Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, welcomed debut author Yosha Gunasekera for a virtual event. The Midnight Taxi is a locked room mystery set in a taxi. There are copies of The Midnight Taxi available through the Webstore. https://tinyurl.com/m3937ded
Here’s the description of The Midnight Taxi, a book that has received all kinds of positive reviews.
When the last fare of the night turns up dead in her backseat, a Sri Lankan American taxi driver works off the clock to clear her name in this mystery novel by debut author Yosha Gunasekera.
Siriwathi Perera doesn’t quite know where she’s going in life. She never expected to be a taxicab driver in New York City, struggling to make ends meet and still living with her parents at twenty-eight. The true-crime podcasts that keep Siri company as she drives don’t do much to make up for the legal career she imagined for herself, or the brother she’s grieving.
When public defender Amaya Fernando gets into her cab, they make a quick connection through their shared Sri Lankan roots. Siri, whose social circle is limited to her grade-school best friend, Alex, thinks things might finally be looking up with this new potential friendship. But she’s suddenly dropped into her own true crime when she discovers her next passenger murdered in the backseat, and she has to call Amaya sooner than she’d expected.
Pinned as the obvious and only suspect, and desperate to clear her name, Siri chases down leads across the boroughs of New York City with Amaya’s help. But with her court date looming, they have just five days to find out who really killed the midnight passenger—or Siri’s life will be over before she can even truly live it.
Yosha Gunasekera is a Sri Lankan American attorney who represents people who have spent decades behind bars for crimes they did not commit. She teaches a course at Princeton University focused on wrongful conviction and exoneration. Yosha is a former Manhattan public defender and has written and spoken extensively on the criminal legal system.
Enjoy the conversation with debut author Yosha Gunasekera.
Critic Oline Cogdill recently reviewed Charles Todd’s latest Inspector Ian Rutledge mystery for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, and shared the review with us. There are signed copies of Todd’s A Day of Judgment available through The Poisoned Pen’s Webstore. https://tinyurl.com/hjuzamze
Thank you to Oline Cogdill for sharing the review.
Book review: A glimmer of hope for Inspector Ian Rutledge in ‘A Day of Judgment’
‘A Day of Judgment: An Inspector Ian Rutledge Mystery’ by Charles Todd; Mysterious Press; 368 pages; $28.99
“A Day of Judgment,” the 25th full-length Ian Rutledge novel written by Charles Todd works as a double history — both as a look at post-World War I and as a milestone in this best-selling series.
Todd wrote the first 24 Ian novels with his mother, Caroline, under the name Charles Todd. Caroline Todd passed away in 2021. While Charles Todd published the novella “A Christmas Witness” in 2025, “A Day of Judgment” marks his first solo novel. (The author also plans to continue the duo’s second series, about WWI nurse Bess Crawford.)
“A Day of Judgment” shows Todd’s most incisive plotting — his fine eye for the English landscape and in-depth look at characters, especially Scotland Yard detective Ian Rutledge, whose trauma in the trenches during WWI vividly persists.
In July 1921, Ian receives his long-awaited promotion to chief inspector. But he doesn’t even have time to unpack his new office when his supervisor sends him to Northumberland to investigate the death of Oswin Dunn, a pilot whose body washed ashore near Lindisfarne, also known as “the Holy Island.” His supervisor stresses several times that Ian is representing Scotland Yard and that the investigation must be handled with “delicacy.” That area is called “the cradle of Christianity in England,” where religious visitors annually flock. The Church of England is concerned a murder will harm tourism.
An autopsy reveals that Dunn didn’t drown but was bludgeoned. As he investigates, Ian finds that this part of England is vehemently anti-German. Stores won’t even stock German goods, such as Dresden china, nor will cafes and pubs serve German dishes. The residents remember that many of the area’s young men died in the war, and the once-prosperous region now is economically depressed. Few seem to care about the murder of Oswin, whose brother-in-law was German. Oswin also was resented because he investigated the British Royal Navy’s HMS Ascot’s sinking before the 1918 armistice.
