PJ Tracy and The Devil You Know

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Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, recently welcomed PJ Tracy for a virtual event. Tracy’s third book in the Detective Margaret Nolan series is The Devil You Know. There are signed copies available in the Web Store. https://tinyurl.com/5xw8z42v

Here’s the summary of The Devil You Know.

Darkness is nothing new to LAPD Detective Margaret Nolan, but in P.J. Tracy’s The Devil You Know, even she isn’t prepared for the scandalous deception of deadly proportions that shakes the very foundation of Hollywood and its untouchables…and leaves her entangled in its rotten core.

Los Angeles has many faces: the real LA where regular people live and work, the degenerate underbelly of any big city, and the rarefied world of wealth, power, and celebrity. LAPD Detective Margaret Nolan’s latest case plunges her into this insular realm of privilege, and gives her a glimpse of the decay behind the glitter.

Beloved actor Evan Hobbes is found in the rubble of a Malibu rockslide, a day after a fake video ruins his career. It’s not clear to Nolan if it’s an accident, a suicide, or a murder, and things get murkier as the investigation expands to his luminary friends and colleagues. Meanwhile, Hobbes’s agent is dealing with damage control, his psychotic boss, and a woman he’s scorned.

P. J. Tracy is the pseudonym of Traci Lambrecht, bestselling and award winning author of the Monkeewrench series. Lambrecht and her mother, P. J., wrote eight novels together as P. J. Tracy before P. J. passed away in 2016. Lambrecht has since continued the Monkeewrench series solo. She spent most of her childhood painting and showing Arabian horses, and graduated with a Russian Studies major from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, where she also studied voice. She now lives outside Minneapolis.

Enjoy the conversation about Tracy’s new book, and police as characters.

Kate Alice Marshall & What Lies in the Woods

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Kate Alice Marshall’s debut adult crime thriller, What Lies in the Woods, is The Poisoned Pen’s January Crime Collector’s Book of the Month. Barbara Peters, owner of the bookstore, recently welcomed Marshall to the bookstore to discuss What Lies in the Woods. There are signed copies of the book available in the Web Store. https://tinyurl.com/ms3zfh3a

Here’s the description of What Lies in the Woods.

They were eleven when they sent a killer to prison. They were heroes . . . but they were liars.

Kate Alice Marshall’s What Lies in the Woods is a thrilling novel about friendship, secrets, betrayal, and lies – and having the courage to face the past.

“Clever and deliciously dark.” —Alice Feeney, bestselling author of Rock Paper Scissors
“Shines an incisive light on the secrets of a small-town community…Great writing and boldly drawn characters bring a terrifying tale to all-too-vivid life.” —Kirkus, starred review

Naomi Shaw used to believe in magic. Twenty-two years ago, she and her two best friends, Cassidy and Olivia, spent the summer roaming the woods, imagining a world of ceremony and wonder. They called it the Goddess Game. The summer ended suddenly when Naomi was attacked. Miraculously, she survived her seventeen stab wounds and lived to identify the man who had hurt her. The girls’ testimony put away a serial killer, wanted for murdering six women. They were heroes.

And they were liars.

For decades, the friends have kept a secret worth killing for. But now Olivia wants to tell, and Naomi sets out to find out what really happened in the woods—no matter how dangerous the truth turns out to be.

“What Lies In the Woods is a gorgeous fever dream of a novel about the dangers lurking in the hearts and imaginations of little girls. Kate Alice Marshall deftly charts a winding path through her creepy woods, doubling back and changing course to build a labyrinth of secrets and lies in which I was delighted to lose myself for hours. Hands down, it’s the best thriller I’ve read in a long, long time.”—Chandler Baker, bestselling author of The Husbands

Kate Alice Marshall is the author of the young adult novels I Am Still Alive, Rules for Vanishing, and Our Last Echoes, as well as the Secrets of Eden Eld middle grade series. She lives outside of Seattle, where she spends her time playing board games, tending a chaotic vegetable garden, and wrangling dogs and children.

Enjoy the conversation from The Poisoned Pen.

The Edgar Award Nominees

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Readers who follow The Poisoned Pen’s events will recognize a number of names on the list of this year’s Edgar Award nominees. Check out the list, and then check the Web Store for the books. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

Congratulations to all of the nominees!

