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As December events wrap up at The Poisoned Pen, it seemed to be the perfect time to remind you of the couple programs still coming, and then showcase the January 2023 events. Don’t forget to look for the books, some signed, at the Web Store. https://store.poisonedpen.com/
Check out this stellar lineup!
In the Midmonth BookNotes you’ll read about the latest and the best in romance, women’s fiction. This month’s issue features new releases from Ella Carey, Jane Porter, Michelle Gable and more.
Secrets Typed in Blood is Stephen Spotswood’s third Pentecost and Parker mystery. Spotswood recently appeared for The Poisoned Pen, hosted by Barbara Peters, owner of the bookstore. There are signed copies of the book available through the Web Store. https://tinyurl.com/h248cy8z
Here’s the description of Secrets Typed in Blood.
A NEW YORK TIMES BEST CRIME NOVEL OF THE YEAR • In the newest entry into the Nero Award-winning Pentecost & Parker Mystery series, Lillian and Will are hot on the trail of a serial killer whose murders are stranger than fiction.
The Pentecost & Parker series “takes gritty 40s noir, shakes it up, gives it a charming twist, and serves it up with unforgettable style” (Deanna Raybourn, author of the Veronica Speedwell Mysteries). From the author of Fortune Favors the Dead and Murder Under Her Skin.
New York City, 1947: For years, Holly Quick has made a good living off of murder, filling up the pages of pulp detective magazines with gruesome tales of revenge. Now someone is bringing her stories to life and leaving a trail of blood-soaked bodies behind. With the threat of another murder looming, and reluctant to go to the police, Holly turns to the best crime-solving duo in or out of the pulps, Willowjean “Will” Parker and her boss, famed detective Lillian Pentecost.
The pair are handed the seemingly-impossible task of investigating three murders at once without tipping off the cops or the press that the crimes are connected. A tall order made even more difficult by the fact that Will is already signed up to spend her daylight hours undercover as a guileless secretary in the hopes of digging up a lead on an old adversary, Dr. Olivia Waterhouse.
But even if Will is stuck in pencil skirts and sensible shoes, she’s not about to let her boss have all the fun. Soon she’s diving into an underground world of people obsessed with murder and the men and women who commit them. Can the killer be found in the Black Museum Club, run by a philanthropist whose collection of grim murder memorabilia may not be enough to satisfy his lust for the homicidal? Or is it Holly Quick’s pair of editors, who read about murder all day, but clearly aren’t telling the full story?
With victims seemingly chosen at random and a murderer who thrives on spectacle, the case has the great Lillian Pentecost questioning her methods. But whatever she does, she’d better do it fast. Holly Quick has a secret, too and it’s about to bring death right to Pentecost and Parker’s doorstep.
STEPHEN SPOTSWOOD is an award-winning playwright, journalist, and educator. As a journalist, he has spent much of the last two decades writing about the aftermath of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the struggles of wounded veterans. His dramatic work has been widely produced across the United States and he is the winner of the 2021 Nero Award for best American mystery. He makes his home in Washington, D.C. with his wife, young adult author Jessica Spotswood.
Spotswood and Peters have a fascinating conversation about history. Enjoy the event!
You might not recognize Terrie Farley Moran’s face, but if I tell you she’s “Jessica Fletcher’s” co-author, you’ll recognize that name. Terrie Farley Moran is thrilled to be co-author, along with Jessica Fletcher, of the long running Murder, She Wrote series. Her contributions include: Murder, She Wrote Killing in a Koi Pond, Murder, She Wrote Debonair in Death and Murder, She Wrote Killer on the Court and Murder, She Wrote Death on the Emerald Isle. She has also written the beachside Read ‘Em and Eat cozy mystery series and has co-authored four of Laura Childs’ New Orleans scrapbooking mysteries. Her short stories have been published innumerous magazines and anthologies. Terrie is a recipient of both the Agatha and the Derringer awards. Find her online at www.terriefarleymoran.com or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/terriefarleymoran/
Don’t forget to check the Web Store for Terrie’s books, and for the books she recommends from her pandemic reading. https://store.poisonedpen.com/
Bizarre as the pandemic shut down was for all Americans, the first few days were even more wild and crazy for me. Not that I wasn’t expecting it. I certainly was. In mid-February I had begun searching around to buy face masks in bulk to send to all my family members. I finally was able to order them from Brazil. I avoided people, but some things are sacred (libraries and bookstores are high on that list) and on Friday March 14, 2020 I went to the library as I do most Fridays. I was mega excited to see that they had several shelves dedicated to St. Patrick’s Day and I grabbed two fabulous books.
