PoisonedBlogger

Did you miss Janet Evanovich’s recent virtual event at The Poisoned Pen? It was the launch for the 27th Stephanie Plum book, Fortune and Glory. You can still order signed copies of the book through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2kNWFsm

Here’s the summary of Fortune and Glory.

The twenty-seventh entry in the #1 New York Times bestselling series isn’t just the biggest case of Stephanie Plum’s career. It’s the adventure of a lifetime.

When Stephanie’s beloved Grandma Mazur’s new husband died on their wedding night, the only thing he left her was a beat-up old easy chair…and the keys to a life-changing fortune.

But as Stephanie and Grandma Mazur search for Jimmy Rosolli’s treasure, they discover that they’re not the only ones on the hunt. Two dangerous enemies from the past stand in their way—along with a new adversary who’s even more formidable: Gabriela Rose, a dark-eyed beauty from Little Havana with a taste for designer clothes. She’s also a soldier of fortune, a gourmet cook, an expert in firearms and mixed martial arts—and someone who’s about to give Stephanie a real run for her money.

Stephanie may be in over her head, but she’s got two things that Gabriela doesn’t: an unbreakable bond with her family and a stubborn streak that will never let her quit.

She’ll need both to survive because this search for “fortune and glory” will turn into a desperate race against time with more on the line than ever before. Because even as she searches for the treasure and fights to protect her Grandma Mazur, her own deepest feelings will be tested—as Stephanie could finally be forced to choose between Joe Morelli and Ranger.

*****

Even if you missed the virtual launch, you can catch Janet Evanovich’s conversation with Barbara Peters.

The winners of the World Fantasy Awards were just announced. The World Fantasy Awards are a set of awards given each year for the outstanding achievement in fantasy fiction published during the previous calendar year. Check the Web Store for the winners. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

Congratulations go to all the winners, beginning with the Lifetime Achievement Award winners, Karen Joy Fowler and Rowena Morrill.

Novel – Queen of the Conquered by Kacen Callender

Novella – Silver in the Wood by Emily Tesh

Short Fiction – “Read After Burning” by Maria Dahvana Headley, in A People’s Future of the United States

Anthology – New Suns: Original Speculative Fiction by People of Color, edited by Nisi Shawl

Collection – Song for the Unraveling of the World: Stories by Brian Evenson

Michael McGarrity’s Head Wounds is the current Hot Book of the Week at The Poisoned Pen. That’s perfect because he’s the guest author for the virtual event on Poisoned Pen’s Facebook page, Friday, November 6 at 4 PM (6 PM ET). You can pre-order a signed copy of this latest Kevin Kearney book, as well as earlier ones, through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/327ZVRN

Head Wounds is the final book in the Kevin Kearney series.

Clayton Istee, son of retired police chief Kevin Kerney, goes up against an elusive Mexican hitman in a mesmerizing story of murder, revenge, and redemption.

Given a chance to salvage his law enforcement career, Dona Ana County Sheriff’s Detective Clayton Istee catches a bizarre late-night double homicide at a Las Cruces hotel. Both victims, a man and a woman, have been scalped with their throats cut.

The murders show all the signs of a signature hit, but national and state crime databases reveal no similar profiles. Digging into the victims’ backgrounds, Clayton discovers that six months prior the couple had walked out of a nearby casino with $200,000 of a high-stakes gambler’s money.

He also learns the crime had been hushed up by an undercover federal DEA agent, who resurfaces and recruits Clayton for a dangerous mission to seize the Mexican drug lord responsible for the killings.

Thrust into the nightmare world of borderland drug wars and corrupt cops, Clayton duels with a cunning assassin poised to kill him and his family in a ferocious climax to the Kevin Kerney series that is sure to stun.

*****

With the publication of Tularosa in 1996, Michael McGarrity turned to writing full time. Many of his novels have been national best sellers. He holds a BA with distinction in psychology and a master’s degree in clinical social work. As an undergraduate, he held a Ford Foundation Scholarship at the University of New Mexico. Additionally, he is an honor graduate of the New Mexico Law Enforcement Academy.

