PoisonedBlogger

Clive Cussler’s Hellburner is the most recent Oregon Files novel. Mike Maden, author of that book, recently appeared at The Poisoned Pen, and he signed copies of the book. You can order signed copies of Clive Cussler’s Hellburner through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/3qjY0p6

Here’s the description of Clive Cussler’s Hellburner.

Juan Cabrillo and the crew of the Oregon must track down a nuclear torpedo before it unleashes World War III in this electrifying new installment of the #1 New York Times bestselling series.

    When Juan Cabrillo fails to capture the leader of Mexico’s most dangerous drug cartel and loses an Oregon crew member in the process, he’s determined to get revenge. Little does he know that the explosion he just narrowly escaped was merely the latest flash of violence from a machine of war that has existed for decades, dating from the bloodiest episode in Armenia’s history.

    Cabrillo’s Corporation of mercenaries may have finally met its match in The Pipeline—a criminal syndicate passed down from father to son across generations. A group that sits with its finger on the trigger of a torpedo so deadly it could level entire cities. With millions of innocent civilians hanging in the balance, the Oregon‘s crew must unravel a tangle of drug-smuggling routes and international conspiracies spanning from the Aegean Sea to the Indian Ocean, putting their lives on the line to find the weapon before its countdown hits zero.

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Clive Cussler was the author of more than eighty books in five bestselling series, including Dirk Pitt®, NUMA Files®, Oregon Files®, Isaac Bell®, and Sam and Remi Fargo®. His life nearly paralleled that of his hero Dirk Pitt. Whether searching for lost aircraft or leading expeditions to find famous shipwrecks, he and his NUMA crew of volunteers discovered and surveyed more than seventy-five lost ships of historic significance, including the long-lost Civil War submarine Hunley, which was raised in 2000 with much publicity. Like Pitt, Cussler collected classic automobiles. His collection featured more than one hundred examples of custom coachwork. Cussler passed away in February 2020.

Mike Maden is the author of the critically acclaimed Drone series and four novels in Tom Clancy’s #1 New York Times bestselling Jack Ryan Jr. series. He holds both a master’s and Ph.D. in political science from the University of California at Davis, specializing in international relations and comparative politics. He has lectured and consulted on the topics of war and the Middle East, among others. Maden has served as a political consultant and campaign manager in state and national elections, and hosted his own local weekly radio show for a year.

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Mike Maden talks about Juan Cabrillo, drones, adventure, and future warfare in this latest event.

Craig Johnson is such a storyteller that you can listen to him talk about all kinds of subjects, including “Longmire” as well as his new book Hell and Back. He appeared at The Poisoned Pen, so there are signed copies of Hell and Back available through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/3cOlJue

Here’s the description of Hell and Back.

A new novel in the beloved New York Times bestselling Longmire series.

What if you woke up lying in the middle of the street in the infamous town of Fort Pratt, Montana, where thirty young Native boys perished in a tragic 1896 boarding-school fire? What if every person you encountered in that endless night was dead? What if you were covered in blood and missing a bullet from the gun holstered on your hip? What if there was something out there in the yellowed skies, along with the deceased and the smell of ash and dust, something the Northern Cheyenne refer to as the Éveohtsé-heómÄ—se, the Wandering Without, the Taker of Souls? What if the only way you know who you are is because your name is printed in the leather sweatband of your cowboy hat, and what if it says your name is Walt Longmire . . . but you don’t remember him?

In Hell and Back, the eighteenth installment of the Longmire series, author Craig Johnson takes the beloved sheriff to the very limits of his sanity to do battle with the most dangerous adversary he’s ever faced: himself.

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Craig Johnson is the New York Times bestselling author of the Longmire mysteries, the basis for the hit Netflix original series Longmire. He is the recipient of the Western Writers of America Spur Award for fiction and the Mountain & Plains Independent Booksellers Association’s Reading the West Book Award for fiction. His novella Spirit of Steamboat was the first One Book Wyoming selection. He lives in Ucross, Wyoming, population 25.

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Craig Johnson talks about television, books, history, actually, anything that comes to mind.