The first book that caught my eye was a cozy mystery, The Irish Cairn Murder by Dicey Deere and the second, a non-fiction book that taught me much about the entwined history of Ireland, the United States and Canada, was When the Irish Invaded Canada by Christopher Klein.
Aware as I was of the spread of Covid, I was mentally unprepared for the complete Covid Quarantine that was announced that weekend. St. Patrick’s Day was on the coming Tuesday but there would be no parades, no family party, so I would have plenty of time to read.
Curious as I was to discover the story of the Irish invasion of Canada, the world around me was in such turmoil that I opted to make a pot of tea and curl up with Dicey Deere and her heroine, an American living in Ireland named Torrey Turnet, who I had met some time ago in another of Dicey’s books, The Irish Cottage Murder. Dicey Deere always manages to get the reader enmeshed in solving the murder while enjoying the quirky characters who occupy the town of Ballynaugh. And I do wonder to this day why Inspector O’Hare continues to be vexed by Torrey’s very existence.
When I first opened When the Irish Invaded Canada, I didn’t know what to expect but I found the story itself to be fascinating and I will quote the cover copy here because it gives the flavor of the book more than I could manage.
“By the time that these invasions–known collectively as the Fenian raids–began in 1866, Ireland had been Britain’s unwilling colony for seven hundred years. Thousands of Civil War veterans who had fled to the United States rather than perish in the wake of the Great Hunger still considered themselves Irishmen first, Americans second. With the tacit support of the U.S. government and inspired by a previous generation of successful American revolutionaries, the group that carried out a series of five attacks on Canada–the Fenian Brotherhood–established a state in exile, planned prison breaks, weathered infighting, stockpiled weapons, and assassinated enemies. Defiantly, this motley group, including a one-armed war hero, an English spy infiltrating rebel forces, and a radical who staged his own funeral, managed to seize a piece of Canada–if only for three days.
When the Irish Invaded Canada is the untold tale of a band of fiercely patriotic Irish Americans and their chapter in Ireland’s centuries-long fight for independence. Inspiring, lively, and often undeniably comic, this is a story of fighting for what’s right in the face of impossible odds.”
I spent the weekend reading and with both an Irish cozy and a new-to-me bit of Irish history behind me, there I was in fine fettle on St. Patrick’s Day with Irish music blaring, and Irish soda bread in the oven. Each time the phone rang I assumed it was another St. Patrick’s Day call from family or a friend. BUT ONE TIME IT WAS EVEN BETTER THAN THAT! The caller was my agent, the delightful Kim Lionetti, with an offer from Berkley for me to write the next four books of the Murder, She Wrote series. My answer: “Yes! I want to do it!”
Still the pandemic droned on and on. So I was grateful for the distraction when John McDougall of Murder By the Book hosted a ZOOM conversation that included me along with two superb writers Jenn McKinlay and Mia P. Manansala. In preparation for the conversation, I read the thirteenth book in Jenn’s Cupcake Bakery Series For Batter or Worse and then I read Mia’s Arsenic and Adobo, the firstbook in her Tita Rosie’s Kitchen series.
