Did you get one of the copies of The Pharaoh Key that Douglas Preston signed?
Copies are still available through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2HQxlHs
Here’s the description of The Pharaoh Key.
Did you get one of the copies of The Pharaoh Key that Douglas Preston signed?
Copies are still available through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2HQxlHs
Here’s the description of The Pharaoh Key.
I think those of us who missed the Venetian Tea that kicked off the release of Laurie R. King’s latest Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes mystery, Island of the Mad, missed quite a party. You can still order a signed copy of the book through the Web Store, though. https://bit.ly/2l5ND6o
And, we can enjoy the pictures of the audience. Some dressed in costume. Some wore masks. And, some even demonstrated dance moves. It looks like everyone had a good time.
Are you reading any of the books from PBS’ Great American Read this summer? About a month ago, I posted about the search for America’s favorite book. Not necessarily the best book, or the Great American Novel, but America’s favorite book. https://bit.ly/2y2g3Ym
John Green, author of The Fault in Our Stars, recently did a ten minute episode for PBS. It’s a Crash Course in J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye.
For those of us who read it twice, and never did understand why it was popular (me), Green is a terrific presenter who makes Holden Caulfield more interesting. Check out the video. https://bit.ly/2HJ8HIU
Then, check the Web Store for John Green’s books or The Catcher in the Rye. https://store.poisonedpen.com
If you didn’t make it to the Venetian Tea with Laurie R. King the other day, you can still celebrate the publication of Island of the Mad. It’s the current Hot Book of the Week at the Poisoned Pen. You can buy a signed copy of that book, or copies of King’s other books through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2JuI14f
Here’s the summary of Island of the Mad.
Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes are back in Laurie R. King’s New York Times bestselling series—”the most sustained feat of imagination in mystery fiction today” (Lee Child).
With Mrs. Hudson gone from their lives and domestic chaos building, the last thing Mary Russell and her husband, Sherlock Holmes, need is to help an old friend with her mad and missing aunt.
Lady Vivian Beaconsfield has spent most of her adult life in one asylum after another, since the loss of her brother and father in the Great War. And although her mental state seemed to be improving, she’s now disappeared after an outing from Bethlem Royal Hospital . . . better known as Bedlam.
Russell wants nothing to do with the case—but she can’t say no. And at least it will get her away from the challenges of housework and back to the familiar business of investigation. To track down the vanished woman, she brings to the fore her deductive instincts and talent for subterfuge—and of course enlists her husband’s legendary prowess. Together, Russell and Holmes travel from the grim confines of Bedlam to the winding canals and sun-drenched Lido cabarets of Venice—only to find the foreboding shadow of Benito Mussolini darkening the fate of a city, an era, and a tormented English lady of privilege.
*****
And, I’m hoping this is going to work. If it does, you can watch the Facebook video of Saturday’s event at the Poisoned Pen. If it doesn’t work, you’ll have to go to the Poisoned Pen’s Facebook page to watch it.
It’s always fun to catch up with Marilyn Stasio’s Crime column in The New York Times. This week, she’s reviewing John Connolly’s latest book, along with crime novels by Charlton Pettus, Charlie Donlea, and Pamela Wechsler. Check out the column. https://nyti.ms/2JrPcGs
Then, come back and look for the books in the Web Store. https://store.poisonedpen.com
Did you know Laurie R. King wrote a science fiction novel? Because of that, she hosted Peng Shepherd, author of The Book of M, for her appearance at the Poisoned Pen. Shepherd’s book is the science fiction selection of the month at the bookstore. Signed copies are available through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2JFE8ci
Here’s the description of The Book of M.
“Eerie, dark, and compelling, [The Book of M] will not disappoint lovers of The Passage and Station Eleven.” –Booklist
WHAT WOULD YOU GIVE UP TO REMEMBER?
Set in a dangerous near future world, The Book of M tells the captivating story of a group of ordinary people caught in an extraordinary catastrophe who risk everything to save the ones they love. It is a sweeping debut that illuminates the power that memories have not only on the heart, but on the world itself.