Congratulations to the winners of the Hugo Awards.The Hugo Awards are annual awards for the best science fiction and fantasy works of the previous year. Here’s a short list of some of the winners. Check for the books in the Web Store. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

Best Novel

• ***A Desolation Called Peace, by Arkady Martine (Tor)
• The Galaxy, and the Ground Within, by Becky Chambers (Harper Voyager / Hodder & Stoughton)
• Light From Uncommon Stars, by Ryka Aoki (Tor)
• A Master of Djinn, by P. Djèlí Clark (Tordotcom / Orbit UK)
• Project Hail Mary, by Andy Weir (Ballantine / Del Rey)
• She Who Became the Sun, by Shelley Parker-Chan (Tor / Mantle)

Best Novella

• Across the Green Grass Fields, by Seanan McGuire (Tordotcom)
• Elder Race, by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Tordotcom)
• Fireheart Tiger, by Aliette de Bodard (Tordotcom)
• The Past Is Red, by Catherynne M. Valente (Tordotcom)
• ****A Psalm for the Wild-Built, by Becky Chambers (Tordotcom)
• A Spindle Splintered, by Alix E. Harrow (Tordotcom)

Best Series

• The Green Bone Saga, by Fonda Lee (Orbit)
• The Kingston Cycle, by C. L. Polk (Tordotcom)
• Merchant Princes, by Charles Stross (Tor UK / Tor)
• Terra Ignota, by Ada Palmer (Tor Books)
• ***Wayward Children, by Seanan McGuire (Tordotcom)
• The World of the White Rat, by T. Kingfisher (Ursula Vernon) (Argyll Productions)

Best Graphic Story or Comic

• DIE, vol. 4: Bleed, written by Kieron Gillen, art by Stephanie Hans, lettering by Clayton Cowles (Image)
• ***Far Sector, written by N.K. Jemisin, art by Jamal Campbell (DC)
• Lore Olympus, vol. 1, by Rachel Smythe (Del Rey)
• Monstress, vol. 6: The Vow, written by Marjorie Liu, art by Sana Takeda (Image)
• Once & Future, vol. 3: The Parliament of Magpies, written by Kieron Gillen, illustrated by Dan Mora, colored by Tamra Bonvillain (BOOM!)
• Strange Adventures, written by Tom King, art by Mitch Gerads and Evan “Doc” Shaner (DC)

Best Related Work

• Being Seen: One Deafblind Woman’s Fight to End Ableism, by Elsa Sjunneson (Tiller Press)
• The Complete Debarkle: Saga of a Culture War, by Camestros Felapton (Camestros Felapton)
• Dangerous Visions and New Worlds: Radical Science Fiction, 1950 to 1985, edited by Andrew Nette and Iain McIntyre (PM Press)
• “How Twitter can ruin a life”, by Emily St. James (Vox, Jun 2021)
• ***Never Say You Can’t Survive, by Charlie Jane Anders (Tordotcom)
• True Believer: The Rise and Fall of Stan Lee, by Abraham Riesman (Crown)

Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book (not a Hugo)

• Chaos on CatNet, by Naomi Kritzer (Tor Teen)
• Iron Widow, by Xiran Jay Zhao (Penguin Teen / Rock the Boat)
• ***The Last Graduate, by Naomi Novik (Del Rey Books)
• Redemptor, by Jordan Ifueko (Amulet Books / Hot Key Books)
• A Snake Falls to Earth, by Darcie Little Badger (Levine Querido)
• Victories Greater Than Death, by Charlie Jane Anders (Tor Teen / Titan)

Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Laurie R. King recently introduced her new novel and new character at The Poisoned Pen. You can order a signed copy of Back to the Garden through the Web Store. https://tinyurl.com/2s3rajt7

Here’s the description of Back to the Garden.

A fifty-year-old cold case involving California royalty comes back to life—with potentially fatal consequences—in this gripping standalone novel from the New York Times bestselling author of the Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes series.

A magnificent house, vast formal gardens, a golden family that shaped California, and a colorful past filled with now-famous artists: the Gardener Estate was a twentieth-century Eden.

And now, just as the Estate is preparing to move into a new future, restoration work on some of its art digs up a grim relic of the home’s past: a human skull, hidden away for decades.

Inspector Raquel Laing has her work cut out for her. Fifty years ago, the Estate’s young heir, Rob Gardener, turned his palatial home into a counterculture commune of peace, love, and equality. But that was also a time when serial killers preyed on innocents—monsters like The Highwayman, whose case has just surged back into the public eye.

Could the skull belong to one of his victims?

To Raquel—a woman who knows all about colorful pasts—the bones clearly seem linked to The Highwayman. But as she dives into the Estate’s archives to look for signs of his presence, what she unearths begins to take on a dark reality all of its own.

Everything she finds keeps bringing her back to Rob Gardener himself. While he might be a gray-haired recluse now, back then he was a troubled young Vietnam vet whose girlfriend vanished after a midsummer festival at the Estate.

