With Our House, British author Louise Candlish makes her American debut. It’s a story of domestic suspense in which secrets are kept from spouses. It’s available through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2LZ1JGI

Candlish recently did an interview for Shelf Awareness. You can read it here. https://bit.ly/2vnktWe

Here’s the summary of Our House, although Candlish summarizes it in one sentence. “It’s about a man who sells the family home without his wife’s knowledge.”

From an internationally acclaimed author, a disturbing and addictive novel of domestic suspense where secrets kept hidden from spouses cause shocking surprises that hit home…

There’s nothing unusual about a new family moving in at 91 Trinity Avenue. Except it’s her house. And she didn’t sell it.

When Fiona Lawson comes home to find strangers moving into her house, she’s sure there’s been a mistake. She and her estranged husband, Bram, have a modern coparenting arrangement: bird’s nest custody, where each parent spends a few nights a week with their two sons at the prized family home to maintain stability for their children. But the system built to protect their family ends up putting them in terrible jeopardy. In a domino effect of crimes and misdemeanors, the nest comes tumbling down.

Now Bram has disappeared and so have Fiona’s children. As events spiral well beyond her control, Fiona will discover just how many lies her husband was weaving and how little they truly knew each other. But Bram’s not the only one with things to hide, and some secrets are best kept to oneself, safe as houses.

Susanna Kearsley’s Bellewether is the current Hot Book of the Week at the Poisoned Pen. You can order a signed copy of it, or copies of Kearsley’s other novels, through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2AQkAys

Of course, you know about the event on Friday evening, August 10, don’t you? At 7 PM that evening, there is a ticketed event at the Poisoned Pen. Kearsley will sign copies of Bellewether. The event is hosted by Diana Gabaldon. Tickets are $20, and they entitle you to a paperback of one of three titles, including Bellewether. Details are available here. https://bit.ly/2OfnjDx

Tickets were going fast, so you must call the bookstore to buy them or find out if there are any left. Here are the numbers – 480 947 2974 or 888 560 9919.

*****

Here’s the summary of Bellewether.

“I’ve loved every one of Susanna’s books! She has bedrock research and a butterfly’s delicate touch with characters—sure recipe for historical fiction that sucks you in and won’t let go!”— DIANA GABALDON, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Outlander

“The house, when I first saw it, seemed intent on guarding what it knew; but we all learned, by the end of it, that secrets aren’t such easy things to keep.”

It’s late summer, war is raging, and families are torn apart by divided loyalties and deadly secrets. In this complex and dangerous time, a young French Canadian lieutenant is captured and billeted with a Long Island family, an unwilling and unwelcome guest. As he begins to pitch in with the never-ending household tasks and farm chores, Jean-Philippe de Sabran finds himself drawn to the daughter of the house. Slowly, Lydia Wilde comes to lean on Jean-Philippe, true soldier and gentleman, until their lives become inextricably intertwined. Legend has it that the forbidden love between Jean-Philippe and Lydia ended tragically, but centuries later, the clues they left behind slowly unveil the true story.

Part history, part romance, and all kinds of magic, Susanna Kearsley’s latest masterpiece will draw you in and never let you go, even long after you’ve closed the last page.

Michael Brandman, author of the second Buddy Steel mystery for Poisoned Pen Press, One on One, returns to the Poisoned Pen on Wednesday, Aug. 8 at 7 PM to discuss this series and sign books. If you can’t make it, you can order a signed copy through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2vlzgAJ

Would you like to know what the critics are saying about One on One? Here’s Elise Cooper’s review at Crimespree Magazine.  https://bit.ly/2M1FfUI

Cooper’s review ends with, “Buddy is a likeable character who uses self-deprecating humor, sometimes acting like an overgrown schoolboy. He is easygoing and can handle people poking fun at him. Being smart, caring, and understanding of people’s emotional pain, Buddy has a moral sense of right versus wrong.

“Readers will enjoy this fast-paced mystery.  With well-developed characters and a plot that takes issues straight from the headlines, this is a good read.”

*****

Here’s the summary of One on One.

When legendary Sheriff Burton Steel summoned his son Buddy home from LAPD Homicide, a reluctant Buddy agreed. Burton is debilitated by ALS, Lou Gehrig’s Disease. While Buddy is to cover his back, not an assignment he wants, the clincher is it’s his last chance to connect with his proud, overbearing parent.

What Buddy didn’t expect was to encounter crime in Freedom, a privileged coastal community a hundred miles north of Los Angeles, as vicious and challenging as that of the city.

One spring morning, the latest challenge erupts. The brutal murder of a prominent Freedom High School sports coach leads Buddy into a clandestine universe of sexual deception, play parties, unwitting athletes, over-privileged youths, treacherous bullies, and shocking malfeasance.

At the same time, a sudden scourge of graffiti is disfiguring both public and private property, despoiling the beauty and serenity of Freedom’s unassuming landscape. Outraged, knowing he has few legal weapons to wield, Buddy is forced to find new and challenging ways to thwart the street artist, or artists, responsible. Irreverent and imaginative, not to say manipulative, Buddy is just the man for the job.