His career in criminal justice spanned over twenty-five years and included creating treatment programs for drug offenders, supervising outreach services for at-risk juveniles, and re-establishing mental health services for the Department of Corrections after the infamous 1980 riot at the New Mexico Penitentiary. As a Santa Fe County deputy sheriff, he worked as a patrol officer, training and planning supervisor, community relations officer, and was the lead investigator of the sex crimes unit, which he established. Additionally, he taught courses at the New Mexico Law Enforcement Academy, served as a caseworker and investigator for the Public Defender’s District Office, and conducted investigations for a state government agency. In 1980 he was named New Mexico Social Worker of the Year and in 1987 was recognized by the American Legion as Police Officer of the Year.

In 2004 he received the New Mexico Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts — Literature. He is also the 2015 recipient of the Frank Waters Exemplary Literary Achievement Award and the 2015 Santa Fe Mayor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts ““ Literature. He has been instrumental in establishing the Hillerman-McGarrity Creative Writing Scholarship at the University of New Mexico, the Richard Bradford Memorial Creative Writing Scholarship at the Santa Fe Community College, and the N. Scott Momaday Creative Writing Scholarship at the Institute of American Indian Arts.

He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico with his wife Emily Beth (Mim).

Debut author Asha Lemmie will be in conversation with Lisa See on Poisoned Pen’s Facebook page on Thursday, Nov. 5 at 5 PM (7 PM ET). Signed copies of Fifty Words for Rain are available through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2TIkv6F

Here is the background for the novel.

A 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.

*****

If you would like a little more of a preview, here’s an interview done for “Meet Our Author” by Asha Lemmie’s publisher.

The Lost Spells, a book of poems by Robert Macfarlane, illustrated by Jackie Morris, is the current Hot Book of the Week at The Poisoned Pen. There are signed copies of this follow-up to The Lost Words, available through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2TI1NMo

Here’s The Lost Spells.

The follow-up to the internationally bestselling sensation The Lost Words, The Lost Spells is a beautiful collection of poems and illustrations that evokes the magic of the everyday natural world.Since its publication in 2017, The Lost Words has enchanted readers with its poetry and illustrations of the natural world. Now, The Lost Spells, a book kindred in spirit and tone, continues to re-wild the lives of children and adults.The Lost Spells evokes the wonder of everyday nature, conjuring up red foxes, birch trees, jackdaws, and more in poems and illustrations that flow between the pages and into readers’ minds. Robert Macfarlane’s spell-poems and Jackie Morris’s watercolour illustrations are musical and magical: these are summoning spells, words of recollection, charms of protection. To read The Lost Spells is to see anew the natural world within our grasp and to be reminded of what happens when we allow it to slip away.

Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, recently hosted Lee Child and his brother Andrew Child for the virtual launch of the twenty-fifth Jack Reacher novel, The Sentinel. You can still order a signed copy through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/3jFov2u

Here’s the summary of the latest Jack Reacher novel.

Jack Reacher is back! The “utterly addictive” (The New York Times) series continues as the acclaimed #1 bestselling author Lee Child teams up with his brother, Andrew Child, fellow thriller writer extraordinaire.

“One of the many great things about Jack Reacher is that he’s larger than life while remaining relatable and believable. The Sentinel shows that two Childs are even better than one.”—James Patterson

As always, Reacher has no particular place to go, and all the time in the world to get there. One morning he ends up in a town near Pleasantville, Tennessee.

But there’s nothing pleasant about the place.

In broad daylight Reacher spots a hapless soul walking into an ambush. “It was four against one” . . . so Reacher intervenes, with his own trademark brand of conflict resolution.

The man he saves is Rusty Rutherford, an unassuming IT manager, recently fired after a cyberattack locked up the town’s data, records, information . . . and secrets. Rutherford wants to stay put, look innocent, and clear his name.

