In a recent newsletter, Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, mentioned that we will not have signed copies of John le Carré’s latest novel, A Legacy of Spies. You can still order a copy through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2iNH36u

There’s a great deal of buzz around this new book. Here’s the summary.

The undisputed master returns with a riveting new book—his first Smiley novel in more than twenty-five years 

Peter Guillam, staunch colleague and disciple of George Smiley of the British Secret Service, otherwise known as the Circus, is living out his old age on the family farmstead on the south coast of Brittany when a letter from his old Service summons him to London. The reason? His Cold War past has come back to claim him. Intelligence operations that were once the toast of secret London, and involved such characters as Alec Leamas, Jim Prideaux, George Smiley and Peter Guillam himself, are to be scrutinized by a generation with no memory of the Cold War and no patience with its justifications.

Interweaving past with present so that each may tell its own intense story, John le Carré has spun a single plot as ingenious and thrilling as the two predecessors on which it looks back: The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. In a story resonating with tension, humor and moral ambivalence, le Carré and his narrator Peter Guillam present the reader with a legacy of unforgettable characters old and new.

*****

Dwight Garner reviewed A Legacy of Spies in The New York Times‘ Books of the Times article, “George Smiley and Other Old Friends Return in John le Carré’s ‘A Legacy of Spies’.  https://nyti.ms/2vD1O5Q

Perhaps the most riveting article is also in The New York Times, Sarah Lyall’s “Spies Like Us: A Conversation With John le Carré and Ben Macintyre”. https://nyti.ms/2vuRw80

If you haven’t yet had your fill, check out David Cranmer’s annotated list of books in Criminal Element, “Into the Cold: A George Smiley Primer”.  https://bit.ly/2wYtNly

It’s enough to make you want to buy a copy of the book, isn’t it?

I hope you enjoy the Livestream events at The Poisoned Pen as much as I do. I miss attending the programs, and Livestream makes me feel as if I was there. T. Jefferson Parker and William Kent Krueger just made their first joint appearance at the bookstore. Here’s the link so you can watch it. https://livestream.com/poisonedpen/events/7649386

The authors both have new books out, and they discuss them on Livestream. You can order signed copies of T. Jefferson Parker’s The Room of White Fire and William Kent Krueger’s Sulfur Springs through the Web Store. https://store.poisonedpen.com

Penguin Random House recently did a PaperCuts video with Michael Poore, author of Reincarnation Blues. They called it “8 Great Questions”. Well, there are eight book-related questions. https://bit.ly/2g9ihMW

Here’s Poore’s novel, Reincarnation Blues, which is available to order through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2vG8Wzo

A wildly imaginative novel about a man who is reincarnated over ten thousand lifetimes to be with his one true love: Death herself.

“Tales of gods and men akin to Neil Gaiman’s Sandman as penned by a kindred spirit of Douglas Adams.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

First we live. Then we die. And then . . . we get another try? 

Ten thousand tries, to be exact. Ten thousand lives to “get it right.” Answer all the Big Questions. Achieve Wisdom. And Become One with Everything.

Milo has had 9,995 chances so far and has just five more lives to earn a place in the cosmic soul. If he doesn’t make the cut, oblivion awaits. But all Milo really wants is to fall forever into the arms of Death. Or Suzie, as he calls her.

More than just Milo’s lover throughout his countless layovers in the Afterlife, Suzie is literally his reason for living—as he dives into one new existence after another, praying for the day he’ll never have to leave her side again.

But Reincarnation Blues is more than a great love story: Every journey from cradle to grave offers Milo more pieces of the great cosmic puzzle—if only he can piece them together in time to finally understand what it means to be part of something bigger than infinity. As darkly enchanting as the works of Neil Gaiman and as wisely hilarious as Kurt Vonnegut’s, Michael Poore’s Reincarnation Blues is the story of everything that makes life profound, beautiful, absurd, and heartbreaking.

Because it’s more than Milo and Suzie’s story. It’s your story, too.

