Here’s a suggestion for ending 2018 on a high note, or starting 2019 the same way. Why don’t you check the Web Store for signed books by your favorite author? Or, browse the collection of signed books that are in stock at The Poisoned Pen, and discover a new author, or start a new collection. Are you a Lee Child or Michael Connelly fan? Child’s Past Tense and Connelly’s Dark Sacred Night are both available. There are crime novels, literary fiction, fantasy. Here’s the link to all 1552 titles that are available as of today. Check it out! https://bit.ly/2CFRIbl

It’s time to start marking your January calendar for author visits at The Poisoned Pen and January releases. Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen will be at the bookstore on Wednesday, January 16 at 7 PM to discuss and sign their latest book, An Anonymous Girl. You can pre-order it through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2CHeoYz

There’s a reason I’m already talking about An Anonymous Girl, but, first, here’s the summary of the book.

The next novel of psychological suspense and obsession from the authors of the blockbuster bestseller The Wife Between Us

Seeking women ages 18″“32 to participate in a study on ethics and morality. Generous compensation. Anonymity guaranteed.  

When Jessica Farris signs up for a psychology study conducted by the mysterious Dr. Shields, she thinks all she’ll have to do is answer a few questions, collect her money, and leave. 

Question #1: Could you tell a lie without feeling guilt?

But as the questions grow more and more intense and invasive and the sessions become outings where Jess is told what to wear and how to act, she begins to feel as though Dr. Shields may know what she’s thinking…and what she’s hiding. 

Question #2: Have you ever deeply hurt someone you care about?  

As Jess’s paranoia grows, it becomes clear that she can no longer trust what in her life is real, and what is one of Dr. Shields’ manipulative experiments. Caught in a web of deceit and jealousy, Jess quickly learns that some obsessions can be deadly.

Question #3: Should a punishment always fit the crime? 

From the authors of the blockbuster bestseller The Wife Between Us comes an electrifying new novel about doubt, passion, and just how much you can trust someone.

Praise for The Wife Between Us:

“A fiendishly smart cat-and-mouse thriller” —New York Times Book Review

“[A] seamless thriller that will keep readers on their toes to the very end…Readers will enjoy the dizzying back-and-forth as they attempt to figure out just who to root for and as the suspense ratchets up to one hell of a conclusion.” —Booklist

*****

It’s not as early as you think. You can put this date on your calendar, and enjoy Adam Wagner’s GIFNotes description of the book, via Criminal Element. Check it out! https://bit.ly/2CFUpcW

With Michael Connelly’s bestseller status and popularity, you may have ordered some of his books through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2GLEQo5

Now, we’d like to share his latest news about his upcoming Murder Book Podcast.

January 28 – The Murder Book Podcast Begins Michael Connelly’s new true crime podcast, Murder Book, will premiere on January 28, 2019.  Wiretaps, witness interviews, court recordings and detective recollections piece together this true crime podcast hosted by Michael that explores a real homicide case not covered by mainstream media.  Murder Book Podcast Season One is called The Tell-Tale Bullet. The podcast dives into a thirty-year-old Hollywood killing that tests the limits of the American criminal justice system. Listen to the trailer now on your podcast app and subscribe for free. “No matter what success I achieve as a storyteller I have always and will always feel I am still a journalist at heart — I put the truth in my novels and I research them like a reporter on a story. The Murder Book podcast will tell it like it is from the front line of the justice system, exploring the stories of law officers who are relentless in their pursuit of justice and the truth. These will be stories that  inspire me and may inspire the listeners as well.”  – Michael Connelly Listen To A Trailer On Apple Podcasts And Subscribe Now. Video: Michael Connelly Introduces The Murder Book Podcast. Visit The Murder Book Website. Learn How To Listen & Subscribe To A Podcast.

It doesn’t hurt to send a reminder about upcoming programs at The Poisoned Pen. If you’re in the Scottsdale/Phoenix area, you might want to attend one of the programs. If you’re not in the area, or can’t make it, you might want to pre-order a signed copy of a book by one of authors appearing at the bookstore in January. Don’t forget to check the Web Store for the books. https://store.poisonedpen.com

Here’s January’s schedule of events.

Events are at 7PM at The Poisoned Pen Bookstore unless otherwise noted.

JANUARY CALENDAR.

