The Poisoned Pen made it’s first foray into theater when Tom Leveen appeared here with his new release, Hellworld.

Here’s the description of the event, as it appeared on the calendar listing.

Join us for first ever LIT OUT LOUD event and publication party for Tom Leveen’s newest book, Hellworld!

Author Tom Leveen is also a 22-year veteran of local theatre, having been the artistic director of both Is What Is Theatre and Chyro Arts Venue. For one night only, in celebration of the release of his newest novel HELLWORLD, Tom brings together a group of local actors he’s worked with before and will present a live performance showcase of short horror stories, both classical and original. And maybe, if we’re lucky (unlucky?) enough, Tom will also read one of his first stories, written in 1988, and hold it up for public mockery! It’s a an hour of both chills and laughs suitable for people over 13. Don’t miss it!

The pictures show a fun event with a cast of readers.

A nice audience showed up, bought the book, and waited patiently in the signing line.

To truly get the feeling of the event, you should watch it on Livestream. https://livestream.com/poisonedpen/events/7192476

You can buy a signed copy of Tom Leveen’s Hellworld through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2nxjsVp

Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, recently welcomed Joe Ide, the author of IQ, back to host another debut author. Melissa Scrivner Love is the author of Lola.

Here’s the description of Lola.

An astonishing debut crime thriller about an unforgettable woman who combines the genius and ferocity of Lisbeth Salander with the ruthless ambition of Walter White

The Crenshaw Six are a small but up-and-coming gang in South Central LA who have recently been drawn into an escalating war between rival drug cartels. To outsiders, the Crenshaw Six appear to be led by a man named Garcia . . . but what no one has figured out is that the gang’s real leader (and secret weapon) is Garcia’s girlfriend, a brilliant young woman named Lola. Lola has mastered playing the role of submissive girlfriend, and in the man’s world she inhabits she is consistently underestimated. But in truth she is much, much smarter–and in many ways tougher and more ruthless–than any of the men around her, and as the gang is increasingly sucked into a world of high-stakes betrayal and brutal violence, her skills and leadership become their only hope of survival.

Lola marks the debut of a hugely exciting new thriller writer, and of a singular, magnificent character unlike anyone else in fiction.

We’d like to introduce the authors.

We have books by both authors in the Web Store. https://store.poisonedpen.com

And, best of all, if you’d like to feel as if you were at the event, you can watch it on Livestream. https://livestream.com/poisonedpen/events/7196605

C.J. Box was just here, appearing at the Hilton Scottsdale Resort for The Poisoned Pen. He’s on book tour for Vicious Circle, the new Joe Pickett novel.

Thanks to all of you who bought books, Vicious Circle appears at #2 on The New York Times Best Seller List on April 9.

If you weren’t able to make it, you can buy a signed copy through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2nag7xV

Box has appeared at The Poisoned Pen with every one of his books. Here are a few photos from his latest appearance.

Robert Anglen from The Arizona Republic interviewed C.J. Box for the event.

If you have time, you can watch the entire event on Livestream. https://livestream.com/poisonedpen/events/6962963

Are you a fan of Scandinavian crime fiction? The shortlist was just announced for The Petrona Award 2017. The award is given to outstanding crime fiction from Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. The winning title will be announced at CrimeFest, held in Bristol, England in May. Here are the nominees and the information. https://bit.ly/2no62Lx

At the moment, the Web Store carries four of the titles. If you’re interested in reading the nominated books, why don’t you start with those four? https://store.poisonedpen.com/

Margot Lee Shetterly, author of Hidden Figures, will be appearing in Phoenix on April 4. Here’s the information.

You do need to RSVP to get a seat, although it’s free. It’s through Eventbrite. https://bit.ly/2nkl6JK

Here’s more information from that site.

DESCRIPTION
Join the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing as we present author Margot Lee Shetterly for a look behind her debut book Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race on Tuesday, April 4th, 2017 at the Orpheum Theater (203 W Adams St, Phoenix, AZ 85003) at 7:00 pm. Margot will take questions from the audience and sign books after the presentation. While this event is open to the public and free, please note that seating is first-come, first-serve, and RSVP’s do not guarantee a seat. We will not be able to accomodate overflow seating.
Beginning in World War II and moving through the Cold War, Hidden Figures follows the careers of Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson, and Christine Darden, four African American women who worked as ‘human computers’ at the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory in Hampton, Virginia. While Jim Crow segregated and removed them from public memory, these women of color were significant and crucial contributors to some of NASA’s greatest achievements—putting John Glenn into orbit, landing men on the moon, and laying a foundation for the modern flight industry. With more emphasis than ever on both women’s roles in STEM and the importance of recovering Civil Rights era narratives, Hidden Figures sensitively negotiates issues of race, gender, representation, and privilege, restoring a lost chapter of American History
Hidden Figures has also been adapted into a major motion picture by 20th Century Fox starring Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monáe, Kirsten Dunst, Mahershala Ali, and Kevin Costner, released in theaters on January 6.

About the Author
Margot Lee Shetterly is an entrepreneur, writer and researcher whose debut book is Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race (William Morrow/HarperCollins). A 2014 Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellow, she is also the founder of the digital archive The Human Computer Project and the co-founder of the magazine Inside Mexico. For more information, visit her website at https://margotleeshetterly.com.

