If you’re a fan of cozy mysteries, mark your calendars for Saturday, Nov. 3. The Poisoned Pen will be hosting a slew of cozy mysteries writers from Kensington Books. The event takes place from 1-5 PM at the bookstore. There will be swag gift bags for all attendees, and book raffles. Expect two panels with a break in between. If you can’t make it to the event, you can order the authors’ books through the Web Store. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

You’ll want to try to attend, though. Just check out the list of authors and books.

Tamara Berry signs Séances Are for Suckers ($26)
Lynn Cahoon signs Of Murder and Men ($7.99)
JC Easton signs Staged 4 Murder ($7.99)
Jessica Elliott signs Murder Flies the Coop ($26)
Dianne Freeman signs A Lady’s Guide to Etiquette and Murder ($26)
Cheryl Hollon signs Shattered At Sea ($7.99)
JR Ripley signs Die, Die Birdie ($7.99)
Kym Roberts signs Lethal Literature ($15)
Rosemary Simpson signs Lies That Comfort and Betray ($15.95)

If you’re planning to be in Scottsdale at The Poisoned Pen between Nov. 9 and the 18th, you might want to plan on some other events while you’re visiting. Scottsdale Public Art offers Canal Convergence during that time frame.

Canal Convergence Features Local Artist  |  View in browser

Canal Convergence

Water + Art + Light

Nov. 9-18, 2018

Scottsdale Waterfront

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Featured Local Artist: Walter Productions

Walter Productions is a Phoenix-based creative collective that specializes in building experiential art. The team behind our special blend of magic is a group of dreamers, artists, technologists, fabricators, programmers, producers, and all-around make-it-happen people who have a well-established reputation for making amazing things happen.

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Photo by Tyler Whalen

FLOATUS by Walter Productions

Floatus invites attendees to be inspired by what is possible through creativity, teamwork, technology, and fabrication. The installation consists of 12 polished aluminum lotus sculptures that float on the surface of the water. Each Floatus is equipped with LED lights and flame FX systems capable of shooting a controlled flame up to 30 feet in the air.

The Floatus blossoms look beautiful during the daytime as they reflect the sunlight, but they come fully alive at night with LEDs and fire shows choreographed to music. The Walter Project will offer 28 fire shows during the 10-day Canal Convergence event and two special shows during the Nov. 8 Launch Party. When the flames are not firing, attendees will be invited to interact with a console that controls the LEDs within each Floatus blossom.

Learn More

Other Featured Public Art at Canal Convergence

ARIZONA!

by Choi+Shine Architects

Floret

by Koros Design

Iceberg

by ATOMIC3 and APPAREIL Architecture in collaboration with Jean-Sébastien Côté and Philippe Jean

Infinity Crystal

by Klip Collective

Light Flutter

by Skunk Control

Loop

by Ekumen, designed by Olivier Girouard, Jonathan Villeneuve and Ottoblix, in collaboration with Générique Design, Jérôme Roy and Thomas Ouellet Fredericks

Luminous Cactus

by Toby Atticus Fraley

Re-Cyclone

by Martin Taylor and the Chromaforms Art Collective

Sound Sculpture

by Masary Studios

Title Sponsor

Presenting Sponsor

Presenting Sponsor

   

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Become a Member
Learn more about the benefits of membership by calling Member and Patron Services at 480-499-8587.

Scottsdale Arts, 7380 E. Second St., Scottsdale, AZ 85251

Congratulations to all the winners of the 2018 CWA Dagger Awards. The Crime Writers Association has been presenting the Dagger Awards for over fifty years. Here’s the list of this year’s winners. Don’t forget to check the Web Store when looking for books. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

The CWA Diamond Dagger – Michael Connelly

The CWA Gold Dagger – Steve Cavanagh – THE LIAR

The Ian Fleming Steel Dagger – Attica Locke – BLUEBIRD, BLUEBIRD

The John Creasey Debut Dagger – Melissa Scrivner Love – LOLA

The CWA ALCS Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction – Thomas Harding – BLOOD ON THE PAGE

