Although The Poisoned Pen will be closed January 1 and 2, 2024, you might still want to know about Femi Kayode’s Hot Book of the Week, Gaslight. Kayode will also be the guest author for a virtual event on Friday, Jan. 5 at 12 PM Mountain Standard Time for a virtual event. Check the website, https://bit.ly/3NHD47t, for all the information about the event. And, check the Webstore to order Gaslight. https://bit.ly/3TPVVRo

Here’s the description of Gaslight.

In this follow-up to Kayode’s “action-packed and spirited debut” Philip Taiwo returns to solve a missing-persons case, and in so doing, uncovers dark secrets the church has worked tirelessly to hide (Oyinkan Braithwaite, author of My Sister, the Serial Killer).

A shadow has fallen over the megachurch in Ogun State, Nigeria: the beloved Bishop Dawodu has been arrested for the murder of his wife. Sade Dawodu has vanished without a trace and although no body has been found, the police have acted based on what they claim is damning evidence. Philip Taiwo, hot off the success of solving the Okriki Three case, is brought on to investigate. He quickly learns that Sade, young, impulsive, and outspoken, is no favorite of the congregants. She has also been known to disappear for long stretches of time. As Taiwo and his trusted associate, Chika plunge into the investigation, they unearth secrets that go beyond the missing persons case, ones that if leaked, threaten to shatter not only the Bishop, but the church itself. Taiwo quickly begins to feel like a hired gun, put up to the task with the express purpose to clear the bishop’s name rather than find the naked truth.

As Taiwo strives to crack the vast conspiracy he’s up against, he’s tugged away by the demands of family life, and derailed by systemic challenges: in Nigeria, cash is king, there are no viable databases, and records are sparse. Through his eyes, we’re treated to religion’s cult-like grip, the ways in which the state is in bed with the church, and the difference between police corruption in Nigeria and America, where Philip has been living for over two decades. In turns high-octane, dark and political, but always emotionally stirring, this highly-anticipated follow-up to LIGHTSEEKERS has the bones of a classic mystery with a fresh, global tilt.

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Femi Kayode trained as a clinical psychologist in Nigeria, before starting a career in advertising. He has created and written several primetime TV shows and recently graduated with a distinction from the UEA Creative Writing programme. He is lives in Windhoek, Namibia with his wife and two sons.

If your New Year’s resolution for 2024 is to follow the authors who appear at The Poisoned Pen, here’s a reminder. It’s easy to follow the schedule of appearances, and check the Webstore for books by the authors. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

Here’s the schedule of events for the first couple weeks of 2024.

Happy Holidays from The Poisoned Pen!

This week’s Hot Book of the Week at The Poisoned Pen is a murder mystery, The Christmas Jigsaw Murders. You can order a copy through the Webstore. https://bit.ly/3tsNZLl

Here’s the description of The Christmas Jigsaw Murders.

HIS CHRISTMAS, A KILLER TAKES FAMILY GAMES TO A MURDEROUS NEW LEVEL.On 1st of December, renowned puzzle setter, loner and Christmas sceptic Carla Murphy finds a hand-delivered present on her doorstep. Unwrapping it, she finds a jigsaw box with a question mark on the lid, and, inside, six jigsaw pieces. When fitted together, the pieces show part of a crime scene – blood-spattered black and white tiles and part of an outlined body. On the back of the pieces is a ‘His death takes place on the solstice, unless you can put together the pieces,’ along with a clue to the location of more pieces. When the police say there isn’t anything to investigate, Carla teams up with her Christmas-loving nephew, PC Simon Reynard, to solve the clues, find the jigsaw pieces and prevent the murder. Each set of jigsaw pieces leads to the next, but the more Carla finds, the more she discovers that the mystery is far more connected to her past than it first appeared, and to a Christmas mystery she’s being trying to forget for a very long time. Only by fitting all the pieces together will Carla find the peace and goodwill she’s secretly always been looking for.

It’s really that time of year when I don’t have any news to post on the blog. So, from The Poisoned Pen, here are the holiday hours.

Wishing everyone a happy holiday season. Thank you for shopping with our small business

Holiday Store Hours: M-F 10 AM-7 PM Sat 10 AM-6 PM 

Sun 12-5 PM

Closed at 5 PM December 24 and 31

Closed all day December 25 and January 1 & 2

What does a blogger do when author appearances end for the holidays, and won’t resume until January? Since I’m in Ohio, and not in Arizona, I don’t often do events for The Poisoned Pen. That doesn’t mean I’m going to “overlook” a book I appreciated this year. It’s too late for you to get it for the holidays because it has to be special ordered, but a few of you might find this one as intriguing as I do.

Overlooked: A Celebration of Remarkable, Underappreciated People Who Broke the Rules and Changed the World is by Amisha Padnanti and the Obituaries Desk of The New York Times. It can be ordered through the Webstore. https://bit.ly/4aB9sCH

Here’s my description of the book.

When Padnani joined the obituaries team at The New York Times as an editor in 2016, she questioned the obituaries that never appeared. “Where were the women, the people of color, and the LGBTQ and disabled communities who made history?’ Padnani and the team delved into the archives, and uncovered surprises. The New York Times never ran an obituary for Sylvia Plath. Of course, there are so many women scientists whose obituaries went unpublished, their contributions ignored. In 2018, the newspaper began to run “Overlooked”, a history series that tells the stories of those people whose obituaries didn’t run in the paper, although they deserved recognition.

