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Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, recently welcomed two British authors for a virtual event at the bookstore. C.B. Everett’s latest book is The Other People. Jess Kidd launches a series with Murder at Gulls Nest. Both books are available in the Webstore. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

Here’s the summary of The Other People.

A group of strangers gathered at a mysterious country house are in a race against time to stop a serial killer in this twisty, high-concept thriller that combines Agatha Christie with Shutter Island.

Ten strangers.

An old dark house.

A killer picking them off one by one.

And a missing girl who’s running out of time…

And then there was one.

Ten strangers wake up inside an old, locked house. They have no recollection of how they got there. In order to escape, they have to solve the disappearance of a young woman. But a killer also stalks the halls of the house and soon the body count starts to rise. Who are these strangers? Why were they chosen? Why would someone want to kill them? And who—or what—lurks in the cellar?

Forget what you think you know.

Because while you can trust yourself, can you really trust The Other People?

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C.B. Everett is the pen name for author Martyn Waites. He trained at the Birmingham School of Speech and Drama and worked as an actor for many years before becoming a writer. His novels include the critically acclaimed Joe Donovan series, The Old Religion, and The White Room. In 2013, he was chosen to write Angel of Death, the official sequel to Susan Hill’s The Woman in Black, and in 2014 won the Grand Prix Roman Etranger for Born Under Punches. He has been nominated for every major British and French crime fiction award and has also enjoyed international commercial success with eight novels written under the name Tania Carver.

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Here’s the description of Jess Kidd’s Murder at Gulls Nest.

From Jess Kidd, the bestselling author of Things in Jars who “is so good it isn’t fair” (Erika Swyler, nationally bestselling author), the first in a cozy mystery series about a former nun who searches for answers in a small seaside town after her pen pal mysteriously disappears.

I believe every one of us at Gulls Nest is concealing some kind of secret.

1954: When her former novice’s dependable letters stop, Nora Breen asks to be released from her vows. Haunted by a line in Frieda’s letter, Nora arrives at Gulls Nest, a charming hotel in Gore-on-Sea in Kent.

A seaside town, a place of fresh air and relaxed constraints, is the perfect place for a new start. Nora hides her identity and pries into the lives of her fellow guests. But when a series of bizarre murders rattles the occupants of Gulls Nest it’s time to ask if a dark past can ever really be left behind.

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Jess Kidd is the award-winning author of Murder at Gulls Nest, The Night Ship, Himself, Mr. Flood’s Last Resort, and Things in Jars. Learn more at JessKidd.com.

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Enjoy the conversation with C.B. Everett and Jess Kidd.

John Charles from The Poisoned Pen welcomed Susan Meissner back to the bookstore for a virtual event. Meissner’s latest book, A Map to Paradise, is available through the Webstore. https://bit.ly/3DNUiOU

Here’s the summary of A Map to Paradise.

1956, Malibu, California: Something is not right on Paradise Circle.

With her name on the Hollywood blacklist and her life on hold, starlet Melanie Cole has little choice in company. There is her next-door neighbor, Elwood, but the screenwriter’s agoraphobia allows for just short chats through open windows. He’s her sole confidante, though, as she and her housekeeper, Eva, an immigrant from war-torn Europe, rarely make conversation.

Then one early morning Melanie and Eva spot Elwood’s sister-in-law and caretaker, June, digging in his beloved rose garden. After that they don’t see Elwood at all anymore. Where could a man who never leaves the house possibly have gone?

As they try to find out if something has happened to him, unexpected secrets are revealed among all three women, leading to an alliance that seems the only way for any of them to hold on to what they can still call their own. But it’s a fragile pact and one little spark could send it all up in smoke…

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Susan Meissner is a former managing editor of a weekly newspaper and an award-winning columnist. She is the award-winning author of The Nature of Fragile Things, The Last Year of the War, As Bright as Heaven, A Bridge Across the Ocean, Secrets of a Charmed Life, A Fall of Marigolds, and Stars over Sunset Boulevard, among other novels.

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Enjoy the conversation with Susan Meissner.

Deb Lewis from The Poisoned Pen is sharing her April picks, along with the links to purchase the books from the Webstore.

