Congratulations to all the winners at the recent Edgar Award ceremony. Here’s the press release from Mystery Writers of America. (Check the list, and then check The Poisoned Pen’s Webstore for titles. https://store.poisonedpen.com/)

May 1, 2024, New York, NY – Mystery Writers of America is proud to announce the winners of the 2024 Edgar Allan Poe Awards, honoring the best in mystery fiction, nonfiction, and television published or produced in 2023. The 78^th Annual Edgar® Awards were celebrated on May 1, 2024, at the New York Marriott Marquis Times Square and live-streamed on YouTube.

BEST NOVEL

Flags on the Bayou by James Lee Burke (Grove Atlantic – Atlantic Monthly Press)

BEST FIRST NOVEL BY AN AMERICAN AUTHOR
 
The Peacock and the Sparrow by I.S. Berry (Simon & Schuster – Atria Books)

BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL
 
Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto

(Penguin Random House – Berkley)

BEST FACT CRIME

Crooked: The Roaring ’20s Tale of a Corrupt Attorney General, a Crusading Senator, and the Birth of the American Political Scandal

by Nathan Masters (Hachette Book Group – Hachette Books)

BEST CRITICAL/BIOGRAPHICAL
 
Love Me Fierce in Danger: The Life of James Ellroy

by Steven Powell (Bloomsbury Publishing – Bloomsbury Academic)

BEST SHORT STORY

“Hallowed Ground,” by Linda Castillo (Macmillan Publishers – Minotaur Books)

BEST JUVENILE

The Ghosts of Rancho Espanto by Adrianna Cuevas

(Macmillan Publishers – Farrar, Straus and Giroux BFYR)

BEST YOUNG ADULT
 
Girl Forgotten by April Henry (Hachette Book Group – LBYR – Christy Ottaviano Books)

BEST TELEVISION EPISODE TELEPLAY

“Escape from Shit Mountain” – Poker Face,

Written by Nora Zuckerman & Lilla Zuckerman (Peacock)

* * * * * *

ROBERT L. FISH MEMORIAL AWARD

“The Body in Cell Two,” Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, May-June 2023 by Kate Hohl

(Dell Magazines)

THE SIMON & SCHUSTER MARY HIGGINS CLARK AWARD
Presented on behalf of Simon & Schuster.

Play the Fool by Lina Chern (Penguin Random House – Bantam)

THE G.P. PUTNAM’S SONS SUE GRAFTON MEMORIAL AWARD
Presented on behalf of G.P. Putnam’s Sons.

An Evil Heart by Linda Castillo (Macmillan Publishers – Minotaur Books)

THE LILIAN JACKSON BRAUN MEMORIAL AWARD

Endowed by the estate of Lilian Jackson Braun.

Glory Be by Danielle Arceneaux (Pegasus Books – Pegasus Crime)

SPECIAL AWARDS

GRAND MASTER

Katherine Hall Page

R.L. Stine

ELLERY QUEEN AWARD

Michaela Hamilton, Kensington Books

Stephen Graham Jones’ The Angel of Indian Lake is the Hot Book of the Week at The Poisoned Pen. There are signed copies still available in the Webstore. https://bit.ly/49W6nve

Here’s the summary of The Angel of Indian Lake.

A National Bestseller

The final installment in the most lauded trilogy in the history of horror novels picks up four years after Don’t Fear the Reaper as Jade returns to Proofrock, Idaho, to build a life after the years of sacrifice—only to find the Lake Witch is waiting for her in New York Times bestselling author Stephen Graham Jones’s finale.

It’s been four years in prison since Jade Daniels last saw her hometown of Proofrock, Idaho, the day she took the fall, protecting her friend Letha and her family from incrimination. Since then, her reputation, and the town, have changed dramatically. There’s a lot of unfinished business in Proofrock, from serial killer cultists to the rich trying to buy Western authenticity. But there’s one aspect of Proofrock no one wants to confront…until Jade comes back to town. The curse of the Lake Witch is waiting, and now is the time for the final stand.

New York Times bestselling author Stephen Graham Jones has crafted an epic horror trilogy of generational trauma from the Indigenous to the townies rooted in the mountains of Idaho. It is a story of the American west written in blood.