But a lot of people seem to have disappeared from the Gardener Estate that summer when the commune mysteriously fell apart: a young woman, her child, and Rob’s brother, Fort.

The pressure is on, and Raquel needs to solve this case—before The Highwayman slips away, or another Gardener vanishes.

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Laurie R. King is the award-winning, bestselling author of seventeen Mary Russell mysteries, five contemporary novels featuring Kate Marinelli, and many acclaimed standalone novels such as Folly, Touchstone, The Bones of Paris, and Lockdown. King is an Edgar Award winner and was also named the 2022 Grand Master by Mystery Writers of America. She lives in Northern California, where she is at work on her next Mary Russell mystery.

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Enjoy the recent event as Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, welcomes Laurie R. King back to the bookstore.

Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, and Patrick Millikin from the bookstore, both welcomed authors Gabino Iglesias and Amina Akhtar for a live event at the bookstore. Iglesias is the author of The Devil Takes You Home, and Akhtar is the author of Kismet. You can find signed copies of both books in the Web Store. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

Millikin discussed Gabino Iglesias The Devil Takes You Home with him. Here’s the description of the book.

From an award-winning author comes a genre-defying thriller about a father desperate to salvage what’s left of his family—even if it means a descent into violence.Buried in debt due to his young daughter’s illness, his marriage at the brink, Mario reluctantly takes a job as a hitman, surprising himself with his proclivity for violence. After tragedy destroys the life he knew, Mario agrees to one final job: hijack a cartel’s cash shipment before it reaches Mexico. Along with an old friend and a cartel-insider named Juanca, Mario sets off on the near-suicidal mission, which will leave him with either a cool $200,000 or a bullet in the skull. But the path to reward or ruin is never as straight as it seems. As the three complicated men travel through the endless landscape of Texas, across the border and back, their hidden motivations are laid bare alongside nightmarish encounters that defy explanation. One thing is certain: even if Mario makes it out alive, he won’t return the same.

The Devil Takes You Home is a panoramic odyssey for fans of S.A. Cosby’s southern noir, Blacktop Wasteland, by way of the boundary-defying storytelling of Stephen Graham Jones and Silvia Moreno-Garcia.

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Gabino Iglesias is a writer, journalist, professor, and literary critic living in Austin, TX. He is also the author of the critically acclaimed and award-winning novels Zero Saints and Coyote Songs. Iglesias’ nonfiction has appeared in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Electric Literature, and LitReactor, and his reviews appear regularly in places like NPR, Publishers Weekly, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Boston Globe, Criminal Element, Mystery Tribune, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, and the Los Angeles Review of Books. He’s been a juror for the Shirley Jackson Awards twice and the Millions Tournament of Books, and is a member of the Horror Writers Association, the Mystery Writers of America, and the National Book Critics Circle.

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Here’s the description of Amina Akhtar’s Kismet.

From Amina Akhtar comes a viciously funny thriller about wellness—the smoothies, the secrets, and the deliciously deadly impulses.

Lifelong New Yorker Ronnie Khan never thought she’d leave Queens. She’s not an “aim high, dream big” person—until she meets socialite wellness guru Marley Dewhurst.

Marley isn’t just a visionary; she’s a revelation. Seduced by the fever dream of finding her best self, Ronnie makes for the desert mountains of Sedona, Arizona.

Healing yoga, transcendent hikes, epic juice cleanses…Ronnie consumes her new bougie existence like a fine wine. But is it, really? Or is this whole self-care business a little sour?

When the glam gurus around town start turning up gruesomely murdered, Ronnie has her answer: all is not well in wellness town. As Marley’s blind ambition veers into madness, Ronnie fears for her life.

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Amina Akhtar is a former fashion writer and editor. Her satirical first novel, #FashionVictim, drew critical acclaim and was covered in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Martha Stewart Living, Entertainment Weekly, Fashionista, Book Riot, CrimeReads, and more.

Akhtar has worked at Vogue, Elle, the New York Times, and New York Magazine, where she was the founding editor of the women’s blog The Cut. She’s written for numerous publications, including Yahoo Style, Fashionista, xoJane, Refinery29, Billboard, and more. She currently lives not too far from the Sedona vortexes.

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Enjoy The Poisoned Pen event with Gabino Iglesias and Amina Akhtar.

Diana Gabaldon recently hosted AG (Gerry) Riddle on the publication day for his novel, Lost in Time. There are signed copies of Lost in Time, The Poisoned Pen’s Notable New Title for September. You can find the copies in the Web Store. https://bit.ly/3pTWzNO

Here’s the description of Lost in Time.

