It may seem a little early to plan your November calendar, but author Tori Eldridge has an exciting announcement. If you don’t plan now, you might not get in. Eldridge, author of the forthcoming The Ninja Daughter, will be at The Poisoned Pen on Saturday, November 23 at 2 PM. You can pre-order her book through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2m3UelF

Here’s Tori Eldridge’s email announcement about the event.

I’m so excited about my Poisoned Event on Saturday, November 23rd for The Ninja Daughter. I have family in Scottsdale (immigrated from North Dakota!) and ninja friends from the Quest Martial Arts Chandler dojo.

I’ve encouraged everyone to pre-order The Ninja Daughter from your store so you can get an idea of minimum headcount. No doubt, many of them will still wait to buy when they arrive.

The dojo and I are doing something very special to promote the bookstore event. I’m coming out of teaching retirement to teach a special workshop at their school the night before the Poisoned Pen event. The price of admission is proof of purchase for one book from your store! They just announced the workshop on Facebook today. I think a few ninja might even travel in from out of state.

Here’s the event webpage for the Bojutsu Training.

And, here’s the summary of The Ninja Daughter.

The Ninja Daughter is an action-packed thriller about a Chinese-Norwegian modern-day ninja with Joy Luck Club family issues who fights the Los Angeles Ukrainian mob, sex traffickers, and her own family to save two desperate women and an innocent child. After her sister is raped and murdered, Lily Wong dedicates her life and ninja skills to the protection of women. But her mission is complicated. Not only does she live above the Chinese restaurant owned by her Norwegian father and inspired by the recipes of her Chinese mother, but she has to hide her true self from her Hong Kong tiger mom who is already disappointed in her daughter’s less than feminine ways, and who would be horrified to know what she had become. But when a woman and her son she escorted safely to an abused women’s shelter return home to dangerous consequences, Lily is forced to not only confront her family and her past, but team up with a mysterious—and very lethal—stranger to rescue them.

It seems appropriate to follow the announcement of the Library of Congress/Poisoned Pen Press partnership with Martin Edwards’ article, “The Golden Age Detective Fiction Renaissance”. You can find it at CrimeReads, https://crimereads.com/the-golden-age-detective-fiction-renaissance/.

After you read that, you might be interested in Edwards’ own novel set in that period, in 1930, Gallows Court. You can order Edwards’ books, including a signed copy of Gallows Court, through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2lC6utB

Martin Edwards doesn’t summarize his latest novel in his piece for CrimeReads, but here’s the description.

“Superb—a pitch-perfect blend of Golden Age charm and sinister modern suspense, with a main character to die for. This is the book Edwards was born to write.” —Lee Child, #1 New York Times bestselling author

London, 1930

Sooty, sulphurous, and malign: no woman should be out on a night like this. A spate of violent deaths—the details too foul to print—has horrified the capital and the smog-bound streets are deserted. But Rachel Savernake—the enigmatic daughter of a notorious hanging judge—is no ordinary woman. To Scotland Yard’s embarrassment, she solved the Chorus Girl Murder, and now she’s on the trail of another killer.

Jacob Flint, a young newspaperman temporarily manning The Clarion‘s crime desk, is looking for the scoop that will make his name. He’s certain there is more to the Miss Savernake’s amateur sleuthing than meets the eye. He’s not the only one. 

Flint’s pursuit of Rachel Savernake will draw him ever-deeper into a labyrinth of deception and corruption. Murder-by-murder, he’ll be swept ever-closer to its dark heart—an ancient place of execution. Twisted family relationships add to a trust-no-one narrative positively reeking with atmosphere.

When Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, discussed Elevator Pitch with author Linwood Barclay, she said he was “weaponizing technology”. He responded that he thinks he’s going to write about a toaster next. No matter what he chooses to write about, you can order copies of Barclay’s books, including a signed copy of Elevator Pitch, through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2Ohv2BY

Here’s the summary of Elevator Pitch.

“One hell of a suspense novel.” â —Stephen King

The New York Times bestselling author of A Noise Downstairs and No Time for Goodbye returns with an edge-of-your-seat thriller that does for elevators what Psycho did for showers and Jaws did for the beach—a heart-pounding tale in which a series of disasters paralyzes New York City with fear.

It all begins on a Monday, when four people board an elevator in a Manhattan office tower. Each presses a button for their floor, but the elevator proceeds, non-stop, to the top. Once there, it stops for a few seconds, and then plummets.

Right to the bottom of the shaft.

It appears to be a horrific, random tragedy. But then, on Tuesday, it happens again, in a different Manhattan skyscraper. And when Wednesday brings yet another high-rise catastrophe, one of the most vertical cities in the world—and the nation’s capital of media, finance, and entertainment—is plunged into chaos.