Poisoned Pen Press author Sulari Gentill has departed from her historical mysteries set in the 1930s with her latest novel, Crossing the Lines. It’s available now through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2xyWyBx

Here’s the summary:

“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

*****

Intrigued? Now you may want to watch the teaser video on Book Chat.  https://youtu.be/TGbz86gQc1w

Augustus Rose’s debut novel, The Readymade Thief, is the current Hot Book of the Week at The Poisoned Pen. You can order a signed copy through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2vwh9oB

Here’s the summary:

“A kickass debut from start to finish.” —Colson Whitehead, author of The Underground Railroad

Betrayed by her family after taking the fall for a friend, Lee finds refuge in a cooperative of runaways holed up in an abandoned building they call the Crystal Castle. But the façade of the Castle conceals a far more sinister agenda, one hatched by a society of fanatical men set on decoding a series of powerful secrets hidden in plain sight. And they believe Lee holds the key to it all.

Aided by Tomi, a young hacker and artist with whom she has struck a wary alliance, Lee escapes into the unmapped corners of the city—empty aquariums, deserted motels, patrolled museums, and even the homes of vacationing families. But the deeper she goes underground, the more tightly she finds herself bound in the strange web she’s trying to elude. Desperate and out of options, Lee steps from the shadows to face who is after her—and why.

A novel of puzzles, conspiracies, secret societies, urban exploration, art history, and a singular, indomitable heroine, The Readymade Thief heralds the arrival of a spellbinding and original new talent in fiction.

*****

Jessica Stauffer recently interviewed Augustus Rose in an article called “An Indies Introduce Q&A with Augustus Rose” for American Booksellers Association. You can read the interview here. https://bit.ly/2wuM1um

Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, recently interviewed Julia Keller, who is on book tour for Fast Falls the Night. You can order a signed copy of the book through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2wEMbQo

It was a fascinating interview. Because Keller’s latest book deals with the opioid crisis, she’s writing about a current topic. At one point, she mentions that crime fiction deals with the big issues of our time.

You’ll want to watch and listen to the interview on Livestream. https://livestream.com/poisonedpen/events/7649384

(And, if you missed Julia Keller’s piece for the blog, go back a few days ago, and read her moving post about discoveries in bookstores.)

Jane Eppinga will be at The Poisoned Pen on Tuesday, Aug. 29 at 7 PM to discuss her latest book, Death at Papago Park POW Camp. She took time from her schedule to answer questions. Thank you, Jane.

Jane, would you introduce yourself to readers?

I am of Dutch immigrant heritage, whose people came to the United States in the 1890s. They chose to farm in Iowa until my father became ill. We were among the health seekers who came to Arizona. Unfortunately his health failed but my mother and her three daughters remained and became a part of Arizona history. Whatever I am as a writer, artist,  photographer, I owe to these people and these lands.

How did you become interested in the story of the events at Papago POW Camp?

I was reading a book on the attempted escape by prisoners at Papago Park and the mass execution of some prisoners was mentioned in a footnote.

Would you summarize Death at Papago POW Camp, without spoilers?

I am still wondering was this war or was it murder or is there even a difference.

How did you research this topic?

For a decade or more I worked on finding the courts-martial documents at various federal organizations including the national archives and the judge advocates office and then having them declassified through FOIA.

What are your favorite Arizona history topics?

I am particularly interested in how women shaped the culture as doctors, nurses, teachers and seeing that they were more than housewives and prostitutes.

Now, for a few questions unrelated to your book. Where did you take guests when they come to visit?

In Tucson San Xavier Mission and the Desert Sonora Museum, in Phoenix the Heard Museum and ultimately the Grand Canyon.

What authors or books have influenced you?

Joseph Wood Krutch who wrote eloquently of the beauty of the desert in The Best Nature Writing by Joseph Wood Krutch and Martha Summerhayes who wrote Vanished Arizona.

Is there an author you think has been underappreciated?

Jacqueline Winspear, Sharon Kay Penman and Melanie Benjamin who are writing wonderful historical fiction.

What’s on your TBR (To Be Read) pile?

