Scottish author Carole Johnstone recently did a virtual event with Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen. Johnstone’s latest thriller, The Blackhouse, is available through the Web Store. https://store.poisonedpen.com/item/rPCoGQ_-yAUJCuWlAis4fg

Here’s the description of The Blackhouse.

From the author of the “dark and devious…beautifully written” (Stephen King) Mirrorland comes a richly atmospheric thriller set on an isolated Scottish island where nothing is as it seems and shocking twists lie around every corner.

A remote village. A deadly secret. An outsider who knows the truth.

Robert Reid moved his family to Scotland’s Outer Hebrides in the 1990s, driven by hope, craving safety and community, and hiding a terrible secret. But despite his best efforts to fit in, Robert is always seen as an outsider. And as the legendary and violent Hebridean storms rage around him, he begins to unravel, believing his fate on the remote island of Kilmeray cannot be escaped.

For her entire life, Maggie MacKay has sensed something was wrong with her. When Maggie was five years old, she announced that a man on Kilmeray—a place she’d never visited—had been murdered. Her unfounded claim drew media attention and turned the locals against each other, creating rifts that never mended.

Nearly twenty years later, Maggie is determined to find out what really happened, and what the islanders are hiding. But when she begins to receive ominous threats, Maggie is forced to consider how much she is willing to risk to discover the horrifying truth.

Unnerving, enthralling, and filled with gothic suspense, The Blackhouse is a spectacularly sinister tale readers won’t soon forget.

Carole Johnstone’s award-winning short fiction has appeared in annual “Best of” anthologies in the United States and United Kingdom. She lives with her husband in an old farmhouse outside Glasgow, Scotland, though her heart belongs to the sea and the wild islands of the Hebrides. She is the author of Mirrorland and The Blackhouse.

Enjoy the conversation with author Carole Johnstone.

Jayne Ann Krentz’ Sleep No More is the current Hot Book of the Week at The Poisoned Pen. Krentz is guest author for a virtual event on Thursday, January 5 at 6 PM on YouTube and Facebook. Signed copies of Sleep No More are available through the Web Store. https://tinyurl.com/55kpwpae

Here is the summary of Sleep No More.

New York Times bestselling author Jayne Ann Krentz returns with the first novel of the Lost Night Files, an exciting new romantic suspense trilogy about a night that changed three women forever—but that none of them can remember. 

Seven months ago, Pallas Llewellyn, Talia March, and Amelia Rivers were strangers, until their fateful stay at the Lucent Springs Hotel. An earthquake and a fire partially destroyed the hotel, but the women have no memory of their time there. Now close friends, the three women co-host a podcast called the Lost Night Files, where they investigate cold cases and hope to connect with others who may have had a similar experience to theirs—an experience that has somehow enhanced the psychic abilities already present in each woman.
 
After receiving a tip for their podcast, Pallas travels to the small college town of Carnelian, California, to explore an abandoned asylum. Shaken by the dark energy she feels in the building, she is rushing out when she’s stopped by a dark figure—who turns out to be the women’s mysterious tipster.
 
Ambrose Drake is certain he’s a witness to a murder, but without a body, everyone thinks he’s having delusions caused by extreme sleep deprivation. But Ambrose is positive something terrible happened at the Carnelian Sleep Institute the night he was there. Unable to find proof on his own, he approaches Pallas for help, only for her to realize that Ambrose, too, has a lost night that he can’t remember—one that may be connected to Pallas. Pallas and Ambrose conduct their investigation using the podcast as a cover, and while the townsfolk are eager to share what they know, it turns out there are others who are not so happy about their questions—and someone is willing to kill to keep the truth from coming out.

Jayne Ann Krentz is the author of more than fifty New York Times bestsellers. She has written contemporary romantic suspense novels under that name, as well as futuristic and historical romance novels under the pseudonyms Jayne Castle and Amanda Quick, respectively. There are more than 35 million copies of her books in print. She lives in Seattle.

Let’s end 2022 on a positive note with Amanda Flower’s list of her pandemic reading.

Amanda Flower is a USA Today bestselling and Agatha Award-winning author of over forty-five mystery novels. Her novels have received starred reviews from Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, and Romantic Times, and she had been featured in USA Today, First for Women, and Woman’s World. She currently writes for Penguin-Random House (Berkley), Kensington, and Sourcebooks. In addition to being a writer, she was a librarian for fifteen years. Today, Flower and her husband own a farm and recording studio, and they live in Northeast Ohio with their six adorable cats.

I’ve only met Amanda once, but I know how humble she is. She included one of her books in the list because I asked the authors to do that. But, it’s an older title, and I’m going to mention several of her books after she gets a chance to discuss her pandemic reading.

