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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Oline Cogdill recently sent a review of Low April Sun by Constance E. Squires. Cogdill’s review appeared in the South Florida Sun Sentinel, and she allows us to reprint it here. Although Low April Sun is a special order through the Webstore, https://bit.ly/424UX6H, it’s the first novel about the Oklahoma City bombing, so it may be of interest.

Book review: ‘Low April Sun’ offers poignant look at aftermath of Oklahoma City bombing

In her novel’s acknowledgments, author Constance E. Squires said she lived in Oklahoma City when the bombing happened and had long wanted to write about it. (Charlie Neuenschwander Photography/Courtesy)

‘Low April Sun’ by Constance E. Squires. University of Oklahoma Press, 262 pages, $26.95

Catastrophic tragedies change individuals, communities, countries, leaving unending craters of grief and loss. Constance E. Squires poignantly looks at the aftermath of the bombing of Oklahoma City’s Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in her stunning “Low April Sun.”

Squires’ novel is billed as the first work of fiction to tackle what’s considered to be the worst act of homegrown terrorism in U.S. history, marking its 30th anniversary on April 19, 2025.

“Low April Sun” is not a historical accounting of how and why this horrific act happened. Instead, Squires skillfully mines its effect on a family and how they maneuvered a morass of grief trying to rebuild their lives and deal with the loss.

Half-sisters Edie and Delaney were from a dysfunctional family before the bombing. One sister’s mother is deceased, the other lives in Savannah with little contact with her daughter. Their father has been absent most of their lives. Edie is a blackout alcoholic who often has no memory of her actions or how she interacted with others. She often doesn’t appear to be drunk, so people tend to believe she is sober. Delaney is restless, unable to settle on a job, chronically late, secretly resentful of others. The sisters live in an Oklahoma rental with Keith, Delaney’s boyfriend who is a grad student.

On the morning of April 19, 1995, Delaney borrows Keith’s truck to go to the government center to apply for a replacement Social Security card — her inability to keep track of anything is common for her. She leaves the house agitated because Keith has proposed to her that morning. Edie is still drunk from the night before.

Delaney never returns, nor is she ever identified as one of the 168 confirmed dead. Edie and Keith have no doubt Delaney died — her jacket and Keith’s vehicle were found in the rubble.

“Low April Sun” alternates from 1995 to 2015, when Oklahoma City is preparing a series of 20th anniversary memorials. Edie and Keith are now married, parents to a bright young son, Ian. The couple didn’t connect until two years after the bombing, but forever “their lives soldered together in the heat of the Murrah.”

Long now sober, Edie has reinvented herself, earning a degree in economics, then working for some years in London. The couple returned to Oklahoma City for Edie’s job as a high-powered executive whose position at an energy company often puts her in the news. But Keith has floundered. Unable to hold a full-time teaching job, Keith’s gambling addiction has nearly bankrupted the couple a few times.

Then, unknown to the other, they each receive a friend request on Facebook from someone claiming to be Delaney. Is this an imposter? A scam? Or did Delaney use the bombing to disappear from her life? Separately, they try to find out whether Delaney is still alive.

“Low April Sun” is at its strongest when concentrating on the emotional turmoil and marriage of Edie and Keith. The bombing and Delaney’s absence color their lives daily: “The first night, followed by twenty years of hard grief and unanswered questions and trying to have a life in spite of it all.”

Oklahoma City, before the bombing and the changes since, emerges as a character itself.

In 2015, the city is now roiling from a series of fracking-induced earthquakes, most likely caused by the company Edie works for. The earthquakes become a metaphor for how unsettled the community and individuals such as Edie and Keith are. But flashbacks of a man who knew the bomber as a young man and now walks the streets tend to bog down the story.

Still, Squires’ ability to pinpoint the moral center and the lasting effects of a tragedy make “Low April Sun” a standout.

Behind the plot

In the novel’s acknowledgments, author Constance E. Squires discusses how she lived in Oklahoma City when the bombing happened and had long wanted to write about it. The Sept. 11 attacks, for example, were the subject of works by John Updike, Don DeLillo, Jonathan Safran Foer and others. But “the Oklahoma City bombing has received no such similar treatment,” Squires writes. Her goal was to write about “trauma’s long game.”