Buddy’s plate is soon full and the stakes are enormous as he sets about bringing resolution to a glut of seemingly irresolute occurrences.

One on One follows Missing Persons, Buddy’s first investigation in Freedom.

Did you see George Blecher’s article, “Murder, Politics and Architecture: The Making of Madison Square Park” in the recent New York Times? https://nyti.ms/2OEDbk1

It’s a fascinating article about the area, with historical photos and background. Readers of mysteries and other books will find all kinds of connections if you look carefully. There’s a beautiful photo of the Flatiron Building, the current home of Macmillan publishers. There’s a story about Senator Roscoe Conkling and his death during the Great Blizzard of 1888. That story is part of Rosemary Simpson’s historical mystery set during the Gilded Age, What the Dead Leave Behind.

You can find Simpson’s books about New York in the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2OJxMYM

And, I’m sure you’ll find other historical mysteries about New York City, including Rhys Bowen’s Molly Murphy books, Caleb Carr’s books, such as The Alienist, Lyndsay Faye’s The Gods of Gotham. Don’t hesitate to ask the Poisoned Pen staff for help.

In some areas of the country, kids are going back to school this week. It seems so early, with another month of summer. As an adult, you might not have the summer off. Whether or not you do, you can still take time for a cozy getaway. Shari Randall recently wrote about “New England Cozy Mysteries: 7 New England Destinations for Armchair Mystery Lovers.” Her article is featured in CriminalElement.com.  https://bit.ly/2OIBoKN

Randall herself has a new Lobster Shack mystery, Against the Claw. Once you’ve read her article, you can order her book, or any of the other titles covered. Check out the Web Store. https://store.poisonedpen.com

If you take the time to watch the Del Rey Books Panel from the San Diego Comic-Con, you’ll recognize some familiar faces and authors. Local favorite Kevin Hearne is on the panel, along with his co-author for Kill the Farm Boy, Delilah S. Dawson. Once you read the short summary, you might want to watch the video and check out their books.  Don’t forget to check the Web Store for the books, including signed copies of Kill the Farm Boy. https://store.poisonedpen.com

Here’s the information about the Del Rey panel.

Adventure, SFF, and fairy tale authors discuss their new and upcoming books. Featuring Katherine Arden (The Winternight trilogy), Pierce Brown (Red Rising series), Delilah S. Dawson (Kill the Farm Boy), Christie Golden (World of Warcraft: Before the Storm), Kevin Hearne (Kill the Farm Boy), Sylvain Neuvel (The Themis Files), and Naomi Novik (Spinning Silver). Moderated by Tricia Narwani (Del Rey editorial director).

Poisoned Pen Press author Sulari Gentill continues to appear on award lists in Australia. Her novel, Crossing the Lines, is still on the shortlist for the Ned Kelly Awards. You can order Crossing the Lines, and Gentill’s other novels through the Web Store.  https://bit.ly/2N5KsYB

The Australian Crime Writers Association just announced the shortlists for the 21st Ned Kelly Awards for Crime Fiction. The Ned Kelly Awards celebrate the best in Australian crime fiction and true crime. The shortlists have been drawn from over seventy five entries across three award categories.

Six exceptional crime novels made it onto the shortlist of the the Best Crime Fiction Award. The list includes multiple Ned Kelly Award winners Garry Disher and Candice Fox as well as newcomers to the shortlist. The shortlist includes:

• Marlborough Man by Alan Carter
• Under Cold Bright Lights by Garry Disher
• Redemption Point by Candice Fox
• Crossing the Lines by Sulari Gentill
• The Lone Child by Anna George
• The Student by Iain Ryan

There are two other categories of Ned Kelly Awards.

The shortlist for the Best Debut Crime has four entries from writers who are already being widely recognized for their contribution to the genre:

• Wimmera by Mark Brandi
• The Dark Lake by Sarah Bailey
• The Girl in Kellers Way by Megan Goldin
• See What I Have Done by Sarah Schmidt

The Best True Crime shortlist is a mix of academic, adventure, historic and courtroom stories:

• The Contractor by Mark Abernethy
• Unmaking a Murder: The Mysterious Death of Anna-Jane Cheney by Graham Archer
• The Suitcase Baby by Tanya Bretherton
• The Fatalist by Campbell McConachie
• Whiteley on Trial by Gabriella Coslovich

The winners will be announced during the Melbourne Writers Festival with the awards ceremony on August 26th.

*****

Congratulations to Sulari Gentill for making the shortlist for the Ned Kelly Awards. Here’s the description of Gentill’s Crossing the Lines.

“As one for whom certain story lines and characters have become as real as life itself, Crossing the Lines was a pure delight, a swift yet psychologically complex read, cleverly conceived and brilliantly executed.” –Dean Koontz, New York Times Bestselling author

Sulari Gentill, author of the 1930s Rowland Sinclair Mysteries, jumps to the post-modern in Crossing the Lines.