There are so many.  Anything by and about Pearl Buck; Melanie Benjamin’s An Aviator’s wife, the story of Anne Morrow Lindbergh.

Can you tell us what you’re working on now?

Sure an extensive history of the Arizona sheriffs and a historical fiction based on the life of Pearl Buck. I also discovered that there were three more incidents similar to the one at Papago Park in Oklahoma, Georgia and Arkansas and I may write up this material.

*****

Here’s the summary of Death at Papago Park POW Camp. (You can order a signed copy through the Web Store.)  https://bit.ly/2wNaw5Q

World War II came to Arizona via two significant avenues: prisoner-of-war camps and military training bases. Notorious for its prisoners’ attempted escape through the Faustball Tunnel, Papago POW Camp also had a dark reputation of violence among its prisoners. An unfortunate casualty was Werner Drechsler, who supplied German secrets to U.S. Navy authorities after his capture in 1943. Nazis held there labeled him a traitor and hanged him from a bathroom rafter. Controversy erupted over whether the killing was an act of war or murder, as well as the lack of protection Drechsler received for aiding in espionage. Ultimately, seven POWs were hanged for the crime. Author Jane Eppinga examines the tangled details and implications of America’s last mass execution.

Andrew Gross recently appeared at The Poisoned Pen while on book tour for his second World War II novel, The Saboteur. The story is based on a true story. You can order a signed copy through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2wbtYqG

Here’s the description.

Based on the stirring true story, The Saboteur is Andrew Gross’s follow-up to the riveting historical thriller, The One Man. A richly-woven story probing the limits of heroism, sacrifice and determination,The Saboteur portrays a hero who must weigh duty against his heart in order to single-handedly end the one threat that could alter the course of World War II.

February, 1943. Both the Allies and the Nazis are closing in on attempts to construct the decisive weapon of the war.

Kurt Nordstrum, an engineer in Oslo, puts his life aside to take up arms against the Germans as part of the Norwegian resistance. After the loss of his fiancée, his outfit whittled to shreds, he commandeers a coastal steamer and escapes to England to transmit secret evidence of the Nazis’s progress towards an atomic bomb at an isolated factory in Norway. There, he joins a team of dedicated Norwegians in training in the Scottish Highlands for a mission to disrupt the Nazis’ plans before they advance any further.

Parachuted onto the most unforgiving terrain in Europe, braving the fiercest of mountain storms, Nordstrum and his team attempt the most daring raid of the war, targeting the heavily-guarded factory built on a shelf of rock thought to be impregnable, a mission even they know they likely will not survive. Months later, Nordstrum is called upon again to do the impossible, opposed by both elite Nazi soldiers and a long-standing enemy who is now a local collaborator—one man against overwhelmingodds, with the fate of the war in the balance, but the choice to act means putting the one person he has a chance to love in peril.

*****

Intrigued? Then, you’ll want to watch and listen as Andrew Gross discusses Norway and The Saboteur with The Poisoned Pen’s owner, Barbara Peters. Check it out on Livestream. https://livestream.com/poisonedpen/events/7649380

This week, Poisoned Pen Press lost an author, and the crime fiction community lost a friend who showed up to support other authors. But, we lost so much more. Here’s a portion of the note that was on Frederick Ramsay’s Facebook page, written by his daughter, Eleanor Ramsay.

“Dear friends and fans of Fred. It is my sad task to let you know that he passed away into the arms of the angels in the early morning hours of August 23. He had been battling an aggressive return of kidney cancer and, despite our hopes that he might benefit from new immunotherapy treatments, the cancer could not be contained. If you know him, you knew that he was the definition of a Renaissance Man. He was a teacher, ordained minister, scholar, artist and, of course, a writer of 19 wonderful mysteries. He had almost finished his 20th book, The Onion, which will be completed and published.”

*****

Here’s the information about the service, and the livestream.

*****

This is not the time and place to try to sell Fred’s books. But, as a reader, I’m going to miss his Ike Schwartz mysteries. He also wrote crime novels about a country he loved, Botswana, and the Jerusalem mysteries.