John Charles from The Poisoned Pen welcomed Gigi Pandian to the bookstore where she talked about her fourth Secret Staircase mystery, The Library Game. There are still signed copies of The Library Game available in the Webstore. https://bit.ly/3FEy824

Here’s the summary of The Library Game.

In The Library Game, Tempest Raj and Secret Staircase Construction are renovating a classic detective fiction library that just got its first real-life mystery.

Tempest Raj couldn’t be happier that the family business, Secret Staircase Construction, is finally getting the recognition it deserves. Known for enchanting architectural features like sliding bookshelves and secret passageways, the company is now taking on a dream project: transforming a home into a public library that celebrates history’s greatest fictional detectives.

Though the work is far from done, Gray House Library’s new owner is eager to host a murder mystery dinner and literary themed escape room. But when a rehearsal ends with an actor murdered and the body vanishes, Tempest is witness to a seemingly impossible crime. Fueled by her grandfather’s Scottish and Indian meals, Tempest and the rest of the crew must figure out who is making beloved classic mystery plots come to life in a deadly game.

Multiple award winning author Gigi Pandian masterfully weaves wit and warmth in the Secret Staircase Mysteries. Readers will delight in the surprises Secret Staircase Construction uncovers behind the next locked door.

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GIGI PANDIAN is the USA Today bestselling and multiple-award-winning author of the Secret Staircase mysteries, inspired by elements from her own family background. She is also the author of the Accidental Alchemist mysteries, the Jaya Jones Treasure Hunt mysteries, and more than a dozen locked-room mystery short stories. Pandian has won Agatha, Anthony, Lefty, and Derringer awards, and was a finalist for an Edgar Award. A breast cancer survivor and accidental almost-vegan who adores cooking, she lives with her husband in Northern California.

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Enjoy the conversation with Gigi Pandian.

Zibby Owens, author and publisher, recently appeared at The Poisoned Pen with her friend Zach Silverman. Owens talked about her book, On Being Jewish Now. She talked about conflict and hatred in the publishing world that led to this anthology. There are signed copies of her book available in the Webstore. https://bit.ly/41rL3eU

Here’s the description of On Being Jewish Now.

A USA Today Bestseller
Featured in the Washington Post

“Zibby Owens has done the literary world a great service, collecting important views at a critical moment in history. As she says, this is not a time to lower your voice. Kudos to her and all the authors here for sharing valuable insight, emotion, and perspective on the often misunderstood Jewish experience.”
—Mitch Albom, author of Tuesdays With Morrie

An intimate and hopeful collection of meaningful, smart, funny, sad, emotional, and inspiring essays from today’s authors and advocates about what it means to be Jewish, how life has changed since the attacks on October 7th, 2023, and the unique culture that brings this group together.

On October 7th, 2023, Jews in Israel were attacked in the largest pogrom since the Holocaust. It was a day felt by Jews everywhere who came together to process and speak out in ways some never had before. In this collection, 75 contributors speak to Jewish joy, celebration, laughter, food, trauma, loss, love, and family, and the common threads that course through the Jewish people: resilience and humor. Contributors include Mark Feuerstein, Jill Zarin, Steve Leder, Joanna Rakoff, Amy Ephron, Lisa Barr, Annabelle Gurwitch, Daphne Merkin, Bradley Tusk, Sharon Brous, Jenny Mollen, Nicola Kraus, Caroline Leavitt, and many others. On Being Jewish Now is edited by Zibby Owens, bestselling author, podcaster, bookstore owner, and CEO of Zibby Media.

All profits will be donated to Artists Against Antisemitism. 