The CWA Historical Dagger – Rory Clements – NUCLEUS

The CWA Short Story Dagger – Denise Mina – NEMO ME IMPUNE LACESSIT, BLOODY SCOTLAND

The International Dagger – Henning Mankell – AFTER THE FIRE – tr Marlaine Delargy

The CWA Debut Dagger – Winner – Bill Crotty – THE ETERNAL LIFE OF EZRA BEN SIMEON

Highly Commended – Joseph James – RIVERINE BLOOD

The final Dagger Award goes to a favorite Poisoned Pen Press author, who also happens to be popular in libraries. “The Dagger in the Library is a prize for a body of work by an established crime writer that has long been popular with borrowers from libraries. It also rewards authors who have supported libraries and their users.” The winner of this year’s –

The CWA Dagger in the Library – Martin Edwards.

Congratulations, Martin!

If you’re a fan of Deborah Harkness’ All Souls’ Trilogy, you’ll want to watch her recent book event in which she discusses Time’s Convert. Or, doesn’t discuss Time’s Convert because she makes it clear to the audience that there will be no spoilers. You’ll appreciate the humor in the event. You can watch it now.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zd2BgJbHtzM&w=560&h=315]

You can order copies of Harkness’ books, including signed copies of Time’s Convert, through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2PTnENl

Here’s the summary of Time’s Convert.

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Discovery of Witches, a novel about what it takes to become a vampire.

On the battlefields of the American Revolution, Matthew de Clermont meets Marcus MacNeil, a young surgeon from Massachusetts, during a moment of political awakening when it seems that the world is on the brink of a brighter future. When Matthew offers him a chance at immortality and a new life free from the restraints of his puritanical upbringing, Marcus seizes the opportunity to become a vampire. But his transformation is not an easy one and the ancient traditions and responsibilities of the de Clermont family clash with Marcus’s deeply held beliefs in liberty, equality, and brotherhood.

Fast-forward to contemporary Paris, where Phoebe Taylor–the young employee at Sotheby’s whom Marcus has fallen for–is about to embark on her own journey to immortality. Though the modernized version of the process at first seems uncomplicated, the couple discovers that the challenges facing a human who wishes to be a vampire are no less formidable than they were in the eighteenth century. The shadows that Marcus believed he’d escaped centuries ago may return to haunt them both–forever.

A passionate love story and a fascinating exploration of the power of tradition and the possibilities not just for change but for revolution, Time’s Convert channels the supernatural world-building and slow-burning romance that made the All Souls Trilogy instant bestsellers to illuminate a new and vital moment in history, and a love affair that will bridge centuries.

The current Hot Book of the Week at The Poisoned Pen is Tana French’s The Witch Elm. The standalone novel, and other books by French, are available through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2OfmU8p

Here’s the description of The Witch Elm.

“Tana French’s best and most intricately nuanced novel yet. . . Get ready for the whiplash brought on by its final twists and turns.” –The New York Times

A brilliant new work of suspense from “the most important crime novelist to emerge in the past 10 years.” (Washington Post)

From the writer who “inspires cultic devotion in readers” (The New Yorker) and has been called “incandescent” by Stephen King, “absolutely mesmerizing” by Gillian Flynn, and “unputdownable” (People), comes a gripping new novel that turns a crime story inside out.

Toby is a happy-go-lucky charmer who’s dodged a scrape at work and is celebrating with friends when the night takes a turn that will change his life – he surprises two burglars who beat him and leave him for dead. Struggling to recover from his injuries, beginning to understand that he might never be the same man again, he takes refuge at his family’s ancestral home to care for his dying uncle Hugo. Then a skull is found in the trunk of an elm tree in the garden – and as detectives close in, Toby is forced to face the possibility that his past may not be what he has always believed.

A spellbinding standalone from one of the best suspense writers working today, The Witch Elm asks what we become, and what we’re capable of, when we no longer know who we are.

