Beatriz Williams was just at The Poisoned Pen to discuss her new release, Cocoa Beach.

Signed copies of Cocoa Beach are  available through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2tchFfv

Here’s the description.

The New York Times bestselling author of A Certain Age transports readers to sunny Florida in this lush and enthralling historical novel—an enchanting blend of love, suspense, betrayal, and redemption set among the rumrunners and scoundrels of Prohibition-era Cocoa Beach.

Burdened by a dark family secret, Virginia Fortescue flees her oppressive home in New York City for the battlefields of World War I France. While an ambulance driver for the Red Cross, she meets a charismatic British army surgeon whose persistent charm opens her heart to the possibility of love. As the war rages, Virginia falls into a passionate affair with the dashing Captain Simon Fitzwilliam, only to discover that his past has its own dark secrets—secrets that will damage their eventual marriage and propel her back across the Atlantic to the sister and father she left behind.

Five years later, in the early days of Prohibition, the newly widowed Virginia Fitzwilliam arrives in the tropical boomtown of Cocoa Beach, Florida, to settle her husband’s estate. Despite the evidence, Virginia does not believe Simon perished in the fire that destroyed the seaside home he built for her and their young daughter. Separated from her husband since the early days of their marriage, the headstrong Virginia plans to uncover the truth, for the sake of the daughter Simon never met.

Simon’s brother and sister welcome her with open arms and introduce her to a dazzling new world of citrus groves, white beaches, bootleggers, and Prohibition agents. But Virginia senses a predatory presence lurking beneath the irresistible, hedonistic surface of this coastal oasis. The more she learns about Simon and his mysterious business interests, the more she fears that the dangers that surrounded Simon now threaten her and their daughter’s life as well.

*****

Even better than the description, though, you can watch and listen as Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, interviews Beatriz Williams on Livestream. https://livestream.com/poisonedpen/events/7600220

Congratulations to author Robert Dugoni.

In late June in Seattle, Wash., Galen Maynard (l.), Amazon publishing associate publisher, and Gracie Doyle (r.), Thomas & Mercer editorial director, presented author Robert Dugoni (c.) with an award to celebrate over one million copies sold of ‘My Sister’s Grave.’

Bob will appear at The Poisoned Pen on Tuesday, Sept. 5 at 7 PM to introduce and sign his new book, Close to Home.

My Sister’s Grave is available through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2uoBW1D

Here’s the description of the book.

Tracy Crosswhite has spent twenty years questioning the facts surrounding her sister Sarah’s disappearance and the murder trial that followed. She doesn’t believe that Edmund House—a convicted rapist and the man condemned for Sarah’s murder—is the guilty party. Motivated by the opportunity to obtain real justice, Tracy became a homicide detective with the Seattle PD and dedicated her life to tracking down killers.

When Sarah’s remains are finally discovered near their hometown in the northern Cascade mountains of Washington State, Tracy is determined to get the answers she’s been seeking. As she searches for the real killer, she unearths dark, long-kept secrets that will forever change her relationship to her past—and open the door to deadly danger.

Keith McCafferty was just at The Poisoned Pen, on book tour for his sixth Sean Stranahan mystery, Cold Hearted River.

Signed copies are available through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2tJzIbe

There’s a terrific photo that goes with the event.

This is Keith McCafferty presenting Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, with a new handtied fly for her collection, one each for his Sean Stranahan novels. This one is called Papa’s McGinty, honoring Ernest Hemingway, whose lost fishing gear forms part of the story for Cold Hearted River.

If you’d like to watch the entire program, it’s available on Livestream. https://livestream.com/poisonedpen/events/7597355

As I mentioned, Kathy Reichs was just at The Poisoned Pen to discuss her standalone, Two Nights. That novel is currently our Hot Book of the Week, and a signed copy can be purchased through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2tbC6UW

Even if you weren’t able to make it to the bookstore, you can still watch the event on Livestream, as Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, hosts Kathy Reichs. https://livestream.com/poisonedpen/events/7512829

Check it out!

“Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.” Daphne du Maurier’s opening line to Rebecca is one of the most famous openings in literature.

(Rebecca, and du Maurier’s other books are available through the Web Store.) https://bit.ly/2tZPOPu

Why do so many readers love du Maurier’s work? Follow that obsession in Parul Sehgal’s article in The New York Times, “In Praise of Daphne du Maurier”. https://nyti.ms/2uQ1m4g

Bill Crider’s 24th Sheriff Dan Rhodes mystery, Dead, to Begin With, is due out Aug. 8. You can pre-order it through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2sQQSA2

Here’s the summary from the Web Store.