In For Batter or Worse the time has finally come for the wedding that we readers have been hoping would happen but, oops, there is a murder. Given the chaos we were all seeing in our own personal lives due to months and months of the pandemic, well, I can honestly say I never rooted more ardently for things to be righted for the happy couple. In my mind the pandemic has rattled the bygone days when we just expected things to turn out as they should, so I found this book very heartening.
Arsenic and Adobo welcomes readers to meet Filipino-American Lila Macapagal and her pushy, interfering, loveable family, who are constantly getting in her way while she tries to keep the family restaurant open and avoid going to jail for the murder of an old boyfriend. And, when so much of life seemed stagnant during the worst of the pandemic, it was a joy to have some new and exciting cuisine and characters to assure us that the future was waiting for us, straight ahead. I have since enjoyed the second book of this series and the third book, Blackmail and Bibingka is inching its way up my TBR pile.
And of course while I was reading, I was also writing. Since that fateful St. Patrick’s Day weekend, I have, indeed, written four Murder, She Wrote Books chronicling the adventures of my awesome co-writer Jessica Fletcher. Based on my receiving the invitation to write the series on St. Patrick’s Day, 2020, you may not be surprised that my fourth book, and the fifty-sixth book in the series takes place in Northern Ireland.
In Murder, She Wrote Death on the Emerald Isle, (release date, January 3, 2023) “Jessica Fletcher is quick to accept an invitation to replace a speaker who couldn’t attend a Book Festival in Belfast, Northern Ireland. When her Cabot Cove neighbor Maeve O’Bannon hears about the trip, she asks Jessica to deliver some paintings to her family in the village of Bushmills. Happy to extend her travels and see more of the Irish countryside, Jessica agrees.
The festival goes off without a hitch, and it seems like Jessica is in for a relaxing vacation. But then Maeve’s cousin Michael is discovered dead under suspicious circumstances. Jessica finds herself once again in the midst of a murder investigation, and she’ll have to dig into the O’Bannon family’s secrets to unmask the killer.”
So now you know what kept me sane during the worst of the pandemic—reading and writing. Before I go, I want to extend a special thank you to the wonderful independent books stores in multiple states who helped me be the “best grandma ever” by going the extra mile and providing books and games that would keep my grandchildren engaged and stave off boredom. The children enjoyed books on every topic from LeBron James to high fashion to Baseball quizzes to YA mysteries and romance. And the bookstores cheerfully mailed across state lines. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen recently welcomed two authors who are writing military fiction set in another author’s universe. Marc Cameron takes Jack Ryan into Tom Clancy Red Winter. Peter Kirsanov’s novel is W.E.B. Griffin The Devil’s Weapons. You can order copies of both books through the Web Store. https://store.poisonedpen.com/
Here’s the description of Tom Clancy Red Winter.
In this previously untold adventure, a young Jack Ryan goes behind the Iron Curtain to seek the truth about a potential Soviet defector in the most shocking entry in Tom Clancy’s #1 New York Times bestselling series.
1985
A top secret F117 aircraft crashes into the Nevada desert. The Nighthawk is the most advanced fighting machine in the world and the Soviets will do anything to get their hands on its secrets.
In East Berlin, a mysterious figure contacts the CIA with an incredible offer—invaluable details of his government’s espionage plans in return for asylum.
It’s an offer they can’t pass up…if it’s genuine, but the risks are too great to blindly stumble into a deal. With the East German secret police closing in, someone will have to go to behind the Berlin Wall to investigate the potential defector. It’s a job Deputy Director James Greer can only trust to one man–Jack Ryan.
Ryan is a former Marine and a brilliant CIA analyst who’s been the architect of some of the CIA’s biggest coups but this time he’s in enemy territory with a professional assassin on his tail. Can he get the right answers before the Cold War turns into a Red Winter?