01/05 (Sat) Douglas Preston signs Verses for the Dead, presigned by Lincoln Child who joins in by Skype. Plus there’s a very cool vintage postcard with a message written by Agent AXL Pendergast. 
Location: Kerr Center 6110 N. Scottsdale Road 85253. 
Time: Doors open 6:00 PM, Program at 7:00. 
This event is free but admission to the signing line requires the purchase of Verses for the Dead from The Poisoned Pen. You may bring one personal book to be signed as well.

01/08 (Tues) Brad Taylor signs Daughter of War. (Dutton $27) Pike Logan thriller #13.

01/10 (Thurs) Thomas Perry signs The Burglar. (Grove $26) Ellie Stowell, professional burglar, and now…a target.

01/12 (Sat) 2:00 pm Carol Potenza signs Hearts of the Missing. (St Martins $27.99) Winner of the 2017 Tony Hillerman Prize and our December 2018 First Mystery Book of the Month Club Pick.

01/12 (Sat) 2:00 pm Mette Ivie Harrison signs Not of This Fold. (Soho $26.95) Mormon Bishop’s Wife Linda Wallheim #4.

01/15 (Tues) Lyndsay Faye signs The Paragon Hotel. (Putnam $26) From Harlem to Portland during Prohibition.

01/16 (Wed) Greer Hendricks/Sarah Pekkanen sign An Anonymous Girl. (St Martins $27.99) Our copies will each come with a custom “Beauty Blender” while supplies last.

01/17 (Thurs) Nick Petrie signs Tear it Down. (Putnam $26) Peter Ash #4. 01/17 (Thurs) Matthew Quirk signs The Night Agent.  (Harper $26.99) Is there a Russian mole in the White House?.

01/19 (Sat) 2:00 pm Rosemary Simpson signs Let the Dead Keep Their Secret.  (Kensington $26) Gilded Age Mystery #3. Host Karen Odden signs A Dangerous Duet. (Harper $15.99) A Victorian Mystery.

01/21 (Mon) James Rollins Book Launch. James Rollins signs Crucible. (Harper $28.99) Sigma Force #13. Pre-order a signed copy now and receive an exclusive collectible-a must-have for James Rollins’s fans!.

01/22 (Tues) Taylor Adams signs No Exit. (Morrow $26.99) Thriller set in a Colorado blizzard. Tami Hoag signs The Boy. (Dutton $28) Police investigate dual murders in Bayou Breaux, Louisiana.

01/24 (Thurs) John Lescroart signs The Rule of Law. (Atria $27) San Francisco’s Dismas Hardy #18.

01/25 (Fri).  LIVE MUSIC with Three-Legged Dog

01/26 (Sat) 12:00 pm What Do I Read Next? Has your book group run out of great titles to discuss? Or are you just looking for something great to read yourself? Join us at the Poisoned Pen Bookstore for a preview of new and forthcoming titles that will make your book discussion group the talk of the town as well as have you booked up with great reading choices all year.

01/26 (Sat) 2:00 pm Stephanie Barron signs That Churchill Woman. Ballantine $28) A novel of Jennie Churchill, American heiress mother of Winston. (Barron is Francine Mathews when writing historical fiction).

01/27 (Sun) 2:00 pm Sarah Tarkoff signs Fearless. (Harper $16.99) Eye of the Beholder #2 Adventure/SciFi.

01/28 (Mon) Professor Gary L. Stuart signs Call Him Mac. (Sentinel Peak $35 or $19.95) A biography of Ernest W. McFarland-Arizona lawyer, judge, senator, governor, Supreme Court justice, and businessman.

01/29 (Tues) Join travel specialist and tour leader Sheila Campbell of Travel to France for an evening of conversation and information. Her tours have included author ML Longworth, Mark Pryor, and Martin Walker.

01/30 (Wed) Gregg Hurwitz signs Out of the Dark. (St Martins $27.99) Orphan X #4. Joseph Finder signs Judgment. (Dutton $28) Judge Julianna battles blackmail.

01/31 (Thurs) Ian Rankin in conversation with Linwood Barclay. Ian Rankin signs In a House of Lies. (LittleBrown $27) John Rebus. Toronto’s Linwood Barclay signs A Noise Downstairs. (Morrow $26.99) A thriller . . . and good for typewriter geeks.

JANUARY DISCUSSION CLUBS.

Coffee & Crime 01/12 (Sat) 10:30 AM 
Read AL Herbert’s Murder with Fried Chicken and Waffles. ($7.99).

SciFi Friday 01/14 (Fri) 7:00 PM
Read Madeline Miller’s The Song of Achilles. ($16.99).

Croak & Dagger 01/15 (Sat) 10:30 AM
Read Claire Mackintosh’s I Let You Go. ($9.99).