“Amazing! One of the twistiest time-tales I’ve ever read.”
““Diana Gabaldon

“Crichtonesque thrillers don’t come much better than this… Readers won’t be able to turn the pages fast enough.”
““Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

From the worldwide bestselling author of Departure and Winter World comes a standalone novel about a father and daughter trying to unravel an intricate murder mystery spread across time—with a jaw-dropping twist.

Control the past.

Save the future.

One morning, Dr. Sam Anderson wakes up to find that the woman he loves has been murdered.

For Sam, the horror is only beginning.

He and his daughter are accused of the crime. The evidence is ironclad. They will be convicted.

And so, to ensure his daughter goes free, Sam does what he must: he confesses.

But in the future, murderers aren’t sent to prison.

Thanks to a machine Sam helped invent, the world’s worst criminals are now sent to the past—approximately 200 million years into the past, to the dawn of the time of the dinosaurs—where they must live out their lives alone, in exile from the human race.

Sam accepts his fate.

But his daughter doesn’t.

Adeline Anderson has already lost her mother to a deadly, unfair disease. She can’t bear to lose her father as well.

So she sets out on a quest to prove him innocent. And to get him back. People around her insist that both are impossible tasks.

But Adeline doesn’t give up. She only works harder.

She soon learns that impossible tasks are her specialty. And that she is made of tougher stuff than she ever imagined.

As she peels back the layers of the mystery that tore her father from this world, Adeline finds more questions than answers. Everyone around her is hiding a secret. But which ones are connected to the murder that exiled her father?

That mystery stretches across the past, present, and future ““ and leads to a revelation that will change everything.

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A.G. Riddle spent ten years starting and running internet companies before retiring to focus on his true passion: writing fiction. He lives in North Carolina. Visit www.agriddle.com

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Enjoy Diana Gabaldon’s conversation with A.G. Riddle.

Jincy Willett recently appeared for The Poisoned Pen, hosted by Hannah Morrissey, author of Hello, Transcriber. Jincy Willett’s latest novel is Amy Among the Serial Killers. There will be signed bookplates for Willett’s book. You can order copies through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/3TCflGU

Here’s the description of Amy Among the Serial Killers.

Jincy Willett’s beloved characters return in Amy Among the Serial Killers, a wickedly smart and funny take on the thriller genre by one of our most acclaimed literary humorists.

Carla Karolak is doing just fine. Having escaped the clutches of her controlling mother and founded a successful writing retreat in which participants are confined to windowless cells until they hit their daily word count, she lives a comfortable, if solitary, existence. If only her therapist, Toonie, would stop going on about Carla’s nonexistent love life and start addressing her writer’s block, she might be able to make some progress. But then Carla finds Toonie murdered, and suddenly her unfinished memoir is the least of her concerns. Without quite knowing why, she dials an old phone number.

Amy Gallup, retired after decades as a writing instructor, is surprised to hear from her former student Carla out of the blue, three years since they last spoke. She’s even more shocked when she finds out the reason for Carla’s call. Suddenly, she finds herself swept up in a murder investigation that soon brings her old writing group back together. But they’ll need all the help they can get, as one murder leads to another, and suspicions of a serial killer mount across San Diego.

Full of Jincy Willett’s trademark dark humor, an unforgettable cast of characters, and two of the most endearingly imperfect protagonists who have ever attempted to solve a murder, Amy Among the Serial Killers shows us what can be gained when we begin to break down our own walls and let others inside…as long as they aren’t murderers.

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JINCY WILLETT is the author of Jenny and the Jaws of Life, Winner of the National Book Award, and The Writing Class, which have been translated and sold internationally. Her stories have been published in Cosmopolitan, McSweeney’s Quarterly and other magazines. She frequently reviews for The New York Times Book Review.

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Enjoy the conversation as Jincy Willett and Hannah Morrissey discuss the book and its characters.

Alice Feeney appeared at The Poisoned Pen on release day for Daisy Darker. Barbara Peters, owner of the bookstore, welcomed her and the audience for the event. There are signed copies of Daisy Darker, a Hot Book of the Week, available through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/3wElh8N

Here’s the description of Daisy Darker.

“Alice Feeney is great with TWISTS and TURNS.” —Harlan Coben

The NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR of Rock Paper Scissors returns with a locked-room mystery when a family reunion leads to murder in a delightfully twisty and atmospheric thriller, as seen on the TODAY show.