Clearly, this is anything but random. This is a cold, calculated bid to terrorize the city. And it’s working. Fearing for their lives, thousands of men in women working in offices across the city refuse leave their homes. Commerce has slowed to a trickle. Emergency calls to the top floors of apartment buildings go unanswered.

Who is behind this? Why are they doing it? What do these deadly acts of sabotage have to do with the fingerless body found on the High Line? Two seasoned New York detectives and a straight-shooting journalist must race against time to find the answers before the city’s newest, and tallest, residential tower has its ribbon-cutting on Thursday.

With each diabolical twist, Linwood Barclay ratchets up the suspense, building to a shattering finale. Pulsating with tension, Elevator Pitch is a riveting tale of psychological suspense that is all too plausible . . . and will chill readers to the bone. 

*****

Would you like to experience the conversation with Linwood Barclay? Check out the video of the recent event.

The following news release will be of interest to everyone who appreciates classic crime novels.

*****

Classic American crime novels will see new life in a new publishing collaboration between the Library of Congress and Poisoned Pen Press, an imprint of Sourcebooks. The Library of Congress Crime Classics series will feature a rich and diverse selection of books originally published between the 1860s and the 1960s, the Library announced today.

Titles are drawn from the Library’s collection of hard-to-find and out-of-print books, with cover designs inspired by images from the Library’s collections.

The series will launch in Spring 2020 with the publication of three books: “That Affair Next Door” by Anna Katharine Green (1897), “The Rat Began to Gnaw the Rope” by C. W. Grafton (1943) and “Case Pending” by Dell Shannon (1960).

Series editor and mystery expert Leslie S. Klinger, a two-time Edgar®-winner for his critical and editorial work, has selected lesser known titles that represent a range of genres, from “cozies” to police procedurals. Along with the original text of the novel, each book includes a contextual introduction by Klinger, as well as a brief author biography, notes, recommendations for further reading and discussion questions for book clubs and classrooms.

“Early American crime fiction is not only entertaining to read, it also sheds light on the culture of its time,” said Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden. “It’s fascinating to read these books and reflect on the evolution of our society’s perceptions of race, gender, ethnicity and social standing.”

Each of the three spring titles represents a “first.” Green’s “That Affair Next Door” features the first female detective—Amelia Butterworth—to appear in a series, long predating Miss Marple. C. W. Grafton, father of detective novelist Sue Grafton and author of “The Rat Began to Gnaw the Rope,” is one of the first crime writers to add humor to the hard-boiled style of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. Dell Shannon, author of “Case Pending,” is not only one of the first women to write police procedurals, she also boldly depicted a Mexican-American detective working in a Los Angeles that had not forgotten the 1943 “zoot suit” riots targeting young Chicanos.

Poisoned Pen Press President Robert Rosenwald, who publishes the successful British Library Crime Classics series in the United States, is delighted with the collaboration. His grandfather, Lessing Rosenwald, donated his extraordinary collection of 2,653 rare books to the Library of Congress.

“My family has deep roots at the Library of Congress,” he said. “It’s an honor to continue the Rosenwald tradition of sharing books from the past with readers of the present.”

The award-winning crime and mystery publisher founded in 1997 became an imprint of Sourcebooks in January 2019. Sourcebooks, the largest woman-owned trade book publisher in North America, is led by founder and CEO Dominique Raccah, who was recently named Publisher of the Year by “The Strand Magazine.”

“We’re incredibly excited to be working with the Library of Congress on the reissue of classic American mysteries and helping readers rediscover these great stories,” Raccah said. “Poisoned Pen Press is a legendary and award-winning publisher, and we are thrilled to work with the Library of Congress to create a new way for readers to discover great American mysteries.”

*****

For more, check out the information about the three books to be published in spring 2020. https://www.loc.gov/item/prn-19-091/

What Rose Forgot by Nevada Barr is the current Hot Book of the Week at The Poisoned Pen. Don’t believe us? Check out Kim Ode’s review in The Orlando Sentinel. https://bit.ly/2kH2yaV

Now that you’ve read the review, you can order Barr’s books, including a signed copy of What Rose Forgot, though the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2kH2SXb

Here’s the Web Store summary of What Rose Forgot.