THE MAID’S SECRET by Nita Prose

This bestselling series continues with Head Maid Molly Gray about to marry her beloved Juan Manuel when the theft of a valuable treasure left to her by her grandmother unravels surprising secrets in her past. If you have read other books in this series you know the appeal is in Molly’s point of view and the skilled way all is not how it seems, at least to her (and those of us reading along with her). Who is hiding what? Enjoy the ride. (There are signed copies on order in the Webstore.)

VERA WONG’S GUIDE TO SNOOPING (ON A DEAD MAN) by Jesse Q Sutanto

I couldn’t wait for this sequel to the 2023 hit, VERA WONG’S UNSOLICITED ADVICE FOR MURDERS. Vera’s feeling bored and luckily for us, a murder gets dropped in her lap….an influencer who no one claims to know. Vera’s on the hunt and I recommend both books highly. 

THE MATCHMAKER by Aisha Saeed

As a former caterer, I couldn’t resist this story about a successful matchmaker whose client’s weddings are being sabotaged. An intriguing look at matchmaking along with a secret romance, the pages fly by in this one. 

MURDER AT GULLS NEST by Jess Kidd

A former nun goes to a small seaside town to investigate the disappearance of her pen pal. The beginning of a new series, this is the kind of mystery I adore – no one is as they seem, including our sleuth. 

THE DEATH OF US by Abigail Dean 

I picked this up because Stephen King wrote a glowing endorsement, and I am so glad I did. Twenty five years after a young couple experiences the worst at the hands of a serial killer, he is caught and they re-unite to see him brought to justice. A love story wrapped in a thriller, this one doesn’t disappoint. 

MURDER BY CHEESECAKE by Rachel Ekstrom Courage

A cozy mystery written by a literary agent continuing the wonderful characters from THE GOLDEN GIRLS! If you need more quality time with the remarkable ladies from the TV show THE GOLDEN GIRLS and a fun look back at Miami in the 1980’s this is for you. When Dorothy’s obnoxious date is found dead in a hotel freezer, the mayhem begins. All the zinger one liners you remember, this is the start of a fun new series. 

Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, welcomed debut author Andrew Ludington for a virtual event. There are signed copies of Splinter Effect available in the Webstore. https://bit.ly/4lapAA9.

Here’s the description of Splinter Effect.

In Splinter Effect, an action-packed debut by Andrew Ludington, time traveling archaeologist Rabbit Ward maneuvers through the past to recover a long-lost, precious menorah hidden in ancient Rome.

Smithsonian archaeologist Rabbit Ward travels through time on sponsored expeditions to the past to secure precious artifacts moments before they are lost to history. Although exceptional at his job, Rabbit is not without faults. In a spectacular failure twenty years ago, he lost both the menorah of the second temple and his hot-headed mentee, Aaron. So, when new evidence reveals the menorah’s reappearance in 6th century Constantinople, Rabbit seizes the chance for redemption.

But from the moment he arrives in the past, things start to go wrong. Rabbit quickly finds out that his prime competition, an unlicensed and annoyingly appealing “stringer” named Helen, is also in Constantinople hunting the menorah. And that’s only the beginning. The oppressed Jewish population of the city is primed for revolution, Constantinople’s leading gang seems to have it out for Rabbit personally, and someone local is interested enough in the menorah to kill for it.

As the past closes in on him and his previous failures compound, will Rabbit be able to recover the menorah before it’s once again lost in time? With new and old dangers alike hiding behind every corner, time might just be up for Rabbit’s redemption—and possibly his life.

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Andrew Ludington writes transportive adventure stories intended to make you forget your commute. He graduated from Kenyon College with a BA in English Literature and lives in Evanston, IL where he moonlights as a technologist for Northwestern University. Splinter Effect is his first novel.

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Enjoy the conversation with Andrew Ludington.

Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, recently welcomed Sandra Brown and Tess Gerritsen back to the bookstore for a live event. Brown’s latest book is Blood Moon. Gerritsen’s second spy novel is The Summer Guests. You can order signed copies of both books through the Webstore. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

Here’s the description of Blood Moon.

