PoisonedBlogger

Did you miss Jane Harper’s first visit to The Poisoned Pen? It’s quite a distance to come from Australia to the United States for a book tour. Harper appeared at the bookstore, and discussed the Outback and her latest book, The Lost Man, with Barbara Peters, owner of the Pen. You can order a signed copy of it, and copies of Harper’s other books, through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2tfZwLh

Here’s the description of The Lost Man.

Two brothers meet in the remote Australian outback when the third brother is found dead, in this stunning new standalone novel from New York Times bestseller Jane Harper

Brothers Nathan and Bub Bright meet for the first time in months at the remote fence line separating their cattle ranches in the lonely outback. 

Their third brother, Cameron, lies dead at their feet. 

In an isolated belt of Australia, their homes a three-hour drive apart, the brothers were one another’s nearest neighbors. Cameron was the middle child, the one who ran the family homestead. But something made him head out alone under the unrelenting sun.

Nathan, Bub and Nathan’s son return to Cameron’s ranch and to those left behind by his passing: his wife, his daughters, and his mother, as well as their long-time employee and two recently hired seasonal workers.

While they grieve Cameron’s loss, suspicion starts to take hold, and Nathan is forced to examine secrets the family would rather leave in the past. Because if someone forced Cameron to his death, the isolation of the outback leaves few suspects.

A powerful and brutal story of suspense set against a formidable landscape, The Lost Man confirms Jane Harper, author of The Dry and Force of Nature, is one of the best new voices in writing today.

*****

Now, you can watch the discussion between Jane Harper and Barbara Peters.

The Poisoned Pen is holding a special publication party for Rhys Bowen’s new book, The Victory Garden. It’s Monday, February 11th at 7 PM. We hope you can make it, but if not, signed copies hof The Victory Garden are available through the Web Store. And, of course, her other books are available there as well.https://bit.ly/2GAisfK

There will be champagne and treats at the publication party. (And, you’ll be able to buy a copy of the book the day before the actual release date.) So, join the party!

Here’s the description of Rhys Bowen’s The Victory Garden.

From the bestselling author of The Tuscan Child comes a beautiful and heart-rending novel of a woman’s love and sacrifice during the First World War.

As the Great War continues to take its toll, headstrong twenty-one-year-old Emily Bryce is determined to contribute to the war effort. She is convinced by a cheeky and handsome Australian pilot that she can do more, and it is not long before she falls in love with him and accepts his proposal of marriage.

When he is sent back to the front, Emily volunteers as a “land girl,” tending to the neglected grounds of a large Devonshire estate. It’s here that Emily discovers the long-forgotten journals of a medicine woman who devoted her life to her herbal garden. The journals inspire Emily, and in the wake of devastating news, they are her saving grace. Emily’s lover has not only died a hero but has left her terrified—and with child. Since no one knows that Emily was never married, she adopts the charade of a war widow.

As Emily learns more about the volatile power of healing with herbs, the found journals will bring her to the brink of disaster, but may open a path to her destiny.

It’s a debut thriller that’s the current Hot Book of the Week at The Poisoned Pen. Alex Michaelides’ The Silent Patient is available now through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2GxVW6Y

Here’s the description of The Silent Patient.

“An unforgettable—and Hollywood-bound—new thriller…A mix of Hitchcockian suspense, Agatha Christie plotting, and Greek tragedy.”
—Entertainment Weekly

Promising to be the debut novel of the season The Silent Patient is a shocking psychological thriller of a woman’s act of violence against her husband—and of the therapist obsessed with uncovering her motive…

Alicia Berenson’s life is seemingly perfect. A famous painter married to an in-demand fashion photographer, she lives in a grand house with big windows overlooking a park in one of London’s most desirable areas. One evening her husband Gabriel returns home late from a fashion shoot, and Alicia shoots him five times in the face, and then never speaks another word.

Alicia’s refusal to talk, or give any kind of explanation, turns a domestic tragedy into something far grander, a mystery that captures the public imagination and casts Alicia into notoriety. The price of her art skyrockets, and she, the silent patient, is hidden away from the tabloids and spotlight at the Grove, a secure forensic unit in North London.

Theo Faber is a criminal psychotherapist who has waited a long time for the opportunity to work with Alicia. His determination to get her to talk and unravel the mystery of why she shot her husband takes him down a twisting path into his own motivations—a search for the truth that threatens to consume him….

Are you familiar with David P. Wagner, author of the Rick Montoya mysteries set in Italy? You can order them through the Poisoned Pen Web Store. https://bit.ly/2TBKYRN

David P. Wagner, author of the Rick Montoya mystery series, has written an article on plotting your mystery for the Killer Nashville website.  Here’s an excerpt:

I’ve always wondered how some authors can just sit down and begin writing without having any idea where their book is going, and especially if they write mysteries. Such writers are called “pantsers” in the literary lexicon since they write by the seat of their pants. Tony Hillerman was a pantser, and did pretty well, so it certainly can be done—just not by me.     

