Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, welcomed James R. Benn back to the bookstore to talk about his new book, A Bitter Wind.. She said the two have been together for all twenty of the books in the series, and he’s already submitted the next one in the Billy Boyle series. Benn said when he started the series, he thought he’d have enough material for six or seven books about World War II. There are signed copies of A Bitter Wind available in the Webstore. https://bit.ly/4mp7LNd

Here’s the summary of A Bitter Wind.

To solve a murder at an English airbase, US Army Captain Billy Boyle must immerse himself in the fascinating and secretive world of WWII radio espionage.

Christmas Day 1944: After his last mission put him in the tailspin of the Battle of the Bulge, Captain Billy Boyle travels to southeast England to visit his girlfriend, Diana Seaton, for a brief holiday respite. Diana is engaged in classified work at RAF Hawkinge, including Operation Corona, which recruits German-speaking Women’s Auxiliary Air Force members—many of them Jewish refugees from the Kindertransport rescue—to countermand German orders and direct night fighters away from Allied bombers.

It’s fascinating and critical espionage work, but it’s laced with peril, as Billy finds out. On a scenic Christmas walk along the White Cliffs of Dover, Billy and Diana stumble upon the dead body of a US Air Force officer. In the dead man’s pocket are papers with highly confidential information about radio interception operations. Information worth killing over.

As Billy digs into the secret world of codebreakers and radio jammers stationed at Hawkinge, another body turns up. Now Billy must find out what connects these two men—and who was so hell-bent on silencing them. Enlisting the help of his long-time associates, Billy undertakes another thrilling investigation that brings him to war-torn Yugoslavia, where he must rescue an escaped POW who may be the only person who knows the truth.

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James R. Benn is the author of the Billy Boyle World War II mysteries. The debut, Billy Boyle, was selected as a Top Five Book of the Year by Book Sense and was a Dilys Award nominee, A Blind Goddess was longlisted for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, The Rest Is Silence was a Barry Award nominee, and The Devouring was a Macavity Award nominee. Benn, a former librarian, lives on the Gulf Coast of Florida with his wife, Deborah Mandel.

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Enjoy James R. Benn’s conversation with Barbara Peters.

It wouldn’t be an appearance by John Scalzi if he didn’t discuss cats. Patrick King welcomed him back to The Poisoned Pen to discuss his latest book and his cats. Scalzi’s book, The Shattering Peace, is the long-awaited book in his Old Man’s War series. It’s been ten years since the last one. You can order a signed copy of The Shattering Peace through the Webstore. https://bit.ly/3K90Udu

Here’s the description of The Shattering Peace.

After a decade, acclaimed science fiction master John Scalzi returns to the galaxy of the Old Man’s War series with the long awaited seventh book, The Shattering Peace

THE PEACE IS SHATTERING

For a decade, peace has reigned in interstellar space. A tripartite agreement between the Colonial Union, the Earth, and the alien Conclave has kept the forces of war at bay, even when some would have preferred to return to the fighting and struggle of former times. For now, more sensible heads have prevailed – and have even championed unity.

But now, there is a new force that threatens the hard-maintained peace: The Consu, the most advanced intelligent species humans have ever met, are on the cusp of a species-defining civil war. This war is between Consu factions… but nothing the Consu ever do is just about them. The Colonial Union, the Earth and the Conclave have been unwillingly dragged into the conflict, in the most surprising of ways.

Gretchen Trujillo is a mid-level diplomat, working in an unimportant part of the Colonial Union bureaucracy. But when she is called to take part in a secret mission involving representatives from every powerful faction in space, what she finds there has the chance to redefine the destinies of humans and aliens alike… or destroy them forever.

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JOHN SCALZI is one of the most popular science fiction authors of his generation. His debut, Old Man’s War, won him the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. His New York Times bestsellers include The Last Colony, Fuzzy Nation, Redshirts (which won the Hugo Award for Best Novel), The Last Emperox, The Kaiju Preservation Society, and Starter Villain. Material from his blog, Whatever, has earned him two other Hugo Awards. He lives in Ohio with his wife and daughter.

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Enjoy the conversation with John Scalzi.

It is with great regret that The Poisoned Pen Bookstore acknowledges the death of a long-time friend of the crime fiction community and the bookstore. Thomas Perry’s family announced his Sept. 15 death. Perry’s last appearance at the bookstore was delayed due to the fires in Los Angeles, but he appeared in January to discuss his latest book, Pro Bono, with Barbara Peters, owner of the bookstore.

Thomas Perry won a number of awards for his books, beginning with the Edgar Award for Best First Novel for The Butcher’s Boy in 1983. His most recent award was just within the last couple weeks. He won the Barry Award for Best Action Thriller for Hero. The tenth book in his popular Jane Whitefield series, The Tree of Light and Flowers, is tentatively scheduled for release in March 2026.

