Alafair Burke and Lori Rader-Day have both been Edgar Award nominees. Before this year’s ceremonies, they were at The Poisoned Pen where they had a conversation. Rader-Day led the conversation, interviewing Alafair Burke about her new book, The Better Sister. Rader-Day’s Under a Dark Sky came out last year, and was nominated for several awards. Burke’s books, including signed copies of The Better Sister, are available through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2GHPkkT

Here’s the description of The Better Sister.

Recommended by Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Entertainment Weekly, Popsugar, Goodreads, CrimeReads, and BookBub.

Keep your enemies close and your sister closer.

Though Chloe was the younger of the two Taylor sisters, she always seemed to be the one in charge. She was the honor roll student with big dreams and an even bigger work ethic. Nicky—always restless and more than a little reckless—was the opposite of her ambitious little sister. She floated from job to job and man to man, and stayed close to home in Cleveland.

For a while, it seemed that both sisters had found happiness. Chloe earned a scholarship to an Ivy League school and moved to New York City, where she landed a coveted publishing job. Nicky married promising young attorney Adam Macintosh and gave birth to a baby boy they named Ethan. The Taylor sisters became virtual strangers.

Now, more than fifteen years later, their lives are drastically different—and Chloe is married to Adam. When he’s murdered by an intruder at the couple’s East Hampton beach house, Chloe reluctantly allows her teenage stepson’s biological mother—her estranged sister, Nicky—back into her life. But when the police begin to treat Ethan as a suspect in his father’s death, the two sisters are forced to unite . . . and to confront the truth behind family secrets they have tried to bury in the past.

*****

Check the Web Store for copies of Lori Rader-Day’s award-winning and nominated books. https://bit.ly/2PyU6oQ

Here’s the summary of Under a Dark Sky.

From the critically-acclaimed author of The Day I Died comes a terrifying twist on a locked-room mystery that will keep readers guessing until the last page

Only in the dark can she find the truth . . .

Since her husband died, Eden Wallace’s life has diminished down to a tiny pinprick, like a far-off star in the night sky. She doesn’t work, has given up on her love of photography, and is so plagued by night terrors that she can’t sleep without the lights on. Everyone, including her family, has grown weary of her grief. So when she finds paperwork in her husband’s effects indicating that he reserved a week at a dark sky park, she goes. She’s ready to shed her fear and return to the living, even if it means facing her paralyzing phobia of the dark. 

But when she arrives at the park, the guest suite she thought was a private retreat is teeming with a group of twenty-somethings, all stuck in the orbit of their old college friendships. Horrified that her get-away has been taken over, Eden decides to head home the next day. But then a scream wakes the house in the middle of the night. One of the friends has been murdered. Now everyone—including Eden—is a suspect. 

Everyone is keeping secrets, but only one is a murderer. As mishaps continue to befall the group, Eden must make sense of the chaos and lies to evade a ruthless killer—and she’ll have to do it before dark falls.

*****

Two strong authors, discussing their strong female characters. You’ll really want to hear the conversation.

Michael Barson recently had a conversation with Jane Stanton Hitchcock, author of Bluff. Hitchcock appeared at The Poisoned Pen on book tour, and signed copies of her latest book. You can still order signed copies of Bluff through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2YnF49C

Before the conversation, you might want to read the summary of Bluff.

“An irresistible social noir.” —New York Times bestselling author Linda Fairstein

There has never been a better time for revenge

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?

A tale of deceit, seduction and revenge, perfect for fans of Mary Kubica and Jeffery Deaver!

Additional Praise for Bluff:
“This delicious novel of sweet revenge reveals, with wit and stylish vigor, a world ““ New York high society ““ that the author clearly knows intimately.”—Publishers Weekly, STARRED Review
“A smartly plotted upper-crust caper.”—Booklist

*****

Thanks to Michael Barson for sharing the conversation.

1)      BLUFF grew out of your own mastery of poker. In what ways did that iconic game inspire this crafty novel?

First of all, I would never say I had “mastered” poker.  If anything, the game is my master.  It’s taught me a lot about life and how to deal with adversity ““ namely, there’s no point in dwelling on bad luck or one’s mistakes.  Hard as it is, you sometimes have to say “Next Hand” and get on with it.  I also realized that at the poker table I was being underestimated just as I had been in life.  Players never expect an older woman to play anything but Old Lady Poker—just as the guy who swindled my mother out of millions of dollars never expected me to find out about his larceny and ultimately help put him in jail. 

When I made this connection I found a way into the book:  Combine being underestimated in life as well as in poker and then write a twisty tale of murder, revenge, and bluffing.  Hopefully the reader will be intrigued by the characters and swept up in the twists and turns of the story.  The book is one long poker hand with a Flop, a Turn, and the River.  As readers play the hand with me, I want them to be thinking:   “How the hell does she get out of this?”  Only one way:  Bluff!