Hardboiled Crime 01/23 7:00 PM
Read Alan Parks’, Bloody January. ($17) .

The Poisoned Pen is closed today for Christmas. We hope you have a wonderful holiday, whichever one, and however you celebrate. Even when the store is closed, you can browse and shop the Web Store. https://store.poisonedpen.com

Have a beautiful, peaceful day.

Something a little different today. CrimeReads analyzes movies with a list of their top ten movies, “Which Christmas Classic is the Most Noir?” Does your favorite Christmas movie make the list? You might be surprised which ones make it, and why they made the list. It’s just a fun piece to share. https://bit.ly/2GAnxGw

If you haven’t yet tried Steven F. Havill’s Posadas County mysteries, set in a New Mexico border town, it might be time. Lies Come Easy is set in December, so it’s seasonal. Signed copies of this book, and copies of the other books in the series, are available through the Web Store. bit.ly/2PXJ77g

Anne Corey recently reviewed Lies Come Easy for Reviewing the Evidence. https://bit.ly/2V7OrZh

Here’s the summary of Lies Come Easy.

Best of the West 2019 – 3rd Place in 20th- to 21st-Century Western Mystery Fiction by TrueWest Magazine

One blizzardy New Mexico night, Posadas County Deputy Pasquale picks up a toddler scooting his Scamper along the shoulder of State 56. 

Yes, it’s horrifying – a child apparently dumped out of a truck by his father. Nearly as horrifying is what unrolls while Christmas approaches after dad Darrell Fisher’s arrest: a request arrives from the US Forest Service to locate a missing range tech and his unit last reported headed for nearby Stinkin’ Springs, and the brutal murder of Constance Suarez in the border town of Regál, population 37. 

The Sheriff’s Department is stretched to its limits as its dedicated personnel juggle working cases and caring for citizens with their own relationships and family celebrations. The irony of so much wickedness at the holidays is not lost on anyone. Undersheriff Estelle Reyes-Guzman, heading out her door to a crime scene, reflects: “It would be a glorious holiday evening for somebody.” 

As their mother joins her colleagues in dealing with the Fisher family, the Forest Service’s absent Myron Fitzwater, the murder, and who knows what else in Regál, Francisco and Carolos, the sons of Estelle and physician Francis, arrange to jet in to spend Christmas with their parents. Francisco the musical prodigy is now a celebrated pianist and composer with an international career. Carlos is thriving at Stanford. Both sons bring special surprises with them. And retired Sheriff Bill Gastner is cooking up a Christmas gift of his own. 

In Steven Havill’s twenty-third Posadas County Mystery, family dynamics play a huge role as Undersheriff Estelle Reyes-Guzman and the whole department work to pull the right threads out of a tangle of seemingly small lies. It makes for a mix of the mundane with the harrowing. And justice for all will prove elusive

Gary Shteyngart, author of Lake Success, shares a seven-sentence holiday story in a recent video. Before watching the video, you might want to read about that book. Signed copies, as well as Shteyngart’s other books, are available through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2T66qh3

Here’s the description of Lake Success.

“Spectacular.”—NPR “¢ “Uproariously funny.”—The Boston Globe “¢ “An artistic triumph.”—San Francisco Chronicle “¢ “A novel in which comedy and pathos are exquisitely balanced.”—The Washington Post “¢ “Shteyngart’s best book.”—The Seattle Times 

The bestselling author of Super Sad True Love Story returns with a biting, brilliant, emotionally resonant novel very much of our times.

NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY MAUREEN CORRIGAN, NPR’S FRESH AIR AND NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review “¢ NPR “¢ The Washington Post “¢ O: The Oprah Magazine “¢ Glamour “¢ Library Journal “¢ Kirkus Reviews “¢ Newsday “¢ Pamela Paul, KQED “¢ Financial Times “¢ The Globe and Mail

Narcissistic, hilariously self-deluded, and divorced from the real world as most of us know it, hedge-fund manager Barry Cohen oversees $2.4 billion in assets. Deeply stressed by an SEC investigation and by his three-year-old son’s diagnosis of autism, he flees New York on a Greyhound bus in search of a simpler, more romantic life with his old college sweetheart. Meanwhile, his super-smart wife, Seema—a driven first-generation American who craved the picture-perfect life that comes with wealth—has her own demons to face. How these two flawed characters navigate the Shteyngartian chaos of their own making is at the heart of this piercing exploration of the 0.1 Percent, a poignant tale of familial longing and an unsentimental ode to what really makes America great.