“A Day of Judgment” moves at a brisk pace as Ian’s investigation takes him through Northumberland, which is both beautiful and bleak. As ever, Ian must keep his post-traumatic stress disorder — which was called shell-shock in those days — quiet, because this was considered a sign of cowardness.
Ian, as Todd has shown numerous times, is no coward. While Ian will always deal with the emotional fallout of the war, Todd gives him a glimmer of hope as he begins his new position at Scotland Yard.
And Todd gives his longtime readers hope that the series will continue.
Barbara Peters welcomed Sandra Brown back to The Poisoned Pen for her book launch for Bloodlust. There are signed copies of the new thriller, Bloodlust, available in the Webstore. https://tinyurl.com/mrnvczbv
Here’s the description of Bloodlust.
#1 New York Times bestselling author Sandra Brown delivers a new signature sexy suspense about a detective seeking justice for his murdered wife with the help of a psychotherapist … while fighting an undeniable attraction to her.
Two years ago, Detective Mitch Haskell lost his wife to a vicious act of retribution, and has since attributed her murder to two men: Roland Malone and the unidentified mastermind of the crime known only as Oz. Malone, a ruthless executioner and drug dealer who fronts as a restaurant owner, neutralizes so cleanly that he doesn’t leave a trace. And he performs his handiwork at the biddings of Oz, the faceless kingpin of a drug trafficking operation whose name alone evokes terror.
Obsessively vowing to avenge his late wife’s murder, Mitch has been on a downward spiral, jeopardizing his closest relationships and drinking excessively to numb his pain. After going one step too far, Detective John Bowie, his former best friend and now his boss, has forced Mitch to get therapy to sort himself out.
Dr. Dylan Reede is immediately empathetic to the pain she senses beneath Mitch’s cavalier attitude and wisecracking. She’s determined to make the most of his mandated sessions. But from the moment Mitch breezes into her office, Dylan finds it a struggle to maintain the professional and personal boundaries that keep her own tragic past at a safe distance.
As Mitch begins to close in on Oz and Malone’s operation, they’re prepared to stop him by any means necessary. And when it’s revealed that Dylan might hold the key to bringing them to justice, Mitch and Dylan’s irresistible attraction to each other may not only compromise both of them professionally, but place them in Oz’s bullseye.
Sandra Brown is the author of seventy-seven New York Times bestsellers, including Blood Moon, 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.
John Charles recently welcomed Mark Stevens for a virtual event at The Poisoned Pen. Stevens’ new thriller is called Two Truths and a Lie. You can order a copy of the book through the Webstore. https://tinyurl.com/5h2tdvcf
Here’s the description of Two Truths and a Lie.
In a taut, haunting follow-up to No Lie Lasts Forever, reporter Flynn Martin gets ensnared in a copycat killer’s game where winning means solving a crime—and losing could cost her everything.
Lambasted for a tragedy caught live on camera, then lauded for her help capturing the elusive PDQ, a serial killer, Flynn Martin’s career has reached new heights. But now, the TV journalist and mother has much further to fall. And someone wants to push her over the edge.
PDQ is behind bars, for life and then some, but someone on the outside has picked up the killer’s mantle. Flynn is neck-deep in an investigation when the copycat emerges, targeting her sources and delivering cryptic messages. It’s clear that Flynn’s stories are getting deadlier. This one proves no exception.
A family of four has gone missing, leaving behind ties to New Hope Church more tangled than they appear. The dangerous web rivals the threat in Flynn’s personal life. And it’s up to her to unravel each knot.
Scandal. Conspiracy. Murder. Flynn hardly knows where to begin—and if her stalker has their way, she might not live to see the end.
Award-winning author Mark Stevens was raised by librarian parents in Lincoln, Massachusetts. He has worked both in public relations and as a reporter and national TV news producer. His 2023 title The Fireballer was named Best Baseball Fiction Book by Twin Bill literary magazine and Best Baseball Book of the Year by Spitball Magazine. Stevens is a three-time Colorado Book Award finalist and the 2015 winner for Trapline, which also earned the Colorado Authors League Award for Best Genre Fiction. His Antler Dust was a Denver Post bestseller in 2007 and 2009.