In this sexy thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author Sandra Brown, an unruly detective and an ambitious TV show producer work against the clock to prevent another young woman from disappearing before the next blood moon—while trying to resist the attraction between them. 

Detective John Bowie is one misstep away from being fired from the Auclair Police Department in coastal Louisiana. Recently divorced and slightly heavy-handed with his liquor, Bowie does all that he can to cope with the actions taken (or not taken) during the investigation of Crissy Mellin, a teenage girl who disappeared more than three years prior. But now, Crisis Point, a long-running true crime television series, is soon to air an episode documenting the unsolved Mellin case. Bowie has been instructed by his unscrupulous boss to keep to his grievances and criticisms over the mishandling of the investigation to himself.

Beth Collins, a senior producer on Crisis Point, knows what classifies as a great story and when there’s something more to be told. After working on the show for seven years, Collins is convinced that Crissy Mellin’s disappearance was not an isolated incident. A string of disappearances of teenage girls in nearby areas have only one thing in common: They took place on the night of a blood moon. In a last-ditch effort to find out the truth, Beth enlists Detective Bowie to help her figure out what happened to Crissy and find the true culprit before he acts on the next blood moon—in four days’ time.   

With their jobs and their lives at risk, Bowie and Collins band together to identify and capture a perpetrator, while fighting an irresistible spark between them that threatens to upend everything.

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Sandra Brown is the author of seventy-six New York Times bestsellers, including Out of Nowhere, Overkill, Blind Tiger, Thick As Thieves, Seeing Red, Outfox, Tailspin, Sting and Mean Streak. Writing professionally since 1981, Brown has published over eighty novels and has upwards of eighty million copies of her books in print worldwide. Her work has been translated into thirty-four languages. Brown holds an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Texas Christian University, where she instituted the Excellence in Literary Fiction, or ELF, a scholarship awarded annually to a creative writing student. She has served as president of Mystery Writers of America, and in 2008 she was named Thriller Master, the top award given by the International Thriller Writer’s Association. Other honors include the Texas Medal of Arts Award for Literature and the Romance Writers of America’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

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Here’s the summary of Tess Gerritsen’s The Summer Guests.

From New York Times bestselling author Tess Gerritsen comes a chilling follow-up to The Spy Coast, plunging the Martini Club into the search for a missing teen—with a startling connection to their own pasts.

When former spy Maggie Bird retired to the seaside hamlet of Purity, Maine, she settled in for a quiet life with breathtaking views. But enemies from her past soon threatened to destroy everything.

Maggie survived, thanks to her wits and the collective intelligence of the Martini Club, the circle of ex-CIA friends in her cocktail-sipping book club. Their handiwork, however, caught the attention of young police chief Jo Thibodeau. Now Jo and her neighborhood ex-spies have an uneasy alliance.

After a teenager vanishes—and Maggie’s neighbor becomes the prime suspect—she joins the investigation, determined to prove her friend’s innocence. But the girl’s wealthy family pushes for an arrest. And when authorities discover a long-dead corpse in a nearby pond, the case becomes doubly complicated, with unthinkable ties to long-buried secrets.

As Jo grapples with two unexplained mysteries, the Martini Club races to uncover the truth behind shadowy secrets…before more lives are lost.

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International bestselling author Tess Gerritsen took an unusual route to a writing career. A graduate of Stanford University, she later earned her MD at the University of California, San Francisco. While on maternity leave as a physician, she began to write fiction, publishing her first novel in 1987. She has since sold over forty million books in forty countries, winning both the Nero and RITA awards.

Gerritsen’s novels have been major bestsellers around the world. Critics praise her books as “pulse-pounding fun” (Philadelphia Inquirer), “scary and brilliant” (Toronto’s Globe and Mail), and “polished, riveting prose” (Chicago Tribune). Publishers Weekly dubbed her the “medical suspense queen.”

Gerritsen’s series featuring homicide detective Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Maura Isles inspired the TNT television series Rizzoli & Isles.

Now retired from medicine, Gerritsen lives in Maine and writes full time.

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And, if you’re interested, John B. Valeri has an excellent interview with Tess Gerritsen in CrimeReads. It’s called “The Age of Discontent: Tess Gerritsen on Senior Crime Solvers and Subverting Expectations”. https://crimereads.com/tess-gerritsen-summer-guests/

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Here’s the event with Sandra Brown and Tess Gerritsen.