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Stephen Graham Jones is the New York Times bestselling author of The Only Good Indians. He has been an NEA fellowship recipient and a recipient of several awards including the Ray Bradbury Award from the Los Angeles Times, the Bram Stoker Award, the Shirley Jackson Award, the Jesse Jones Award for Best Work of Fiction from the Texas Institute of Letters, the Independent Publishers Award for Multicultural Fiction, and the Alex Award from American Library Association. He is the Ivena Baldwin Professor of English at the University of Colorado Boulder.

Today is Independent Bookstore Day, and the chance to celebrate at The Poisoned Pen Bookstore. The bookstore has participated in all ten previous celebrations. If you’re in town, you can shop at the store all day Saturday where a special sale, 20% most items, will go on from 10 AM to 6 PM. This sale is IN STORE ONLY.

If you are an audiobook lover, there is a special deal at Libro.fm, our audiobook partner. Sale extends through Sunday April 28. This is a wonderful way to add support to The Pen. The sale books link is Libro.fm/sale

Again, if you’re in town, stop in and join author Douglas Preston from 9:30 AM to 10:30 AM at The Pen for conversation about his books and future plans. And, you never know what other authors might drop in during the day at The Pen.

Most of all, thank you for supporting The Poisoned Pen for almost thirty-five years.

A Killing on the Hill is Robert Dugoni’s first historical thriller. He talks about that book and his past with Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen. Signed copies of A Killing on the Hill are available in the Webstore. https://bit.ly/44eohbc

Here’s the summary of A Killing on the Hill.

A gripping new thriller from New York Times bestselling author Robert Dugoni.

The Great Depression. High-level corruption. And a murder that’s about to become Seattle’s hottest mystery. It’s the kind of story that can make a reporter’s career. If he lives to write about it.

Seattle, 1933. The city is in the grips of the Great Depression, Prohibition, and vice. Cutting his teeth on a small-time beat, hungry and ambitious young reporter William “Shoe” Shumacher gets a tip that could change his career. There’s been a murder at a social club on Profanity Hill—an underworld magnet for vice crimes only a privileged few can afford. The story is going to be front-page news, and Shoe is the first reporter on the scene.

The victim, Frankie Ray, is a former prizefighter. His accused killer? Club owner and mobster George Miller, who claims he pulled the trigger in self-defense. Soon the whole town’s talking, and Shoe’s first homicide is fast becoming the Trial of the Century. The more Shoe digs, the more he’s convinced nothing is as it seems. Not with a tangle of conflicting stories, an unlikely motive, and witnesses like Ray’s girlfriend, a glamour girl whose pretty lips are sealed. For now.

In a city steeped in Old West debauchery, Shoe’s following every lead to a very dangerous place—one that could bring him glory and fame or end his life.

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Robert Dugoni is a critically acclaimed New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and Amazon Charts bestselling author, reaching over ten million readers worldwide. He is best known for the Tracy Crosswhite police procedural series. He is also the author of the Charles Jenkins espionage series, the David Sloane legal thriller series, and several stand-alone novels, including Her Deadly Game, The 7th Canon, Damage Control, and The World Played Chess. His novel The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell was named Suspense Magazine’s 2018 Book of the Year, and Dugoni’s narration won an AudioFile Earphones Award. The Washington Post named his nonfiction exposé The Cyanide Canary a Best Book of the Year. Several of his novels have been optioned for movies and television series. Dugoni is the recipient of the Nancy Pearl Book Award for fiction and a three-time winner of the Friends of Mystery Spotted Owl Award for best novel set in the Pacific Northwest. He has been a finalist for many other awards. Dugoni’s books are sold in more than twenty-five countries and have been translated into more than thirty languages. He lives in Seattle. Visit his website at www.robertdugonibooks.com.

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You’ll want to hear Robert Dugoni’s story of the background for A Killing on the Hill.

While Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, welcomed Douglas Preston for his appearance at the bookstore, guest host James Rollins talked with Douglas Preston about his books, including the new one, Extinction. Signed copies of Extinction can be ordered through the Webstore, and they come with exclusive trading cards, while supplies last. https://bit.ly/44e4kBw

Here’s the summary of Extinction.

With Extinction, #1 New York Times bestselling author Douglas Preston has written a page-turning thriller in the Michael Crichton mode that explores the possible and unintended dangers of the very real efforts to resurrect the woolly mammoth and other long-extinct animals.

