While Patrick Millikin was still at The Poisoned Pen in Arizona, he took viewers to Oxford, Mississippi to visit with authors Ace Atkins and Chris Offutt.They spent time talking about the town and other resident authors, so it seemed appropriate to talk about the location. Atkins’ latest book, The Heathens, is available through the Web Store, along with signed copies of Offutt’s The Killing Hills. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

Here’s the description of The Heathens.

Sheriff Quinn Colson and his former deputy Lillie Virgil find themselves on opposite sides of a case for the first time after a woman is found dead and three delinquent teens go on the run.

Before he was an Army Ranger who came home to become Tibbehah County Sheriff and take down a corrupt system, Quinn Colson was a kid who got into trouble–a lot of it. So when juvenile delinquent TJ Byrd insists that she doesn’t know who killed her mother—an unreliable addict who has disappeared—Quinn’s inclined to believe her. But no one else does–not the town, not the sheriff in a neighboring county, not her mother’s older boyfriend, and certainly not Quinn’s friend and former deputy, U.S. Marshal Lillie Virgil.

The Byrd family has always been trouble, and sixteen-year-old TJ is known for petty theft, fighting, and general hellraising. She’s also no fool, and when she senses she’s about to take the fall for her mother’s murder, TJ, her boyfriend, her best friend, and her nine-year-old brother go on the run. As Lillie Virgil tracks the kids across a trail of burglaries, stolen cars and even a kidnapping, intent on bringing TJ to justice, Quinn sets out to find the truth back in Tibbehah. Someone has gone to a lot of violent trouble to make TJ and her friends the logical target of the investigation. It’s easy, and who cares about a bunch of lawless kids?

As the bloody evidence against TJ piles up, Quinn knows someone truly evil is at work here–and that puts TJ and her friends in more danger than they can imagine.

---

Ace Atkins is the author of twenty-eight books, including eleven Quinn Colson novels, the first two of which, The Ranger and The Lost Ones, were nominated for the Edgar Award for Best Novel (he has a third Edgar nomination for his short story “Last Fair Deal Gone Down”). He is the author of nine New York Times-bestselling novels in the continuation of Robert B. Parker’s Spenser series. Before turning to fiction, he was a correspondent for the St. Petersburg Times and a crime reporter for the Tampa Tribune, and he played defensive end for Auburn University football.

---

The Killing Hills is summarized here.

A literary master across genres, award-winning author Chris Offutt’s latest novel,The Killing Hills, is a compelling, propulsive thriller in which a suspicious death exposes the loyalties and rivalries of a deep-rooted and fiercely private community in the Kentucky backwoods.

Mick Hardin, a combat veteran now working as an Army CID agent, is home on a leave that is almost done. His wife is about to give birth, but they aren’t getting along. His sister, newly risen to sheriff, has just landed her first murder case, and local politicians are pushing for city police or the FBI to take the case. Are they convinced she can’t handle it, or is there something else at work? She calls on Mick who, with his homicide investigation experience and familiarity with the terrain, is well-suited to staying under the radar. As he delves into the investigation, he dodges his commanding officer’s increasingly urgent calls while attempting to head off further murders. And he needs to talk to his wife.

The Killing Hills is a novel of betrayal—sexual, personal, within and between the clans that populate the hollers—and the way it so often shades into violence. Chris Offutt has delivered a dark, witty, and absolutely compelling novel of murder and honor, with an investigator-hero unlike any in fiction.

---

CHRIS OFFUTT is also the author of novelsCountry Dark andThe Good Brother, the short-story collectionsKentucky Straight andOut of the Woods, and three memoirs:The Same River Twice,No Heroes, andMy Father, the Pornographer. His work has appeared inBest American Short Stories andBest American Essays, among many other places. He has written screenplays forWeeds,True Blood, andTreme, and has received fellowships from the Lannan and Guggenheim foundations. He lives in rural Lafayette County near Oxford, Mississippi.

---

Enjoy this front porch conversation.

Liv Constantine and Kate White shared a virtual event at The Poisoned Pen, hosted by Barbara Peters, the owner of the bookstore. Sisters Valerie and Lynne Constantine write under the name Liv Constantine. Their latest book is The Stranger in the Mirror. Kate White’s latest book is The Fiancee. There are issues of trust in both suspense novels. You can find copies of both books in the Web Store. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

Here is the summary of The Stranger in the Mirror.

