Murder at la Villette is Cara Black’s 21st Aimee Leduc Investigation. Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, recently welcomed Cara, and they started by talking about Black’s guided tours in the footsteps of Aimee Leduc. There are signed copies of Murder at la Villette available through the Webstore. https://bit.ly/3ImiEh9

Here’s the description of Murder at la Villette.

Parisian private investigator Aimée Leduc has been framed for the murder of her daughter’s father—now she’s on the lam, and must find the real killer to clear her name in this thrilling 21st installment of Cara Black’s New York Times bestselling mystery series.

Parisian private investigator Aimée Leduc doesn’t know that her life is about to be upended. Her ex, Melac, has been hounding her to move their daughter, Chloé, to Brittany. Aimée is fed up with his threats to take her to court and has stopped answering his calls. Which is why she doesn’t know he’s waiting for her by the Bassin de la Villette as she leaves a client’s office late one night. When she finds him there, bleeding in the canal, he has just been stabbed by an assailant, who knocks Aimée unconscious and plants the bloody knife in her hands.

Now Aimée is in police custody, debilitated by a concussion, with overwhelming evidence pointing to her as Melac’s killer. She must figure out who murdered Melac—not an easy job, given the target on his back as a former homicide investigator. Cut off from her typical network and forced to operate under multiple layers of cover, Aimée must go deep into the underbelly of Paris’s 19th arrondissement, where she rubs shoulders with biker gangs, paranoid journalists, grieving parents, and frustratingly tight-lipped ex-cops on her hunt for justice.

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Cara Black is the author of twenty-one books in the New York Times bestselling Aimée Leduc series as well as the thrillers Three Hours in Paris, a national bestseller, and Night Flight to Paris. She has received multiple nominations for the Anthony and Macavity Awards, and her books have been translated into German, Norwegian, Japanese, French, Spanish, Italian, and Hebrew. She lives in San Francisco with her husband and visits Paris frequently.

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Enjoy the discussion of Cara Black’s books.

Patrick King recently welcomed Jonathan Mayo to The Poisoned Pen. Mayo’s latest book is Smart, Wrong, and Lucky: The Origin Stories of Baseball’s Unexpected Stars. You can find autographed copies of the book in the Webstore. https://bit.ly/3uXRN87

Here’s the description of Smart, Wrong, And Lucky.

A fascinating look at how MLB teams find diamonds in the rough

In the plainest of terms, baseball scouts are tasked with seeing the future—a distant future, at that. Baseball’s long developmental arc leaves room for plenty of twists and turns on the way to The Show. Some prospects shoot like arrows toward their projected potential, while others fizzle out or chart an unexpected course.

Joey Votto was a lightly scouted high schooler out of Ontario, Canada. Charlie Blackmon was once coveted for his left arm more than his offensive potential. Mookie Betts “lost interest in the draft” as he went unselected round after round. Jacob deGrom refused to relinquish his role as a shortstop. Lorenzo Cain never even put on a baseball glove until high school—and then wore it on the wrong hand.

Smart, Wrong, and Lucky explores how first impressions measure up to their aftermaths: the draft, years of progression, and for a talented few, major league success. MLB.com writer Jonathan Mayo profiles a diverse range of modern stars and looks at them through the eyes of those who noticed them first as prospects.

Featuring exclusive interviews with scouts, players, coaches, and more, this fascinating collection of origin stories is an ode to baseball’s endless possibilities.

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Jonathan Mayo has been a writer for MLB.com since 1999, focusing on the MLB Draft and minor league prospects since 2003. This is his second book, having authored Facing Clemens: Hitters on Confronting Baseball’s Most Intimidating Pitcher in 2008. He lives in Pittsburgh with his wife, Sara, and has two children, Ziv and Elena.

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Enjoy the chatter before the regular program with Jonathan Mayo.

Of course, The Poisoned Pen kicks off March with a slew of events. Check these early ones out, and then checked the Webstore to pre-order copies of the books. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

Let’s end February on a high note. C.J. Box recently appeared for an off-site event for The Poisoned Pen. Fans flew in from all over, including Kansas City and Los Angeles for release date of Three-Inch Teeth. Signed copies of Box’s Hot Book of the Week, Three-Inch Teeth, are sold out. There is a possibility of getting more signed copies, but no promises. Check the Webstore for copies. https://bit.ly/42Tk9Ne

Here are a few pictures from the event.

Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, said they’ve been together for all of Box’s books, although he only came down to sign books during Covid. Some of the conversation was about their history together, but Box did talk about his life in Wyoming.

Here’s the summary of Three-Inch Teeth.

Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett faces two different kinds of rampaging beasts—one animal, one human—in this riveting new novel from #1 New York Times bestseller C.J. Box.

A rogue grizzly bear has gone on a rampage—killing, among others, the potential fiancé of Joe’s daughter. At the same time, Dallas Cates, who Joe helped lock up years ago, is released from prison with a special list tattooed on his skin. He wants revenge on the people who sent him away: the six people he blames for the deaths of his entire family and the loss of his reputation and property.