2)      “Mad Maud” Warner is a complex character ““ and a timely one, given the fervor of feminism and the #MeToo movement. Do you see Maud as an everywoman of sorts?

As I say in the book, “Older women are invisible and we don’t even have to disappear.”  Power derived from supposed weakness is the primary theme of BLUFF. In the very first scene, Maud is able to escape because no one can fathom that a woman like her ““ an older, well-dressed socialite ““ could have had the balls to commit such a shocking crime in a posh and crowded restaurant. 

The book is told in two voices:  Maud’s own, as she recounts what lead her to commit murder; and the third person, which details the crime and its aftermath on all the people involved.  My hope is that the reader will be rooting for Maud as she explains what has led her to such violence and why she thinks she can possibly get away with it if she literally plays her cards right!  I guess she’s a #MeToo murderer! 

3)      You also satirize high society in BLUFF. Do you view humor as a tool for enlightenment?

I like what Abba Eban said:  “The upper crust is a bunch of crumbs held together by dough.”  I grew up in so-called “High Society” and, as I say in the book “money is a matter of luck and class is a matter of character.”  Maud knows she can trust some of her dicey poker playing pals much more than the “social” friends she’s known her entire life.  I also say:  “Money exaggerates who people are.  If you’re good you’ll be better, if you’re bad you’ll jump right down on the devil’s trampoline.”  A lot of people think having money makes them better than other people.  I like to aim my pen at such pretension and there’s no better way to do it than with humor. 

I’d have to be Dostoevsky to write my own family’s story without humor.  As the book shows, money doesn’t save anyone from addiction, swindling, and death.  In fact, money often makes things worse.  But there’s nothing more exasperating than self-pity.  So telling my family’s story was a challenge.  It took me nineteen drafts!  But the poker theme eventually helped me harness the humor in all the darkness.  

   
4)      In addition to being a novelist, you are also a playwright and screenwriter. In what ways do these disciplines inform one another? 

 Movies are really a directors’ medium so a writer is blessed if he/she has a good director.  Enough said.  Playwriting taught me about creating scenes and developing characters through dialogue.  In the theatre time on the stage grows more expensive with each minute.  You have to engage the audience.  Therefore, you always have to ask yourself:  What’s at stake?  Why should people care about these characters, this situation?  You have a captive audience sitting there waiting for things to develop in a finite amount of time.  The novel has no such constraints.  But I confess, I love a good, twisty plot. I like every scene to further the story but I also think it’s important for the reader not to be one jump ahead of me.  It’s when surprise meets inevitability that I feel I’ve done my job.  I want my readers to say:  Wow I didn’t see that coming, but now it all makes sense! 

I try to give the reader a sense of place without overloading the description.  Action is character and I really like writing dialogue, putting myself into all the characters ““ the good, the bad, and the ugly.  It’s fun to create a good villain and more fun to see the villain get his/her comeuppance.  But in my books, there is usually an anti-heroine who is, herself, operating in an amoral sphere.  In Bluff, I want my audience to be complicit in Maud’s revenge and root for her to earn it.

 5)      Who were the crime authors whose books had most influenced you at the time you decided to enter the field yourself? 

To be honest, I didn’t know I was entering the field when I wrote Trick of the Eye.  I thought of the book as literally a trompe l’oeil canvas for the readers who are led to believe they are looking at a simple whodunit when, in fact, the real picture is about a dark acquisition.  I was thrilled when mystery lovers liked it and it was nominated for both the Edgar and the Hammett Prize.  I think those fans made me realize I had a mind for murder!

The writers who most influenced me at that time were Patricia Highsmith, Ruth Rendell, Edgar Allan Poe, and Daphne du Maurier.

The Talented Mr. Ripley has been a favorite book of mine since I first read it and got pulled down into Highsmith’s amoral rabbit hole from the very first page.  

Ruth Rendell’s, A Judgement in Stone is a brilliant book.  Again, dealing in the amoral and the power of ignorance.

I’ve always worshiped Poe, even though I’m claustrophobic!  Poe is quite simply a genius who brilliantly concretized all the darkest fears of the human heart.  He writes about the soul of a murder.  His stories are fresher than ever today.  Sometimes I think we are all living a version of “The Mask of Red Death.”

6)  Having now returned to the world of crime fiction after a nine-year hiatus, did you notice any change in your writing approach versus your technique from years back?

A writer never really stops writing.  During this nine-year hiatus, I was working on three three books while trying to sort out a difficult family situation.  As a writer, I was always used to being an observer of social life.  Writing took me away from my problems.  