Thomas Perry, 1947-2025. May he rest in peace.

Patrick Millikin from The Poisoned Pen recently welcomed Walter Mosley back for another virtual appearance. Mosley says he enjoys talking with Millikin because Patrick knows Mosley’s books better than he does. This time, they united to talk about Mosley’s latest Easy Rawlins mystery, Gray Dawn. There are signed books on order through the Webstore. https://bit.ly/46A4Igp

Here’s the summary of Gray Dawn.

In this thrilling mystery from “master of craft and narrative” Walter Mosley (National Book Foundation), Detective Easy Rawlins has settled into the happy rhythm of his new life when a dark siren from his past returns and threatens to destroy the peace he’s fought for.

The name Easy Rawlins stirs excitement in the hearts of readers and fear in the hearts of his foes. His success has bought him a thriving detective agency, with its first female detective; a remote home, shared with children and pets and lovers, high atop the hills overlooking gritty Los Angeles; and more trouble, more problems, and more threat to those whom he loves. In other words, he’s still beset on all sides.

A number of below-the-law powerbrokers plead with Easy to locate a mysterious, dangerous woman—Lutisha James, though she’s gone by another name that Easy will immediately recognize. 1970s Los Angeles is a transient city of delicate, violent balances, and Lutisha has disturbed that. She also has a secret that will upend Easy’s own life, painfully closer to home.

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WALTER MOSLEY is one of America’s most celebrated writers. He was given the 2020 National Book Award’s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, named a Grand Master of the Mystery Writers of America, and honored with the Anisfield-Wolf Award, a Grammy, a PEN USA Lifetime Achievement Award, the Robert Kirsch Award, numerous Edgars, and several NAACP Image Awards. His work has been translated into twenty-five languages. He has published fiction and nonfiction in The New Yorker, Playboy, and The Nation. As an executive producer, he adapted his novel The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey for AppleTV+. He co-wrote the adaptation of his novel The Man in My Basement to stream on Hulu, and he served as a writer and executive producer for FX’s Snowfall. He divides his time between Brooklyn and Santa Monica.

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Enjoy Patrick Millikin’s conversation with Walter Mosley.

End Game is the final book in Jeffrey Archer’s William Warwick series. Barbara Peters welcomed him for a virtual event for The Poisoned Pen. Although the book doesn’t come out in the U.S. until Sept. 23, you can preorder a copy through the Webstore. https://bit.ly/46pTTfD

Here’s the description of End Game.

William Warwick and Ross Hogan will return, for one last time, in a gripping and unputdownable finale. Available to pre-order now!

London, 2012. The eyes of the world are on Britain as the country prepares to host the Olympic Games.?

But the glare of the spotlight makes London a target for some of the most dangerous people on earth. And the moment the bid is won, an international conspiracy is set in motion to unleash a devastating attack that will leave the world in chaos.?

One man stands between triumph and disaster: Commander William Warwick, heading up Scotland Yard’s elite team. But as he pursues the shadowy organisation, he sets off a deadly game of cat and mouse which will take him from the bustling streets of London to the hidden corridors of power. Can Warwick stop the assassin before the greatest show on earth becomes a catastrophe … ?

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Enjoy the conversation with Sir Jeffrey Archer.

Hank Phillippi Ryan, author of the new thriller, All This Could Be Yours, will be appearing at a virtual event for The Poisoned Pen on Monday, Oct. 6 at 4 PM MST. You can catch the event on the bookstore’s YouTube or Facebook pages. If you miss it, you can also watch it afterwards. Signed copies are available now in the Webstore. https://bit.ly/4mYEBp7

We’re lucky to have a review of All This Could Be Yours from Oline Cogdill. it was published first in the South Florida Sun Sentinel. Thank you, Oline

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Book review: ‘All This Could Be Yours’ calls out cult of celebrity, perils of social media

‘All This Could Be Yours’ by Hank Phillippi Ryan. Minotaur, 368 pages, $29

Fame can be double-edged. It can bring a person admiration, but it also can produce jealousy and even obsession veering into stalking from those not in the public eye. That’s the situation that bedevils the popular and appealing Tessa Calloway in Hank Phillippi Ryan’s inviting “All This Could Be Yours.”

The book works well as a look at the cult of celebrity and the perils of social media — how so many seem to need to express opinions about others’ lives, sometimes with vile comments.

Three years ago, 40-something Tessa livestreamed the day she quit her dead-end job to write novels. It was a major gamble for the wife and mother of two, but one she felt she needed. Those millions who watched that livestream were ready for Tessa’s first novel, “All This Could Be Yours.” Now on a mega three-week book tour, Tessa hears at each stop how her character, the intelligent, fearless Annabelle Brown, has inspired them. Many mention how that inspiration led them to also quit their jobs for a more satisfying life, as Tessa and her character, Annabelle, had done. Tessa feels the love from the many bookstore stops, but she also feels guilty about not being at home for her family.