A diabolically twisty, psychologically unsettling novel about a woman with no recollection of her past from the authors of the Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick The Last Mrs. Parrish and The Wife Stalker.

“Jaw-dropping twists with an unsettling edge that you’ll need a few days at the beach to recover.” —Reese’s Book Club

Addison’s about to get married, but she’s not looking forward to the big day. It’s not her fiancé; he’s a wonderful man. It’s because Addison doesn’t know who she really is. A few years ago, a kind driver found her bleeding next to a New Jersey highway and rescued her. While her physical wounds healed, Addison’s memory never returned. She doesn’t know her real name. Or how she ended up injured on the side of a road. Or why she can’t shake the notion that she may have done something very, very bad . . .

In a posh home in the Boston suburbs, Julian tries to figure out what happened to his loving, caring wife, Cassandra, who disappeared without a trace two years ago. She would never have left him and their seven-year-old daughter Valentina of her own free will—or would she? 

As these two lives intersect, The Stranger in the Mirror hooks readers with riveting drama, told with Liv Constantine’s hallmark blend of glamour, tense psychological thrills, and jaw-dropping twists.

---

Liv Constantine is the pen name of sisters Lynne Constantine and Valerie Constantine. Together, they are the bestselling author of the Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick The Last Mrs. Parrish, The Last Time I Saw You, The Wife Stalker, and The Stranger in the Mirror. Their books have been praised by USA Today, The Sunday Times, People Magazine, and Good Morning America, among many others. Lynne and Valerie are national and international bestselling authors and their books have been translated into 27 languages, are available in 32 countries and are in development for television and film.  Lynne lives in Milford, Connecticut; Valerie in Annapolis, Maryland.

---

Here’s the description of The Fiancee.

“A tense, simmering, fast-paced mystery.”—Megan Miranda, New York Times bestselling author of The Last House Guest and The Girl from Widow Hills

The New York Times bestselling author returns with an unsettling but riveting psychological thriller about a captivating woman who joins a family and threatens to upend their picture-perfect lives. 

They had everything they needed for a perfect family vacation: close-knit relatives, a bucolic setting . . . and a murderer in their midst?

Summer’s looking forward to a break from hustling for acting work in Manhattan when she, her husband Gabe, and Gabe’s nine-year-old son arrive at the annual family get-together at her in-laws’ sprawling estate. On the agenda are leisurely gourmet meals, tennis matches, and plenty of relaxation by the pool.

But this year, Gabe’s brother Nick has invited his new flame Hannah, whom Summer immediately recognizes from a few years before. Oddly, her brother-in-law’s girlfriend claims not to know her. Yet she charms the other family members, and after Nick announces that he’s proposed to Hannah, Summer doesn’t have much choice but to grin and bear it.

Then the reunion is rocked by tragedy when a family member is found dead. Though the doctors attribute the loss to natural causes, a grieving Summer fears that the too-good-to-be-true Hannah is involved, even as Gabe dismisses her suspicions.

How far will Summer go to expose the truth? As she investigates just what Nick’s fiancée might have done to keep her perfect image intact, she begins to fear that the first death might only be the beginning . . .

---

Kate White is the New York Times bestselling author of eight standalone psychological thrillers, including Have You Seen Me? (2020) and the upcoming The Fiancée (June 2021), as well as eight Bailey Weggins mysteries, including Such a Perfect Wife, which was nominated for an International Thriller Writers Award. Kate, the former editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan, is also the author of several popular career books for women, including I Shouldn’t Be Telling You This: How to Ask for the Money, Snag the Promotion, and Create the Career You Deserve and Why Good Girls Don’t Get Ahead, as well the editor of the Anthony and Agatha Award-nominated The Mystery Writers of America Cookbook. 

---

Enjoy the conversation about these books.

S.A. Cosby, author of The Poisoned Pen’s current Hot Book of the Week, Razorblade Tears, is the guest author on Thursday, July 22. He’ll be appearing for a virtual event at 6 PM MDT, 9 PM EDT. Check the bookstore’s Facebook page for the event. https://www.facebook.com/thepoisonedpenbookstore Cosby’s previous novel, Blacktop Wasteland, just won the Thriller Award for Best Novel from the International Thriller Writers. You can order copies of both books, including a signed copy of Razorblade Tears, through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/3isoNLv

Here’s the summary of Razorblade Tears.

*INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER*

“Provocative, violent — beautiful and moving, too.” —Washington Post
“Superb…Cuts right to the heart of the most important questions of our times.” —Michael Connelly
“A tour de force ““ poignant, action-packed, and profound.” —Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
A Black father. A white father. Two murdered sons. A quest for vengeance.

Ike Randolph has been out of jail for fifteen years, with not so much as a speeding ticket in all that time. But a Black man with cops at the door knows to be afraid.

The last thing he expects to hear is that his son Isiah has been murdered, along with Isiah’s white husband, Derek. Ike had never fully accepted his son but is devastated by his loss.

Derek’s father Buddy Lee was almost as ashamed of Derek for being gay as Derek was ashamed of his father’s criminal record. Buddy Lee still has contacts in the underworld, though, and he wants to know who killed his boy.

Ike and Buddy Lee, two ex-cons with little else in common other than a criminal past and a love for their dead sons, band together in their desperate desire for revenge. In their quest to do better for their sons in death than they did in life, hardened men Ike and Buddy Lee will confront their own prejudices about their sons and each other, as they rain down vengeance upon those who hurt their boys.

Provocative and fast-paced, S. A. Cosby’s Razorblade Tears is a story of bloody retribution, heartfelt change – and maybe even redemption.

“A visceral full-body experience, a sharp jolt to the heart, and a treat for the senses…Cosby’s moody southern thriller marries the skillful action and plotting of Lee Child with the atmosphere and insight of Attica Locke.” —NPR

---

S. A. Cosby is an Anthony Award-winning writer from southeastern Virginia. His the bestselling author of Blacktop Wasteland, a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice and Goodreads Choice Awards semifinalist, as well as Brotherhood of the Blade and My Darkest Prayer. When not writing, he is an avid hiker and chess player.

---

Most of the upcoming events for the next week at The Poisoned Pen feature thrillers, so it’s a “thrilling” week ahead. Check out the schedule, and then check the Web Store for books by your favorite authors. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

Just look at this terrific schedule. You can watch the virtual events on The Poisoned Pen’s Facebook page, live, or catch them later.

Although their books are not at all similar, authors Jeff Abbott and Susan Elia MacNeal are friends, so they joined forces for a recent virtual event at The Poisoned Pen. Abbott’s latest standalone is An Ambush of Widows. MacNeal’s latest Maggie Hope mystery is The Hollywood Spy. Signed copies of both books are available through the Web Store. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

Here’s the summary of An Ambush of Widows.

In New York Times bestselling author Jeff Abbott’s latest novel of riveting psychological suspense, an uneasy alliance forms as two widows delve into their husbands’ deadly and dangerous secrets—as they try to protect their own.

Henry North is a down-on-his-luck cybersecurity expert from New Orleans. Adam Zhang is the cofounder of one of Austin’s most successful venture capitalist firms. These two men didn’t know each other. They had never met. Yet they died together, violently, in a place neither had any business being.

When Henry doesn’t return from a business trip, his wife, Kirsten, panics—and then gets an anonymous phone call: “Your husband is dead in Austin.”

Flora Zhang knew her husband was keeping secrets. She suspected an affair, but she had decided she could forgive him for his weakness—until her husband ended up dead. And with no explanation for her husband’s murder, the police begin to suspect her.

Together, these two widows will face a powerful foe determined to write a false narrative about the murders. In doing so, neither Flora nor Kirsten will remain the women the world thought they were.

---

Jeff Abbott is the New York Times bestselling author of nineteen novels. He is the winner of an International Thriller Writers Award (for the Sam Capra thriller The Last Minute) and is a three-time nominee for the Edgar Award. A former President of Mystery Writers of America, he lives in Austin with his family. You can visit his website at JeffAbbott.com.

---

Here’s the description of The Hollywood Spy.

Maggie Hope is off to California to solve a crime that hits too close to home—and confront the very evil she thought she had left behind in Europe—as theacclaimed World War II mystery series from New York Times bestselling author Susan Elia MacNeal continues.

