Join authors Kimiko Guthrie, James Wade, and Edward A. Farmer for a virtual event at The Poisoned Pen’s Facebook page on Friday, July 3 at 4 PM, 7 PM ET. https://www.facebook.com/thepoisonedpenbookstore/ Books by the authors are available through the Web Store. https://store.poisonedpen.com/ Blackstone Publishing is the publisher for all three authors.

Here’s Kimiko Guthrie’s Block Seventeen.

Akiko “Jane” Thompson, a half-Japanese, half-Caucasian woman in her midthirties, is attempting to forge a quietly happy life in the Bay Area with her fiancé, Shiro. But after a bizarre car accident, things begin to unravel. An intruder ransacks their apartment but takes nothing, leaving behind only cryptic traces of his or her presence. Shiro, obsessed with government surveillance, risks their security in a plot to expose the misdeeds of his employer, the TSA. Jane’s mother has seemingly disappeared, her existence only apparent online. Jane wants to ignore these worrisome disturbances until a cry from the past robs her of all peace, forcing her to uncover a long-buried family secret.

As Jane searches for her mother, she confronts her family’s fraught history in America. She learns how they survived the incarceration of Japanese Americans, and how fear and humiliation can drive a person to commit desperate acts.

In melodic and suspenseful prose, Guthrie leads the reader to and from the past, through an unreliable present, and, inescapably, toward a shocking revelation. Block Seventeen, at times charming and light, at others disturbing and disorienting, explores how fear of the “other” continues to shape our supposedly more enlightened times.

*****

Here’s the summary of James Wade’s All Things Left Wild.

After an attempted horse theft goes tragically wrong, sixteen-year-old Caleb Bentley is on the run with his mean-spirited older brother across the American Southwest at the turn of the twentieth century. Caleb’s moral compass and inner courage will be tested as they travel the harsh terrain and encounter those who have carved out a life there, for good or ill.

Wealthy and bookish Randall Dawson, out of place in this rugged and violent country, is begrudgingly chasing after the Bentley brothers. With little sense of how to survive, much less how to take his revenge, Randall meets Charlotte, a woman experienced in the deadly ways of life in the West. Together they navigate the murky values of vigilante justice.

Powerful and atmospheric, lyrical and fast-paced, All Things Left Wild is a coming-of-age for one man, a midlife odyssey for the other, and an illustration of the violence and corruption prevalent in our fast-expanding country. It artfully sketches the magnificence of the American West as mirrored in the human soul.

*****

Check out Edward A. Farmer’s Pale.

“Some things just don’t keep well inside this house …”

The summer of 1966 burned hot across America but nowhere hotter than the cotton fields of Mississippi. Finding herself in a precarious position as a black woman living alone, Bernice accepts her brother Floyd’s invitation to join him as a servant for a white family and she enters the web of hostility and deception that is the Kern plantation household.

The secrets of the house are plentiful yet the silence that has encompassed it for so many years suddenly breaks with the arrival of the harvest and the appearance of Jesse and Fletcher to the plantation as cotton pickers. These two brothers, the sons of the house servant Silva, awaken a vengeful seed within the Missus of the house as she plots to punish not only her husband but Silva’s family as well. When the Missus starts flirting with Jesse, she sets into motion a dangerous game that could get Jesse killed and destroy the lives of the rest of the servants.

Bernice walks the fine line between emissary and accomplice, as she tries her best to draw secrets from the Missus’s heart, while using their closeness to protect the lives of the people around her. Once the Missus’s plans are complete, families will be severed, loyalties will be shattered, and no one will come out unscathed.

With a dazzling voice and rich emotional tension, Pale explores the ties that bind and how quickly humanity can fade and return us to primal ways.