On Sunday, October 28 at 1 PM, The Poisoned Pen will host Diana Gabaldon and Chris Humphreys at the Doubletree Resort by Hilton Paradise Valley. All of the information about the event is here. https://bit.ly/2PkXENS

Diana Gabaldon will be signing Voyager: 25th Anniversary Edition. But, you might not be familiar with Canadian author Chris Humphreys. The award-winning author has a fascinating background.

Chris (C.C.) Humphreys was born in Toronto, lived till he was seven in Los Angeles, then grew up in the UK. All four grandparents were actors, and since his father was an actor as well, it was inevitable he would follow the bloodline.

Chris has performed on stages from London’s West End to Hollywood in roles including Hamlet, Caleb the gladiator in NBC’s AD-Anno Domini’, Clive Parnell in “˜Coronation Street’, PC Richard Turnham in ‘The Bill’, the Immortal Graham Ashe in “˜Highlander’, Jack Absolute in ‘The Rivals’ (This performance led to him writing the Jack Absolute novels ““ and they say acting doesn’t pay!). Bizarrely, he was also the voice of Salem the cat in “˜Sabrina the Teenage Witch’.

A playwright, fight choreographer and novelist, he has written eleven adult novels including “˜The French Executioner’, runner up for the CWA Steel Dagger for Thrillers; “˜The Jack Absolute Trilogy’; “˜A Place Called Armageddon’; “˜Shakespeare’s Rebel’ and the international bestseller, “˜Vlad ““ The Last Confession’.

He also writes for young adults, with a trilogy called The Runestone Saga and “˜The Hunt of the Unicorn’. The sequel, “˜The Hunt of the Dragon’, was published Fall 2016.

His recent novel “˜Plague’ won Canada’s Arthur Ellis Award for Best Crime Novel in 2015. The sequel, “˜Fire’ is a thriller set during the Great Fire, published Summer 2016. Both novels spent five weeks in the top ten on 2016’s Globe and Mail and Toronto Star Bestseller lists.

His new novel is “˜Chasing the Wind’ about 1930’s aviatrix ““ and thief! ““ Roxy Loewen, will be published in Canada and the USA in June 2018.

Several of his novels are available as Audiobooks – read by himself! Find him here at Audible:

https://tiny.cc/q83sqy

He is translated into thirteen languages. In 2015 he earned his Masters in Fine Arts (Creative Writing) from the University of British Columbia.

Chris now lives on Salt Spring Island, BC, Canada, with his wife, son and cat, Dickon (who keeps making it into his books!)

Check out his website: https://cchumphreys.com

Copies of Plague and Chasing the Wind will be available for purchase.

Jamie Fraser is not dead — but he is in hell. Waking among the fallen on Culloden Field, he is concerned neither for his men nor his wounds but for his wife and their unborn child. Lord, he prayed passionately, that she may be safe. She and the child. It’s a prayer he’ll utter many times over the next twenty years, never knowing but always hoping that Claire made it through the standing stones, back to the safety of her own time.

If you missed the recent event at The Poisoned Pen featuring authors Martin Limon and Ed Lin, you can still catch it via YouTube. Barbara Peters, owner of the bookstore, interviewed both authors.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irZHoIPoprU&w=560&h=315]

Martin Limon is the author of the Sueno and Bascom novels set in South Korea. The thirteenth in the series, The Line, takes the two men from Seoul to the DMZ. You can order other books in the series and signed copies of The Line through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2Jc3Imz

The description of The Line reads:

George Sueño and Ernie Bascom return for their thirteenth outing, which takes them from Seoul to the DMZ in their most politically charged murder case yet.

The Korean Demilitarized Zone, 1970s: A battered corpse is found a few feet north of the line dividing North and South Korea. When 8th Army CID Agents George Sueño and Ernie Bascom pull the body to the South Korean side on orders from their superiors, they have no idea of the international conflict their small action will spark. Before war breaks out, they must discover who killed Corporal Noh Jong-bei, a young Korean soldier working with the US Army.

The murderer could be from either side of the DMZ. But without cooperation between the governments involved, how can two US military agents interrogate North Korean witnesses? What George and Ernie discover gets them pulled off the case, but fearing they’ve put the wrong man behind bars, they disobey orders in an attempt to discover the truth.