One afternoon at an outdoor market in India, a man’s shadow disappears—an occurrence science cannot explain. He is only the first. The phenomenon spreads like a plague, and while those afflicted gain a strange new power, it comes at a horrible price: the loss of all their memories.
Ory and his wife Max have escaped the Forgetting so far by hiding in an abandoned hotel deep in the woods. Their new life feels almost normal, until one day Max’s shadow disappears too.
Knowing that the more she forgets, the more dangerous she will become to Ory, Max runs away. But Ory refuses to give up the time they have left together. Desperate to find Max before her memory disappears completely, he follows her trail across a perilous, unrecognizable world, braving the threat of roaming bandits, the call to a new war being waged on the ruins of the capital, and the rise of a sinister cult that worships the shadowless.
As they journey, each searches for answers: for Ory, about love, about survival, about hope; and for Max, about a new force growing in the south that may hold the cure.
Like The Passage and Station Eleven, this haunting, thought-provoking, and beautiful novel explores fundamental questions of memory, connection, and what it means to be human in a world turned upside down.
*****
King’s interview with Peng Shepherd was filmed for Livestream. You can watch and listen to it here. https://livestream.com/poisonedpen/events/8241342
A month ago, we published the information about the Poisoned Pen’s September Mystery Conference. It might have been too early for you to make plans. But, it’s June. It’s time to look ahead, and decide if you want to join us. Don’t wait too long! Seats are limited.
The September conference is a two-day conference. Check out the details. Can’t make it? You can always order books by the authors through the Web Store. https://store.poisonedpen.com/
Guest of Honor: Ian Rankin
Celebrating 30th Years of Publishing in the U.S.
Hosts: Hank Phillippi Ryan, James Sallis & Dana Stabenow!
Date: Sunday Sept. 2nd & Monday Sept. 3rd
To register, call 480-947-2974 or 888-560-9919
Registration Fee: $125 (includes both days)
**Seats are limited! Prepayment required**
There will be a bit of swag for you. And we are importing Ian’s photographic memoir, Rebus’s Scotland, A Personal Journey (price TBA) for sale.
The Panelists
(other than Ian and the Hosts)
|
James R Benn
Mark De Castrique Warren Easley Mary Anna Evans Mette Ivie Harrison Annie Hogsett Stephen Mack Jones Thomas Kies Sujata Massey Francine Mathews John Straley David Wagner Tina Whittle Reavis Z. Wortham |
The Conference Location
Reserving Rooms
|
For Preferred room rates please go to
https://www.arizonabiltmore.com/ Use code: 2726435
Rooms: $109 + Tax & Room Fees
|
The Program
(so far)
|
Sunday, September 2
9:00 AM Check In
9:30 -11:15 Panels
11:30-12:15 Dana Stabenow interviews James R. Benn and Francine Mathews
12:15-1:30 Lunch on your own
1:30″“4:30 Panels
4:30 PM An Agatha Christie “Hats and Tea” sponsored by William Morrow with Quizmaster and Host Hank Phillippi Ryan
Quizzes, Prizes, and a Poirot approved treat! We will have Signed copies of the new Sophie Hannah Poirot for sale.
Fancy a Fascinator? Wear a period hat, male or
female, if you wish
Monday, September 3
12:30-2:00 PM (Lunch included) James Sallis interviews Ian Rankin 2:15-3:45 Ian Rankin Talks His Career, Scottish
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Jack Ryan, Jr. returns. So does author Mike Maden. Tom Clancy’s Line of Sight is the current Hot Book of the Week. Mike Maden will be here Thursday, June 14 at 7 PM to discuss and sign the new book. Can’t make it? You can still order a signed copy of Line of Sight through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2LnYILl
Here’s the summary of Line of Sight.
Jack Ryan Jr. finds that the scars of war can last a lifetime in the latest entry in Tom Clancy’s #1 New York Times bestselling series.