Erebus Resort, occupying a magnificent, hundred-thousand acre valley deep in the Colorado Rockies, offers guests the experience of viewing woolly mammoths, Irish Elk, and giant ground sloths in their native habitat, brought back from extinction through the magic of genetic manipulation. When a billionaire’s son and his new wife are kidnapped and murdered in the Erebus back country by what is assumed to be a gang of eco-terrorists, Colorado Bureau of Investigation Agent Frances Cash partners with county sheriff James Colcord to track down the perpetrators.

As killings mount and the valley is evacuated, Cash and Colcord must confront an ancient, intelligent, and malevolent presence at Erebus, bent not on resurrection—but extinction.

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DOUGLAS PRESTON has published forty books of both nonfiction and fiction, of which over thirty have been New York Times bestsellers, a half-dozen reaching the #1 position. He is the co-author, with Lincoln Child, of the Pendergast series of thrillers. He also writes nonfiction pieces for the New Yorker Magazine. He worked as an editor at the American Museum of Natural History in New York and taught nonfiction writing at Princeton University. He is president emeritus of the Authors Guild and serves on the Advisory Board of the School for Advanced Research in Santa Fe.

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Enjoy the conversation with Douglas Preston and James Rollins.

Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, welcomed Anne Hillerman to the bookstore to discuss Lost Birds. There are signed copies of the latest Leaphorn, Chee and Manuelito mystery in the Webstore. https://bit.ly/3JyVm8c

Here’s the description of Lost Birds.

“Anne Hillerman is a star.”—J. A. Jance, New York Times bestselling author

From New York Times bestselling author Anne Hillerman, a thrilling and moving chapter in the Leaphorn, Chee & Manuelito series involving several emotionally complex cases that will test the detectives in different ways.

Joe Leaphorn may be long retired from the Navajo Tribal Police, but his detective skills are still sharp, honed by his work as a private detective. His experience will be essential to solve a compelling new case: finding the birth parents of a woman who was raised by a bilagáana family but believes she is Diné based on one solid clue, an old photograph with a classic Navajo child’s blanket. Leaphorn discovers that his client’s adoption was questionable, and her adoptive family not what they seem. His quest for answers takes him to an old trading post and leads him to a deadly cache of long-buried family secrets.

As that case grows more complicated, Leaphorn receives an unexpected call from a person he met decades earlier. Cecil Bowleg’s desperation is clear in his voice, but just as he begins to explain, the call is cut off by an explosion and Cecil disappears. True to his nature, Leaphorn is determined to find the truth even as the situation grows dangerous. Investigation of the explosion falls in part to Officer Bernadette Manuelito, who discovers an unexpected link to Cecil’s missing wife.

Bernie also is involved in a troubling investigation of her own: an elderly weaver whose prize-winning sheep have been ruthlessly killed by feral dogs.

Exploring the emotionally complex issues of adoption of Indigenous children by non-native parents, Anne Hillerman delivers another thought-provoking, gripping mystery that brings to life the vivid terrain of the American Southwest, its people, and the lore and traditions that make it distinct.

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ANNE HILLERMAN is the bestselling author of the Leaphorn, Chee & Manuelito series. Lost Birds is her ninth novel in the series, which was created by her father, Tony Hillerman. She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Tucson, Arizona, and is at work on her next novel.

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Enjoy the conversation with Anne Hillerman.

Karen E. Olson’s new book, An Inconvenient Wife, is the Hot Book of the Week at The Poisoned Pen. Barbara Peters, owner of the bookstore, welcomed Karen for a virtual event. There are still signed copies of the books left in the Webstore. https://bit.ly/3vSipbb

Here’s the summary of An Inconvenient Wife.

This astonishing crime novel—inspired by the Tudor era—takes the reader into the world of Kate Parker, who has just married billionaire Hank Tudor when a headless body is discovered near their summer home . . .

Kate Parker knows what she’s getting into when she marries billionaire businessman Hank Tudor—she’s his sixth wife, after all, and was by his side (as his assistant) when his fifth marriage to actress Caitlyn Howard fell apart.

But honeymoon plans go awry when a headless body is discovered near Hank’s summer home, forcing Kate to contend with two more of his exes: Catherine Alvarez—the first—who lives as a shut-in with her computers, carefully following Tudor Enterprises; and Anna Klein—the fourth—who runs a bed-and-breakfast where she and her wife keep a steady eye on things—particularly Hank’s children, Lizzie and Teddy.