Stevens has published short stories in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Mystery Tribune, and Denver Noir. A two-time Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Writer of the Year, he hosts a regular podcast for RMFW and has served as president of the Rocky Mountain chapter for Mystery Writers of America. He also writes book reviews, which you can find at https://markhstevens.wordpress.com. The author currently lives in Mancos, Colorado.
Enjoy John Charles’ conversation with Mark Stevens.
John Charles welcomed Megan Chance for a virtual chat at The Poisoned Pen. Chance is the author of The Vermilion Sea. You can order a copy of this historical thriller through the Webstore. https://tinyurl.com/y8bs7nwv
Here’s the description of The Vermilion Sea.
From the author of Glamorous Notions comes a harrowing tale set aboard a yacht in the 1920s, where luxury borders on lunacy and mysteries of the deep blur the lines between science and the occult.
The Great War may be over, but brilliant scientist Billie McKennan continues the fight to be taken seriously. When a deliberate omission wins her a marine biologist position aboard an expedition funded by a wealthy eccentric, she quickly discovers she’s not the only one keeping secrets.
The opulent Eurybia sets sail for the Gulf of California with a handful of well-to-do passengers and talented scientists on board. To Billie’s surprise, her ex-husband counts among them. The true mission of the voyage comes into question when a mysterious specimen is captured. And then science unexpectedly gives way to wild rumors and superstition.
Soon, a sinister force takes hold of the vessel—and everyone on it. Billie must reconcile her beliefs with the reality of what she encounters in the vermilion sea. But how much is she willing to sacrifice in order to survive?
Megan Chance is the critically acclaimed, award-winning author of more than twenty novels, including Glamorous Notions, A Dangerous Education, A Splendid Ruin, Bone River, and An Inconvenient Wife. She and her husband live in the Pacific Northwest with their two grown daughters nearby. For more information about Megan and her books, please visit www.meganchance.com.
Enjoy John Charles’ conversation with Megan Chance.
Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, warned the virtual audience that they have the last batch of signed copies of the first run of Best Boy on order. You need to talk with the Poisoned Pen staff to pre-order the last available signed copies. Of course, you can always order a copy of the book through the Webstore. https://tinyurl.com/3t9d3zz7
Here’s the description of Best Boy.
A gripping psychological thriller, Best Boy teeters on the knife-edge of memory and identity when the arrival of a shocking letter threatens the carefully constructed life of a woman desperate to outrun her past.
Viveca Stevenson has it all: a handsome and successful husband, an adorable ten-year-old son, and a coastal dream house in Greenwich, Connecticut. She has a solid group of girlfriends and is content with the afterglow of the film career she’s left behind. But when a threatening letter arrives—from a man she does not remember—it cracks open a part of her past she thought was buried for good.
A terrifying chain of events is set in motion, forcing Viveca to confront what happened on a shattering Halloween night in high school when she had a different name, a different face, a different voice. Who is the man contacting her now and was he really the best boy on her most famous film, Misty? Why can’t she remember him—or that night?
A taut psychological thriller, Best Boy explores identity, memory, and the dangerous power of forgetting.
Deborah Goodrich Royce’s Reef Road, a national bestseller and Indie Next pick, was named one of the best books of the year by Kirkus Reviews. Ruby Falls won the Zibby Award for Best Plot Twist, and Finding Mrs. Ford was hailed by Forbes and Good Morning America.
At the Ocean House Author Series, Deborah interviews writers ranging from Katie Couric to Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York. With fellow authors Luanne Rice and Amy Scheibe she leads the Deer Mountain Writers’ Retreat. She writes a book column for Hey Rhody and Providence Monthly magazines and began her career as an actress on All My Children and story editor at Miramax Films.
Deborah holds a BA in modern foreign languages and two honorary doctorates of humane letters from Lake Erie College and the University of Rhode Island. With her husband, Chuck, Deborah restored the Avon Theatre, Ocean House Hotel, Deer Mountain Inn, United Theatre, Martin House Books, and numerous Main Street revitalization projects. She is a trustee of New York Botanical Garden.