A little more than thirty years ago, Tom Clancy was a Maryland insurance broker with a passion for naval history. Years before, he had been an English major at Baltimore’s Loyola College and had always dreamed of writing a novel. His first effort, The Hunt for Red October, sold briskly as a result of rave reviews, then catapulted onto the New York Times bestseller list after President Reagan pronounced it “the perfect yarn.” From that day forward, Clancy established himself as an undisputed master at blending exceptional realism and authenticity, intricate plotting, and razor-sharp suspense. He passed away in October 2013.
A native of Texas, Marc Cameron spent almost thirty years in law enforcement. He served as a uniformed police officer, mounted (horse patrol) officer, SWAT officer, and a U.S. Marshal. Cameron is conversant in Japanese, and travels extensively researching his New York Times-bestselling Jericho Quinn novels. Cameron’s books have been nominated for both the Barry Award and the Thriller Award.
Here’s W.E.B. Griffin The Devil’s Weapons.
Dick Canidy and the agents of the OSS scour war torn Poland looking for a rocket scientist who holds the secrets to the Nazis most dangerous weapon in this new entry in W.E.B. Griffin’s New York Times bestselling Men at War series.
April 1940. By terms of the Soviet Nazi Nonaggression pact, the two dictatorships divided the helpless nation of Poland. Now, the Russians are rounding up enemies of the state in their occupation zone, but one essential target slips away. Dr. Sebastian Kapsky had spent years working with Walter Riedel and Werner von Braun in the early days of rocket science, but as a man with a conscience he refused to continue when he saw the perversion of their work by the Nazis. That makes him the most knowledgeable person about German superweapons outside of Germany.
The Germans want him. The Soviets are desperate to grab him, but Wild Bill Donovan knows there’s only one man who can find him in the middle of a war zone and get him out—Dick Canidy.
W. E. B. Griffin was the author of seven bestselling series: The Corps, Brotherhood of War, Badge of Honor, Men at War, Honor Bound, Presidential Agent, and Clandestine Operations. He passed away in February 2019.
Peter Kirsanow practices and teaches law and is an official of a federal agency. He is a former member of the National Labor Relations Board and has testified before Congress on a variety of matters, including the confirmations of five Supreme Court justices. He contributes regularly to National Review, and his op-eds have appeared in newspapers ranging from The Wall Street Journal to The Washington Times. The author of Target Omega and Second Strike, he lives in Cleveland, Ohio.
Enjoy the conversation about the past and military fiction.
The Widowmaker is Hannah Morrissey’s second novel set in Black Harbor, but she hadn’t appeared for The Poisoned Pen with her previous book, Hello, Transcriber. Barbara Peters, owner of the bookstore, discussed Black Harbor with Morrissey. There are signed copies in the Web Store of The Widowmaker. https://tinyurl.com/3fx2rwe6
Here’s the description of The Widowmaker.
A wealthy family shrouded in scandal; a detective tasked with solving an impossible cold case; and a woman with a dark past collide in Hannah Morrissey’s stunning new Black Harbor mystery, The Widowmaker.
Ever since business mogul Clive Reynolds disappeared twenty years ago, the name “Reynolds” has become synonymous with “murder” and “mystery.” And now, lured by a cryptic note, down-on-her-luck photographer Morgan Mori returns home to Black Harbor and into the web of their family secrets and double lives. The same night she photographs the Reynolds holiday get-together, Morgan becomes witness to a homicide of a cop that triggers the discovery of a long-buried clue.
This could finally be the thing to crack open the chilling cold case, and Investigator Ryan Hudson has a chance to prove himself as lead detective. If only he could stop letting his need to solve his partner’s recent murder distract him. But as Morgan exposes her own dark demons, could her sordid history be the key to unlocking more than one mystery?
HANNAH MORRISSEY studied English and Creative Writing at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. Her first novel, Hello, Transcriber, was inspired by her experience as a police transcriber. She lives in Wisconsin with her husband and two pugs.
Enjoy the conversation with Barbara Peters and Hannah Morrissey.
Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, suggested to Peter Lovesey that they must treasure each appearance together since they are both aging. But, Showstopper is the 21st Peter Diamond novel. And, you can buy a copy through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/3Hi6E0M
Here’s the summary of Showstopper.
The cast and crew of a hit British TV show are rumored to be cursed—but are these spooky deaths coincidences or murder? It’s up to Bath detective Peter Diamond to find out.
In the six years since the start of the hit British TV show Swift, its cast and crew have been plagued by misfortune, beginning with the star actress’s pulling out of the show before it began. By now there have been multiple injuries by fall, fire, or drowning; two deaths; and two missing persons cases.
The media quickly decides it’s a curse, but who’s to say there isn’t a criminal conspiracy afoot? Now that the filming has moved to Bath, Peter Diamond, Chief of the Avon and Somerset Murder Squad, is on the case. While the investigation into one fatal accident is underway, a cameraman goes missing, challenging even the most credulous to wonder if he might have been the victim of foul play rather than a jinx. How can so many things go wrong on one set in such a short time?
Complicating already complex matters is the fact that Diamond’s boss is trying her best to get him out of her hair; he may be forced to retire if he can’t solve the case. Will this be the end for Peter Diamond?
Peter Lovesey is the author of more than thirty highly praised mystery novels. He has been named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America and has been awarded the CWA Gold and Silver Daggers, the Cartier Diamond Dagger for Lifetime Achievement, the Strand Magazine Award for Lifetime Achievement, the Macavity, Barry, and Anthony Awards, and many other honors. He lives in Shrewsbury, England.
Lovesey talks about the first book in the Peter Diamond series, and the characters. Enjoy the conversation!
Claire Booth, author of the Sheriff Hank Worth mysteries set in Branson, Missouri, is guest author today. She agreed to discuss the books she read during COVID, but first, let me introduce her, and remind you that her books, and the books she recommends, can be found in the Web Store. https://store.poisonedpen.com/
Claire Booth is a former journalist who has reported on high-profile stories all over the country, including that of a California cult leader who became the subject of her nonfiction book The False Prophet. After spending so much time covering crimes so strange and convoluted they seemed more fiction than reality, she had enough of the real world and decided to write novels instead. Her Sheriff Hank Worth mysteries take place in Branson, Missouri, where small-town Ozark politics and big-city country music tourism clash in – yes – strange and convoluted ways. www.clairebooth.com
Thank you, Claire.
When life gets rough, I’ve always been able to retreat into books. Never has that been more true than during Covid. I read a ton, and it helped keep me sane. These were the a few of the books that have stayed with me the longest.
The Postscript Murders, by Elly Griffiths
My favorite thing about Elly Griffiths’ Edgar-winning The Stranger Diaries was Detective Sergeant Harbinder Kaur. So when Griffiths brought her back in The Postscript Murders, I was delighted. It came out almost exactly one year into the lockdown and I was able to retreat into it as the world stood in line for vaccines. As with all of Griffiths’ books (don’t get me started on the Ruth Galloway series—I’ll sing its praises all day long), there’s a cast of real, fully drawn characters. Harbinder Kaur is especially a treat. A Sikh and a lesbian, she’s making her way in a profession that often isn’t kind to either. And she’s back again—I’m excited to curl up over the holidays and read the brand-new entry in the series, Bleeding Heart Yard.
Becoming Wild: How Animal Cultures Raise Families, Create Beauty, and Achieve Peace, by Carl Safina.
I discovered Carl Safina during the lockdown and his books literally took me away from the world—the human one—at a time when I very much needed that. Becoming Wild examines the cultures of three different animals, the sperm whale, scarlet macaw, and chimpanzee. And I’m using “culture” in the human sense: social learning and group interactions. Safina has the ability to translate, in beautiful language, how those cultures work. Sperm whales use language to communicate what family groups they belong to and babysit calves while moms go deep diving for food. Macaws pair off and even go through the bird equivalent of divorce. And chimpanzees, well, let’s just say that a wise chimp never wants to encroach on someone else’s territory.