In this clever and suspenseful reimagining of Tudor era betrayals, these three women become entwined in a deadly game of cat and mouse—with each other, Hank, and Hank’s brilliant fixer, Tom Cromwell—as Kate seeks to solve the puzzle of who the murdered woman is, who killed her, and whether her death has any connection to the other headless body from eight years ago.

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Karen E. Olson is the winner of the Sara Ann Freed Memorial Award and a Shamus Award finalist. She is the author of the Annie Seymour mysteries, the Tattoo Shop mysteries, and the Black Hat thrillers. Karen was a longtime editor, both in newspapers and at Yale. She lives in North Haven, Connecticut.

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Enjoy the discussion of the Tudors and Karen E. Olson’s An Inconvenient Wife.

Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, asked Megan Miranda about the settings for her books. Daughter of Mine was inspired by a writers’ retreat she attended. There are signed copies of Daughter of Mine available through the Webstore. https://bit.ly/4b2tTb0

Here’s the description of Daughter of Mine.

Her father was the town detective. Her mother its most notorious criminal. Now the secrets of Mirror Lake are coming to the surface…and changing everything. “[A] stunning psychological thriller from one of the most insightful writers around” (CrimeReads), don’t miss the latest from Megan Miranda, the instant New York Times bestselling author of All the Missing Girls, The Last to Vanish, and The Only Survivors.

When Hazel Sharp, daughter of Mirror Lake’s longtime local detective, unexpectedly inherits her childhood home, she’s warily drawn back to the town—and people—she left behind almost a decade earlier. But Hazel’s not the only relic of the past to return: a drought has descended on the region, and as the water level in the lake drops, long-hidden secrets begin to emerge…including evidence that may help finally explain the mystery of her mother’s disappearance.

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Megan Miranda is the New York Times bestselling author of All the Missing Girls, The Perfect Stranger, The Last House Guest, which was a Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick, The Girl from Widow Hills, Such a Quiet Place, The Last to Vanish, and The Only Survivors. She has also written several books for young adults. She grew up in New Jersey, graduated from MIT, and lives in North Carolina with her husband and two children. Follow @MeganLMiranda on Twitter and Instagram, @AuthorMeganMiranda on Facebook, or visit MeganMiranda.com.

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Enjoy the conversation with Megan Miranda and Barbara Peters.

Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, welcomed Clare Mackintosh back to the bookstore. Mackintosh’s first appearance at the bookstore was in 2017. Now, she’s back from her home in Wales to discuss her latest book, A Game of Lies. There are signed copies of A Game of Lies available in the Webstore. https://bit.ly/447Hmfi

Here is the description of A Game of Lies.

“It’s everything you want from a thriller—and then some. Hugely enjoyable.” —Alex Michaelides, #1 New York Times bestselling author

They say the camera never lies. But on this show, you can’t trust anything you see.

Stranded in the Welsh mountains, seven reality show contestants have no idea what they’ve signed up for.

Each of these strangers has a secret. If another player can guess the truth, they won’t just be eliminated – they’ll be exposed live on air. The stakes are higher than they’d ever imagined, and they’re trapped.

The disappearance of a contestant wasn’t supposed to be part of the drama. Detective Ffion Morgan has to put aside what she’s watched on screen, and find out who these people really are – knowing she can’t trust any of them.

And when a murderer strikes, Ffion knows every one of her suspects has an alibi . . . and a secret worth killing for.

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With over 2 million copies of her books sold worldwide, number one bestseller Clare Mackintosh is the multi-award-winning author of I Let You Go, which was a Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller and the fastest-selling title by a new crime writer in 2015. It also won the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year in 2016. Both Clare’s second and third novels, I See You and Let Me Lie, were number one Sunday Times bestsellers. Her first three thrillers were selected for the Richard & Judy Book Club, and together have been translated into forty languages. After the End was published in 2019 and became an instant Sunday Times bestseller, and in 2021 Hostage flew straight into the top ten. Her new crime series, featuring Welsh detective DC Ffion Morgan, has been critically acclaimed, with both The Last Party and A Game of Lies hitting the Sunday Times top ten. Together, her books have spent more than sixty-five weeks in The Sunday Times bestseller lists. Clare is patron of the Silver Star Society, a charity based at the John Radcliffe hospital in Oxford, which supports parents experiencing high-risk or difficult pregnancies. She lives in North Wales with her husband and their three children.

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Enjoy the conversation with Clare Mackintosh.