The weather may keep authors from home, but fortunately social media still allows The Poisoned Pen to host them no matter where they are. Matt Witten was stuck in Boston, but Barbara Peters, owner of the bookstore, was still able to have a conversation about books and writing for television. Witten’s latest book, Killer Story, is available through the Web Store. http://bit.ly/3Dhr4nM

Here’s the description of Killer Story.

How far will she go to catch the killer—and make her podcast a hit?

Talented and idealistic young reporter Petra Kovach is on the brink of being laid off from her third failing newspaper in a row. To save her job, she pitches the launch of a true crime podcast about a sensational, unsolved murder.

Years earlier, an alt-right YouTuber was killed in her Harvard dorm room, and the case went cold. Petra knew the victim—she was once her camp counselor and loved her like a little sister, despite their political differences.

Petra’s investigation gets off to a rocky start, as her promising leads quickly shrivel up. In her passionate quest for justice—and clicks—Petra burns sources and breaks laws, ultimately putting her own life on the line. Even as her star rises, she worries it could all come crashing down at any moment if her actions are exposed.

When her machinations start to backfire, there’s only one way to fix everything and solve the murder—even though it may cost her everything she loves.

Perfect for fans of Karin Slaughter and Harlan Coben

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Matt Witten is a TV writer, novelist, playwright, and screenwriter. His television writing includes such shows as House, Pretty Little Liars, and Law & Order. His TV scripts have been nominated for an Emmy and two Edgars, and he has written four mystery novels, winning a Malice Domestic award for best debut novel. He has also written stage plays that have been produced throughout the world.

His previous novel, The Necklace, has been optioned for film by Appian Way and Cartel Pictures, with Leonardo DiCaprio attached as producer. Killer Story is his most recent novel.

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This is an interesting conversation about writing and Killer Story. Enjoy!

Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, recently welcomed authors Kathryn Lasky and Ana Reyes to the bookstore. Lasky’s Light on Bone is a mystery featuring Georgia O’Keefe as an amateur sleuth. Ana Reyes’ The House in the Pines is a NYTimes bestseller and the Reese Witherspoon January Pick of the Month. There are signed copies of both books in the Web Store. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

Here’s the summary of Light on Bone.

“Step aside Miss Marple, Eugenia Potter, and Kinsey Millhone—Georgia O’Keeffe is the new sleuth in town! Kathryn Lasky brings the rich imagination of her YA and Juvenile books to Light On Bone, a stunning, suspenseful adult mystery. Vivid prose brushstrokes bring the legendary artist, the Southwest landscape she loved, and a complicated plot with historical and imagined characters to life.”—Katherine Hall Page, author of the award-winning Faith Fairchild series

Kathryn Lasky has written an exciting new adult amateur sleuth mystery set in New Mexico in the 1930s. The sleuth is Georgia O’Keefe, who actually did suffer a nervous breakdown in 1933 when her husband Alfred Stieglitz had a somewhat public affair, was hospitalized for psychiatric treatment, and then traveled to the Ghost Ranch in New Mexico to paint. O’Keefe was approaching the peak of her fame and success, having just sold a painting for a record price. The narrative begins when she discovers the slain body of a priest in the desert. The plot includes several other murders, Georgia’s burgeoning romance with the local sheriff, an international espionage plot involving Charles Lindbergh (who is staying at the ranch with his wife Anne), and lots of intricate twists and turns leading to a thoroughly unforeseen denouement. The strength of this story is how Lasky’s elegant writing captures the emotional depth of this artist’s turmoil and so stunningly reveals O’Keeffe’s perception of the landscape that moves her to paint. It is not simply a who-dunnit mystery, but much more: It is a narrative of healing and resurrection of spirit.

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Kathryn Lasky is the award winning author of many children’s books as well as several adult novels including Night Gardening and the Calista Jacobs mystery series. Her best selling series The Guardians of Ga’Hoole was made into a Warner Brothers movie Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole directed by Zack Snyder. She is the recipient of a Newbery Honor award and twice winner of the National Jewish Book Award, as well as recognition from Amnesty International for her novel The Extra. Her work has been translated into nineteen languages worldwide. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

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Here’s the description of The House in the Pines.