Enjoy the conversation with Deborah Goodrich Royce.
Critic Oline Cogdill recently reviewed Nick Petrie’s latest Peter Ash novel, The Dark Time. Petrie appeared at The Poisoned Pen on book tour, and there are signed copies of The Dark Time available in the Webstore. https://tinyurl.com/3yv62bhe
Cogdill’s review appeared first in the South Florida Sun Sentinel. Thank you for sharing, Oline.
Book review: ‘The Dark Time’ is more than a thriller, diving deep into the lives of veterans
‘The Dark Time’ by Nick Petrie; Putnam; 400 pages; $30
Nick Petrie’s finely calibrated novels about Peter Ash continue to explore how this former Marine deals with the aftermath of war, channeling his post-traumatic stress disorder into helping others and saving lives. The fast-paced, intelligently plotted “The Dark Time” illustrates how Petrie has evolved the character of Peter, who continues to grapple with lingering memories of war and claustrophobia.
In “The Dark Time,” Petrie’s ninth installment, Peter is now a soldier of a different kind, whose battlefield of helping others as a civilian continues to be a major focus.
“The Dark Time” finds Peter out of his comfort zone of Milwaukee and in the Pacific Northwest helping a friend when he receives an urgent call from longtime girlfriend June Cassidy, an investigative reporter. June’s friend, Katelyn Thorsen, also an investigative reporter in Seattle, has been receiving threats related to a story she’s pursuing. But Katelyn, who goes by K.T., has no idea which story it is, nor who has targeted her and her 13-year-old daughter.
Peter doesn’t hesitate to show up, but things quickly go bad. Soon, Peter is on the run with his charges, whom he is trying to protect. He traces the threat to an underground group that wants to wreak havoc on the country. Peter calls on several of his friends as reinforcements, the only people he knows he can trust.
Petrie again melds high-octane action with deep character studies in “The Dark Time.” Peter’s complicated, compassionate personality continues to drive the series. His eight years as a Marine had “rewired him, turned him into a man with war inside him like a sleeping dragon, waiting for a chance to wake up.”
An ongoing theme of Petrie’s novels is examining the lives of veterans — both their time on battlefields and adjustment to civilian life. The series fits well with this ongoing trend.
“The Dark Time” delivers a gripping plot that is both timely and timeless.
Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, welcomed Naomi Hirahara and Sujata Massey back to the bookstore. Hirahara’s new book is Crown City. Massey’s latest one is The Star from Calcutta. There are signed copies of both books available through the Webstore. https://store.poisonedpen.com/
Here’s the description of Crown City.
In turn-of-the-century California, two Japanese amateur detectives uncover the dark underbelly of their multicultural city—from the Mary Higgins Clark Award–winning author of Clark and Division.
Pasadena, 1903: Eighteen-year-old Ryunosuke “Ryui” Wada staggers off the boat from Yokohama, Japan, ready to reinvent himself after the untimely deaths of his parents. Though battling loneliness and culture shock, Ryui does his best to settle into his work as an art dealer’s apprentice while adjusting to his new home. From his enigmatic photographer roommate, Jack, to the beautiful seamstress living downstairs, Ryui finds himself surrounded by colorful characters and unbelievable opportunities and is soon utterly swept up in all “Crown City” has to offer.
But tensions are seething under Pasadena’s bustling prosperity. Ryui is the victim of an anti-Japanese attack, and a painting is stolen from the studio of Toshio Aoki, Pasadena’s most successful Japanese artist, who then hires Ryui and Jack to investigate. It’s not long before their sleuthing leads them into real danger. Ryui is a naive young man in a foreign country—has he bitten off more than he can chew?
In this fish-out-of-water mystery, studded with cameos by real historical figures, Edgar Award–winner Naomi Hirahara brings to life a little-known slice of California history.