Michael Connelly hosted a special event at The Poisoned Pen with former LAPD Detective Rick Jackson and co-author Matthew McGough, authors of Black Tunnel White Magic. According to Jackson, it’s not a whodunnit; it’s a how was it done. There are signed copy of the true crime book in the Webstore. https://bit.ly/3XY8ewf

Here’s the summary of Black Tunnel White Magic.

Detective Rick Jackson, a decorated LAPD detective and a key inspiration in the development of Harry Bosch, delivers a shocking and immersive look into the one case he could never let go.

In June 1990, Ronald Baker, a straight-A UCLA student, was found repeatedly stabbed to death in a tunnel near Spahn Ranch, where Charles Manson and his followers once lived. Shortly thereafter, Detective Rick Jackson and his partner, Frank Garcia, were assigned the case. Yet the facts made no sense. Who would have a motive to kill Ron Baker in such a grisly manner? Was the proximity to the Manson ranch related to the murder? And what about the pentagram pendant Ron wore around his neck?

Jackson and Garcia soon focused their investigation on Baker’s two male roommates, one Black, and one white. What emerges is at once a story of confounding betrayal and cold-hearted intentions, as well as a larger portrait of an embattled Los Angeles, a city in the grip of the Satanic Panic and grappling with questions of racial injustice and police brutality in the wake of Rodney King.

In straightforward, matter-of-fact prose, Rick Jackson, the now-retired police detective who helped inspire Michael Connelly’s beloved Harry Bosch, along with co-writer, Matthew McGough, take us through the events as he and his partner experienced them, piecing together the truth with each emerging clue. Black Tunnel White Magic is the true story of a murder in cold blood, deception and betrayal, and a city at the brink, set forth by the only man who could tell it.

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Rick Jackson had a 34-year career with the Los Angeles Police Department, before retiring in 2013. He is a known homicide expert, as well as a highly-regarded detective with extensive expertise and success in the field of “cold case” homicides. Rick has been a consultant and technical advisor for New York Times #1 bestselling crime fiction author Michael Connelly. This ongoing 16-year relationship has included all of Connelly’s novels, the “Bosch” television series, and numerous other film and TV scripts.
 
Matthew McGough is an investigative journalist, lawyer, and the author of two books: The Lazarus Files: A Cold Case Investigation, and Bat Boy: Coming of Age with the New York Yankees, which inspired the CBS series Clubhouse. He is the recipient of two Southern California Journalism Awards from the Los Angeles Press Club, for his reporting in The Atlantic magazine. He has also written for television and was a writer and legal consultant for NBC’s Law & Order.

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Enjoy Michael Connelly’s conversation with Rick Jackson and Matthew McGough.

Although Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, welcomed John Sandford and Nick Petrie to the bookstore, Petrie served as host for the event. Lethal Prey is Sandford’s fifty-ninth book. There are signed copies of Lethal Prey available through the Webstore. https://bit.ly/4iJqG4g

Here is the description of Lethal Prey (but, you’ll really want to listen to Sandford describe it).

Lucas Davenport and Virgil Flowers join forces to track down a ruthless killer who will do whatever it takes to keep the past buried, in this latest thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author John Sandford.

Doris Grandfelt, an employee at an accounting firm, was brutally stabbed to death . . . but nobody knew exactly where the crime took place. Her body was found the next night, dumped among a dense thicket of trees along the edge of an urban park, eight miles east of St. Paul, Minnesota. Despite her twin sister Lara Grandfelt’s persistent calls to the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, the killer was never found.

Twenty years later, Lara has been diagnosed with breast cancer. Confronted with the possibility of her own death, she’s determined to find Doris’s killer once and for all. Finally taking matters into her own hands, she dumps the entire investigative file on every true-crime site in the world and offers a $5 million reward for information leading to the killer’s arrest. Dozens of true-crime bloggers show up looking for both new evidence and “clicks,” and Lucas Davenport and Virgil Flowers are called in to review anything that might be a new lead.