I was totally captivated by this book, and read every story. But, there were also some small bits that added to the book. At the end of each section, there was a sidebar. One covered “The Evolution of Obituaries”. One was about the newspaper’s morgue. In addition, each obituary is signed and there’s a couple sentences about the author of that piece, sentences that give enough detail to show why the author wrote about the deceased, why they were interested in their subject.

Of course, I found some pieces more interesting that others. Emma Gatewood was the first woman to walk the Appalachian Trail alone, but she had already survived so much in her life. Margaret Gipsy Moth was a CNN camera operator who spent much of her career in war zones. Some of us who were fans of the group The Monkees remember that Mike Nesmith’s mother, Bette Nesmith Graham, invented Liquid Paper. Of course, I found Alan Turing’s obituary interesting. It’s hard to believe the newspaper didn’t publish his obituary. And, I already mentioned Syliva Plath.

Fascinating stories and photos. If you enjoy a brief glimpse into history, or are intrigued by obituaries, as I am, you might want to pick up Overlooked.

Jess Armstrong’s debut mystery, The Curse of Penryth Hall, is the Hot Book of the Week at The Poisoned Pen. There are signed copies available in the Webstore. https://bit.ly/3GCSIx5

Here’s the description of The Curse of Penryth Hall.

An atmospheric gothic mystery that beautifully brings the ancient Cornish countryside to life, Armstrong introduces heroine Ruby Vaughn in her Minotaur Books & Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel Award-winning debut, The Curse of Penryth Hall.

After the Great War, American heiress Ruby Vaughn made a life for herself running a rare bookstore alongside her octogenarian employer and house mate in Exeter. She’s always avoided dwelling on the past, even before the war, but it always has a way of finding her. When Ruby is forced to deliver a box of books to a folk healer living deep in the Cornish countryside, she is brought back to the one place she swore she’d never return. A more sensible soul would have delivered the package and left without rehashing old wounds. But no one has ever accused Ruby of being sensible. Thus begins her visit to Penryth Hall.

A foreboding fortress, Penryth Hall is home to Ruby’s once dearest friend, Tamsyn, and her husband, Sir Edward Chenowyth. It’s an unsettling place, and after a more unsettling evening, Ruby is eager to depart. But her plans change when Penryth’s bells ring for the first time in thirty years. Edward is dead; he met a gruesome end in the orchard, and with his death brings whispers of a returned curse. It also brings Ruan Kivell, the person whose books brought her to Cornwall, the one the locals call a Pellar, the man they believe can break the curse. Ruby doesn’t believe in curses—or Pellars—but this is Cornwall and to these villagers the curse is anything but lore, and they believe it will soon claim its next victim: Tamsyn.

To protect her friend, Ruby must work alongside the Pellar to find out what really happened in the orchard that night.

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Jess Armstrong’s debut novel The Curse of Penryth Hall won the Mystery Writers of America/Minotaur First Crime Novel Competition. She has a masters degree in American History but prefers writing about imaginary people to the real thing. Jess lives in New Orleans with her historian husband, two sons, yellow cat, speckled dog, and the world’s most pampered school-fair goldfish. And when she’s not working on her next project, she’s probably thinking about cheese, baking, tweeting or some combination of the above. You can find her on Twitter at or see what’s new on her website.

The Hot Book of the Week at The Poisoned Pen is S.J. Rozan’s latest Lydia Chin/Bill Smith mystery, The Mayors of New York. You an order a signed copy through the Webstore. https://bit.ly/4ajlSi8

Here’s the description of The Mayors of New York.

The new crime novel from the award-winning S. J. Rozan, where private investigators Lydia Chin and Bill Smith find themselves thrust into the mystery behind the disappearance of the teenage son of the mayor of New York.

In January, New York City inaugurates its first female mayor. In April, her son disappears.

Called in by the mayor’s chief aide—a former girlfriend of private investigator Bill Smith’s—to find the missing fifteen-year-old, Bill and his partner, Lydia Chin, are told the boy has run away. Neither the press nor the NYPD know that he’s missing, and the mayor wants him back before a headstrong child turns into a political catastrophe. But as Bill and Lydia investigate, they turn up more questions than answers.

Why did the boy leave? Who else is searching for him, and why? What is his twin sister hiding?

Then a teen is found dead and another is hit by gunfire. Are these tragedies related to each other, and to the mayor’s missing son?

In a desperate attempt to find the answer to the boy’s disappearance before it’s too late, Bill and Lydia turn to the only contacts they think will be able to help: the neighborhood leaders who are the real ‘mayors’ of New York.

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S. J. Rozan is the author of Family Business, The Art of Violence, Paper Son, and many other crime novels. She has won multiple awards for her fiction, including the Edgar, Shamus, Anthony, Nero, Macavity, the Japanese Maltese Falcon, and the Private Eye Writers of America Lifetime Achievement Award. S. J. was born and raised in the Bronx and now lives in lower Manhattan.