The public’s questions are mostly respectful, but some readers’ questions feel intrusive. Tessa begins to wonder whether she is being stalked, when too-personal notes appear under her hotel room’s door, items in her suitcase disappear and her luggage is lost. Then she is threatened with blackmail over a childhood incident. Her worries about her family grow from not being there to parent to worrying about their safety.

Ryan’s knack for realistic suspense that could occur to anyone again shines in “All This Could Be Yours,” zeroing in on seemingly innocuous situations that escalate into something threatening. Tessa’s ambition and her worries about her family while she is away add to the believable plot.

It may seem like a glamorous life to be on a book tour, talking about your work, but Ryan balances that with showing the grueling schedule of a different city every day, late planes, no time to eat and other challenges.

“All This Could Be Yours” is another entertaining story from Ryan.

Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, introduced Whitney Clark from “Good Morning Arizona”, who acted as guest host for Beatriz Williams’ appearance. Williams’ new book is Under the Stars. There are signed copies of the book in the Webstore. https://bit.ly/3HYPc4p

Here’s the description of Under the Stars.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • When a daughter and her famous mother return to Winthrop Island to confront their complicated past, they discover a secret trove of paintings that connect them to a mysterious woman who vanished on a luxury steamship two centuries earlier.

From the New York Times bestselling author of Husbands & Lovers comes an epic tale of family legacy, love, and truths that echo down generations.

Audrey Fisher has struggled all her life to emerge from the shadow of her famous mother by forging a career as a world-class chef. Meredith Fisher’s glamorous screen persona disguises the trauma of the tragic accident that haunts her dreams. Neither woman wants to return to the New England island they left behind and its complicated emotional ties, but Meredith has one last chance to sober up and salvage her big comeback, and where else but discreet, moneyed Winthrop Island can a famous actress spend the summer without the intrusion of other people? Until Audrey discovers an old wooden chest among the belongings of her estranged bartender father, Mike Kennedy, and the astonishing contents draw the women deep into Winthrop’s past and its many secrets…attracting the interest of their handsome neighbor, Sedge Peabody. How did a trove of paintings from one of America’s greatest artists wind up in the cellar of the Mohegan Inn? And who is the mysterious woman portrayed on every canvas?

On a stormy November night in 1846, Providence Dare flees Boston and boards the luxury steamship Atlantic one step ahead of the law….or so she believes. But when a catastrophic accident leaves the ship at the mercy of a mighty gale, Providence finds herself trapped in a deadly game of cat and mouse with the one man who knows her real identity—the detective investigating the suspicious death of her employer, the painter Henry Irving. As the Atlantic fights for her life and the rocky shore of Winthrop Island edges closer, a desperate Providence searches for her chance to escape…before the sea swallows her without a trace.

In Under the Stars, the destinies of three women converge across centuries, as a harrowing true disaster at the dawn of the steamship era evokes a complex legacy of family secrets in modern-day New England. Williams has written a timeless epic of mothers and daughters, of love lost and found, and of the truths that echo down generations.

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Beatriz Williams is the New York Times and internationally bestselling author of Husbands & Lovers and many other novels, including four novels in collaboration with bestselling authors Karen White and Lauren Willig. A graduate of Stanford University with an MBA in finance from Columbia University, Beatriz has won numerous awards for her fiction, which has been translated into more than a dozen languages. Beatriz lives near the Connecticut shore with her husband and four children.

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Enjoy Beatriz Williams’ discussion of her writing and Under the Stars.

Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, welcomed Lou Berney to discuss his new book, Crooks, with guest host Meg Gardiner. Berney talks about his background, and how you’re shaped by your early upbringing, the theme of his new book. Check the Website to see if there are any signed copies of Crooks still available. https://bit.ly/4683jw0

Here’s the summary of Crooks.

“Lou Berney’s Crooks stands with some of the finest crime novels ever written.” — Don Winslow, #1 Internationally bestselling author

“A panoramic, cross-generational look at a unique family pursuing their individual visions of the American dream.” — Joseph Finder, New York Times bestselling author

From award-winning author Lou Berney comes an electrifying new novel that follows a uniquely American crime family on an unforgettable journey across four decades.

You’ve never met a family like the Mercurios.

They say the American dream is going farther in life than your parents ever did. But how does that work if your parents are criminals?