Like Jenn McKinlay, Amanda Flower left the library profession to write books. As a librarian, I hate to see them leave, but I am happy to see their novels. Flower’s latest Amish Candy Shop mystery is Marshmallow Malice. Her new Magic Garden mystery, Mums and Mayhem, will be released August 11. You can order her books, and her suggested book “Distractions” through the Web Store. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

USA Today bestselling and Agatha Award”“winning mystery author Amanda Flower started her writing career in elementary school when she read a story she wrote to her sixth grade class and had the class in stitches with her description of being stuck on the top of a Ferris wheel. She knew at that moment she’d found her calling of making people laugh with her words. She also writes mysteries as USA Today bestselling author Isabella Alan. Amanda is a former librarian and lives in Northeast Ohio. Readers can visit her online at www.amandaflower.com.

*****

Many of my readers have told me during the pandemic they have turned to my cozies for comfort. I can understand that. When the world is falling apart, don’t we all want to jump into a story where all the pieces fit together in the end and there is happily ever after? That’s been the case for me. During the pandemic, I have turned to cozies and happily ever after reads to cope with this very strange time in all our lives.

The first series, I have been reading is Lynn Cahoon’s Tourist Trap Mysteries. I started at the beginning of the long-running series with Guidebook to Murder. I loved the plot and liked that there was a bit of California history thrown in. I love a historical angle in a cozy. The series has many books, so I’m happy that I have many more to enjoy.

The next series I dove into is the Noodle Shop Mysteries by Vivien Chien. Now in full disclosure, I read the first book Death By Dumpling years ago before it was released. The author and publisher asked me for a cover quote. I loved the series then, but I think it’s just gotten better and better with each book. Also, I love that it’s set outside of Cleveland, Ohio, which is close to my home. The author is spot on with the area, and she would be. Chien is a Clevelander.

Admittedly, I don’t read much women’s fiction. I’m a mystery girl and tend to stay in that lane for all my reading, but when one of my favorite authors, Heather Webber, released a women’s fiction novel last year, I knew I had to read it. I’m so glad I finally had the time. Midnight in the Blackbird Café is such a beautiful book. I love the way the people in this town are so intricately intertwined and relatable. I also love the touch of magic. It’s just enough to enhance the story without overpowering it.

*****

As I said, Marshmallow Malice is Amanda Flower’s latest Amish Candy Shop Mystery.

Caught in a sticky situation . . .

With Juliet Brody and Reverend Brook tying the knot in Ohio’s Amish Country’s most anticipated nuptials of the year, Bailey King is determined to do everything in her power to make the event a sweet success. Except midsummer heat waves and outdoor ceremonies don’t mix, and an exasperated Bailey soon finds herself struggling to fulfill bridesmaid duties and keep her stunning marshmallow-frosted wedding cake from becoming a gooey disaster. Then much to everyone’s shock, the entire ceremony crumbles when a guest drops dead, and the cause isn’t sunstroke . . .
 
Turns out, the uninvited victim came equipped with lots of dirt on the devout reverend’s hidden past. As Reverend Brook tops the murder suspect list on what should have been the happiest day of his life, Bailey and her sheriff’s deputy boyfriend vow to clear his name. Can the duo boil down a series of baffling clues before Juliet considers her marriage a bad mistake—or the killer whips up another deadly surprise?

Recipe Included!

Praise for Amanda Flower and her Amish cozies

“As it turns out, Amanda Flower may have just written the first Amish rom com.”
—USA Today

“Flower has hit it out of the ballpark . . . and continues to amaze with her knowledge of the Amish way of life.”
—RT Book Reviews

“At turns playful and engaging . . . a satisfyingly complex cozy.”
—Library Journal

*****

You can pre-order Mums and Mayhem now. It’s an August release.

A famous fiddler has been kilt. A magic garden’s left to wilt. Does Fiona Knox’s father hold the guilt? Will florist Fiona’s blood be spilt?