An instant New York Times bestseller!

“This is an absolute, can’t-put-it-down thriller…It’s truly a wild ride that had me flying through chapter after chapter—which I think is the perfect way to kick off your year of reading.” —Reese Witherspoon (Reese’s Book Club Jan ’23 Pick)

Armed with only hazy memories, a woman who long ago witnessed her friend’s sudden, mysterious death, and has since spent her life trying to forget, sets out to track down answers. What she uncovers, deep in the woods, is hardly to be believed….

Maya was a high school senior when her best friend, Aubrey, mysteriously dropped dead in front of the enigmatic man named Frank whom they’d been spending time with all summer.

Seven years later, Maya lives in Boston with a loving boyfriend and is kicking the secret addiction that has allowed her to cope with what happened years ago, the gaps in her memories, and the lost time that she can’t account for. But her past comes rushing back when she comes across a recent YouTube video in which a young woman suddenly keels over and dies in a diner while sitting across from none other than Frank. Plunged into the trauma that has defined her life, Maya heads to her Berkshires hometown to relive that fateful summer—the influence Frank once had on her and the obsessive jealousy that nearly destroyed her friendship with Aubrey.

At her mother’s house, she excavates fragments of her past and notices hidden messages in her deceased Guatemalan father’s book that didn’t stand out to her earlier. To save herself, she must understand a story written before she was born, but time keeps running out, and soon, all roads are leading back to Frank’s cabin….

Utterly unique and captivating, The House in the Pines keeps you guessing about whether we can ever fully confront the past and return home.

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Ana Reyes has an MFA from Louisiana State University. Her work has appeared in Bodega, Pear Noir!, New Delta Review, and elsewhere. She lives in Los Angeles where she teaches creative writing to older adults at Santa Monica College. The House in the Pines is her first novel.

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Enjoy the conversation with Kathryn Lasky and Ana Reyes.

Everybody Knows that Jordan Harper’s book by that title is the Hot Book of the Week at The Poisoned Pen. And, why wouldn’t it be? Patrick Millikin from the bookstore recently raved about it for “Ask a Bookseller” on MPRNews. http://bit.ly/3R5OemJ And, Harper will be appearing at the bookstore on Monday, January 30 at 7 PM. You can order signed copies through the Web Store. http://bit.ly/3XVQGPe

Here’s the summary of Everybody Knows.

A fearless black-bag publicist exposes the belly of the L.A. beast in “one of the best LA noir novels I’ve ever read” (Attica Locke) from Edgar Award-winning author Jordan Harper.
Welcome to Mae Pruett’s Los Angeles, where “Nobody talks. But everybody whispers.” As a “black-bag” publicist tasked not with letting the good news out but keeping the bad news in, Mae works for one of LA’s most powerful and sought-after crisis PR firms, at the center of a sprawling web of lawyers, PR flaks, and private security firms she calls “The Beast.” They protect the rich and powerful and depraved by any means necessary. 

After her boss is gunned down in front of the Beverly Hills Hotel in a random attack, Mae takes it upon herself to investigate and runs headfirst into The Beast’s lawless machinations and the twisted systems it exists to perpetuate. It takes her on a roving neon joyride through a Los Angeles full of influencers pumped full of pills and fillers; sprawling mansions footsteps away from sprawling homeless encampments; crooked cops and mysterious wrecking crews in the middle of the night.

Edgar Award-winner Jordan Harper’s EVERYBODY KNOWS is addicting and alarming, a “juggernaut of a novel” and “an absolute tour de force.” It is what the crime novel can achieve in the modern age: portray the human lives at the center of vast American landscapes, and make us thrill at their attempts to face impossible odds.

Recommended by Wall Street Journal • Washington Post • Lit Hub• LA Times •CrimeReads• Alta Online • Kirkus Reviews• Publishers Weekly• NBC/TODAY and many more!