Sheriff Dan Rhodes is back again in Bill Crider’s thrilling Dead, to Begin With.

Readers will cheer Rhodes along as he sorts through a tangle of old secrets and personal relationships en route to the satisfying solution.” Publishers Weekly

In Clearview, Texas, a wealthy recluse has joined the community and is leading the restoration of an old opera house. When he falls to his death, Sheriff Dan Rhodes suspects that he’s been murdered, but there doesn’t seem to be a motive. Who would want to kill someone who’s helping the town and hasn’t been around long enough to make any enemies?

The Sheriff’s suspicion proves to be true, however, and he begins to look for motives buried in the past, meanwhile having to deal with people fighting over baseball cards at a yard sale, writers who want to talk to him about his sex life, and the Clearview Ghost Hunters, headed up by Seepy Benton, who believes that the old theater is haunted. Clearview might be a small town, but there’s no shortage of excitement.

*****

And, here’s my favorite feature from Criminal Element, Adam Wagner’s .GIFNotes Guide to Dead, To Begin With. https://bit.ly/2sQtqDj

Congratulations to Poisoned Pen Press for the mention in Michael Dirda’s article in The Washington Post. https://wapo.st/2sQtliO

Dirda mentions The Incredible Crime by Lois Austen-Leigh. It’s available through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2utXfeT

And, just to tempt you, here’s the description of the book.

Prince’s College, Cambridge, is a peaceful and scholarly community, enlivened by Prudence Pinsent, the Master’s daughter. Spirited, beautiful, and thoroughly unconventional, Prudence is a remarkable young woman.

One fine morning she sets out for Suffolk to join her cousin Lord Wellende for a few days’ hunting. On the way Prudence encounters Captain Studde of the coastguard – who is pursuing a quarry of his own.

Studde is on the trail of a drug smuggling ring that connects Wellende Hall with the cloistered world of Cambridge. It falls to Prudence to unravel the identity of the smugglers – who may be forced to kill, to protect their secret.

This witty and entertaining crime novel has not been republished since the 1930s. This new edition includes an introduction by Kirsten T. Saxton, professor of English at Mills College, California.

Keith McCafferty will be at The Poisoned Pen on Tuesday, July 11 at 7 PM to discuss his latest Sean Stranahan mystery, Cold Hearted River, and the Ernest Hemingway connection.

You can order a signed copy through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2uPGQkg

Before I give you the Web Store’s summary of Cold Hearted River, let me add the note that McCafferty sent Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen.

“I did get to go to Cuba for Field & Stream, and thanks to my friendship with Valerie Hemingway, I was able to walk freely inside the Finca Vigia, where he lived with Valerie and also his fourth wife, Mary.  A beautiful home.  Many of the artifacts in the novel, in the cabin where Per Jackson lives, are described exactly as they are in the Finca. It was a scary novel to write.  I had the premise dropped into my lap nearly 40 years ago, I had the long first chapter which also was inspired by a true event, but when you write a character who resembles Hemingway you do run the risk of making a fool out of yourself.” McCafferty will be bringing Barbara Peters a gift of a hand-tied fly, the McGinty fly pattern that was Hemingway’s favorite, and is described in the novel.

*****

Here’s the description of Cold Hearted River.

In the sixth novel in the acclaimed Sean Stranahan mystery series, Montana’s favorite detective finds himself on the trail of Ernest Hemingway’s missing steamer trunk. Buffalo Jump Blues, fifth in the series, is now available.

When a woman goes missing in a spring snowstorm and is found dead in a bear’s den, Sheriff Martha Ettinger reunites with her once-again lover Sean Stranahan to investigate. In a pannier of the dead woman’s horse, they find a wallet of old trout flies, the leather engraved with the initials EH. Only a few days before, Patrick Willoughby, the president of the Madison River Liars and Fly Tiers Club, had been approached by a man selling fishing gear that he claimed once belonged to Ernest Hemingway. A coincidence? Sean doesn’t think so, and he soon finds himself on the trail of a stolen trunk rumored to contain not only the famous writer’s valuable fly fishing gear but priceless pages of unpublished work.

The investigation will take Sean through extraordinary chapters in Hemingway’s life. Inspired by a true story, Cold Hearted River is a thrilling adventure, moving from Montana to Michigan, where a woman grapples with the secrets in her heart, to a cabin in Wyoming under the Froze To Death Plateau, and finally to the ruins in Havana, where an old man struggles to complete his life’s mission one true sentence at a time.

Marilyn Stasio. If you read mystery reviews in The New York Times, you’ve seen her name. She writes the bi-weekly crime fiction roundup for the newspaper. Now, discover a little about the reviewer herself. https://nyti.ms/2u3sj49