Mystery Writers of America Announces 2023 Edgar Allan Poe Award Nominations

January 19, 2023, New York, NY – Mystery Writers of America is proud to announce, as we celebrate the 214th anniversary of the birth of Edgar Allan Poe, the nominees for the 2023 Edgar Allan Poe Awards, honoring the best in mystery fiction, non-fiction and television published or produced in 2022. The 77th Annual Edgar® Awards will be celebrated on April 27, 2023, at the New York Marriott Marquis Times Square.

BEST NOVEL

Devil House by John Darnielle (Farrar, Straus and Giroux – MCD)
Like a Sister by Kellye Garrett (Hachette Book Group – Little, Brown & Co./Mulholland Books)
Gangland by Chuck Hogan (Hachette Book Group – Grand Central Publishing)
The Devil Takes You Home by Gabino Iglesias (Hachette Book Group – Little, Brown & Co./Mulholland Books)
Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka (HarperCollins – William Morrow)
The Maid by Nita Prose (Penguin Random House – Ballantine Books)

BEST FIRST NOVEL BY AN AMERICAN AUTHOR
 
Jackal by Erin E. Adams (Penguin Random House – Bantam)
Don’t Know Tough by Eli Cranor (Soho Press – Soho Crime)
Shutter by Ramona Emerson (Soho Press – Soho Crime)
More Than You’ll Ever Know by Katie Gutierrez (HarperCollins – William Morrow)
Portrait of a Thief by Grace D. Li (Penguin Random House – Tiny Reparations Books)


BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL
 
Quarry’s Blood by Max Allan Collins (Hard Case Crime)
On a Quiet Street by Seraphina Nova Glass (Harlequin Trade Publishing – Graydon House
Or Else by Joe Hart (Amazon Publishing – Thomas & Mercer)
Cleopatra’s Dagger by Carole Lawrence (Amazon Publishing – Thomas & Mercer)
A Familiar Stranger by A.R. Torre (Amazon Publishing – Thomas & Mercer)

BEST FACT CRIME

Slenderman: Online Obsession, Mental Illness, and the Violent Crime of Two Midwestern Girls by Kathleen Hale (Grove Atlantic – Grove Press)
Tell Me Everything: The Story of a Private Investigation by Erika Krouse (Flatiron Books)
Trailed: One Woman’s Quest to Solve the Shenandoah Murders by Kathryn Miles (Hachette Book Group – Workman Publishing – Algonquin Books)
American Caliph: The True Story of a Muslim Mystic, a Hollywood Epic, and the 1977 Siege of Washington, D.C. by Shahan Mufti (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
American Demon: Eliot Ness and the Hunt for America’s Jack the Ripper by Daniel Stashower (Minotaur Books)


BEST CRITICAL/BIOGRAPHICAL
 
The Life of Crime: Detecting the History of Mysteries and Their Creators by Martin Edwards (HarperCollins – Collins Crime Club)
The Bloomsbury Handbook to Agatha Christie by Mary Anna Evans & J.C. Bernthal (Bloomsbury – Bloomsbury Academic)
The Crime World of Michael Connelly: A Study of His Works and Their Adaptations by David Geherin (McFarland)
The Woman Beyond the Attic: The V.C. Andrews Story by Andrew Neiderman (Simon & Schuster – Gallery Books)
Agatha Christie: An Elusive Woman by Lucy Worsley (Pegasus Books – Pegasus Crime)
 
 
BEST SHORT STORY

“Red Flag,” Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine by Gregory Fallis (Dell Magazines)
“Backstory,” Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine by Charles John Harper (Dell Magazines)
“Locked-In,” Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine by William Burton McCormick (Dell Magazines)
“The Amnesty Box,” Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms by Tim McLoughlin (Akashic Books)
“First You Dream, Then You Die,” Black is the Night by Donna Moore (Titan Books)

BEST JUVENILE

The Swallowtail Legacy: Wreck at Ada’s Reef by Michael D. Beil (Holiday House – Pixel+Ink)
The Area 51 Files by Julie Buxbaum (Random House Children’s Books – Delacorte Press)
Aggie Morton Mystery Queen: The Seaside Corpse by Marthe Jocelyn (Penguin Random House Canada – Tundra Books)
Adventures on Trains: Murder on the Safari Star by M.G. Leonard & Sam Sedgman (Macmillan Children’s Publishing – Feiwel & Friends)
Chester Keene Cracks the Code by Kekla Magoon (Random House Children’s Books – Wendy Lamb Books)
 