• An ABA January 2023 Indie Next List Pick •

“The book everybody’s been waiting for” —Michael Connelly
“An absolute tour de force”—S. A. Cosby
“The best mystery novel I’ve read in years” —James Patterson

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Jordan Harper is the Edgar-Award winning author of She Rides Shotgun and Love and Other Wounds. Born and educated in Missouri, he now lives in Los Angeles, where he works as a writer and producer for television.

Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, recently welcomed authors Thomas Perry and Josh Haven to the bookstore. Thomas Perry’s latest book is Murder Book. Josh Haven’s first caper is Fake Money, Blue Smoke. Signed copies of both books are available through the Web Store. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

Although Perry’s latest book is Murder Book, he talked about his earliest books, but also the filming of his book, The Old Man. I think you’ll want to listen to the event.

Here’s the summary of Murder Book.

An ex-cop takes on a widespread criminal organization targeting midwestern towns in this new thriller from the author of The Old Man

When a sudden crime wave hits several small midwestern towns, the U.S. Attorney for the region calls on Harry Duncan to investigate. An ex-cop known for his unorthodox methods, Duncan is reluctant to go up against a widespread criminal organization—but the attorney in question is Ellen Leicester, the wife who left him fifteen years earlier, and to her, he can’t say no.

Initially brought in as a consultant to determine if the racketeering is severe enough to require an all-out investigation by the FBI, Duncan quickly finds himself in conflict with a syndicate far more violent than first suspected. As the investigation develops, he begins compiling a “murder book,” the notebook in which a detective keeps records, interviews, photos—everything he needs to build his case. But his scrutiny of the gang soon makes Duncan a target. And Ellen, too.

A thrilling and suspenseful tour of crime-addled midwestern towns, Murder Book is signature Thomas Perry, with characters you won’t soon forget, crisply-described action sequences, and breathlessly-tense plotting that will keep you racing through the pages.

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Thomas Perry is the bestselling author of over twenty novels, including the critically acclaimed Jane Whitefield series, The Old Man, and The Butcher’s Boy, which won the Edgar Award. He lives in Southern California.

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Here’s the description of Fake Money, Blue Smoke.

In the first caper from a “promising new talent” (Publishers Weekly), a skilled counterfeiter hires a crew of career criminals to steal an artwork from a speeding train

When former platoon sergeant Matt Kubelsky is paroled from Ray Brook Federal Correctional Institute in upstate New York, he’s surprised to find his ex-girlfriend waiting for him out in the parking lot. An ex-girlfriend he’s spent years pining for after she dumped him and stopped answering his letters. An ex-girlfriend who wonders if her apparently criminally-hardened ex-boyfriend can help her out of some extra-legal difficulty of her own.

During the years Matt was in prison, Kelly Haggerty discovered she couldn’t earn a satisfactory living as an artist, so she turned her artistic talents to counterfeiting foreign currency—and ended up embroiled in an international money laundering intrigue. Now she hopes she can get herself out of trouble with a cleverly-plotted theft and one last enormous score. 

The missing ingredient is someone Kelly can trust to do the dirty work, recruiting career criminals who won’t flinch at the opportunity to make good money by whatever means necessary. And Matt is happy to oblige, as it seems like the perfect opportunity to settle the score with the men responsible for ruining his life and putting him away for a crime he didn’t commit. The heist—a horseback robbery of valuable artwork from a speeding Amtrak train—seems to be going perfectly, until one of the players starts to suspect he’s been paid in counterfeit bills…

Pulse-pounding suspense, wholly original action scenes, and enough double-crosses to leave readers reeling make this caper a must-read for fans of fast, adrenaline-fueled crime fiction. The first thriller from the author whose seafaring adventure novels are published as J.H. Gelernter, Fake Money, Blue Smoke announces an exciting new voice in the genre.

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Before publishing his first novel, Josh Haven was an art critic for magazines & newspapers in the US & Europe and an astrogeophysicist who solved the Saturn-Hyperion density/porosity problem. His seafaring adventure novels are published under the name J.H. Gelernter, and Fake Money, Blue Smoke is his first crime novel.