“A swift, vibrant novel that peels back the asbestos curtain on the complex history of Los Angeles, home to heroes and villains.”—Steph Cha, author of Your House Will Pay

Los Angeles, 1943. As the Allies beat back the Nazis in the Mediterranean and the United States military slowly closes in on Tokyo, Walt Disney cranks out wartime propaganda and the Cocoanut Grove is alive with jazz and swing every night. But behind this sunny façade lies a darker reality. Somewhere in the lush foothills of Hollywood, a woman floats lifeless in the pool of one of California’s trendiest hotels.

When American-born secret agent and British spy Maggie Hope learns that this woman was engaged to her former fiancée, John Sterling, and that he suspects her death was no accident, intuition tells her he’s right. Leaving London under siege is a lot to ask. But John was once the love of Maggie’s life . . . and she won’t say no.

Maggie struggles with seeing her lost love again, but what’s more shocking is that her own country is as divided and convulsed with hatred as Europe. The Zoot Suit Riots loom large in Los Angeles, and the Ku Klux Klan casts a long shadow everywhere. But there is little time to dwell on memories once she starts digging into the case. As she traces a web of deception from the infamous Garden of Allah to the iconic Carthay Circle Theater, she discovers things aren’t always the way things appear in the movies—and the political situation in America is more complicated, and dangerous, than the newsreels would have them all believe.

---

Susan Elia MacNeal is the New York Times bestselling author of the Maggie Hope mysteries. MacNeal won the Barry Award and has been nominated for the Edgar, Macavity, Agatha, Left Coast Crime, Dilys, and ITW Thriller awards. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband and son. The Hollywood Spy is her tenth novel.

---

Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, hosted the conversation. Enjoy!

Congratulations to the 2021 Agatha Award winners. The winners were announced Saturday at More than Malice, the virtual Malice Domestic conference. Don’t forget to check the Web Store for the books! https://store.poisonedpen.com/

Best Contemporary Novel

All the Devils are Here by Louise Penny (Minotaur)

Best Historical Novel 

The Last Mrs. Summers by Rhys Bowen (Berkeley)

Best First Novel

Murder at the Mena House by Erica Ruth Neubauer (Kensington)

Best Short Story 

“Dear Emily Etiquette” by Barb Goffman (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine Sep/Oct)

Best Non-Fiction

Phantom Lady: Hollywood Producer Joan Harrison, the Forgotten Woman Behind Hitchcock by Christina Lane (Chicago Review Press)

Best Children’s/YA

Holly Hernandez and the Death of Disco by Richard Narvaez (Piñata Books) 

Congratulations to all of the winners!

Let’s talk about Christopher Fowler’s Bryant and May books since the author is ending the series with London Bridge is Falling Down. Suzi Feay recently interviewed Fowler for The Guardian, talking about his books, his characters, and the series. You can find that interview here. https://bit.ly/3epsT5V While the book won’t be published in the United States until December, it’s a July release in the U.K. Even with that publication date, you can pre-order that book, or order other books in the series through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2UU3mdV

Here’s the summary of London Bridge is Falling Down.

“[Fowler] takes delight in stuffing his books with esoteric facts. . . .They make forunbeatable fun.”—The Guardian

The brilliant duo of Arthur Bryant and John May uncovers a nefarious plot behind the seemingly innocuous death of an old lady—and when the case leads them to London Bridge, it all comes down on the Peculiar Crimes Unit.

When ninety-one-year-old Amelia Hoffman dies in her top-floor flat on a busy London road, it’s considered an example of what has gone wrong with modern society: she slipped through the cracks in a failing system.

But detectives Arthur Bryant and John May of the Peculiar Crimes Unit have their doubts. Mrs. Hoffman was once a government security expert, though no one can quite remember her. When a link emerges between the old lady and a diplomat trying to flee the country, it seems that an impossible murder has been committed.

Mrs. Hoffman wasn’t the only one at risk. Bryant is convinced that other forgotten women with hidden talents are also in danger. And, curiously, they all own models of London Bridge.

With the help of some of their more certifiable informants, the detectives follow the strangest of clues in an investigation that will lead them through forgotten alleyways to the city’s oldest bridge in search of a desperate killer.
  But just when the case appears to be solved, they discover that Mrs. Hoffman was smarter than anyone imagined. There’s a bigger game afoot that could have terrible consequences.