Reacher is intrigued. There’s more to the story. The bad guys who jumped Rutherford are part of something serious and deadly, involving a conspiracy, a cover-up, and murder—all centered on a mousy little guy in a coffee-stained shirt who has no idea what he’s up against.

Rule one: if you don’t know the trouble you’re in, keep Reacher by your side.

*****

You can watch the entire event here.

Patrick Millikin of The Poisoned Pen recently hosted Stuart Neville, author of The Traveller and Other Stories, and Luca Veste, author of The Silence. Their books can be ordered through the Web Store. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

Here’s the description of Neville’s The Traveller and Other Stories.

A darkly glittering collection of Northern Irish noir by Stuart Neville, Los Angeles Times Book Prize”“winning author

Since his debut novel, the modern classic The Ghosts of Belfast, was published a decade ago, Stuart Neville has published eight other critically acclaimed novels and achieved international recognition as one of crime fiction’s great living writers.

Now for the first time Neville offers readers a collection of his short fiction—twelve chilling stories that traverse and blend the genres of noir, horror, and speculative fiction, and which bring the history and lore of Neville’s native Northern Ireland to glittering life. The collection concludes with the longawaited novella The Traveller, the companion piece to The Ghosts of Belfast and Collusion.

Complete with a foreword from Irish crime fiction legend John Connolly, this volume is the perfect indulgence for fans of ghost stories and noir, and is a must-have for devotees of Neville’s prizewinning Belfast novels.

*****

Check out Luca Veste’s psychological thriller, The Silence.

From the author of The Bone Keeper comes The Silence, another sinister psychological thriller of secrets, revenge, and a lurking serial killer.

We killed a stranger and covered it up.

It was supposed to be our last weekend away as friends, before marriage and respectability beckoned. But what happened that Saturday changed everything.

The six of us promised we would never tell anyone about the body we buried, even when we realized our victim was a serial killer.

But now the silence has been broken. And the killing has started again…

A twisted thriller that asks if we ever truly know our friends, and just how high price is for our silence.

*****

Enjoy the virtual conversation at The Poisoned Pen.

Jacqueline Winspear’s memoir, This Time Next Year We’ll Be Laughing, is due out November 10. You can pre-order a signed copy through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2JDLy0W

You can also enjoy the virtual event on November 7 on The Poisoned Pen’s Facebook page.

If you didn’t read Jacqueline Winspear’s recent newsletter providing a little background for This Time Next Year We’ll Be Laughing, you might want to read it now.

