Patrick Millikin recently interviewed Wallace Stroby about his new book, Heaven’s a Lie. But, the conversation was about books, music, journalism, not just Stroby’s latest. You can order a signed copy of Heaven’s a Lie through the Web Store.

Patrick calls Heaven’s a Lie “an absolute killer”. Here’s the description.

When a young widow witnesses a fatal car accident outside a Jersey Shore motel, she’s suddenly thrust into a nightmare of gang violence, guns, and money that she can’t outrun in this action-packed novel by “one of the best writers in crime fiction” (Alison Gaylin).”‹

Joette Harper’s life brings new meaning to the phrase “paycheck to paycheck.” Struggling to afford her mother’s sky-high medical bills
and also keep the lights on in her trailer home, Joette needs a break.

So, when she spies a bag full of money amongst the wreckage of a fiery car accident, she knows she can’t just let it be. Inside is a bounty better than she could have dreamed—just shy of $300,000 in neatly stacked hundreds and fifties. Enough to pay off her debts, give her mother the care she deserves, and maybe even help out a few of her friends.

But, of course, the missing briefcase didn’t go unnoticed by its original owner, Travis Clay—a ruthless dealer who’ll stop at nothing to get back what’s his.

Joette is way out of her depth, but can’t seem to stop herself from participating in this cat-and-mouse chase. But can she beat Travis at his own game?

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Wallace Stroby is an award-winning journalist and the author of eight previous novels, four of which feature Crissa Stone, the professional thief labeled “crime fiction’s best bad girl ever.” His first novel, The Barbed-Wire Kiss, was a Barry Award finalist for best debut novel. A native of Long Branch, N.J., he’s a lifelong resident of the Jersey Shore.

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Enjoy the conversation.

Caroline Kepnes is a friend, colleague and fellow author with Chad Kultgen. Following the introductions by Patrick Millikin and then Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, Kultgen hosted Caroline Kepnes to discuss her third book in her “You” series, You Love Me. You can order signed copies of You Love Me through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/3uI4tdy

Here’s the description of You Love Me.

The highly anticipated new thriller in Caroline Kepnes’s hit You series, now a blockbuster Netflix show—a compulsively readable trip into the deviant mind of the uniquely antisocial, savvy bookseller . . . Joe Goldberg.

“Fiendish, fast-paced, and very funny.”—Paula Hawkins, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Girl on the Train

ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF THE YEAR—Cosmopolitan, PopSugar, Literary Hub

Joe is done with the cities. He’s done with the muck and the posers, done with Love. Now, he’s saying hello to nature, to simple pleasures on a cozy island in the Pacific Northwest. For the first time in a long time, he can just breathe.

He gets a job at the local library—he does know a thing or two about books—and that’s where he meets her: Mary Kay DiMarco. Librarian. Joe won’t meddle, he will not obsess. He’ll win her the old-fashioned way . . . by providing a shoulder to cry on, a helping hand. Over time, they’ll both heal their wounds and begin their happily ever after in this sleepy town.

The trouble is . . . Mary Kay already has a life. She’s a mother. She’s a friend. She’s . . . busy.

True love can only triumph if both people are willing to make room for the real thing. Joe cleared his decks. He’s ready. And hopefully, with his encouragement and undying support, Mary Kay will do the right thing and make room for him.

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Caroline Kepnes is the author of You, Hidden Bodies, Providence, and numerous short stories. Her work has been translated into a multitude of languages and inspired a television series adaptation of You, currently on Netflix. Kepnes graduated from Brown University and previously worked as a pop culture journalist for Entertainment Weekly and a TV writer for 7th Heaven and The Secret Life of the American Teenager. She grew up on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and now lives in Los Angeles.

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Enjoy the conversation about books, social media and Caroline Kepnes’ characters.

Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, introduced two authors who feature working dogs in their mysteries. Paula Munier’s third Mercy Carr book is The Hiding Place. Margaret Mizushima’s most recent Timber Creek K-9 Mystery is Hanging Falls. Margaret Mizushima actually acted as host for the event, which focused on The Hiding Place. You can find books by both authors in the Web Store, however, with the focus on Mercy Carr and her dog, Elivs, here’s the link to her page. https://bit.ly/373HChB

Here’s The Hiding Place.

Mercy and Elvis are back in The Hiding Place, the most enthralling entry yet in USA Today bestselling Paula Munier’s award-winning Mercy Carr mystery series. When the man who killed her grandfather breaks out of prison and comes after her grandmother, Mercy must unearth the long-buried scandals that threaten to tear her family apart. And she may have to do it without her beloved canine partner Elvis, if his former handler has his way….