LONGLISTED FOR THE CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE IN FICTION 

“The fuel and oxygen of immigrant literature—movement, exile, nostalgia, cultural disorientation—are what fire the pistons of this trenchant and panoramic novel. . . . [It is] a novel so pungent, so frisky and so intent on probing the dissonances and delusions—both individual and collective—that grip this strange land getting stranger.”—The New York Times Book Review 

“Shteyngart, perhaps more than any American writer of his generation, is a natural. He is light, stinging, insolent and melancholy. . . . The wit and the immigrant’s sense of heartbreak—he was born in Russia—just seem to pour from him. The idea of riding along behind Shteyngart as he glides across America in the early age of Trump is a propitious one. He doesn’t disappoint.”—The New York Times 

*****

Here’s Gary Shteyngart, reading his seven-sentence short story, “The Groundhog’s Revenge”.

Dana Stabenow recently wrote a post on her website. She disagreed with the titles (and I can see why) that were suggested on another site. She wrote about her own reaction. Check the Web Store for the books she mentions. https://store.poisonedpen.com/You can also read Stabenow’s posts on her site, https://stabenow.com

Okay, so I subscribe to Buzzfeed’s morning newsletter, which can be scarily informative and often unintentionally hilarious and sometimes just incredibly depressing, but then that’s the news today.

This morning the newsletter included a link to this article, 14 Books For Anyone Who’s Had A Tough Year. As I read down it with an increasing sense of incredulity, I was moved to look up synonyms for navel-gazing (on which until this moment I thought that my generation had the monopoly) and came across this perfectly delightful word, omphaloskepsis.

When I stopped laughing I decided there was nothing for it but to come up with an, ah, alt-book list, populated with engaging characters, good plots, and brave new worlds. It is the very antithesis of omphaloskepsian and is a hell of a lot more amusing than picking the lint out of your belly button. Trust me, if you’ve had a tough year, these are the books you should be reading.

1. Jim Butcher’s Codex Alera series. Butcher is known for his Harry Dresden wizard-in-Chicago series but this six-book epic fantasy is even better. Butcher picks up the lost Ninth Legion from wherever it was wandering around in Scotland and sets it down on the planet Carna, where natural furies can be tamed to give the new settlers magical powers (just go with it) and there is a villain on a par with Sauron. It’s the best lost heir plot I’ve ever read and right now the first book in the series is $2.99 on Kindle.
2. Tanya Huff’s military science fiction series, starring Confederation Space Marine Gunnery Sergeant Torin Kerr. Huff writes simply the best alien characters, including the Krai who eat everything, the di’Taykan who f*ck everything, and not forgetting that masterful little ace reporter and pain in Torin’s behind, Presit a Tur durValintrisy of Sector Central News. Great dialogue, and there is a big reveal in the seventh and concluding novel that pays off on every. single. word. you will have read before. The first in series, Valor’s Choice, is also only $2.99 at the moment.
3. Kerry Greenwood’s 20-book Phryne Fisher series. A fully enfranchised flapper in Melbourne, Australia, following World War I, Phryne detects crime while driving her Hispano Suiza way too fast, flying her own plane, joining the circus, building an extended and colorful family, and enthusiastically practicing sexual liberation on every handsome young man she comes across. In Cocaine Blues, the first in the series, she brings down a drug ring and delivers an illegal abortionist unrepentantly to the hangman, which latter is a refreshing antidote to the very tired (and very irritating) misunderstood-villain trope of more modern times.
4. Kristan Higgins’ five-book Blue Heron series, in which she saves the best for last in Anything But You, which I think might be the best romance novel I’ve ever read (although I’m not sure John Charles down at the Poisoned Pen agrees with me). Connor O’Rourke has been waiting for Jessica Dunn since high school, but Jessica has a younger brother who has FAS, a not-father who is a recovering alcoholic, and a perfectly nasty little rival at work, and she doesn’t have time for anything but a friend with benefits. Every one of the characters is much more than only one thing (like Connor’s father), the dialogue is great (especially the twinspeak between Connor and Colleen) and all you’re going to want to do after you read this book is go to Manningsport and eat and drink in Connor and Colleen’s tavern. Heart-wrenching and heart-warming and just plain good for the health of your heart overall.

There. Thirty-eight novels in four different genres, every last one of them separately or together guaranteed to make you feel better about life in general and your own in particular. I promise.

And then there’s my own Kate Shugak series,
beginning with A Cold Day for Murder,
also at $2.99 on Kindle right now.
#justsayn