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Enjoy the conversations as the authors talk about multiple books.

Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, recently welcomed PJ Tracy for a virtual event. Tracy’s third book in the Detective Margaret Nolan series is The Devil You Know. There are signed copies available in the Web Store. https://tinyurl.com/5xw8z42v

Here’s the summary of The Devil You Know.

Darkness is nothing new to LAPD Detective Margaret Nolan, but in P.J. Tracy’s The Devil You Know, even she isn’t prepared for the scandalous deception of deadly proportions that shakes the very foundation of Hollywood and its untouchables…and leaves her entangled in its rotten core.

Los Angeles has many faces: the real LA where regular people live and work, the degenerate underbelly of any big city, and the rarefied world of wealth, power, and celebrity. LAPD Detective Margaret Nolan’s latest case plunges her into this insular realm of privilege, and gives her a glimpse of the decay behind the glitter.

Beloved actor Evan Hobbes is found in the rubble of a Malibu rockslide, a day after a fake video ruins his career. It’s not clear to Nolan if it’s an accident, a suicide, or a murder, and things get murkier as the investigation expands to his luminary friends and colleagues. Meanwhile, Hobbes’s agent is dealing with damage control, his psychotic boss, and a woman he’s scorned.

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P. J. Tracy is the pseudonym of Traci Lambrecht, bestselling and award winning author of the Monkeewrench series. Lambrecht and her mother, P. J., wrote eight novels together as P. J. Tracy before P. J. passed away in 2016. Lambrecht has since continued the Monkeewrench series solo. She spent most of her childhood painting and showing Arabian horses, and graduated with a Russian Studies major from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, where she also studied voice. She now lives outside Minneapolis.

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Enjoy the conversation about Tracy’s new book, and police as characters.

Kate Alice Marshall’s debut adult crime thriller, What Lies in the Woods, is The Poisoned Pen’s January Crime Collector’s Book of the Month. Barbara Peters, owner of the bookstore, recently welcomed Marshall to the bookstore to discuss What Lies in the Woods. There are signed copies of the book available in the Web Store. https://tinyurl.com/ms3zfh3a

Here’s the description of What Lies in the Woods.

They were eleven when they sent a killer to prison. They were heroes . . . but they were liars.

Kate Alice Marshall’s What Lies in the Woods is a thrilling novel about friendship, secrets, betrayal, and lies – and having the courage to face the past.

“Clever and deliciously dark.” —Alice Feeney, bestselling author of Rock Paper Scissors
“Shines an incisive light on the secrets of a small-town community…Great writing and boldly drawn characters bring a terrifying tale to all-too-vivid life.” —Kirkus, starred review

Naomi Shaw used to believe in magic. Twenty-two years ago, she and her two best friends, Cassidy and Olivia, spent the summer roaming the woods, imagining a world of ceremony and wonder. They called it the Goddess Game. The summer ended suddenly when Naomi was attacked. Miraculously, she survived her seventeen stab wounds and lived to identify the man who had hurt her. The girls’ testimony put away a serial killer, wanted for murdering six women. They were heroes.

And they were liars.

For decades, the friends have kept a secret worth killing for. But now Olivia wants to tell, and Naomi sets out to find out what really happened in the woods—no matter how dangerous the truth turns out to be.

“What Lies In the Woods is a gorgeous fever dream of a novel about the dangers lurking in the hearts and imaginations of little girls. Kate Alice Marshall deftly charts a winding path through her creepy woods, doubling back and changing course to build a labyrinth of secrets and lies in which I was delighted to lose myself for hours. Hands down, it’s the best thriller I’ve read in a long, long time.”—Chandler Baker, bestselling author of The Husbands

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Kate Alice Marshall is the author of the young adult novels I Am Still Alive, Rules for Vanishing, and Our Last Echoes, as well as the Secrets of Eden Eld middle grade series. She lives outside of Seattle, where she spends her time playing board games, tending a chaotic vegetable garden, and wrangling dogs and children.

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Enjoy the conversation from The Poisoned Pen.