A successful writer, Madeleine, creates a character, Edward, and begins to imagine his life. He, too, is an author. Edward is in love with a woman, Willow, who’s married to a man Edward loathes, and who loathes him, but he and Willow stay close friends. She’s an artist. As Madeleine develops the plot, Edward attends a gallery show where a scummy critic is flung down a flight of fire stairs…murdered. Madeleine, still stressed from her miscarriages and grieving her inability to have a child, grows more and more enamored of Edward, spending more and more time with him and the progress of the investigation and less with her physician husband, Hugh, who in turn may be developing secrets of his own.

As Madeline engages more with Edward, he begins to engage back. A crisis comes when Madeleine chooses the killer in Edward’s story and Hugh begins to question her immersion in her novel. Yet Crossing the Lines is not about collecting clues and solving crimes. Rather it’s about the process of creation, a gradual undermining of the authority of the author as the act of writing spirals away and merges with the story being told, a self-referring narrative crossing over boundaries leaving in question who to trust, and who and what is true.

For fans of Paul Auster, Jesse Kellerman, Vera Caspary’s Laura, Martin Amis, Haruki Murakami, Marisha Pessl.

The Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) recently announced the shortlists for the prestigious annual Dagger awards for crime writing. The Crime Writers’ Association had announced earlier that Michael Connelly is to receive the 2018 CWA Diamond Dagger, the highest honor in British crime writing. The Dagger award recognizes authors whose crime writing careers have been marked by sustained excellence, and who have made a significant contribution to the genre.

Here are the shortlists for the other Dagger awards. The winners of the CWA Daggers will be announced at the Dagger Awards dinner in London on October 25. This gives you plenty of time to read nominated books. Don’t forget to look for these titles in the Web Store!  https://store.poisonedpen.com/

THE GOLD DAGGER

The Gold Dagger is awarded to the best crime novel of the year.

The CWA Gold Dagger 2018 Shortlist

Author                                                       Title

Steve Cavanagh                                        The Liar

Mick Herron                                              London Rules

Dennis Lehane                                          Since We Fell

Attica Locke                                               Bluebird, Bluebird

Abir Mukherjee                                        A Necessary Evil

Emma Viskic                                             Resurrection Bay

THE CWA IAN FLEMING STEEL DAGGER

Emily Koch                                                If I Die Before I Wake

Attica Locke                                              Bluebird, Bluebird

Colette McBeth                                         An Act of Silence

CJ Tudor                                                    The Chalk Man

Don Winslow                                           The Force

THE CWA JOHN CREASEY (NEW BLOOD) DAGGER

William Boyle                                          Gravesend

Joe Ide                                                        I.Q.

Danya Kukafka                                        Girl in Snow

Melissa Scrivner Love                            Lola

Khurrum Rahman                                  East of Hounslow

Emma Viskic                                            Resurrection Bay

THE CWA ALCS GOLD DAGGER FOR NON-FICTION

Piu Eatwell                                               Black Dahlia Red Rose

David Grann                                            Killers of the Flower Moon

Thomas Harding                                     Blood on the Page

Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich          The Fact of a Body

Christian Miller & Ken Armstrong      A False Report

Laura Thompson                                    Rex V Edith Thompson

THE CWA HISTORICAL DAGGER

Abir Mukherjee                                      A Necessary Evil

L. C. Tyler                                                 Fire

Thomas Mullen                                      Lightning Men

Ngaio Marsh & Stella Duffy                 Money in the Morgue

Nicola Upson                                          Nine Lessons

Rory Clements                                        Nucleus

THE CWA INTERNATIONAL DAGGER

Author, Translator                             Title

Oliver Bottini, tr Jamie Bulloch          Zen and the Art of Murder

Pierre Lemaitre, tr France Wynne     Three Days and a Life

Henning Mankell, tr Marlaine Delargy       After the Fire

Jon Michelet, tr Don Bartlett                The Frozen Woman

Dolores Redondo, tr Nick Caistor & Lorenza Garzia         Offering to the Storm

Fred Vargas, tr Sian Reynolds              The Accordionist

THE CWA SHORT STORY DAGGER

“The Last Siege of Bothwell Castle” by Chris Brookmyre      Bloody Scotland

“Second Son” by Lee Child                                                           No Middle Name: The Complete Collected Jack Reacher Stories

“Smoking Kills” by Erin Kelly                                                      “The Body” Killer Women Crime Club Anthology 2

“Nemo Me Impune Lacessit” by Denise Mina                          Bloody Scotland

“Accounting for Murder” by Christine Poulson                       Mystery Tour: CWA Anthology of Short Stories

THE CWA DAGGER IN THE LIBRARY

Nominated by libraries.

Martin Edwards

Nicci French

Edward Marston

Peter May

Rebecca Tope

Simon Kernick

THE CWA DEBUT DAGGER

 For the opening of a crime novel from a writer without a traditional publishing contract.

The Eternal Life of Ezra Ben Simeon by Bill Crotty

Riverine Blood by Joseph James

Original Sins by Linda McLaughlin

Trust Me, I’m Dead by Sherryl Clark