Continue reading

This month, our perennially under-dressed publicity director Michael Barson plumbs his personal archives to bring you a special treat: his reminiscence about interviewing the late, great Mickey Spillane for his Master’s thesis, back when dinosaurs still roamed the earth and beer cost a nickel (okay, I’ll admit I’m exaggerating; a tall neck probably cost a whole  quarter then—!). The year in question is 1976, when ancient mariner Barson was but an eager 24-year-old grad student at Bowling Green State U., his illustrious future career a mere twinkle in his baby blues…
Click here to read the article

Did you miss it, or do you want to watch it again? Gregg Hurwitz, author of Out of the Dark: An Orphan X Novel, and Joseph Finder, author of Judgment, were both here recently. They had a conversation with Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen. You can still order signed copies of either or both books through the Web Store. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

You can also still catch the event.

Have you heard of Marlon James’ first book in the Dark Star trilogy, Black Leopard, Red Wolf? It’s the Hot Book of the Week at The Poisoned Pen, but it’s a hot book nationally as well. You can order a signed copy through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2SwbNt6

Here’s the description of Black Leopard, Red Wolf.

“A fantasy world as well-realized as anything Tolkien made.” –Neil Gaiman

“Gripping, action-packed….The literary equivalent of a Marvel Comics universe.” –Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

The epic novel, an African Game of Thrones, from the Man Booker Prize-winning author of A Brief History of Seven Killings

In the stunning first novel in Marlon James’s Dark Star trilogy, myth, fantasy, and history come together to explore what happens when a mercenary is hired to find a missing child. 

Tracker is known far and wide for his skills as a hunter: “He has a nose,” people say. Engaged to track down a mysterious boy who disappeared three years earlier, Tracker breaks his own rule of always working alone when he finds himself part of a group that comes together to search for the boy. The band is a hodgepodge, full of unusual characters with secrets of their own, including a shape-shifting man-animal known as Leopard.

As Tracker follows the boy’s scent–from one ancient city to another; into dense forests and across deep rivers–he and the band are set upon by creatures intent on destroying them. As he struggles to survive, Tracker starts to wonder: Who, really, is this boy? Why has he been missing for so long? Why do so many people want to keep Tracker from finding him? And perhaps the most important questions of all: Who is telling the truth, and who is lying?

Drawing from African history and mythology and his own rich imagination, Marlon James has written a novel unlike anything that’s come before it: a saga of breathtaking adventure that’s also an ambitious, involving read. Defying categorization and full of unforgettable characters, Black Leopard, Red Wolf is both surprising and profound as it explores the fundamentals of truth, the limits of power, and our need to understand them both.

It’s a conversation you won’t see very often. Ian Rankin is in the United States, touring for this latest Rebus novel, In a House of Lies. Linwood Barclay, author of A Noise Downstairs, is this quarter’s writer-in-residence at The Poisoned Pen. You can find books by both authors in the Web Store. https://store.poisonedpen.com

And, you can watch and listen to this conversation, even when you couldn’t make it to The Poisoned Pen for the event.

No matter what I write for today, it can’t compete with the Super Bowl. It appears that Dwyer Murphy felt the same way, and he wrote an entertaining piece for CrimeReads, “Predicting the Super Bowl with Crime Fiction.” https://bit.ly/2GgwHpM

Who would you pick? Michael Connelly?

Or, Dennis Lehane?

I’m not going to give away the final score, but, if you’re a regular at the Poisoned Pen, you’ve probably met some of the current team from LA.

Did you miss James Rollins’ recent visit to The Poisoned Pen? He appeared on release day for his latest Sigma Force novel, Crucible. There was a champagne toast, and a discussion with Barbara Peters, owner of the bookstore. You can order a signed copy through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2t0Yumn

Here’s the summary of Crucible.

In the race to save one of their own, Sigma Force must wrestle with the deepest spiritual mysteries of mankind in this mind-expanding adventure from the #1 New York Times bestselling author, told with his trademark blend of cutting edge science, historical mystery, and pulse-pounding action.

Arriving home on Christmas Eve, Commander Gray Pierce discovers his house ransacked, his pregnant lover missing, and his best friend’s wife, Kat, unconscious on the kitchen floor. With no shred of evidence to follow, his one hope to find the woman he loves and his unborn child is Kat, the only witness to what happened. But the injured woman is in a semi-comatose state and cannot speak—until a brilliant neurologist offers a radical approach to “unlock” her mind long enough to ask a few questions.

What Pierce learns from Kat sets Sigma Force on a frantic quest for answers that are connected to mysteries reaching back to the Spanish Inquisition and to one of the most reviled and blood-soaked books in human history—a Medieval text known as the Malleus Maleficarum, the Hammer of Witches. What they uncover hidden deep in the past will reveal a frightening truth in the present and a future on the brink of annihilation, and force them to confront the ultimate question: What does it mean to have a soul?

*****

Here’s your opportunity to “attend” the James Rollins event. It was recorded.