Twenty-six years ago, Dr. Cathy Ryan restored the eyesight of a young Bosnian girl who had been injured during an attack in the Bosnian War. Today, her son, Jack Ryan Jr. has agreed to track down the young woman and deliver a letter from his mother. What he finds shocks them both.
The helpless child has grown into a remarkable woman. Aida Curic is a self-possessed beauty with a big heart and an even bigger secret who runs a controversial refugee agency near Sarajevo. Jack finds himself deeply drawn to both her and her country, but soon finds himself in the crosshairs of the seething ethnic tensions and ancient blood feuds of the Balkans, the region of Europe where empires go to die. If Jack can’t navigate the world of secret service agencies, special operators and local mafias to save Aida, Sarajevo will prove the be the fuse that lights the next world war.
<<Click here to order a signed copy>>
Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes untangle the slippery threads of insanity and deadly secrets as they investigate a disappearance in the New York Times bestselling series that Lee Child called “the most sustained feat of imagination in mystery fiction today.”
A June summer’s evening, on the Sussex Downs, in 1925. Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes are strolling across their orchard when the telephone rings: an old friend’s beloved aunt has failed to return following a supervised outing from Bedlam. After the previous few weeks”“with a bloody murder, a terrible loss, and startling revelations about Holmes”“Russell is feeling a bit unbalanced herself. The last thing she wants is to deal with the mad, and yet, she can’t say no.
The Lady Vivian Beaconsfield has spent most of her adult life in one asylum after another, yet she seemed to be improving”“or at least, finding a point of balance in her madness. So why did she disappear? Did she take the family’s jewels with her, or did someone else? The Bedlam nurse, perhaps?
The trail leads Russell and Holmes through a lunatic asylum’s stony halls to the warm Venice lagoon, where ethereal beauty is jarred by Mussolini’s Blackshirts, where the gilded Lido set may be tempting a madwoman, and where Cole Porter sits at a piano, playing with ideas…
Books
Cara Black, Murder on the Left Bank, Soho Crime
Leslie Budewitz, As the Christmas Cookie Crumbles, Midnight Ink
Kate Carlisle, Buried in Books, Berkley
Joelle Charbonneau, Eden Conquered, HarperCollins ““ HarperTeen
Tracy Clark, Broken Places, Kensington
John Connolly, The Woman in the Woods, Simon & Schuster ““ Atria
Sheila Connolly, Murder at the Mansion, Minotaur
Charlie Donlea, Don’t Believe It, Kensington
Robert Dugoni, A Steep Price, Thomas & Mercer
Jeremy Finley, The Darkest Time of Night, St. Martin’s Press
John Gilstrap, Scorpion Strike, Kensington
Leonard Goldberg, A Study in Treason, Minotaur
Matt Goldman, Broken Ice, Forge
Elizabeth Gunn, Burning Meredith, Severn House
Leigh Hearon, Runaway Murder, Kensington
Jennifer Hillier, Jar of Hearts, Minotaur
Paddy Hirsch, The Devil’s Half Mile, Forge Books
David Housewright, Like to Die, Minotaur
Lisa Jackson, Liar, Liar, Kensington
Laurie R. King, Island of the Mad, Bantam
Stephen King, The Outsider, Simon & Schuster ““ Scribner
R.J. Koreto, The Body in the Ballroom, Crooked Lane
Paul Levine, Bum Deal, Thomas & Mercer
Terrence McCauley, The Fairfax Incident, Polis
James Patterson & Bill Clinton, The President is Missing, Little, Brown
James Patterson, Murder in Paradise, Grand Central
Bryan Reardon, The Real Michael Swann, Dutton
Cynthia Riggs, Widow’s Wreath, Crooked Lane
Charles Rosenberg, The Trial and Execution of George Washington, Hanover Square
Randall Silvis, Only the Rain, Thomas & Mercer
Maggie Toussaint, Confound It, Camel Press
Peggy Townsend, See Her Run, Thomas & Mercer
J.D. Trafford, Good Intentions, Thomas & Mercer
James W. Ziskin, A Stone’s Throw, Seventh Street