BEST YOUNG ADULT
 
Pretty Dead Queens by Alexa Donne (Random House Children’s Books – Crown BFYR)
Frightmares by Eva V. Gibson (Random House Children’s Books – Underlined)
The Black Girls Left Standing by Juliana Goodman (Macmillan Children’s Books – Feiwel & Friends)
The Red Palace by June Hur (Macmillan Children’s Books – Feiwel & Friends)
Lock the Doors by Vincent Ralph (Sourcebooks – Fire)

BEST TELEVISION EPISODE TELEPLAY

“One Mighty and Strong” – Under the Banner of Heaven, Written by Brandon Boyce (Hulu/FX)
“Episode 1” – Magpie Murders, Written by Anthony Horowitz (Masterpiece/PBS)
“Episode 1″ – Karen Pirie, Written by Emer Kenny (BritBox)
“When Harry Met Fergus” – Harry Wild, Written by David Logan (Acorn TV)
“The Reagan Way” – Blue Bloods, Written by Siobhan Byrne O’Connor (CBS)
“Eighteen Wheels A Predator” – Law & Order: SVU, Written by Brianna Yellen & Monet Hurst-Mendoza (NBC Universal)

 
 ROBERT L. FISH MEMORIAL AWARD

“Dogs in the Canyon,” Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine by Mark Harrison (Dell Magazines)

THE SIMON & SCHUSTER MARY HIGGINS CLARK AWARD
 
Because I Could Not Stop for Death by Amanda Flower (Penguin Random House – Berkley)
The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill (Sourcebooks – Poisoned Pen Press)
The Disinvited Guest by Carol Goodman (HarperCollins – William Morrow)
A Dreadful Splendor by B.R. Myers (HarperCollins – William Morrow)
Never Name the Dead by D.M. Rowell (Crooked Lane Books)
 
THE G.P. PUTNAM’S SONS SUE GRAFTON MEMORIAL AWARD
 
Secret Lives by Mark de Castrique (Sourcebooks – Poisoned Pen Press)
An Unforgiving Place by Claire Kells (Crooked Lane Books)
Hideout by Louisa Luna (Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group – Doubleday)
Behind the Lie by Emilya Naymark (Crooked Lane Books)
Secrets Typed in Blood by Stephen Spotswood (Knopf Doubleday Publishing – Doubleday)


THE LILIAN JACKSON BRAUN MEMORIAL AWARD

The Shadow of Memory by Connie Berry (Crooked Lane Books)
Buried in a Good Book by Tamara Berry (Sourcebooks – Poisoned Pen Press)
Smile Beach Murder by Alicia Bessette (Penguin Random House – Berkley)
Desert Getaway by Michael Craft (Brash Books)
The Marlow Murder Club by Robert Thorogood (Sourcebooks – Poisoned Pen Press)

SPECIAL AWARDS

GRAND MASTER

Michael Connelly

Joanne Fluke

RAVEN AWARD

Crime Writers of Color

Eddie Muller for Noir Alley and The Noir Foundation

ELLERY QUEEN AWARD

The Strand Magazine

Lefty Award Nominees

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Yesterday, Left Coast Crime sent out the press release featuring nominees for the 2023 Lefty Awards. Check out the list, and then check the Web Store for the books. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

2023 Left Coast Crime “Lefty” Award Nominations Announced
January 17, 2023 — Tucson — Left Coast Crime 2023 will be presenting four Lefty Awards at
our 33rd annual convention, to be held in Tucson in March: humorous, historical, debut, and best.


The awards will be voted on at the convention and presented at a banquet on Saturday, March 18,
at El Conquistador Resort in the Oro Valley of Tucson. The award nominees have been selected
by convention registrants, and LCC is delighted to announce the 2023 Lefty Award nominees for
books published in 2022:


Lefty for Best Humorous Mystery Novel.

The nominees are:
? Ellen Byron, Bayou Book Thief (Berkley Prime Crime)
? Jennifer J. Chow, Death by Bubble Tea (Berkley Prime Crime)
? A.J. Devlin, Five Moves of Doom (NeWest Press)
? T.G. Herren, A Streetcar Named Murder (Crooked Lane Books)
? Catriona McPherson, Scot in a Trap (Severn House)


Lefty for Best Historical Mystery Novel for books set before 1970 (The Bill Gottfried
Memorial).