World-famous fiddle player Barley McFee arrives in blustery Bellewick, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, for a grand homecoming concert organized by jeweler Bernice Brennan. Fiona Knox, owner of the Climbing Rose Flower Shop, is starting to regret volunteering to help with the concert. Bernice is an exacting taskmaster, and Fiona has enough tension dealing with her parents, who have traveled from Tennessee to visit Fi and her younger sister, Isla, and to reveal a secret about Fi’s birth. But when Barley is found dead in his trailer during the concert’s intermission, and his death is shockingly tied to Fiona’s father, Fiona discovers there are more secrets surrounding her family than she realized.

Much to the chagrin of handsome Neil Craig, Chief Inspector of the County Aberdeen Police, Fiona delves into the case to clear her father’s name. To make matters worse, Fiona learns that Duncreigan, the magical garden that she inherited from her godfather, is dying. At some point during the concert, someone broke into the garden and cut the centuries-old climbing rose–the source of the garden’s magic–from the standing stone.

The stakes are higher than ever and Fiona could lose all that she’s grown unless she’s able to dispel this terrible curse and dig up the truth–fast.

Congratulations to all the winners of the 2020 Locus Awards. The Locus Science Fiction Foundation has announced the winners in each category of the 2020 Locus Awards. Check the Web Store for copies of the winning books. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL

Winner: The City in the Middle of the Night, Charlie Jane Anders

FANTASY NOVEL

Winner: Middlegame, Seanan McGuire

HORROR NOVEL

Winner: Black Leopard, Red Wolf, Marion James

YOUNG ADULT NOVEL

Winner: Dragon Pearl, Yoon Ha Lee

FIRST NOVEL

Winner: Gideon the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir

NOVELLA

WINNER: This is How You Lose the Time War, Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone

ANTHOLOGY

WINNER: New Suns: Original Speculative Fiction by People of Color, Nisi Shawl, ed. 

COLLECTION

WINNER: Exhalation, Ted Chiang

NON-FICTION

WINNER: Monster, She Wrote: The Women Who Pioneered Horror and Speculative Fiction, Lisa Kröger & Melanie R. Anderson

ILLUSTRATED AND ART BOOK

WINNER: Spectrum 26: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art, John Fleskes, ed.

Patrick Millikin from The Poisoned Pen refers to himself as “a longtime student of the American West”. He recently hosted Tom Clavin, author of Tombstone: The Earp Brothers, Doc Holliday, and the Vendetta Ride from Hell. Although the Web Store’s site says there are still autographed copies available, you might want to check. https://bit.ly/2NOW4lf

Here’s the summary of Tombstone.

THE INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLER

“Tombstone is written in a distinctly American voice.”—T.J. Stiles, The New York Times

“With a former newsman’s nose for the truth, Clavin has sifted the facts, myths, and lies to produce what might be as accurate an account as we will ever get of the old West’s most famous feud.” —Associated Press

The true story of the Earp brothers, Doc Holliday, and the famous Battle at the OK Corral, by the New York Times bestselling author of Dodge City and Wild Bill.

On the afternoon of October 26, 1881, eight men clashed in what would be known as the most famous shootout in American frontier history. Thirty bullets were exchanged in thirty seconds, killing three men and wounding three others.

The fight sprang forth from a tense, hot summer. Cattle rustlers had been terrorizing the back country of Mexico and selling the livestock they stole to corrupt ranchers. The Mexican government built forts along the border to try to thwart American outlaws, while Arizona citizens became increasingly agitated. Rustlers, who became known as the cow-boys, began to kill each other as well as innocent citizens. That October, tensions boiled over with Ike and Billy Clanton, Tom and Frank McLaury, and Billy Claiborne confronting the Tombstone marshal, Virgil Earp, and the suddenly deputized Wyatt and Morgan Earp and shotgun-toting Doc Holliday.

Bestselling author Tom Clavin peers behind decades of legend surrounding the story of Tombstone to reveal the true story of the drama and violence that made it famous. Tombstone also digs deep into the vendetta ride that followed the tragic gunfight, when Wyatt and Warren Earp and Holliday went vigilante to track down the likes of Johnny Ringo, Curly Bill Brocius, and other cowboys who had cowardly gunned down his brothers. That “vendetta ride” would make the myth of Wyatt Earp complete and punctuate the struggle for power in the American frontier’s last boom town.