Don’t forget to check the Web Store for Flower’s book suggestions. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

Most of the books I read during the pandemic were research for upcoming books that I was writing, but I also snuck in a few cozies and fun reads. Here are my top four.

1) Maid as Muse: How Servants Changed Emily Dickinson’s Life and Language by Aife Murray

This is a history of the servants in Emily Dickinson’s house. It was invaluable to me in writing Because I Could Not Stop for Death, the first novel in the Emily Dickinson Mysteries because the novel is narrated by a maid in the Dickinson home. I went back to it again and again writing the second novel in the series, I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died.

2) Death by Dumpling: A Noodle Shop Mystery by Vivien Chien

This was such a fun cozy debut, and I went on to read several more in the series during the pandemic. My favorite part was it was set in Cleveland, not too far from where I live.

3) Ralph Waldo Emerson: The Infinitude of the Private Man by Maurice York and Rick Spaulding

Another book I read for research for the Emily Dickinson Mysteries. The Dickinsons were friends of Emerson. I love it when my real life literary heroes intertwine.

4) Anxious for Nothing: Finding Calm in a Chaotic World by Max Lucado

This book by Max Lucado I actually read twice during the pandemic to help me deal with the anxiety of everything. It was a great help. I highly recommend.

Marshmallow Malice: An Amish Candy Shop Mystery

It’s one of my own books, but it came out the spring of 2020 and is just a humorous cozy in Amish country and one of my bestselling books because people needed escape at that time. I was happy to provide.

And, I’m happy to provide information about two of Amanda Flower’s recent releases. She mentioned her September release, Because I Could Not Stop for Death, the first of her Emily Dickinson Mysteries.

Emily Dickinson and her housemaid, Willa Noble, realize there is nothing poetic about murder in this first book in an all-new series from USA Today bestselling and Agatha Award–winning author Amanda Flower.

January 1855 Willa Noble knew it was bad luck when it was pouring rain on the day of her ever-important job interview at the Dickinson home in Amherst, Massachusetts. When she arrived late, disheveled with her skirts sodden and filthy, she’d lost all hope of being hired for the position. As the housekeeper politely told her they’d be in touch, Willa started toward the door of the stately home only to be called back by the soft but strong voice of Emily Dickinson. What begins as tenuous employment turns to friendship as the reclusive poet takes Willa under her wing. 

Tragedy soon strikes and Willa’s beloved brother, Henry, is killed in a tragic accident at the town stables. With no other family and nowhere else to turn, Willa tells Emily about her brother’s death and why she believes it was no accident. Willa is convinced it was murder. Henry had been very secretive of late, only hinting to Willa that he’d found a way to earn money to take care of them both. Viewing it first as a puzzle to piece together, Emily offers to help, only to realize that she and Willa are caught in a deadly game of cat and mouse that reveals corruption in Amherst that is generations deep. Some very high-powered people will stop at nothing to keep their profitable secrets even if that means forever silencing Willa and her new mistress….

Honeymoons Can Be Hazardous, the fourth Amish Matchmaker Mystery, was just released Dec. 27.

Set in the fan favorite Amish village of Harvest, Ohio, the latest novel in USA Today bestselling author Amanda Flower’s Amish Matchmaker series brings back the unlikely sleuthing duo of an Amish widow and her zany, thrice divorced best friend. Will appeal to fans of cozy mysteries, small-town mysteries, wholesome romance, inspirational fiction, and readers of Jennifer Beckstrand, Charlotte Hubbard, Rachel J. Good, and other authors of Amish fiction.

Widowed matchmaker Millie Fisher is anything but lonely between her mischievous goats, her quilting circle—and her habit of solving the odd murder or two . . .

Millie’s decidedly not Amish best friend, Lois Henry, is outspoken, colorful, and so hopelessly romantic, she’s had four husbands. Millie doesn’t judge, and she also doesn’t expect to run into Lois’s most recent ex, gambler Gerome Moorhead, in small-town Harvest, Ohio. With him is the very young, new Mrs. Moorhead, aka “Honeybee.” Lois is outraged, but Millie is completely shocked to learn the next day that Gerome is already a widower . . .

When a large wood carving at the cozy Munich Chalet falls on “Honeybee,” all eyes turn toward Lois. Who else would want a tourist—a complete stranger—dead? And half of Harvest witnessed Lois’s enmity toward the young woman. Suddenly Millie must put aside her sewing needle and flex her sleuthing skills. She’s no stranger to a murder investigation, after all, and if she doesn’t learn who killed Honeybee, Lois could go from Millie’s boisterous best friend to her horrified prison penpal . . .

Let’s face it. As the events end for 2022 at The Poisoned Pen, and most sites are posting “Best of” lists, I don’t have anything to post right now. So, as in other years, I’m going to take a short break. When I have new material, I’ll post it.

I wish you Happy Holidays, no matter what holiday you celebrate.