Using the grizzly attacks as cover, Cates sets out to methodically check off his list. The problem is, both Nate Romanowski and Joe Pickett are on it.

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C. J. Box is the author of twenty-four Joe Pickett novels, eight stand-alone novels, and a story collection. He has won the Edgar, Anthony, Macavity, Gumshoe, and two Barry awards, as well as the French Prix Calibre .38, the Western Heritage Award for Literature, and two Spur Awards. An avid outdoorsman, Box has hunted, fished, hiked, ridden, and skied throughout Wyoming and the Mountain West. He has been executive producer of Joe Pickett on Paramount+ as well as Big Sky, both of which are based on his novels.

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Enjoy the conversation with C.J. Box.

Patrick King from The Poisoned Pen welcomed Rebecca Roque, debut author of Till Human Voices Wake Us. Signed copies of the Young Adult novel are available through the Webstore. https://bit.ly/3STTdby

Here’s the description of Till Human Voices Wake Us.

Black Mirror meets A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder when a teenage girl’s relentless investigation into her best friend’s death plunges her deep into a dangerous underground society where every secret has a price.

Seventeen-year-old Cia lived in a house of secrets until she was five, when her father literally burned it all down. The price of his clandestine operation? Cia’s entire family, and her leg. So, when her best friend Alice says she has a secret too, Cia wants nothing to do with it—even if it could shed light on her family’s dark past. But Alice doesn’t let go so easily, especially when her search for answers might help find Noah, the boy who broke her heart before going missing two months ago.

But then the police find Alice’s body floating in the quarry.

Now Cia would give anything to know Alice’s secrets. Because Alice would never have jumped, no matter what the cops think. Desperate to figure out what happened to her friend, Cia picks up the threads of Alice’s investigation, plunging deep into a shadow world of augmented reality. As she untangles one web of lies after another, Cia finds herself pursued by an enemy that will pay any price to keep their secrets buried. But the girl who already lost everything isn’t about to back down now. Her only chance to avenge Alice lies in exposing an underground society preying on those they think no one will miss—but danger lies closer to home than she imagined.

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Rebecca Roque comes from a long line of proudly ungovernable women. After graduating from Rush University, she hit the ground running as a critical care nurse, often finding herself at the crossroads of the most fascinating human stories. When she isn’t annoying her neighbors by luring everything feathered, furred, and feral to her backyard, Rebecca enjoys true-crime podcasts and hiking in places true-crime podcasters would probably advise against. Till Human Voices Wake Us is her debut novel.

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Roque describes the background and inspiration for her book in the conversation. Enjoy!

Patrick King from The Poisoned Pen welcomed Kevin Hearne back to the bookstore. Hearne says he has a ton of stuff coming out, so he’s willing to talk about it. His latest collection is Canines & Cocktails, written with Delilah S. Dawson and Chuck Wendig. You can order a copy through the Webstore, https://bit.ly/3UQn4US.

Here’s the summary of Canines & Cocktails.

Enjoy three delightful tales of dogs and drinks from New York Times bestsellers!
Oberon the Irish wolfhound and his Boston terrier buddy, Starbuck, not only witness humans waste perfectly good sausage, but also a sneaky murder committed right before their eyes in THE CHARTREUSE CHANTEUSE by Kevin Hearne. Justice demands that someone pay for both crimes, and together with their Druid, Atticus O’Sullivan, and D.I. Rose Badgely of the Launceston police, they’ll show the dastardly villain they messed with the wrong good dogs.

THE BARTENDER AND THE BEAST introduces the enchanting world of Arcadia Falls, the setting for Delilah S. Dawson’s return to Paranormal Romance. When no-nonsense bartender Cassia King returns to her sleepy hometown in the Georgia mountains to help her sister, she can’t help falling for well-dressed wildlife rehabilitator Riley. But as Cash learns, Arcadia Falls has a secret, and so does the bar’s rescue pit bull, Peach Pit…

In WHISKEY SOUR by Chuck Wendig, It was the end of the world and Harry Campbell wanted a drink. He’s one of the few who remained in Ouray, Colorado, after everything went to hell — and has decided to willfully fall off the wagon and find a way to make a cocktail he once loved, the whiskey sour. His quest to make a drink will take him beyond the borders of Ouray and into the world fallen under the shadow of the now-gone White Mask disease. But, he won’t do it alone — Shepherd Marcy Reyes lends him the courage and pluck of the golden retriever known as Gumball to help him stay alive and stay sane in the process. But Harry’s journey holds a greater, more secret purpose — he has questions that remain unanswered about what the rogue AI called Black Swan did to them all, and he intends to have those answers, even if they change him, and perhaps the world, forever.

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You’ll want to hear about Hearne’s writing, as well as the latest about Atticus and Oberon. (And, Pat King is right. We all love Oberon.)

While Barbara Peters welcomed authors Mark Greaney and Brad Taylor to The Poisoned Pen, Taylor was guest host for the recent event. There are signed copies of Greaney’s latest book, The Chaos Agent, in the Webstore. https://bit.ly/3IaaQiA

Here’s the summary of The Chaos Agent.