* POPSUGAR’s “New Thrillers That Should Be on Your Radar This Year”
* Women.com’s “12 New September Books Worth Canceling Plans For”

In New York Times bestselling author Nevada Barr’s gripping standalone, a grandmother in her sixties emerges from a mental fog to find she’s trapped in her worst nightmare

Rose Dennis wakes up in a hospital gown, her brain in a fog, only to discover that she’s been committed to an Alzheimer’s Unit in a nursing home. With no memory of how she ended up in this position, Rose is sure that something is very wrong. When she overhears one of the administrators saying about her that she’s “not making it through the week,” Rose is convinced that if she’s to survive, she has to get out of the nursing home. She avoids taking her medication, putting on a show for the aides, then stages her escape.

The only problem is—how does she convince anyone that she’s not actually demented? Her relatives were the ones to commit her, all the legal papers were drawn up, the authorities are on the side of the nursing home, and even she isn’t sure she sounds completely sane. But any lingering doubt Rose herself might have had is erased when a would-be killer shows up in her house in the middle of the night. Now Rose knows that someone is determined to get rid of her.

With the help of her computer hacker/recluse sister Marion, thirteen-year old granddaughter Mel, and Mel’s friend Royal, Rose begins to gather her strength and fight back—to find out who is after her and take back control of her own life. But someone out there is still determined to kill Rose, and they’re holding all the cards.

Starz is adapting Tana French’s Dublin Murder Squad crime novels for television. They just released the trailer, based on the first two books in the series, In the Woods and The Likeness. Although not all of us have Starz, we can read the books. The Poisoned Pen makes them available through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2m02JOs

Here’s the summary of the first in the series, In the Woods.

The bestselling debut, with over a million copies sold, that launched Tana French, author of The Witch Elm and “the most important crime novelist to emerge in the past 10 years” (The Washington Post). 

“Required reading for anyone who appreciates tough, unflinching intelligence and ingenious plotting.” —The New York Times

Soon to be a Starz series

As dusk approaches a small Dublin suburb in the summer of 1984, mothers begin to call their children home. But on this warm evening, three children do not return from the dark and silent woods. When the police arrive, they find only one of the children gripping a tree trunk in terror, wearing blood-filled sneakers, and unable to recall a single detail of the previous hours.

Twenty years later, the found boy, Rob Ryan, is a detective on the Dublin Murder Squad and keeps his past a secret. But when a twelve-year-old girl is found murdered in the same woods, he and Detective Cassie Maddox—his partner and closest friend—find themselves investigating a case chillingly similar to the previous unsolved mystery. Now, with only snippets of long-buried memories to guide him, Ryan has the chance to uncover both the mystery of the case before him and that of his own shadowy past.

Richly atmospheric and stunning in its complexity, In the Woods is utterly convincing and surprising to the end.

*****

And, here’s the trailer for “Dublin Murders”.

Here’s all the information about a special upcoming ticketed event, Janet Evanovich’s appearance for Twisted Twenty-Six.

MONDAY NOVEMBER 11 7:00 PM Janet Evanovich debuts Twisted Twenty-Six (Putnam $28)

Order VIP Tickets to attend the November 11 publication party @ 7:00 PM DoubleTree Resort 5401 North Scottsdale Road Scottsdale AZ 85250

$33 admits one person with one copy of the book. Doors open 6:00 PM. Cash Bar. Free valet Parking. Can’t attend? Then please order the book to pick up or be shipped to you. https://bit.ly/2kNWFsm

Special VIP Tickets $ 33.00 – ticket holders get special seating up front as well as priority admittance to the signing line following the program.

Ticket price includes one first edition copy of TWISTED TWENTY-SIX.

Additional copies as well as earlier titles by Janet Evanovich will be available for purchase.

Janet Evanovich. TWISTED TWENTY-SIX.

This isn’t just another case. This is family.

How far will Stephanie Plum go to protect the one person who means the most to her? The stakes have never been higher in this latest adventure from #1 New York Times bestselling author Janet Evanovich.

Grandma Mazur has decided to get married again – this time to a local gangster named Jimmy Rosolli. If Stephanie has her doubts about this marriage, she doesn’t have to worry for long, because the groom drops dead of a heart attack 45 minutes after saying, “I do.”

A sad day for Grandma Mazur turns into something far more dangerous when Jimmy’s former “business partners” are convinced that his new widow is keeping the keys to a financial windfall all to herself. But the one thing these wise guys didn’t count on was the widow’s bounty hunter granddaughter, who’ll do anything to save her.

Do you want to read Linwood Barclay’s “elevator pitch” for his new thriller, Elevator Pitch? You’ll have to check it out in the article in The Daily Telegraph. He answers a few questions there. https://bit.ly/2kBoLqQ

Or, you could show up at The Poisoned Pen on Wednesday, Sept. 18 at 7 PM to hear him give that pitch in person. If you can’t make it, you can still order a signed copy of the book through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2mfYDlz

Here’s the summary of Elevator Pitch.