When one of the bloggers locates the murder weapon, Lucas and Virgil begin to uncover vital details about the killer’s identity. But what they don’t know is the killer lurks in plain sight, and with the true-crime bloggers blasting every clue online, the killer can keep one step ahead. As the nation maneuvers the detectives closer to the truth, Lucas and Virgil will find that digging up Doris’s harrowing past might just get them buried instead.

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John Sandford is the pseudonym for the Pulitzer Prize winning journalist John Camp. He is the author of thirty-four Prey novels; two Letty Davenport novels; four Kidd novels; twelve Virgil Flowers novels; three YA novels coauthored with his wife, Michele Cook; and three other books.

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As I said, you’ll want to listen to John Sandford discuss his work.

Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, welcomed Kathryn Lasky back to the bookstore to discuss her third Georgia O’Keeffe mystery, A Slant of Light. Lasky talks about O’Keeffe’s art and the books. There are signed copies of A Slant of Light available through the Webstore. https://bit.ly/4bWZFru

Here’s the description of A Slant of Light.

When students of St Ignatius go missing, painter and amateur sleuth Georgia O’Keeffe must infiltrate the school to figure out what’s going on in this thrilling historical mystery set in 1930s New Mexico from multi award-winning author Kathryn Lasky.

New Mexico, 1936. Settling in for a harsh winter alone at her house at the Ghost Ranch, painter and occasional amateur sleuth Georgia O’Keeffe makes the most of the weather before a storm rolls in. But when she finds the ideal spot to capture a particularly nice sunset, Georgia discovers a boy – cold, exhausted and desperate . . .

Joseph Reyes is a student at St Ignatius School, and he claims that sinister Sister Angelica and Father Raphael have raped and killed his sister. And she is not the only one who suddenly went missing!

Georgia is determined to find out what’s happening at this seemingly peculiar school, but as she investigates she uncovers even more disturbing machinations that link the school to the newly founded Opus Dei institution and its cult-like practices as well as Nazis and hidden spies – not knowing how much she puts herself in danger.

Lovers of historical mysteries that feature real-life people will have a blast! “Step aside Miss Marple, Eugenia Potter, and Kinsey Millhone – Georgia O’Keeffe is the new sleuth in town!” (Award-winning author Katherine Hall Page).

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Kathryn Lasky is the author of over one hundred books for children and young adults, including the Guardians of Ga’Hoole series, which has more than eight million copies in print, and was turned into a major motion picture, Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole. Her books have received numerous awards including a Newbery Honor, a Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, and a Washington Post-Children’s Book Guild Nonfiction Award. She has twice won the National Jewish Book award. Her work has been translated into 19 languages worldwide. She lives with her husband in Cambridge, MA.

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Enjoy the conversation with Kathryn Lasky.

John Charles from The Poisoned Pen recently welcomed Connie Briscoe for a virtual event to discuss her latest novel, Chloe. Author Wanda Morris served as guest host for the event. You can order a copy of Chloe through the Webstore. https://bit.ly/4iv0Dhd

Here’s the description of Chloe.

New York Times bestselling author Connie Briscoe updates Daphne Du Maurier’s classic Rebecca in this chilling tale of domestic suspense centered on a spirited woman named Angel who marries a Black billionaire, only to discover that he remains haunted by his first wife who took her own life—or did she?

A mansion haunted by the ghost of a cool, charismatic first wife. A second bride from a small Southern town who may be in over her head. A brooding billionaire who grows icier the more his new wife questions him about the past.

In Connie Briscoe’s propulsive and entertaining novel, the elements of one of the most famous Gothic novels of all time is reimagined in surprising, yet still suspenseful, ways.

Angel is a private chef for the Harrison’s, one of the most powerful Black families on Martha’s Vineyard. Impossibly supercilious Jillian Harrison often spends the entire summer on the island, while her husband Irvin and their twenty-nine-year-old daughter Norma commute from Washington, DC, on weekends. They always join Jillian for the month of August, when the family throws a lavish garden party on the expansive lawn that is attended by nearly one hundred guests. This year’s guests include Everette Bruce, an influential Black billionaire, still in mourning for his first wife, Chloe, who committed suicide.