However, with Bluff, I’m not only an observer but a real participant in the story, which is what made it so difficult for me to write.  It was painful to look back on the ruins of our family.   So I would work on it, then put it away and work on the other books.  I knew if I ever published Bluff I’d have to get the tone just right because I hate self-pity.  

In writing Bluff, I came to realize how blessed I’ve been.  I remembered the words of my stepfather who always said:  “Anything you can buy with money is cheap.”  That lightened things up for me and made me think:  Okay—humor and murder is the only way to go!  

I often wish I did have a “technique” because then I might have a road map of some sort.  As it is, I write until my characters take over the story.  Of the three books I was working on, Maud in Bluff took over the story in a singular way.  It took me nineteen drafts to get her story just right.  I just hope I succeeded.      

Did you miss John Sandford’s appearance at The Poisoned Pen when he was here with his twenty-ninth Lucas Davenport book, Neon Prey? You can still pick up a signed copy through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2XKpm7l

Here’s the description of Neon Prey.

Lucas Davenport tracks a prolific serial killer in the newest nail-biter by #1New York Times-bestselling author John Sandford.

Clayton Deese looks like a small-time criminal, muscle for hire when his loan shark boss needs to teach someone a lesson. Now, seven months after a job that went south and landed him in jail, Deese has skipped out on bail, and the U.S. Marshals come looking for him. They don’t much care about a low-level guy–it’s his boss they want–but Deese might be their best chance to bring down the whole operation.

Then, they step onto a dirt trail behind Deese’s rural Louisiana cabin and find a jungle full of graves.

Now Lucas Davenport is on the trail of a serial killer who has been operating for years without notice. His quarry is ruthless, and–as Davenport will come to find–full of surprises . . .

*****

Even better, here’s the link to John Sandford’s conversation with Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen.

If you are a fan of Kerry Greenwood’s mysteries featuring Phryne Fisher, or the TV shows, Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, you might want to watch for the spin-off series, Ms. Fisher’s Modern Murder Mysteries. The new series debuts on Acorn TV on Monday, April 29. In the meantime, you can always order copies of the books through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2JfL7W5

Here’s Acorn TV’s description of the new series.

When the famous aunt she never knew, Phryne Fisher, goes missing over the highlands of New Guinea, the gorgeously reckless Peregrine Fisher (Geraldine Hakewill, Wanted) inherits a windfall. Peregrine sets out to become a world-class private detective in her own right, aided by the handsome, straitlaced Detective James Steed (Joel Jackson) and with the unerring guidance of The Adventuresses’ Club, a group of exceptional women of which her celebrated aunt was a member. A natural rule breaker, Peregrine is fearless, fun, and charmingly down-to-earth, as well as having a keen instinct for solving crimes. With newfound wealth and The Adventuresses to hone her rough edges and become the family she’s never had, Peregrine is unstoppable.

You can check out the trailer.

Don’t you love it when The Poisoned Pen Bookstore highlights a debut? S.A. Lelchuk’s Save Me From Dangerous Men is a debut, the Hot Book of the Week, and the first in the Nikki Griffin series. Now’s the time to jump on it, and order a signed copy through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2Wd2H3m

Here’s the description of Save Me From Dangerous Men.

“An outstanding debut…If you’re a fan of Jack Reacher or Lisbeth Salander, you are gonna love Nikki Griffin.” —New York Times bestselling author Douglas Preston

“Action packed and razor sharp – Jack Reacher would love Nikki Griffin.” —Lee Child, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Past Tense

Nikki Griffin isn’t your typical private investigator. In her office above her bookstore’s shelves and stacks, where she luxuriates in books and the comfort they provide, she also tracks certain men. Dangerous men. Men who have hurt the women they claim to love. And Nikki likes to teach those men a lesson, to teach them what it feels like to be hurt and helpless, so she can be sure that their victims are safe from them forever. 

When a regular PI job tailing Karen, a tech company’s disgruntled employee who might be selling secrets, turns ugly and Karen’s life is threatened, Nikki has to break cover and intervene. Karen tells Nikki that there are people after her. Dangerous men. She says she’ll tell Nikki what’s really going on. But then something goes wrong, and suddenly Nikki is no longer just solving a case—she’s trying hard to stay alive.

Part Lisbeth Salander, part Jack Reacher, part Jessica Jones, Nikki Griffin is a kickass character who readers will root for as she seeks to right the world’s wrongs. S.A. Lelchuk’s Save Me From Dangerous Men marks the beginning of a gripping new series and the launch of a fabulous new character.

Mystery Writers of America livestreamed the Edgar Awards Ceremony on Thursday night. Here are all the 2019 winners, in the order as they were presented. Congratulations to all of the winners.