“One hell of a suspense novel.” â —Stephen King

The New York Times bestselling author of A Noise Downstairs and No Time for Goodbye returns with an edge-of-your-seat thriller that does for elevators what Psycho did for showers and Jaws did for the beach—a heart-pounding tale in which a series of disasters paralyzes New York City with fear.

It all begins on a Monday, when four people board an elevator in a Manhattan office tower. Each presses a button for their floor, but the elevator proceeds, non-stop, to the top. Once there, it stops for a few seconds, and then plummets.

Right to the bottom of the shaft.

It appears to be a horrific, random tragedy. But then, on Tuesday, it happens again, in a different Manhattan skyscraper. And when Wednesday brings yet another high-rise catastrophe, one of the most vertical cities in the world—and the nation’s capital of media, finance, and entertainment—is plunged into chaos.

Clearly, this is anything but random. This is a cold, calculated bid to terrorize the city. And it’s working. Fearing for their lives, thousands of men in women working in offices across the city refuse leave their homes. Commerce has slowed to a trickle. Emergency calls to the top floors of apartment buildings go unanswered.

Who is behind this? Why are they doing it? What do these deadly acts of sabotage have to do with the fingerless body found on the High Line? Two seasoned New York detectives and a straight-shooting journalist must race against time to find the answers before the city’s newest, and tallest, residential tower has its ribbon-cutting on Thursday.

With each diabolical twist, Linwood Barclay ratchets up the suspense, building to a shattering finale. Pulsating with tension, Elevator Pitch is a riveting tale of psychological suspense that is all too plausible . . . and will chill readers to the bone. 

When mystery readers see Nevada Barr’s name, most of us expect an Anna Pigeon mystery. However, she’ll be at The Poisoned Pen on Tuesday, Sept. 17 at 7 PM to discuss her standalone thriller, What Rose Forgot. You can order a signed copy through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2lVZCXO

Here’s the summary of What Rose Forgot.

* POPSUGAR’s “New Thrillers That Should Be on Your Radar This Year”
* Women.com’s “12 New September Books Worth Canceling Plans For”

In New York Times bestselling author Nevada Barr’s gripping standalone, a grandmother in her sixties emerges from a mental fog to find she’s trapped in her worst nightmare  

Rose Dennis wakes up in a hospital gown, her brain in a fog, only to discover that she’s been committed to an Alzheimer’s Unit in a nursing home. With no memory of how she ended up in this position, Rose is sure that something is very wrong. When she overhears one of the administrators saying about her that she’s “not making it through the week,” Rose is convinced that if she’s to survive, she has to get out of the nursing home. She avoids taking her medication, putting on a show for the aides, then stages her escape.

The only problem is—how does she convince anyone that she’s not actually demented? Her relatives were the ones to commit her, all the legal papers were drawn up, the authorities are on the side of the nursing home, and even she isn’t sure she sounds completely sane. But any lingering doubt Rose herself might have had is erased when a would-be killer shows up in her house in the middle of the night. Now Rose knows that someone is determined to get rid of her.  

With the help of her computer hacker/recluse sister Marion, thirteen-year old granddaughter Mel, and Mel’s friend Royal, Rose begins to gather her strength and fight back—to find out who is after her and take back control of her own life. But someone out there is still determined to kill Rose, and they’re holding all the cards.

*****

And, here’s a link to Adam Wagner’s visual guide to What Rose Forgot, published at CriminalElement. https://bit.ly/2kJWUof

As Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen says, it’s always fun to introduce a debut author. Sara E. Johnson, author of Molten Mud Murder, a mystery set in New Zealand, recently appeared at the bookstore. You can order a signed copy of the debut through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2PKbISm

Peters introduced the Johnson, and now you can “meet” her and hear about New Zealand and the book via the video.

Here’s the description of Molten Mud Murder.

Is the past better left undisturbed, or unearthed?

When a body is found half-submerged in a molten mud pot in one of Rotorua’s famous geothermal wonderlands, forensics expert Alexa Glock spots a way to prolong her stay in New Zealand, which she has been visiting for work. Teeth are her expertise, and the investigation needs her help, as other ways of identifying the body may have… melted away.

Joining Detective Inspector Bruce Horne and his team, Alexa discovers that the murder victim, a city councilman, had trespassed on an island sacred to the Maori. The ancient punishment for such a transgression is disaster, demonic possession, or death… and when she visits the island to investigate, the same outcome is promised for her. Alexa doesn’t believe in ancient spirits returning to exact revenge, and when another victim turns up dead she begins to wonder whether the real threat is something—or someone—much closer to home.