For Buddy, a low-level mob wise guy, and Lillian, a charming pickpocket, the criminal underworld is the only life they’ve ever known. When they’re forced to flee the glittering Babylon of Las Vegas, they end up opening a club in Oklahoma City—a town that quickly feels like a gold mine of fresh marks and easy new money. Along for the ride are their five children, all of them raised into the family business of crime—until the day comes when they each have a chance to make their own way in the world, even if they can never completely escape the family’s long, dark shadow.         

Jeremy, the family’s Golden Boy, will throw himself into the glittering excesses of a drug-fueled Hollywood in the roaring 1980s. 

Tallulah, the daredevil, will find herself in the deadly Wild West of post-communist Moscow.

Ray, the dope, the dumb muscle since he was a kid, wants nothing more than to put down his gun, but following orders is all he’s ever known.  

Alice, the genius who renounced her life of crime long ago, now sees her white-shoe law firm being blackmailed and must tap into old skills to save both the company and her own life.

And Piggy, a civilian always on the outside looking in on his crime family, desperate to be part of the gang.

Crooks is an epic novel about a truly unforgettable family–forty years of peril as each Mercurio has to grapple, in their own way, with the family’s powerful criminal legacy.

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Lou Berney is the multiple award–winning author of November Road, The Long and Faraway Gone, Double Barrel Bluff, Dark Ride, as well as Gutshot Straight and Whiplash River. His short fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, Ploughshares, and the Pushcart Prize anthology. He lives in Oklahoma City.

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Enjoy Lou Berney’s conversation with Meg Gardiner.

Thank you to Oline Cogdill for sharing her review of Mariah Fredericks’ mystery, The Girl in the Green Dress. There are copies on order in the Webstore. https://bit.ly/4mYjQdq

Cogdill’s review first appeared in the South Florida Sun Sentinel.

Book review: ‘Girl in the Green Dress’ mystery weaves in real characters including F. Scott Fitzgerald

‘The Girl in the Green Dress’ by Mariah Fredericks; Minotaur; 336 pages; $29

Mariah Fredericks takes another leap in the riveting “The Girl in the Green Dress,” showing her skill at creating engrossing historical mysteries depicting real people in the context of their era while pinpointing what that time frame was like.

Set in New York City during 1920, “The Girl in the Green Dress” evokes a city — and a country — changing. Women were bobbing their hair, wearing shorter dresses, drinking “bathtub gin.” Prohibition began during January of that year; women received the right to vote that August. The attraction of New York was obvious. “When people talk about New York, they’re really talking about themselves being in New York, like the city’s a mirror they like to see themselves in,” says one character.

The historical companions for “The Girl in the Green Dress” are the charming gambler and womanizer Joseph Elwell, beginning journalist Morris Markey, and writer and socialites F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald. Fredericks wraps these real figures in a tight, suspenseful plot that captures their personalities.

Elwell’s skill at bridge made the game a fad among the wealthy and brought him riches along the way. His still-unsolved murder in his townhouse located in an up-and-coming area of Manhattan will be the career jump that fledgling journalist Morris needs. The story comes to Morris, who is asleep in his apartment when he hears a woman screaming across the street that her boss has been killed. The woman is Elwell’s housekeeper, who lets Morris in when he mentions he was attached to the Red Cross during WWI. Elwell is beyond help, but Morris uses the time to look around the townhouse, saying he is checking if the killer is still there. Naturally, he’s looking for background for his story.

Morris’ search gives him insight into the deceased, whom he had seen the night before with a woman wearing a dress of “green and silver shards, as if … showered in dollar bills.”

Morris knows that to properly report Elwell’s murder, and perhaps find his killer, he needs an entry into New York society. At 21 and newly arrived to New York from Virginia, Morris is still finding his way.

Enter the Fitzgeralds. Morris had briefly met F. Scott and thinks he might help. Instead, it’s Zelda who considers showing Morris around, and maybe finding a killer, to be an adventure. Zelda is definitely not the “girl” in green, but she might know her.

Fredericks does not sanitize the real people she writes about but delivers complete portraits that include their strengths and flaws, as she did in her terrific 2024 novel, “The Wharton Plot,” about author Edith Wharton. And the Fitzgeralds have a lot of flaws, which have been documented in numerous biographies.

The couple is exhausting to be around. They’ve been kicked out of several hotels because of their drinking, loud parties and excessive behavior. Yet both are infinitely charming and interesting. Morris can’t deny that F. Scott is gifted, which tends to make people forgive both for their antics. Morris’ comment that one had to go to the “edge” to appreciate the chaotic New York of the 1920s also applies to the Fitzgeralds: “Because the view is spectacular.” The novel also shows how Morris would become a respected journalist with a long career.

Fredericks illustrates the appeal of this era and people, showing why Fitzgerald’s work, especially “The Great Gatsby,” is having a revival.

“The Girl in the Green Dress” is the perfect marriage of character, era, setting and intriguing plot.