Naomi Hirahara is the Mary Higgins Clark Award, Edgar Award, and Lefty Award–winning author of Clark and Division and Evergreen; the Mas Arai mystery series, including Summer of the Big Bachi, which was a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year; and the LA-based Ellie Rush mysteries. A former editor of The Rafu Shimpo newspaper, she has co-written nonfiction books like Life after Manzanar and the award-winning Terminal Island: Lost Communities on America’s Edge. She and her husband make their home in Pasadena, California.
Here’s the description of Sujata Massey’s latest Perveen Mistry novel, The Star from Calcutta.
A movie censor murdered, a leading lady vanished—the glamour, romance, and intrigue of the beginnings of Bollywood come to vivid life in the thrilling new installment of the Perveen Mistry historical mystery series.
India, 1922: Perveen Mistry, the only female lawyer in Bombay, has secured her biggest client yet: Champa Films, a movie studio run by director Subhas Ghoshal and his wife, Rochana, the biggest name in Indian cinema. In the public eye, Rochana is notorious for her beauty and her daring stunts—behind the scenes, she has recently left the studio in Calcutta that made her famous, and the studio owner is enraged by what he claims is a breach of contract. Rochana needs Perveen’s legal help to extricate Champa Films from the impending controversy.
To study Rochana’s glamorous world, Perveen attends a special screening and brings her film fanatic best friend, Alice Hobson-Jones. But in the aftermath of the event, one of the guests is found dead, and to make matters worse, Rochana has disappeared.
To protect her clients, Perveen begins to investigate the developing murder case, peeling back the glitz to reveal a salacious web of blackmail, deceit, and romantic affairs. For the first time in their friendship, Alice seems to be keeping a secret from Perveen. Is she hiding key information about the night of the murder? Will Perveen be able to detangle the truth from lies while protecting herself—and her closest friend?
Sujata Massey was born in England to parents from India and Germany, grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota, and lives in Baltimore, Maryland. She was a features reporter for the Baltimore Evening Sun before becoming a full-time novelist. The first Perveen Mistry novel, The Widows of Malabar Hill, was an international bestseller and won the Agatha, Macavity, and Mary Higgins Clark Awards. Visit her website at sujatamassey.com.
Enjoy the conversation with Naomi Hirahara and Sujata Massey.
Congratulations to the nominees for the 2026 Barry Awards. Voted on by readers of Deadly Pleasures magazine, the winners will be announced Oct. 22, 2026 at Bouchercon. You can check The Poisoned Pen’s Webstore for copies of the books. https://store.poisonedpen.com/
Best Mystery THE IMPOSSIBLE THING, Belinda Bauer (Atlantic Monthly) CROOKS, Lou Berney (William Morrow) KING OF ASHES, S. A. Cosby (Flatiron Books) THE BLACK WOLF, Louise Penny (Minotaur Books) THE WHITE CROW, Michael Robotham (Scribner) PRESUMED GUILTY, Scott Turow (Grand Central)
Best First Mystery LEVERAGE, Amran Gowani (Atria Books) ALL THE OTHER MOTHERS HATE ME, Sarah Harman (Putnam) DEAD MONEY, Jakob Kerr (Bantam) THE VANISHING PLACE, Zoe Rankin (Berkley) STILLWATER, Tanya Scott (Atlantic Monthly) JULIE CHAN IS DEAD, Liann Zhang (Atria Books)
Best Paperback Original Mystery CRIMSON THAW, Bruce Robert Coffin (Severn River) SPLINTERED JUSTICE, Kim Hays (Seventh Street Books) MAKING A KILLING, Cara Hunter (William Morrow) IF TWO ARE DEAD, Rick Mofina (MIRA) WOLF SIX, Alex Shaw (Boldwood Books) THE DENTIST, Tim Sullivan (Atlantic Crime)
Best Thriller WITNESS 8, Steve Cavanagh (Atria Books) THE OLIGARCH’S DAUGHTER, Joseph Finder (Harper) MIDNIGHT BLACK, Mark Greaney (Berkley) CLOWN TOWN, Mick Herron (Soho Crime) HEAD CASES, John McMahon (Minotaur Books) THE MAILMAN, Andrew Welsh-Huggins (Mysterious Press)