Hello! My late mother would probably roll her eyes at what I am about to write, which amounts to a confession regarding a childhood trait of mine that was the cause of much embarrassment for her. You see, I was a rather nosey kid and I’m not really sorry about it. I would ask my elders all sorts of questions, interrogating them about anything that occurred to me regarding “the olden days.” I remember asking one of my mother’s friends about her childhood in the olden days, and she said, “Not so much of the ‘olden’ if you don’t mind!” My mother raised her eyebrows and gave me that, “Wait until I get you home” look—I seemed to get that look a lot when I’d overstepped the mark with my questions. That’s me, looking every inch the “inquiring” little imp!I was all ears when someone uttered the words, “Well in my day…” before going on to tell a story about life in another time and place. If I was at someone’s house and there were sepia photographs on the mantelpiece or on top of an old upright piano, I would stare into them, taking account of every detail. Sometimes I thought people hung onto old pianos just to have a place to display their family portraits. I would look at photos and wonder what made that person look away from the camera at someone in the distance, or I’d be curious about why that child was frowning at the photographer. Asking questions brought the past alive for me in a very direct and colorful way. People told me things they might have kept to themselves—and I have recounted some of those stories in my upcoming memoir, This Time Next Year We’ll Be Laughing, which will be published on November 10th. Not long to go now! There was the elderly gentleman who described the time he was the only witness to a meeting between Winston Churchill and General “Ike” Eisenhower in the summer of 1944—I was on the edge of my seat as he described his job and why he was tasked with keeping the meeting a secret. And there was the grandmother of a childhood friend, a very dignified woman who appreciated my love of books and allowed me to look at any book that caught my attention in her library. My eyes widened the day I saw a personal inscription from a very famous author, only for my friend’s grandmother to inform me, “I was once her secretary.” Had I known about degrees of separation then, I would have been jettisoned to the moon. I’m sure you recognize these two men! I’m often asked how I go about the “research” for my writing, whether I’m working on a novel, an essay or short story, and the truth is research starts with asking questions; delving deep into a subject and then asking more questions—a process of inquiry that takes the writer on a journey of discovery. The challenge is in knowing when to stop, when enough is enough, though as far as I’m concerned, everything I gather is “inventory” for me to access at any time. The Imperial War Museum, London, where I have spent many hours using the archive. Sometimes I will read a book simply to find that one little snippet of information that will provide the seedling from which to grow a whole scene, or develop a character, or a plot point. However, as you will notice when you read This Time Next Year We’ll Be Laughing, much of the research for my stories is in remembering—after all, memories are inventory too. For my fiction, I’ll take perhaps a nugget of family history then weave a different kind of story. Drawing upon my late parents’ experiences during wartime has helped give color and texture to my writing. In my memoir you’ll read another story about my father, one that inspired the next book in the Maisie Dobbs’ series (The Consequences of Fear, to be published March 23, 2021). You heard it here first, though you’ll have to read the memoir to discover the other story about my Dad. I began writing my memoir many years ago, stashing an earlier, very different version in a drawer because I couldn’t quite bend the words to my will. Now publication day is almost here for This Time Next Year We’ll Be Laughing, so I’m excited, yet also filled with trepidation. As any writer will tell you, whether you are a first time author or have published a raft of books, publication day can be daunting. Yes, it’s thrilling, but scary too—the book you’ve worked on for a long time is now “out there” and you just hope that readers will enjoy the story you felt compelled to write. I’d just arrived home rather bedraggled after driving for seven hours—to find early copies of my memoir had arrived. Exciting day! Until the next time…With all good wishes,Jacqueline PS: You can read more about This Time Next Year We’ll Be Laughing, along with an excerpt here: www.thistimenextyearbook.com

Are you ready for November? The Poisoned Pen Bookstore has some exciting virtual events coming up. As always, doublecheck the schedule. But, if you want a book, you should pre-order it now through the Web Store. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

Here are the events that kick off November.

Hello from Poisoned Pen Press!

We’re thrilled to publish a first-in-series special edition reissue of The Rock Hole by Reavis Wortham, winner of the 2020 Spur Award from the Western Writers of America. The new edition includes an introduction by author Joe R. Lansdale, an author interview, and a reading group guide. It’s available through the Poisoned Pen’s Web Store at https://bit.ly/2yinlUS

The Thin Blue Line meets Sulfur Springs by William Kent Krueger in The Rock Hole. This is a gripping police procedural set in idyllic small town Texas where a chilling crime spree is unfolding and the drug culture and political unrest of the 1960s is creeping closer and closer.

When your family’s safety is threatened, what wouldn’t you do to protect them?

Lamar County, Texas: Summer, 1964. Life is idyllic for ten-year-old Top Parker, who has come to live with his grandparents in the rural community of Center Springs. Yet while Top runs the woods and countryside with his near twin cousin, Pepper, his Grandpa Ned—also known as Constable Ned in these parts—witnesses the spreading menace of a deranged killer. Out of his element, Ned reaches out to neighboring law enforcement and then the FBI.

Local news sources tag the budding serial killer “The Skinner,” and the label is chillingly accurate. Beginning with the torture and killing of small animals, the monster quickly moves to humans, displaying their mutilated corpses as gruesome trophies, with no apparent pattern to grab hold of. Lamar County cowers. Meanwhile, Constable Ned is convinced that a vendetta is involved, and though the why of it is murky, he can no longer deny that something horrific and dangerous is heading for the Parkers. Now the law can’t help him, and he must use whatever means necessary to protect himself and his family.

Is Ned up to the fight of his life?