---

Christopher Fowler is the acclaimed author of the award-winning Full Dark House and sixteen other Peculiar Crimes Unit mysteries, as well as the PCU story collections London’s Glory and England’s Finest. In 2015, Fowler won the coveted Crime Writers’ Association Dagger in the Library Award in recognition for his body of work. He lives in London.

In her virtual event book release for Her Last Breath, Hilary Davidson told Patrick Millikin from The Poisoned Pen that she’s appeared at The Poisoned Pen for all seven of her books. Her Last Breath has been released in both hardcover and paperback, and Davidson signed copies of both. You can find them in the Web Store. https://bit.ly/3eir2Qf

Here’s Her Last Breath.

From the bestselling author of One Small Sacrifice comes a suspenseful thriller about a dead woman who predicted her own murder—and the sister who won’t let the truth be buried.

When her beloved sister Caroline dies suddenly, Deirdre is heartbroken. However, her sorrow turns to bone-chilling confusion when she receives a message Caroline sent days earlier warning that her death would be no accident. Long used to being a pariah to her family, Deirdre covers her tattoos and heads to Manhattan for her sister’s funeral.

The message claimed Caroline’s husband, Theo, killed his first wife and got away with it. Reeling from the news, Deirdre confronts Theo on the way to the cemetery, and he reveals both his temper and his suspicion that Deirdre’s “perfect” sister was having an affair.

Paranoid and armed with just enough information to make her dangerous, Deirdre digs into the disturbing secrets buried with Caroline. But as she gets closer to the truth, she realizes that her own life may be at risk…and that there may be more than one killer in the family.

---

Hilary Davidson is the bestselling author of One Small Sacrifice and the winner of two Anthony Awards. Her novels include the Lily Moore series—The Damage Done, The Next One to Fall, and Evil in All Its Disguises—and the standalone thriller Blood Always Tells. Her widely acclaimed short stories have won numerous awards and have been featured everywhere from Ellery Queen to Thuglit, as well as in her collection The Black Widow Club. A Toronto-born travel journalist who’s lived in New York City since October 2001, Davidson is also the author of eighteen nonfiction books. Visit her online at www.hilarydavidson.com.

---

Enjoy the conversation between Hilary Davidson and Patrick Millikin.

Although I would normally say Francine Mathews hosted Dan Fesperman, questioning him about his latest book, The Cover Wife, Patrick Millikin from The Poisoned Pen said Mathews would interrogate Fesperman. That’s an appropriate comment because Mathews was a CIA analyst. There are still signed copies of The Cover Wife available through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/3revTaf

Here’s the summary of The Cover Wife.

From the award-winning author of Safe Houses—an electrifying new novel about a CIA agent and a young expat who find themselves caught up in a dangerous world, whose secrets, if revealed, could have disastrous repercussions for them both.

When CIA agent Claire Saylor is told that she’ll be going undercover in Hamburg to pose as the wife of an academic who has published a controversial interpretation of the Quran’s promise to martyrs, she assumes the job is a punishment for past unorthodox behavior. But when she discovers her team leader is Paul Bridger, another Agency maverick, she realizes there may be more to this mission than meets the eye—and not just for professional reasons.

Meanwhile, across town in Hamburg, Mahmoud, a recent Moroccan émigré, begins to fall under the sway of a group of radicals at his local mosque. The deeper he’s drawn into the group, the greater the danger he faces, and he is soon torn between his obligations to them and his feelings toward a beautiful westernized Muslim woman.

As Claire learns the truth about her mission, and Mahmoud grows closer to the radicals, the danger between them builds and spells disaster far beyond the CIA.

---

DAN FESPERMAN’s travels as a journalist and novelist have taken him to thirty countries and three war zones. Lie in the Dark won the Crime Writers’ Association of Britain’s John Creasey New Blood Dagger Award for best first crime novel, The Small Boat of Great Sorrows won their Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award for best thriller, and The Prisoner of Guantánamo won the Hammett Prize from the International Association of Crime Writers. He lives in Baltimore.

---

Enjoy the conversation between Dan Fesperman and Francine Mathews.