*****

If you’re interested in Western history, you’ll want to watch Tom Clavin’s conversation with Patrick Millikin.

I guess I raved enough about Sarah Stewart Taylor’s The Mountains Wild that Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, asked me if I wanted to interview her. It’s a pleasure to reintroduce readers to the author, and introduce them to Maggie D’Arcy, the detective in Taylor’s new series. You can still order a signed copy of The Mountains Wild through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2CEvPvd

If you’re looking for an atmospheric mystery set in Ireland, look no further.

“With its evocative Dublin setting, lyrical prose, tough but sympathetic heroine, and a killer twist in the plot, Sarah Stewart Taylor’s The Mountains Wild should top everyone’s must-read lists this year!” — New York Times bestselling author Deborah Crombie

In a series debut for fans of Tana French and Kate Atkinson, set in Dublin and New York, homicide detective Maggie D’arcy finally tackles the case that changed the course of her life.

Twenty-three years ago, Maggie D’arcy’s family received a call from the Dublin police. Her cousin Erin has been missing for several days. Maggie herself spent weeks in Ireland, trying to track Erin’s movements, working beside the police. But it was to no avail: no trace of her was ever found.

The experience inspired Maggie to become a cop. Now, back on Long Island, more than 20 years have passed. Maggie is a detective and a divorced mother of a teenager. When the Gardaí call to say that Erin’s scarf has been found and another young woman has gone missing, Maggie returns to Ireland, awakening all the complicated feelings from the first trip. The despair and frustration of not knowing what happened to Erin. Her attraction to Erin’s coworker, now a professor, who never fully explained their relationship. And her determination to solve the case, once and for all.

A lyrical, deeply drawn portrait of a woman – and a country – over two decades – The Mountains Wild introduces a compelling new mystery series from a mesmerizing author.

*****

You can watch the conversation with Sarah Stewart Taylor here.

Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, recently had a fascinating conversation with authors Lou Berney and Thomas Perry about awards. She really wanted to talk about the Hammett Awards, which is presented by the International Association of Crime Writers. Here’s the information about the Hammett Awards, as it appears on the IACW web site.

“Since 1991, the North American Branch of the International Association of Crime Writers has presented the Hammett trophy to the book of the year that best represents the conception of literary excellence in crime writing.” You can find the entire list of nominees and winners here. https://www.crimewritersna.org/hammett/past.htm Then, you can check the Poisoned Pen’s web site for the books. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

You can see the entire conversation here.

Jane Stanton Hitchcock, a Sourcebooks/Poisoned Pen Press author, won the most recent Hammett Award for her novel, Bluff. Because Peters, Berney and Perry discussed that book, here’s the summary of the 2019 Hammett Award winner.

Winner of the 2019 Dashiell Hammett Prize for Literary Excellence in Crime Writing

“Bluff is a triumphant and thrilling return. Not only can Hitchcock stage a murder mystery that’s as comedic as it is clever, but she also skewers the social elite—a world in which she grew up—with a satirical touch that’s both razor-sharp and subtly sympathetic.”—The Strand Magazine

There has never been a better time for revenge in this noir crime thriller from New York Times bestselling author Jane Stanton Hitchcock!

One-time socialite Maud Warner polishes up the rags of her once glittering existence and bluffs her way into a signature New York restaurant on a sunny October day. When she walks out again, a man will have been shot.

Maud has grown accustomed to being underestimated and invisible, and she uses her ability to fly under the radar as she pursues celebrity accountant Burt Sklar, the man she believes stole her mother’s fortune and left her family in ruins. Her fervent passion for poker has taught Maud that she can turn weakness into strength to take advantage of people who think they are taking advantage of her, and now she has dealt the first card in her high-stakes plan for revenge.