Contributors:
Abby Stern
Ali Rosen
Alison Hammer
Alison Rose Greenberg
Alix Strauss
Aliza Licht
Alli Frank
Alyssa Rosenheck
Amy Blumenfeld
Amy Ephron
Amy Klein
Anna Ephron Harari
Annabelle Gurwitch
Barri Leiner Grant
Bess Kalb
Beth Ricanati
Bradley Tusk
Brenda Janowitz
Cara Mentzel
Caroline Leavitt
Corie Adjmi
Courtney Sheinmel
Danny Grossman
Daphne Merkin
Dara Kurtz
Dara Levan
David K. Israel
David Christopher Kaufman
Debbie Reed Fischer
Diana Fersko
Eleanor Reissa
Elizabeth Cohen Hausman
Elizabeth L. Silver
Elyssa Friedland
Emily Tisch Sussman
Harper Kincaid
Heidi Shertok
Ilana Kurshan
Jacqueline Friedland
Jamie Brenner
Jane L. Rosen
Jeanne Blasberg
Jennifer S. Brown
Jenny Mollen
Jeremy Garelick
Jill Zarin
Joanna Rakoff
Jonathan Santlofer
Judy Batalion
Julia DeVillers
Keren Blankfeld
Lihi Lapid
Lisa Barr
Lisa Kogan
Lynda Cohen Loigman
Mark Feuerstein
Nicola Kraus
Noa Yedlin
Rebecca Keren Jablonski
Rachel Barenbaum
Rachel Levy Lesser
Rachelle Unreich
Rebecca Minkoff
Rebecca Raphael
Renee Rosen
Rochelle B. Weinstein
Samantha Ettus
Samantha Greene Woodruff
Sharon Brous
Shirin Yadegar
Stacy Igel
Steve Leder
Talia Carner
Toby Rose
Zibby Owens

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Zibby Owens is the bestselling author of Blank: A Novel, Bookends: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Literature, Princess Charming, and the forthcoming novel Overheard. She is the editor of two anthologies: Moms Don’t Have Time To: A Quarantine Anthology and Moms Don’t Have Time To Have Kids: A Timeless Anthology.

Zibby is the founder and CEO of Zibby Media, which includes the Zibby Books boutique publishing house, Zibby’s Bookshop, an independent bookstore in Santa Monica, CA, the award-winning daily podcast Moms Don’t Have Time to Read Books, which she hosts, Zibby’s Book Club, and Zibby Retreats for book lovers.

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Reading, sharing stories, and fostering community through books. Check out the event. (There are a few technical glitches at the beginning. Keep watching!)

Congratulations to the Lefty Award winners. The awards were presented at Left Coast Crime 2025 on Saturday night. Check the Webstore for these books. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

Lefty Award for Best Humorous Mystery Novel

Rob Osler, Cirque du Slay

Lefty Award for Best Historical Novel for books covering before 1970 (Bill Gottfried Memorial)

John Copenhaver, Hall of Mirrors

Lefty Award for Best Debut Mystery Novel

Jennifer K. Morita, Ghosts of Waikiki

Lefty Award for Best Mystery Novel (not in other categories)

James L’Etoile, Served Cold

Deanna Raybourn started her discussion by thanking everyone for coming out to to support The Poisoned Pen. She wanted to thank everyone for supporting independent bookstores. Barbara Peters, owner of the store, asked her to talk about the first book in the series, Killers of a Certain Age. Kills Well with Others, the second one, is now available in the Webstore, and you can special order a signed copy. https://bit.ly/4gZ0BfK.

Here’s the description of Kills Well with Others.

“Much like fine wine, battle-hardened assassins grow better with age.”—#1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa Gardner

Four women assassins, senior in status—and in age—sharpen their knives for another bloody good adventure in this riotous follow-up to the New York Times bestselling sensation Killers of a Certain Age.

After more than a year of laying low, Billie, Helen, Mary Alice, and Natalie are called back into action. They have enjoyed their time off, but the lack of excitement is starting to chafe: a professional killer can only take so many watercolor classes and yoga sessions without itching to strangle someone…literally. When they receive a summons from the head of the elite assassin organization known as the Museum, they are ready tackle the greatest challenge of their careers.

Someone on the inside has compiled a list of important kills committed by Museum agents, connected to a single, shadowy figure, an Eastern European gangster with an iron fist, some serious criminal ambition, and a tendency to kill first and ask questions later. This new nemesis is murdering agents who got in the way of their power hungry plans and the aging quartet of killers is next.

Together the foursome embark on a wild ride across the globe on the double mission of rooting out the Museum’s mole and hunting down the gangster who seems to know their next move before they make it. Their enemy is unlike any they’ve faced before, and it will take all their killer experience to get out of this mission alive.

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Deanna Raybourn is the New York Times bestselling author of the Edgar Award–nominated Veronica Speedwell Mysteries, as well as the Lady Julia Grey series and several stand-alone works.

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It’s a delightful conversation with Deanna Raybourn. Enjoy!