Artificial intelligence leads to shockingly real danger for the Gray Man in this latest entry in the #1 New York Times bestselling series.

A car accident in Japan.

A drowning in Seoul.

A home invasion in Boston.

Someone is killing the world’s leading experts on robotics and artificial intelligence. Is it a tech company trying to eliminate the competition or is it something even more sinister?

After all, artificial intelligence may be the deadliest battlefield gamechanger since the creation of gunpowder. The first nation to field weapons that can act at the speed of computer commands will rule the battlefield.

It’s an irresistible lure for most, but not for the Gray Man. His quest for a quiet life has led him to Central America where he and his lover, Zoya Zakharova, have assumed new identities. With a list of enemies that  includes billionaires, terrorists, and governments, they need to keep a low profile, but the world’s deadliest assassin can’t expect to hide out forever.

Eventually, they’re tracked down and offered a job by an old acquaintance of Zoya’s. He needs their help extracting a Russian scientist who is on the kill list. They reject the offer, but just being seen with him is enough to put assassins on their trail.

Now, they’re back on the run, but no matter which way they turn, it’s clear that whoever’s tracking them is always going to be one step ahead. Since flight’s no longer possible, fight is the only option left, and no one fights dirtier than the Gray Man.

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Mark Greaney‘s research for the Gray Man novels, including Burner, Sierra Six, Relentless, One Minute Out, Mission Critical, Agent in Place, Gunmetal Gray, Back Blast, Dead Eye, Ballistic, On Target, and The Gray Man, has taken him to more than thirty-five countries, and he has trained alongside military and law enforcement in the use of firearms, battlefield medicine, and close-range combative tactics. With Marine LtCol Rip Rawlings, he wrote the New York Times bestseller Red Metal. He is also the author of the New York Times bestsellers Tom Clancy Support and Defend, Tom Clancy Full Force and Effect, Tom Clancy Commander in Chief, and Tom Clancy True Faith and Allegiance. With Tom Clancy, he coauthored Locked On, Threat Vector, and Command Authority.

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Brad Taylor, Lieutenant Colonel (Ret.), is a twenty-one-year veteran of the U.S. Army Infantry and Special Forces, includ­ing eight years with Delta Force. Taylor retired in 2010 after serving more than two decades and participating in Oper­ation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. He has written seventeen New York Times bestsellers and is a security consultant on asymmetric threats for various agencies. He lives in Charleston, South Carolina, with his wife and two daughters.

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This is the release party for Mark Greaney’s The Chaos Agent. Enjoy the conversation.

The LA Times Festival of Books announced the finalists for the Mystery/Thriller category. Congratulations to Lou Berney, S.A. Cosby, Jordan Harper, Cheryl A. Head, and Ivy Pochoda.

Check the webstore for copies of the prize finalists! https://store.poisonedpen.com/, although I think they’re all on special order.

Steve Berry’s latest Cotton Malone novel, The Atlas Maneuver, is the Hot Book of the Week at The Poisoned Pen. Barbara Peters, owner of bookstore, recently welcomed Berry for a live event. There are signed copies of The Atlas Maneuver available in the Webstore. https://bit.ly/49mDGYO

Here’s the description of The Atlas Maneuver.

From celebrated New York Times bestselling author Steve Berry comes the latest Cotton Malone adventure, in which Cotton unravels a mystery from World War II involving a legendary lost treasure, worth billions, known as Yamashita’s Gold.

1945. In the waning months of World War II, Japan hid vast quantities of gold and other stolen valuables in boobytrapped underground caches all across the Philippines. By 1947 some of that loot was recovered, not by treasure hunters, but by the United States government, which told no one about the find. Instead, those assets were stamped classified, shipped to Europe, and secretly assimilated into something called the Black Eagle Trust.

Present day. Retired Justice Department operative, Cotton Malone, is in Switzerland doing a favor for a friend. But what was supposed to be a simple operation turns violent and Cotton is thrust into a war between the world’s oldest bank and the CIA, a battle that directly involves the Black Eagle Trust. He quickly discovers that everything hinges on a woman from his past, who suddenly reappears harboring a host of explosive secrets centering around bitcoin. The cryptocurrency is being quietly weaponized, readied for an assault on the world’s financial systems, a calculated move that will have devastating consequences. Cotton has no choice. He has to act. But at what cost?

From the stolid banking halls of Luxembourg, to the secret vaults of Switzerland, and finally up into the treacherous mountains of southern Morocco, Cotton Malone is stymied at every turn.  Each move he makes seems wrong, and nothing works, until he finally comes face-to-face with the Atlas Maneuver.

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Steve Berry is the New York Times and #1 internationally bestselling author of eighteen Cotton Malone novels, five stand-alone thrillers, two Luke Daniels adventures, and several works of short fiction. He has over twenty-six million books in print, translated into forty-one languages. With his wife, Elizabeth, he is the founder of History Matters, an organization dedicated to historical preservation. He serves as an emeritus member of the Smithsonian Libraries Advisory Board and was a founding member of International Thriller Writers, formerly serving as its co-president.

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Berry has wonderful stories to tell from history. Enjoy the conversation.