One unexpected twist after another follows as Maud plays the most important poker hand of her life. The stakes? To take down her enemies and get justice for their victims. Her success depends on her continuing ability to bluff—and on who will fold.

Can she win?

The Poisoned Pen has a full schedule of upcoming virtual events with an amazing selection of authors. You’ll be able to watch them live on Facebook, or catch them later on YouTube. And, of course, you can order books, usually signed, through the Web Store. https://store.poisonedpen.com/ Because you can see the schedule ahead of time, you can also order signed copies while they’re still available. With the state of the world, signed copies will probably only be available once. Check out the list of authors.

John Charles from The Poisoned Pen recently hosted Kristan Higgins virtually at the bookstore. Higgins is the author of Always the Last to Know. Signed copies are still available through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/3euNaVG

Here’s the summary of Always the Last to Know.

Sometimes you have to break a family to fix it.

From New York Times bestselling author Kristan Higgins, a new novel examining a family at the breaking point in all its messy, difficult, wonderful complexity.

The Frosts are a typical American family. Barb and John, married almost fifty years, are testy and bored with each other…who could blame them after all this time? At least they have their daughters– Barb’s favorite, the perfect, brilliant Juliet; and John’s darling, the free-spirited Sadie. The girls themselves couldn’t be more different, but at least they got along, more or less. It was fine. It was enough.

Until the day John had a stroke, and their house of cards came tumbling down.

Now Sadie has to put her career as a teacher and struggling artist in New York on hold to come back and care for her beloved dad–and face the love of her life, whose heart she broke, and who broke hers. Now Juliet has to wonder if people will notice that despite her perfect career as a successful architect, her perfect marriage to a charming Brit, and her two perfect daughters, she’s spending an increasing amount of time in the closet having panic attacks.

And now Barb and John will finally have to face what’s been going on in their marriage all along.

From the author of Good Luck with That and Life and Other Inconveniences comes a new novel of heartbreaking truths and hilarious honesty about what family really means.

*****

Now, you can listen to the conversation between Kristan Higgins and John Charles via the podcast. https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-752ix-df8a61

What does sleep have to do with the current Hot Book of the Week at The Poisoned Pen? Megan Miranda will tell all of us in a virtual event on Facebook Live on Monday, June 29 at 5 PM MST, 8 PM ET. That’s when she’ll talk about The Girl from Widow Hills. You can pre-order a signed copy through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/3fR9FnN

If you’re curious, you can also check out her article “Five Novels of Insomnia, Sleepwalking, and Fear of Slumber” written for CrimeReads. https://bit.ly/3duELA0

Here’s the summary of The Girl from Widow Hills, which will give you a hint why Miranda is writing about sleep.

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Last House Guest—a Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick—comes a riveting new novel of psychological suspense about a young woman plagued by night terrors after a childhood trauma who wakes one evening to find a corpse at her feet.

Everyone knows the story of “the girl from Widow Hills.”

Arden Maynor was just a child when she was swept away while sleepwalking during a terrifying rainstorm and went missing for days. Strangers and friends, neighbors and rescue workers, set up search parties and held vigils, praying for her safe return. Against all odds, she was found, alive, clinging to a storm drain. The girl from Widow Hills was a living miracle. Arden’s mother wrote a book. Fame followed. Fans and fan letters, creeps, and stalkers. And every year, the anniversary. It all became too much. As soon as she was old enough, Arden changed her name and disappeared from the public eye.

Now a young woman living hundreds of miles away, Arden goes by Olivia. She’s managed to stay off the radar for the last few years. But with the twentieth anniversary of her rescue approaching, the media will inevitably renew its interest in Arden. Where is she now? Soon Olivia feels like she’s being watched and begins sleepwalking again, like she did long ago, even waking outside her home. Until late one night she jolts awake in her yard. At her feet is the corpse of a man she knows—from her previous life, as Arden Maynor.

And now, the girl from Widow Hills is about to become the center of the story, once again, in this propulsive page-turner from suspense master Megan Miranda.