99 Ways to Die is the third in Ed Lin’s Taipei Night Market series. Copies of all three books, including signed copies of 99 Ways to Die, are available through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2qcZ2UR

Here’s the summary of Lin’s book.

In Taipei, Taiwan, the kidnapping of a Mainlander billionaire throws national media into a tizzy—not least because of the famous victim’s vitriolic anti-immigration politics.

Jing-nan has known Peggy Lee, a bullying frenemy who runs her family’s huge corporation, since high school. Peggy’s father has been kidnapped, and the ransom the kidnappers are demanding is not money but IP: a high-tech memory chip that they want to sell in China.

Jing-nan feels sorry for Peggy until she starts blackmailing him into helping out. Peggy is worried the kidnappers’ deadline will pass before the police are able to track down the chip. But when the reluctant Jingnan tries to help, he finds himself deeper and deeper in trouble with some very unsavory characters—the most unsavory of whom might be the victim himself.

You don’t have to live in Arizona to read Steven Cooper’s Gus Parker and Alex Mills crime novels. However, if you appreciate mysteries set there, you’ll want to investigate this series. Cooper’s second in the series, Dig Your Grave, is due out Oct. 30. You can order copies of Cooper’s books through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2NSg97u

Cooper made time to sit “In the Hot Seat”, and answer questions. Thank you, Steven.

Steven, would you introduce yourself to readers?

Hello, readers! I’m so pleased to be spending some time with you for this interview. I’m just gearing up for the release of the second novel in the Gus Parker & Alex Mills series, Dig Your Grave. The book goes on sale October 30, and I’m just discovering that there is not enough time in a day to plan for my events and write my next book.

I’m a native of Massachusetts, but I’ve lived a bit like a nomad throughout my career as a journalist. After living all over the country, I’ve now settled in Atlanta where I’m all but done in journalism and devote my time almost completely to writing fiction.

Before we discuss your characters and Dig Your Grave, what’s your connection to Arizona?

My journalism career landed me in Phoenix in the late 1990s. I worked as an investigative reporter for one of the valley’s television stations. I owned a home in Ahwatukee for many years. I always knew I would write a book or books based in Phoenix. I love the desert.

Tell us about Dig Your Grave, without spoilers.

A murderer is stalking prominent, affluent men in the Valley of the Sun. One after another end up dead, their bodies dumped in crudely dug graves at Phoenix cemeteries. This may or may not be the work of a serial killer. It could be a targeted case of revenge. Detective Alex Mills of the Phoenix Police Department is stumped, so when his friend, the reluctant psychic Gus Parker offers to help, he’s game. Gus, who doesn’t always trust his own visions, sees a haunted past associated with these murders. But he doesn’t know who’s doing the haunting or who will end up dead next, especially when some of the messages seem to be meant for him. Both he and Mills will find that the secrets hiding in the valley have a past to be reckoned with.

Gus is an interesting character to pair with a police detective. I know you could give me a comeback such as he came from your imagination, but where does Gus come from?

Gus doesn’t come from my imagination in the same way that the other characters evolve. Gus is very much shaped by circumstances in my own life that I can’t explain. I’m not psychic, but I’ve had experiences (experiences that cannot be explained away as coincidences) that have given me chills and made me question intuition on a very deep level. Few people live in the moment; even fewer people are self-aware enough to ponder their connections to the universe. Gus is always pondering, always exploring, always intuiting the people, places and things around him. Plus he’s a former surfer dude. He’s my alter ego.

Would you tell us about your publishing journey? Every author’s experience is different.