Razorblade Tears, by S.A. Cosby
Anything I could say about this book wouldn’t do it justice. I could talk about the astonishing writing or the gutting plot about two fathers—one Black, one white—out to avenge the death of their sons, who were married to each other. I could tell you that neither character is comfortable with homosexuality and they each let their son know it, attitudes they now bitterly regret. I could mention that Razorblade Tears is a thriller that confronts deep societal issues. But mostly, I want to say just three words. Read this book.
The Fireballer, by Mark Stevens
This is the book that literally got me through Covid, as I lay ill in bed with the virus in September. It comes out in January 2023, but I was lucky enough to get a hold of an advance copy and I devoured it during my week of involuntary quarantine. It’s the story of a baseball pitching phenom with a tragedy in his past that everyone wants to talk about but him. Young pitcher Frank Ryder has to try to deal with its effect on him in the middle of a race for the pennant. But it’s not just a baseball book. It’s a beautifully written coming-of-age story.
As for me, I released two books during the pandemic: Fatal Divisions in 2021 and Dangerous Consequences in May 2022. They’re books four and five in my series featuring Branson County Sheriff Hank Worth. Being able to enter Hank’s world has always been precious to me, and never more so than during the Covid lockdown. I’m so grateful to all the bookstores and libraries that pivoted to online events and allowed us authors to keep connecting with readers. They also kept us readers able to access books, and the sanity they bring. I wouldn’t have survived without them.
Here’s the description of Fatal Divisions.
Family secrets and internal police politics cause trouble for Sheriff Hank Worth and his Chief Deputy Sheila Turley in this compelling mystery.
Hank Worth has always been committed to his job as Branson sheriff, so getting him to take a break is difficult. But to everyone’s surprise he agrees to take time off after a grueling case and visit a friend in Columbia, Missouri, leaving Chief Deputy Sheila Turley in charge. She quickly launches reforms that create an uproar, and things deteriorate even further when an elderly man is found brutally murdered in his home.
As Sheila struggles for control of the investigation and her insubordinate deputies, Hank is not relaxing as promised. His Aunt Fin is worried her husband is responsible for the disappearance of one of his employees, and Hank agrees to investigate.
The search for the missing woman leads to a tangle of deceit that Hank is determined to unravel . . . no matter the impact on his family.
Here’s Dangerous Consequences.
Sheriff Hank Worth struggles to keep his team together and solve a brutal murder of a former antagonist in this captivating mystery.
“Balances well-developed characters and dry humor with a solid police procedural”- Library Journal Starred Review
Elderly tourists visiting Branson, Missouri for a fun time are instead becoming so sick and disoriented they end up in the ER with Dr Maggie McCleary. She asks the sheriff to investigate and, because he happens to be her husband, Hank Worth readily agrees.
When the tour operator denies responsibility, Hank digs deeper leaving Chief Deputy Sheila Turley to handle a simmering revolt within the ranks. Their policy to eliminate overtime pay has infuriated many long-time deputies. Those fired for insubordination have filed a lawsuit, while those still there sabotage Sheila at every turn.
With pressure mounting, they’re called to a hit-and-run accident. But the victim’s injuries haven’t been caused by a car . . . she’s been beaten to death and dumped by the side of the road. And she was someone they knew.
Will the victim’s aggressive business dealings come to haunt them all? And can Hank and Sheila save their department from destruction?
How much of Richard Paul Evans’ novel A Christmas Memory is autobiographical? We won’t know, but Evans talks about the past with Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen. Signed copies of A Christmas Memory might make excellent gifts for the holiday. https://bit.ly/3utOgKR And, when you hear Evans talk about the cost of the book itself, you might be even more interested in buying copies.
Here’s the description of A Christmas Memory.