Some people take their secrets with them to the grave. Others leave them behind on their deathbeds, riddles for the survivors to solve.

When her late grandfather’s dying deputy calls Mercy to his side, she and Elvis inherit the cold case that haunted him—and may have killed him. But finding Beth Kilgore 20 years after she disappeared is more than a lost cause. It’s a Pandora’s box releasing a rain of evil on the very people Mercy and Elvis hold most dear.

The timing couldn’t be worse when the man who murdered her grandfather escapes from prison and a fellow Army vet turns up claiming that Elvis is his dog, not hers. With her grandmother Patience gone missing, and Elvis’s future uncertain, Mercy faces the prospect of losing her most treasured allies, the only ones she believes truly love and understand her.

She needs help, and that means forgiving Vermont Game Warden Troy Warner long enough to enlist his aid. With time running out for Patience, Mercy and Elvis must team up with Troy and his search-and-rescue dog Susie Bear to unravel the secrets of the past and save her grandmother—before it’s too late.

Once again, Paula Munier crafts a terrific mystery thriller filled with intrigue, action, resilient characters, the mountains of Vermont, and two amazing dogs.

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PAULA MUNIER is the USA TODAY bestselling author of the Mercy and Elvis mysteries. A Borrowing of Bones, the first in the series, was nominated for the Mary Higgins Clark Award and named the Dogwise Book of the Year. Blind Search was inspired by the real-life rescue of a little boy with autism who got lost in the woods. Paula credits the hero dogs of Mission K9 Rescue, her own rescue dogs Bear, Bliss, and Blondie—a Malinois mix as loyal and smart as Elvis—and a lifelong passion for crime fiction as her series’ major influences. She’s also written three popular books on writing: Plot Perfect, The Writer’s Guide to Beginnings, and Writing with Quiet Hands, as well as Fixing Freddie and Happier Every Day. She lives in New Hampshire with her family, the dogs, and a torbie tabby named Ursula.

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Enjoy the virtual event with Paula Munier and Margaret Mizushima.

Congratulations to the winners of the 2021 Left Coast Crime (Lefty) Awards. Check the Web Store for the winning books. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

Here are the winners, as presented at “The Unconvention”.

Best Debut Mystery Novel – Winter Counts by David Heska Wanbli Weska

Bruce Alexander Memorial Award, Best Historical Mystery Novel for a mystery covering events before 1970 – The Turning Tide by Catriona McPherson

Best Humorous Mystery Novel – Mystery in the Bayou Boneyard by Ellen Byron

Best Mystery Novel – All the Devils Are Here by Louise Penny

Congratulations to all the winners and nominees. Hopefully, we’ll all be together for Left Coast Crime in Albuquerque in 2022!

How could there be a conversation with David Rosenfelt without a discussion of dogs and the dogs on his book covers? He and Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, talked about his latest book, Animal Instinct, A K Team Novel. If you’re checking the Web Store, there will be signed copies available. https://bit.ly/2ZmRgd8

Here’s the background of Animal Instinct.

The K Team is back in the second installment in this spinoff series from bestselling author David Rosenfelt’s beloved Andy Carpenter mysteries.

Corey Douglas and his K-9 partner, a German shepherd named Simon Garfunkel, are recently retired police officers turned private investigators. Along with fellow former cop Laurie Collins and her investigating partner, Marcus, they call themselves the K Team, in honor of Simon.

The K Team’s latest case ““ a recent unsolved murder ““ gives Corey a chance to solve “the one that got away”. Corey knew the murder victim from his time on the force, when he was unable to protect her in a domestic dispute. Now, he is convinced the same abusive boyfriend is responsible for her murder. With some help from Laurie’s lawyer husband, Andy Carpenter, the K Team is determined to prove what the police could not, no matter the cost. What they uncover is much more sinister than they could have imagined.

Known for his dog-loving stories and addictive characters, bestselling mystery author David Rosenfelt presents Animal Instinct, the second installment in this engrossing new series about a dynamite investigative team and their canine partner.

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DAVID ROSENFELT is the Edgar-nominated and Shamus Award-winning author of more than twenty Andy Carpenter novels, including One Dog Night, Collared, and Deck the Hounds; its spinoff series, The K-Team; the Doug Brock thriller series, which starts with Fade to Black; and stand-alone thrillers including Heart of a Killer and On Borrowed Time. Rosenfelt and his wife live in Maine with an ever-changing pack of rescue dogs. Their epic cross-country move with 25 of these dogs, culminating in the creation of the Tara Foundation, is chronicled in Dogtripping.