Sue Grafton Memorial Award – Shell Game by Sara Paretsky

The Simon & Schuster Mary Higgins Clark Award –The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey

Robert L. Fish Memorial Award (short story) – “How Does He Die This Time” by Nancy Novick

Ellery Queen Award – Linda Landrigan, Editor of Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine

The Raven Award – Marilyn Stasio of The New York Times

Best Television Episode – Matthew Seiner & Donald Joh for “The One that Holds Everything”, The Romanoffs

Best Juvenile –Otherwood by Pete Hautman

Best Young Adult –Sadie by Courtney Summers

Best Critical Biographical –Classic American Crime Fiction of the 1920s by Leslie S. Klinger

Best Fact Crime –Tinderbox: The Untold Story of the Up Stairs Lounge Fire and the Rise of Gay Liberation by Robert W. Fieseler

Grand Master – Martin Cruz Smith

Best Short Story – “English 398: Fiction Workshop” by Art Taylor (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine)

Best Paperback Original – If I Die Tonight by Alison Gaylin

Best First Novel – Bearskin by James A. McLaughlin

Best Mystery Novel – Down the River Unto the Sea by Walter Mosley

Congratulations to the winners. Check the Web Store for copies of the books. https://store.poisonedpen.com

And, you can watch Walter Mosley discuss Down the River Unto the Sea on the Poisoned Pen’s YouTube channel.

Christina Estes recently interviewed Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen. The interview, which aired on KJZZ, the local NPR affiliate, discussed the store’s numerous author events, and the programs with new authors. There’s a lengthy section about Clive Cussler, and his relationship with the Pen. Barbara Peters acknowledges the importance of Diana Gabaldon’s books in the days after 9/11. It’s an important article about the cultural influence of a bookstore, its owner, the staff, and the customers who treasure the books and authors connected to the store. You can listen to the broadcast, or read it. https://bit.ly/2PpNadR

On Saturday, June 1 at 6:30 PM, Douglas Preston will be back at The Poisoned Pen to discuss his book, Talking to the Ground. Preston’s latest newsletter urges interested readers to order the book now from The Poisoned Pen because there will only be 600 copies available. You can pre-order your signed copy here. https://bit.ly/2XERvwG

No one can summarize Talking to the Ground better than Preston himself. Here’s his latest newsletter.

To my excellent readers, One of the most personal and favorite of my books, Talking to the Ground, will be published in a new edition on June 4—with an Afterword I wrote,entitled “The Great Terror.” The book tells the incredible story of a four-hundred-mile journey I took on horseback through the Navajo Nation with my fiancée and daughter, retracing the journey of the gods during the creation of the world. This is an actual route that can still be mapped through Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico. The new Afterword brings the story up to date with extremely disturbing discoveries about what happened to the ancient Puebloan Indians who left their great ruins scattered across the Southwest, in places like Chaco Canyon and Canyon de Chelly. I have personally autographed copies of this new, high-quality softcover edition for my readers, available from the Poisoned Pen Bookstore—for $17 only, with free shipping!  You can purchase through this link.  But please order right away, as the supply of signed books is limited to 600 and will go quickly.  As you know, we always try to entertain our newsletter subscribers instead of just trying to sell them something. So to that end, I’ve included some amazing photos of our journey at the bottom of this email, some of which do not appear in the book. Rather than tell you more about the book myself, I’d like to quote from an eloquent Amazon review by a Native American reader named Marty DeLand: There have come and gone many writers who promised us a journey through Navajoland: some in the form of mystery yarn-spinners, others as locally homegrown contributors to Arizona Highways. In and of itself, going forth into such a dangerous and beautiful place is a damned difficult thing to do. Then to return from out of that American Holyland with even the smallest comprehension of what abides there is a feat so extraordinary that only two have accomplished it: LaFarge with his “The Enemy Gods” and Abbey’s distant runner-up, “Desert Solitaire”.  Finally, we can add a third name to that short list: Douglas Preston. “Talking to the Ground” begins as a family adventure by horseback, tracing the footsteps of the Navajo Hero Twins. Preston, his fiancée Christine and her young daughter Selene, pass through some of the emptiest country in our entire nation. However, their three-month ride is little more than a device (albeit a fascinating and ballsy one) to reveal stunning truths about an alternate world inhabited by the Navajo. No author has ever conveyed the living, beating heart of Navajo legends with such powerful intimacy. An encounter with an old sheepherder in search of his lost flock is nothing short of breathtaking in its implications. Preston relates a host of frightening moments as well, not all of which are horse, cliff or weather related. He leaves us with a profound sense of kinship to the Navajo people, and a clear and chilling vision of what awaits us if we fail to note the societal shipwrecks scattered throughout Navajoland: skeletons left behind by those ancients who would not read the writing on their own canyon walls.

To purchase the autographed book, click here.