“A dysfunctional family meets Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None with a truly gasp-inducing twist. This is the book you’ve been looking for.” —Catherine Ryan Howard, bestselling author of 56 Days

Daisy Darker was born with a broken heart. Now after years of avoiding each other, Daisy Darker’s entire family is assembling for Nana’s 80th birthday party in her crumbling gothic house on a tiny tidal island. The family arrives, each of them harboring secrets. When the tide comes in, they will be cut off from the rest of the world for eight hours.

But at the stroke of midnight, as a storm rages, Nana is found dead. And an hour later, the next family member follows…

Trapped on an island where someone is killing them one by one, the Darkers must reckon with their present mystery as well as their past secrets, before the tide goes out and all is revealed. As seen on the TODAY show and picked by Book of the Month, Daisy Darker’s family secrets and Alice Feeney’s trademark shocking twists will keep readers riveted.

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ALICE FEENEY is the New York Times bestselling author of Sometimes I Lie, I Know Who You Are, His & Hers, and Rock Paper Scissors. Her novels have been translated into over twenty-five languages and have been optioned for major screen adaptations. Alice was a BBC journalist for fifteen years and now lives in the Devon countryside with her family. Daisy Darker is her fifth novel.

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It took five years, but Alice Feeney is pleased to share her latest novel, Daisy Darker.

You do know about The Poisoned Pen’s picks for Books of the Month, don’t you? Although you can order the books through the Web Store, sometimes the store runs out of copies or out of signed copies. If you’re a member of one of the book clubs, you’re guaranteed to receive the copy from your monthly book club. Call the bookstore at (480) 947-2974 or Toll Free: (888) 560-9919 to ask about joining a club. In the meantime, as I said, you can order the books individually through the Web Store. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

Here are the September Books of the Month at the Pen.

British Crime Club One unsigned hardcover or paperback per month

Feeney, Alice. Daisy Darker

Cozy Crimes Club One unsigned hardcover or paperback per month

Rue, Gretchen. Steeped to Death

First Mystery Club One Signed First Printing per month

Flowers, Ashley. All Good People Here

The Crime Collectors Book of the Month Club One Signed First Printing per month

Raybourn, Deanna. Killers of a Certain Age

History/Mystery Club One Signed First Printing per month 

King, Laurie R. Back to the Garden

Notable New Fiction One Signed First Printing per month

Riddle, AG. Lost in Time

International Crime One Unsigned Hardcover or paperback per month

Dicker, Joel. The Enigma of Room 622

Romance & Relationships One Unsigned Hardcover or 2 paperbacks per month

Alexander, Poppy. The Littlest Library and Lim, Roselle. Sophie Go’s Lonely Hearts Club

Alice Feeney’s Daisy Darker is the Hot Book of the Week at The Poisoned Pen. And, you can catch Feeney tonight (Tuesday, August 30) at 7 PM (10 PM EDT) live at the store, or via the store’s Facebook page or YouTube channel. Signed copies of Daisy Darker are available through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/3wElh8N

Here’s the summary of Daisy Darker.

“Alice Feeney is great with TWISTS and TURNS.” —Harlan Coben

The NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR of Rock Paper Scissors returns with a locked-room mystery when a family reunion leads to murder in a delightfully twisty and atmospheric thriller, as seen on the TODAY show.

“A dysfunctional family meets Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None with a truly gasp-inducing twist. This is the book you’ve been looking for.” —Catherine Ryan Howard, bestselling author of 56 Days

Daisy Darker was born with a broken heart. Now after years of avoiding each other, Daisy Darker’s entire family is assembling for Nana’s 80th birthday party in her crumbling gothic house on a tiny tidal island. The family arrives, each of them harboring secrets. When the tide comes in, they will be cut off from the rest of the world for eight hours.

But at the stroke of midnight, as a storm rages, Nana is found dead. And an hour later, the next family member follows…

Trapped on an island where someone is killing them one by one, the Darkers must reckon with their present mystery as well as their past secrets, before the tide goes out and all is revealed. As seen on the TODAY show and picked by Book of the Month, Daisy Darker’s family secrets and Alice Feeney’s trademark shocking twists will keep readers riveted.

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ALICE FEENEY is the New York Times bestselling author of Sometimes I Lie, I Know Who You Are, His & Hers, and Rock Paper Scissors. Her novels have been translated into over twenty-five languages and have been optioned for major screen adaptations. Alice was a BBC journalist for fifteen years and now lives in the Devon countryside with her family. Daisy Darker is her fifth novel.