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Enjoy the discussion of Animal Instinct and dogs.

It was just perfect that Flynn Berry, author of Northern Spy, talked with Adrian McKinty, author of the Sean Duffy series set during the Troubles in Belfast. They could talk about Northern Ireland, Belfast, terrorism. With what’s happening right now in Northern Ireland, her book, and their conversation is timely. You can order books by both Berry and McKinty through the Web Store. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

Although we talked about Northern Spy yesterday, here’s the summary again.

REESE’S BOOK CLUB PICK
 
“If you love a mystery, then you’ll devour [Northern Spy] . . . I loved this thrill ride of a book.”—Reese Witherspoon

The acclaimed author of Under the Harrow and A Double Life returns with her most riveting novel to date: the story of two sisters who become entangled with the IRA

A producer at the BBC and mother to a new baby, Tessa is at work in Belfast one day when the news of another raid comes on the air. The IRA may have gone underground in the two decades since the Good Friday Agreement, but they never really went away, and lately bomb threats, security checkpoints, and helicopters floating ominously over the city have become features of everyday life. As the news reporter requests the public’s help in locating those responsible for the robbery, security footage reveals Tessa’s sister, Marian, pulling a black ski mask over her face.

The police believe Marian has joined the IRA, but Tessa is convinced she must have been abducted or coerced; the sisters have always opposed the violence enacted in the name of uniting Ireland. And besides, Marian is vacationing on the north coast. Tessa just spoke to her yesterday.

When the truth about Marian comes to light, Tessa is faced with impossible choices that will test the limits of her ideals, the bonds of her family, her notions of right and wrong, and her identity as a sister and a mother. Walking an increasingly perilous road, she wants nothing more than to protect the one person she loves more fiercely than her sister: her infant son, Finn.

Riveting, atmospheric, and exquisitely written, Northern Spy is at once a heart-pounding story of the contemporary IRA and a moving portrait of sister- and motherhood, and of life in a deeply divided society.

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Flynn Berry is a graduate of the Michener Center for Writers and the recipient of a Yaddo fellowship. Her first novel, Under the Harrow, won the 2017 Edgar Award for Best First Novel and was named a best book of the year by The Washington Post and The Atlantic. Her second novel, A Double Life, was a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice. 

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Enjoy the conversation!

Did you know The Poisoned Pen’s Hot Book of the Week, Flynn Berry’s Northern Spy, is the April Pick for Reese Witherspoon’s Book Club? While you might not receive it in time to read for the book club, you can get a signed copy through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2v2409L

Here’s Northern Spy.

REESE’S BOOK CLUB PICK
 
“If you love a mystery, then you’ll devour [Northern Spy] . . . I loved this thrill ride of a book.”—Reese Witherspoon

The acclaimed author of Under the Harrow and A Double Life returns with her most riveting novel to date: the story of two sisters who become entangled with the IRA

A producer at the BBC and mother to a new baby, Tessa is at work in Belfast one day when the news of another raid comes on the air. The IRA may have gone underground in the two decades since the Good Friday Agreement, but they never really went away, and lately bomb threats, security checkpoints, and helicopters floating ominously over the city have become features of everyday life. As the news reporter requests the public’s help in locating those responsible for the robbery, security footage reveals Tessa’s sister, Marian, pulling a black ski mask over her face.

The police believe Marian has joined the IRA, but Tessa is convinced she must have been abducted or coerced; the sisters have always opposed the violence enacted in the name of uniting Ireland. And besides, Marian is vacationing on the north coast. Tessa just spoke to her yesterday.

When the truth about Marian comes to light, Tessa is faced with impossible choices that will test the limits of her ideals, the bonds of her family, her notions of right and wrong, and her identity as a sister and a mother. Walking an increasingly perilous road, she wants nothing more than to protect the one person she loves more fiercely than her sister: her infant son, Finn.

Riveting, atmospheric, and exquisitely written, Northern Spy is at once a heart-pounding story of the contemporary IRA and a moving portrait of sister- and motherhood, and of life in a deeply divided society.

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Flynn Berry is a graduate of the Michener Center for Writers and the recipient of a Yaddo fellowship. Her first novel, Under the Harrow, won the 2017 Edgar Award for Best First Novel and was named a best book of the year by The Washington Post and The Atlantic. Her second novel, A Double Life, was a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice. 

Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, recently hosted Erica Ruth Neubauer, author of Murder at Wedgefield Manor and Murder at the Mena House. Murder at the Mena House, the first in the historical mystery series featuring Jane Wunderly, is an Agatha Award and Lefty Award finalist. There may still be signed copies available of the new book, Murder at Wedgefield Manor. Check the Web Store. https://bit.ly/3mpXKlr

Here’s Murder at Wedgefield Manor.

In the wake of World War I, Jane Wunderly–a thoroughly modern young American widow–is traveling abroad, enjoying the hospitality of an English lord and a perfectly proper manor house, until murder makes an unwelcome appearance…

England, 1926: Wedgefield Manor, deep in the tranquil Essex countryside, provides a welcome rest stop for Jane and her matchmaking Aunt Millie before their return to America. While Millie spends time with her long-lost daughter, Lillian, and their host, Lord Hughes, Jane fills the hours devouring mystery novels and taking flying lessons–much to Millie’s disapproval. But any danger in the air is eclipsed by tragedy on the ground when one of the estate’s mechanics, Air Force veteran Simon Marshall, is killed in a motorcar collision.

The sliced brake cables prove this was no accident, yet was the intended victim someone other than Simon? The house is full of suspects–visiting relations, secretive servants, strangers prowling the grounds at night–and also full of targets. The enigmatic Mr. Redvers, who helped Jane solve a murder in Egypt, arrives on the scene to once more offer his assistance. It seems that everyone at Wedgefield wants Jane to help protect the Hughes family. But while she searches for answers, is she overlooking a killer hiding in plain sight?

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Erica Ruth Neubauer spent eleven years in the military, nearly two as a Maryland police officer, and one as a high school English teacher, before finding her way as a writer. She has been a reviewer of mysteries and crime fiction for publications such as Publishers Weekly and Mystery Scene Magazine for several years, and she’s a member of Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America. Erica Ruth lives in Milwaukee, WI.

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Enjoy the conversation about the books and the past.

In case you don’t get the newsletter from The Poisoned Pen (and, why not?), I’m going to highlight three upcoming events that Barbara Peters, owner of the bookstore, mentioned. All the comments are Barbara’s.

A trio of outstanding thrillers with attendant virtual national book launches at The Pen all happen on April 12 and 13. If you wait to order you may well be disappointed. As they will be joining us from home we can’t accept requests for personalizations…. can’t wait until next year!! So, once you read this, head to the Web Store to place your orders. https://store.poisonedpen.com/ All the events are hosted on Facebook on The Poisoned Pen’s page.

MONDAY APRIL 12 4:45 PM National book launch
Anne Hillerman discusses Stargazer (Harper $27.99
Bernie Manuelito, Leaphorn & Chee
I love learning about NM’s Very Large Array in this new chapter.
Everyone in this excellent story takes a step forward, even Joe Leaphorn with his fear of flying, Jim Chee with his staff assignment, Bernie Manuelito with wondering if she should change her career goals, and all of them moving widely across the eastern NM landscape. Very exciting mystery too. And we will host an event for the first biography of Tony Hillerman in September.

MONDAY APRIL 12 6:00 PM National book launch
Jack Carr discusses The Devil’s Hand (Atria $27.99)
James Reece #4
Our Signed copies come with a specially designed signed bookplate too.

I just received my very own signed copy from Jack and will have more to report next Enews.

TUESDAY APRIL 13 6:00 PM National book launch
John Sandford discusses. Ocean Prey (Putnam $29)
Lucas Davenport and Virgil Flowers, together!
Just finished this. So much fun! Lots of humor in this one. Lucas is looser, and of course Virgil always is. Good diving and boat stuff off Florida, a free wheeling US Marshals action livens up the FBI investigation into a deep sea drug drop and the murder of thee Coast Guardsmen. Virgil gets a moment of Die Hard action!! in the end game. Recommended to any reader, Lucas Davenport fan or not. You don’t need to have read any Prey novel to buckle up with this thriller.

Tips on our Virtual Events

The times listed are Pacific Daylight Time Here is the link to view them on Facebook Live We try to start them on time at the hour posted. You can sign it a bit early and wait for it to start. Or join later. You can watch them in real time and comment if you do belong to FB. And you can watch them later at any time that is convenient. You can listen to them in a subsequent podcast Here’s the link to our You Tube channel  The Videos go back for some years. Watch those posted to You Tube on your Smart TV. It’s a nice change from a small screen