To the imperious Jillian’s surprise, Bruce ignores her and instead becomes enchanted with Angel. Eager to get away from the controlling Mrs. Harrison, Angel accepts Everett’s invitation to become the private chef at Riverwild, his massive mansion along the Potomac River. Her meals and company provide comfort Everett, and soon he and Angel begin a whirlwind romance that culminates in marriage.

Though Angel is confident and strong, over time, she begins to feel the enigmatic Chloe’s ghost. The house’s staff, the head housekeeper Ida—a menacingly rigid thorn in Angel’s side—and even Everett, cannot seem to let the dead woman go, nor explain why the wealthy, stunning woman would kill herself. The more questions Angel asks, the more melancholic Everett becomes, revealing a far less charming side of himself. Just how well does Angel know Everett? Did she marry in haste?

The answers lie somewhere in Riverwild . . .

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Born in Washington DC, Connie Briscoe is an author of romantic and historical fiction and has been a full-time published author for nearly three decades. Her novels have hit the New York Times and other national bestseller lists and she has been featured in numerous publications and on television programs, including Good Morning America. She lives in Maryland.

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Enjoy Connie Briscoe’s conversation with Wanda Morris.

Dana Stabenow just sent a review of Susan Fletcher’s debut mystery, The Night in Question. The book was a First Mystery Club Pick for The Poisoned Pen. You can place a special order now, or pre-order the paperback, which comes out in May. https://bit.ly/4ijXIYx.

Here’s Stabenow’s review of The Night in Question.

The Night in Question

by Susan Fletcher

Eighty-seven year old Florrie Butterfield loses her leg below the knee and perforce moves from her beloved cottage in the Malvern Hills into Babbington Hall, a country estate turned adult residence. It is a more benign change than it might have been.

She is in assisted living, this means therefore, that Florrie is allowed to boil her own kettle, cook an egg if she chooses to—and she can eat her meals from her own crockery, which is mismatched and chipped, but it’s hers, all the same…Indeed, the only real difference in Florrie’s life these days is that she has support—a word that has changed its meaning with age. In her youth, support had meant family money or a good brassiere.

A cheerful person, she does not despair, and in her wheelchair with a pair of rusty secateurs on her lap makes the wild estate garden her own and makes friends of the other residents, including one Arthur Potts, until, sadly, Arthur trips and falls in that same garden and dies. 

And then Renata, Babbington Hall’s manager, falls, too, out of a third-story window and into a coma from which it is feared she may never wake. This on the evening of the very day she and Florrie have trysted to meet on the terrace for pink lemonade so that Florrie may give Renata the benefit of Florrie’s advice on love and men.

And isn’t that quite something? That Renata saw that adventurous, bright-eyed Florrie? Who is, one might argue, the real and proper one? To be seen. It feels so invigorating—and so very kind that, in truth, it makes Florrie a little emotional. And heaven only knows when she last had pink lemonade.

Did Renata jump, as everyone immediately assumes? Did she fall? Or was she pushed? Because Florrie, perched precariously on her one leg at the window, had been watching the lightning of a passing storm and she saw—and heard—Renata fall, and she doesn’t agree with the general consensus that Renata jumped. And thus, without ever leaving the grounds, Florrie conducts an inquiry into what she thinks she may have seen — and heard — on the night in question. With the able assistance of one Stanhope Jones, a fellow resident, Florrie observes the demeanor of Babbington’s residents at church, interviews the residents individually and the vicar as well, questions the servants, and slowly, painstakingly puts together a story that looks a lot less like perceived wisdom and a lot more like the truth, and not without risk to Florrie’s person, either.

That is the skeleton of the story but its firm flesh is the incredible life Florrie has lived and which explains those Nepalese prayer flags hanging in her living room, the broderie anglaise sheets, the police badge, the linen napkin from the Sunshine Hotel in Lusaka, Rhodesia, the dried Scottish thistle, the pale blue silk cravat, and every letter her husband ever wrote her. Ever so delicately, Fletcher plucks out the heart of Florrie’s mystery, for us and for Florrie herself.

Both plots, the characters, the setting (all of them) are wonderfully written. A fable for our times, and the chapter Florrie’s best friend Pinkie is the reason this book will live forever in my library.

Dana

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