted to set this one at her home on Joyeuse Island, off the Florida panhandle. Joyeuse Island is an evocative setting, wild and beautiful, and Faye’s heart will always be there. I think it’s realistic for her to travel for her work, and it’s fun for me and for my readers to “visit” interesting places along with Faye, but I like to take her home every few years. I think that seeing Faye among her friends in her native habitat gives readers a fuller sense of who she is. Taking Faye home to Joyeuse also gives me a chance to explore her family history, which is another way of depicting the past that has shaped her.

(As an aside, let me say what a privilege it has been to explore and develop this character over thirteen books. I’ve published well over a million words about Faye, and I continue to find interesting depths to her character. When I began the series, I did not anticipate how much of a gift it would be to write the story of one person’s life over many years. The series as a whole gives me the feeling of diving into one of those Dickensian novels that serve as an exhaustive character study—”To begin my life with the beginning of my life, I record that I was born…”)

So, once I’d decided to take Faye home to her island, I needed to decide what was going to happen to her and what she was going to do about it. Right away, it occurred to me that I had never done a book about underwater archaeology.

There was a very good reason for this. I don’t dive. In fact, the idea rather terrifies me.

I swim and I have snorkeled a bit, so I’ve felt comfortable writing scenes from Faye’s point-of-view while she does those things, but could I write about a subject that screams out for underwater scenes involving scuba gear? No spoilers, but if you’ve seen the gloriously spooky cover of Wrecked, you have probably guessed that people do in fact scuba dive in the book. And if you’ve read the back cover copy, you know that one of Faye’s friends is found drowned, wearing scuba gear.

How did I manage this? I reached out to people who had intimate knowledge of diving. I found people who have dived in the Gulf of Mexico and could tell me about the clarity of the water. (Or, at depth, the lack of clarity.) My friend Nadia, whose ecological business has included extensive diving ,told me her observations, and she sent me to someone with detailed knowledge of how diving equipment works…or fails to work. That conversation gave me enough information to explore the internet to find out how drowning deaths are investigated. The things I learned there took me to websites for sheriff’s offices in small Florida counties to learn about staffing for those investigations. And so on. Reaching out to experts always takes me down a research rabbithole that leads to a better book that I could have written if I’d tried to draw only from the contents of my own head.

And this research took me back to my character, Faye Longchamp, as good research always does. Readers are interested in how scuba equipment works, I’m sure, but they care about people. They care about Faye. I gave Faye my fear of diving, about which I am extremely well-qualified to write, and that fear raises the stakes of this investigation for her. She must rise above it or find a way around it, because it is deeply important to her that she find out what happened to her friend.

If you have my trepidation about sinking deep beneath the water, carrying nothing to keep you alive but a tank and some machinery that could fail, then perhaps you would enjoy diving into the pages of Wrecked instead. You can see the briny deep and never even get wet.

*****

Here’s the summary of Wrecked.

Next title in the Faye Longchamp Archaeological Mysteries. When tragedy strikes and everything she loves is threatened, Faye Longchamp, an expert in American archaeology, will resort to desperate measures. Because some losses cut to the bone…A murder mystery with an archaeological twist, Wrecked is:Florida-based mysteryPerfect for fans of James Lee Burke and Nevada BarrFor readers of archaeological mysteries

The suspicious drowning death of Captain Edward Eubank breaks archaeologist Faye Longchamp’s heart. It also confuses her, because he was found in scuba gear and she’s never heard him even mention scuba diving. During their last conversation, he told her that he believed he’d found a storied shipwreck, but when Faye checks it out, she finds nothing there—not a plank, not a single gold coin, nothing. If there’s no treasure, then why is her friend dead?

But the situation quickly escalates beyond a murder mystery. Surrounded by a community struggling in the aftermath of a major hurricane that has changed the very landscape, Faye grapples not only with the loss of her friend, but with her fears for her daughter, who is being romanced by a man who may be very dangerous.

As a professional with her own consulting firm, Faye had long ago given up her “anything goes” attitude when the law stood between her and an interesting dig. Now that recklessness is back. There’s nothing she won’t do to protect her daughter.

In this riveting addition to an archaeological mystery and thriller series perfect for fans of Nevada Barr, Faye must save her most precious cargo—her daughter.