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Christmas Box and the Noel Collection comes A Christmas Memory, a poignant, deeply felt novel about loss, grief, the healing power of forgiveness, and the true meaning of the holiday season.
It’s 1967, and for young Richard it’s a time of heartbreak and turmoil. Over the span of a few months, his brother, Mark, is killed in Vietnam; his father loses his job and moves the family from California to his grandmother’s abandoned home in Utah; and his parents make the painful decision to separate.
With uncertainty rattling every corner of his life, Richard does his best to remain strong—but when he’s run down by bullies at his new school, he meets Mr. Foster, an elderly neighbor who chases off the bullies and invites Richard in for a cup of cocoa. Richard becomes fast friends with the wise, solitary man who inspires Richard’s love for books and whose dog, Gollum, becomes his closest companion.
As the holidays approach, the joy and light of Christmas seem unlikely to permeate the Evans home as things take a grim turn for the worse. And just when it seems like he has nothing left to lose, Richard is confronted by a startling revelation. But with Mr. Foster’s wisdom and kindness, he learns for the first time what truly matters about the spirit of the season: that forgiveness can heal even the deepest wounds, and love endures long after the pain of loss subsides.
In A Christmas Memory, Richard Paul Evans (#1 New York Times bestselling author and the “King of Christmas fiction”) delves deep into his childhood memories to take readers back to an age when his world felt like it was falling apart, reminding us that even in the darkest of times, the light of hope can still shine.
Richard Paul Evans is the #1 New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author of more than forty novels. There are currently more than thirty-five million copies of his books in print worldwide, translated into more than twenty-four languages. Richard is the recipient of numerous awards, including two first place Storytelling World Awards, the Romantic Times Best Women’s Novel of the Year Award, and is a five-time recipient of the Religion Communicators Council’s Wilbur Awards. Seven of Richard’s books have been produced as television movies. His first feature film, The Noel Diary, starring Justin Hartley (This Is Us) and acclaimed film director, Charles Shyer (Private Benjamin, Father of the Bride), will debut in 2022. In 2011 Richard began writing Michael Vey, a #1 New York Times bestselling young adult series which has won more than a dozen awards. Richard is the founder of The Christmas Box International, an organization devoted to maintaining emergency children’s shelters and providing services and resources for abused, neglected, or homeless children and young adults. To date, more than 125,000 youths have been helped by the charity. For his humanitarian work, Richard has received the Washington Times Humanitarian of the Century Award and the Volunteers of America National Empathy Award. Richard lives in Salt Lake City, Utah, with his wife, Keri, and their five children and two grandchildren. You can learn more about Richard on his website RichardPaulEvans.com.
Richard Paul Evans provides the background for A Christmas Memory in his conversation with Barbara Peters.
Let me introduce you to Con Lehane.
Con Lehane is a mystery writer, living in Washington, DC. He is the author of the 42nd Street Library mysteries, featuring Raymond Ambler, curator of the library’s (fictional) crime fiction collection. He’s also the author of three mysteries featuring New York City bartender Brian McNulty, and has published short stories in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine and Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine.
Over the years, he has been a college professor, union organizer and labor journalist, and has tended bar at two-dozen or so drinking establishments. He holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in fiction writing from Columbia University School of the Arts and teaches writing at The Writer’s Center in Bethesda, Maryland.
Today, he’s going to talk a little bit about his reading during the pandemic. Thank you, Con.
Here are some of my pandemic books. It was a strange time for me as well as everyone else, though in some ways – what I did most days – not so different from more normal life these past few years. A good deal of my reading during the period was background research for a book project that’s not part of my 42nd Street Library Mystery series (newspapers, magazines, film as well as books). This meant I read a number of books that had to do with the witch hunt, red scare days, specifically for my project the summer of 1950.