About the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing
Established in 2003, The Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing is a non-academic unit at Arizona State University that serves as the artistic and intellectual heart of a vibrant, multinational, and diverse community of writers, dedicated to serving the public through exceptional literary programs and resources. For more information, visit our website at https://piper.asu.edu.

Author William Kent Krueger hosted Lyndsay Faye the other night.

She’s on book tour to promote her new Sherlock Holmes collection, The Whole Art of Detection: Lost Mysteries of Sherlock Holmes.

Here’s the summary of the book that was last week’s “Hot Book of the Week”.

Internationally bestselling author Lyndsay Faye was introduced to the Sherlock Holmes mysteries when she was ten years old and her dad suggested she read Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s short story ‘The Adventure of the Speckled Band.’ She immediately became enamored with tales of Holmes and his esteemed biographer Dr. John Watson, and later, began spinning these quintessential characters into her own works of fiction-from her acclaimed debut novel,Dust and Shadow, which pitted the famous detective against Jack the Ripper, to a series of short stories for theStrand Magazine, whose predecessor published the very first Sherlock Holmes short story in 1891.

Faye’s best Holmes tales, including two new works, are brought together inThe Whole Art of Detection, a stunning collection that spans Holmes’s career, from self-taught young upstart to publicly lauded detective, both before and after his faked death over a Swiss waterfall in 1894. In ‘The Lowther Park Mystery,’ the unsociable Holmes is forced to attend a garden party at the request of his politician brother and improvises a bit of theater to foil a conspiracy against the government. ‘The Adventure of the Thames Tunnel’ brings Holmes’s attention to the baffling murder of a jewel thief in the middle of an underground railway passage. With Holmes and Watson encountering all manner of ungrateful relatives, phony psychologists, wronged wives, plaid-garbed villains, and even a peculiar species of deadly red leech,The Whole Art of Detection is a must-read for Sherlockians and any fan of historical crime fiction with a modern sensibility.

Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, was there, but Krueger did the interview.

It looks like Faye had a good time at the event.

If you didn’t get a chance to get to the program, you can still buy a signed copy of The Whole Art of Detection through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2nszyAm

How about a book release party? The Poisoned Pen is hosting the party for The Sharpened Quill on Wednesday, March 29 at 7 PM.

Steven Schwartz, the collection’s editor, hosts a number of the featured authors for this book release party. It’s a collection of short stories in various genres. James Sallis wrote the introduction. The anthology features works by Kurt Reichenbaugh, Robert Anglen, Merle McCann, Clark Lohr, Kevin Lynn Helmick, Steve Shadow, Scott McDonald, Karen Renner, Timothy W. Moore and Jacinda Power. The cover and book design are the work of Scott Carpenter of Cold Forge Press.

Stop in Wednesday night and meet the editor and some of the authors. Buy a copy that night, or order a signed copy through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2nub5MC

The April 2 New York Times Best Seller List has The Cutthroat by Clive Cussler and Justin Scott at #1. https://nyti.ms/2nQDH4a

The Poisoned Pen is Clive Cussler’s home bookstore, and we have signed copies of the book available through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2nfBqfU

Here’s the summary of the book, if you would like to read that before ordering the new #1 best seller.

Isaac Bell may be on the hunt for the greatest monster of all time in the newest action-adventure novel from #1 New York Times““bestselling author Clive Cussler.
 
The year is 1911. Chief Investigator Isaac Bell of the Van Dorn Detective Agency has had many extraordinary cases before. But none quite like this.

Hired to find a young woman named Anna Pape who ran away from home to become an actress, Bell gets a shock when her murdered body turns up instead. Vowing to bring the killer to justice, he begins a manhunt which leads him into increasingly more alarming territory. Anna Pape was not alone in her fate—petite young blond women like Anna are being murdered in cities across America.

And the pattern goes beyond the physical resemblance of the victims—there are disturbing familiarities about the killings themselves that send a chill through even a man as experienced with evil as Bell. If he is right about his fears, then he is on the trail of one of the greatest monsters of his time.

Did you read Nancy Pickard’s The Scent of Rain and Lightning when it first came out?

Here’s the summary from the Web Store.

One beautiful summer afternoon, Jody Linder receives shocking news: The man convicted of murdering her father is being released from prison and returning to the small town of Rose, Kansas. It has been twenty-three years since that stormy night when her father was shot and killed and her mother disappeared, presumed dead. Neither the protective embrace of Jody’s three uncles nor the safe haven of her grandparents’ ranch could erase the pain caused by Billy Crosby on that catastrophic night.

Now Billy Crosby is free, thanks to the efforts of his son, Collin, a lawyer who has spent most of his life trying to prove his father’s innocence. Despite their long history of carefully avoiding each other in such an insular community, Jody and Collin find that they share an exclusive sense of loss.

As Jody revisits old wounds, startling truths emerge about her family’s tragic past. But even through struggle and hardship, she still dares to hope for a better future—and maybe even love.

*****

Pickard’s book has been made into a movie, which is being shown at selected film festivals.

Diana Reese recently interviewed her for “Parade“. You can read the interview here. https://parade.com/557396/dianareese/sunday-with-nancy-pickard/

And, if you’re interested in the book, you can order The Scent of Rain and Lightning through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2o0368o