I started writing the first book in the Gus Parker & Alex Mills series, Desert Remains, in 2007. I wrote and rewrote. I stopped. I started again. I rewrote and revised and put it away. A few years later, I was drawn to it again. I pulled it out of the drawer and realized that I had to give it life. Maybe it was intuition or maybe it was resolve, but I knew the book, this book compared to others I had written, would find its way toward publication. Once completed, I queried several agents, and while they had mostly kind and constructive things to say about the manuscript, nothing clicked. I soon decided that maybe this wasn’t the best way to approach the querying phase. Instead, I searched for conferences where I could pitch my manuscript face-to-face to agents. The first conference I attended was mostly exploratory. For my second conference, I had the option of submitting a manuscript partial ahead of time for an agent to review. So, I sent off fifty pages, and a month or so later when I walked into the room for my appointment with the agent, she greeted me with a huge smile and said, “Oh Steven, what can I say? I love this. I want to see more.”

I tried to play it cool. But I was anything but cool. Those were the sweetest words I had heard in a very long time. That agent would go on to read the full manuscript, make some important suggestions, accept a “˜revise and resubmit,’ and sign me to her agency. With a month and a half after signing me, she sold my novel in a two-book deal. (I was surprised at the offer because I had written Desert Remains as a standalone. The publisher wanted a series. Who was I to question?) I certainly liked my characters well enough to bring them back for more.

What has been the most exciting moment or event of your career as an author?

After the excitement of walking into that appointment and hearing the agent’s reaction, I think the most exciting moment had to be when I got the news that the book had sold. There’s nothing quite like that. As for events, I must say I had a blast at the 2018 Tucson Festival of Books. It exceeded my expectations. To be surrounded by so many enthusiastic readers and fellow writers was BLISS. Pure bliss. I love meeting readers and talking about what appeals to them in a book.

What are you working on now?

The third book in the Gus Parker and Alex Mills series.

What’s on your TBR (To Be Read) pile?

Dead is Best   Jo Perry

Idyll Hands   Stephanie Gayle

A Reckoning in Back Country   Terry Shames

The Bomb Maker   Thomas Perry

Trust Me Hank Phillippi Ryan

November Road Lou Berney

The Disappeared   C.J. Box

What author or book do you feel has been underappreciated?

Jo Perry. Her voice is so distinctive, and her stories curl around you in such an intimate way. She’s dark and she’s light and she plays with the shades in between with the deftness of an artist.

Thank you, Steven. Steven Cooper’s website can be found at https://stevencooperbooks.com

Michael Harvey will be at The Poisoned Pen on Wednesday, Oct. 24 at 7 PM to discuss and sign his latest novel, Pulse. Can’t make it? You can pre-order a signed copy of Pulse, or order other novels by Harvey through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2ylObfx

PULSE drops October 23, 2018!

PREORDER TODAY! The story of a Boston murder that defies all expectations—optioned for film by New Line Cinema and 21 Laps Entertainment, the company behind Stranger Things and Amy Adams’ big-screen thriller Arrival.

The book trailer for Pulse is enough to make you want to read the book.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAFMK1mryaQ&w=560&h=315]

If that’s not enough, though, here’s the summary.

“Harvey’s lethal imagination is cranked to eleven in this one . . . his best yet by far.  Superb!”
— Lee Child

The story of a Boston murder that defies all expectations—optioned for film by 21 Laps, the company behind Stranger Things and Arrival

Boston, 1976. In a small apartment above Kenmore Square, sixteen-year-old Daniel Fitzsimmons is listening to his landlord describe a seemingly insane theory about invisible pulses of light and energy that can be harnessed by the human mind. He longs to laugh with his brother Harry about it, but Harry doesn’t know he’s there—he would never approve of Daniel living on his own. None of that matters, though, because the next night Harry, a Harvard football star, is murdered in an alley.

Detectives “Bark” Jones and Tommy Dillon are assigned to the case. The veteran partners thought they’d seen it all, but they are stunned when Daniel wanders into the crime scene. Even stranger, Daniel claims to have known the details of his brother’s murder before it ever happened. The subsequent investigation leads the detectives deep into the Fitzsimmons brothers’ past. They find heartbreaking loss, sordid characters, and metaphysical conspiracies. Even on the rough streets of 1970s Boston, Jones and Dillon have never had a case like this.

Pulse is a novel laced with real danger and otherworldly twists—a master class by an endlessly gifted writer.