My favorite of these books was Inside Out: A Memoir of the Blacklist by Walter Bernstein. Bernstein, a screen and television writer (Fail-Safe, Semi-Tough), who also wrote for The New Yorker, wrote the screenplay for the Woody Allen film The Front. I also really liked a fairly obscure book A Dancer in the Revolution by Howard Eugene (Stretch) Johnson with his daughter Wendy Johnson, a different sort of memoir of coming go age in Harlem in the 1930s, first as a dancer with the Duke Ellington jazz band (and others) and later as an organizer and leader of the Communist Party in Harlem. I read a couple of anti-Communist books also, Red Masquerade was one, by Angela Calomiris, an FBI informer, who joined the CP at the behest of the FBI and testified at the Smith Act trials, in which the CPUSA leadership was convicted (questionably) of plotting the violent overthrow of the U.S. government.
As for mysteries, I read a few by Rex Stout that were set during that period, The Second Confession (which featured sinister Communists), In the Best of Families, and a couple of others. I also read Colin Dexter’s first (Last Bus to Woodstock) and last (The Remorseful Day) Inspector Morse books, and will most likely read the ones in the middle now. I also read Peter Lovesey’s first book,Wobble to Death, a Sergeant Cribb’s Investigation, though I’ve read a bunch of his Peter Diamond books. One book published during the pandemic I read and liked was Open for Murder by Mary Angela. I also wanted to mention Adam Oyebanji’s A Quiet Teacher. In a starred review, Booklist said of A Quiet Teacher, “Imagine John le Carré attempting an Agatha Christie mystery. Or the other way around. In any case, that mix is at the heart of this stunning novel.” I read a few other mysteries during the pandemic but either didn’t like them much or don’t remember them at the moment (which doesn’t mean I didn’t like them.)
I wrote a draft of one book (the one set in 1950 that isn’t finished yet) and the fourth book in the 42nd Street Library mystery series, Murder by Definition,(pub date December 6) featuring Raymond Ambler, curator of crime fiction at the library, fellow-librarian Adele Morgan, bartender Brian McNulty, and homicide detective Mike Cosgrove, as well as a collection of victims and suspects. Ambler takes on the papers of once critically acclaimed but of late dissolute and almost forgotten hard-boiled mystery writer Will Ford. The controversial Ford is handful to deal with in real life, but creates infinitely more problems when Ambler discovers an unpublished short story in the collection that points to the possible cover up of a police murder years in the past by some of Mike Cosgrove’s fellow workers at the NYPD.
Here’s the description of Con Lehane’s Murder By Definition, due out Dec. 6. You can order a copy through the Web Store. https://store.poisonedpen.com/item/MiJUVODFqyN6FoqH5QW_FQ
Crime-fiction librarian Ray Ambler gets more than he bargained for when he acquires the archives of a controversial hardboiled crime author in this contemporary twisty mystery set in New York City.
Hardboiled crime writer Will Ford might be critically acclaimed, but he’s every bit as debauched and disreputable as the ne’er-do-well private eye in his novels. So when Ford offers Raymond Ambler – crime-fiction curator at New York City’s prestigious 42nd Street Library – a collection of his papers, Ambler wonders if the project will be more trouble than it’s worth. Still, the disgraced author is an important talent, and Ambler’s never been afraid of a fight.
Ambler’s ready for the controversy that greets news of the acquisition. He’s not ready, however, for what he finds when he finally receives the papers: a gripping unpublished short story apparently based on a real case, with an explosive author’s note. If it’s true, there’s been a shocking coverup at the heart of the NYPD – and a cop has got away with murder.
If it’s true. Ford’s not talking, and Ambler’s good friend Mike Cosgrove, a veteran NYPD homicide detective, is beyond skeptical. But as the pair investigate, they’re drawn into the sordid underbelly of 1990s New York, packed with renegade cops, thugs and mobsters . . . and they’ll be lucky to come back out alive.
Gritty and fast-paced, this story of police corruption, murder and mayhem is a great choice for fans of traditional mysteries with complex plotting, atmospheric settings and red herrings a plenty!