The nominees are:
? Dianne Freeman, A Bride’s Guide to Marriage and Murder (Kensington Books)
? Catriona McPherson, In Place of Fear (Mobius)
? Wanda M. Morris, Anywhere You Run (William Morrow)
? Karen Odden, Under a Veiled Moon (Crooked Lane Books)
? Ann Parker, The Secret in the Wall (Poisoned Pen Press)
? Iona Whishaw, Framed in Fire (TouchWood Editions)


Lefty for Best Debut Mystery Novel.

The nominees are:
? Erin E. Adams, Jackal (Bantam Books)
? Eli Cranor, Don’t Know Tough (Soho Crime)
? Ramona Emerson, Shutter (Soho Crime)
? Meredith Hambrock, Other People’s Secrets (Crooked Lane Books)
? Harini Nagendra, The Bangalore Detectives Club (Pegasus Crime)
? Rob Osler, Devil’s Chew Toy (Crooked Lane Books)
? Jane Pek, The Verifiers (Vintage Books)


Lefty for Best Mystery Novel (not in other categories).

The nominees are:
? Kellye Garrett, Like a Sister (Mulholland Books)
? Laurie R. King, Back to the Garden (Bantam Books)
? James L’Etoile, Dead Drop (Level Best Books)
? Gigi Pandian, Under Lock & Skeleton Key (Minotaur Books)
? Louise Penny, A World of Curiosities (Minotaur Books)
? Alex Segura, Secret Identity (Flatiron Books)

The Left Coast Crime Convention is an annual event sponsored by mystery fans, both readers and
authors. Held in the western half of North America, LCC’s intent is to host an event where
readers, authors, critics, librarians, publishers, and other fans can gather in convivial surroundings
to pursue their mutual interests. Lefty Awards have been given since 1996.


In 2020, Left Coast Crime received the Raven Award from Mystery Writers of America, for
“outstanding achievement in the mystery field outside the realm of creative writing.”


The 33rd annual Left Coast Crime Convention will take place in Tucson, Arizona, March 16-19,

  1. This year’s Guests of Honor are authors Glen Erik Hamilton and Sujata Massey. J.A. Jance
    will be recognized for Lifetime Achievement. Dru Ann Love is the Fan Guest of Honor, and
    author Ellen Byron will serve as Toastmaster.

Kate Alice Marshall’s Hot Book of the Week

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Kate Alice Marshall will be guest author at The Poisoned Pen on Thursday, January 19 at 7 PM for a live event. She’ll be talking about her new book, What Lies in the Woods. There are signed copies of Marshall’s book, the Hot Book of the Week, in the Web Store. https://tinyurl.com/2vadzwry

Here’s the description of What Lies in the Woods.

They were eleven when they sent a killer to prison. They were heroes . . . but they were liars.

Kate Alice Marshall’s What Lies in the Woods is a thrilling novel about friendship, secrets, betrayal, and lies – and having the courage to face the past.

“Clever and deliciously dark.” —Alice Feeney, bestselling author of Rock Paper Scissors
“Shines an incisive light on the secrets of a small-town community…Great writing and boldly drawn characters bring a terrifying tale to all-too-vivid life.” —Kirkus, starred review

Naomi Shaw used to believe in magic. Twenty-two years ago, she and her two best friends, Cassidy and Olivia, spent the summer roaming the woods, imagining a world of ceremony and wonder. They called it the Goddess Game. The summer ended suddenly when Naomi was attacked. Miraculously, she survived her seventeen stab wounds and lived to identify the man who had hurt her. The girls’ testimony put away a serial killer, wanted for murdering six women. They were heroes.

And they were liars.

For decades, the friends have kept a secret worth killing for. But now Olivia wants to tell, and Naomi sets out to find out what really happened in the woods—no matter how dangerous the truth turns out to be.

“What Lies In the Woods is a gorgeous fever dream of a novel about the dangers lurking in the hearts and imaginations of little girls. Kate Alice Marshall deftly charts a winding path through her creepy woods, doubling back and changing course to build a labyrinth of secrets and lies in which I was delighted to lose myself for hours. Hands down, it’s the best thriller I’ve read in a long, long time.”—Chandler Baker, bestselling author of The Husbands

Kate Alice Marshall is the author of the young adult novels I Am Still Alive, Rules for Vanishing, and Our Last Echoes, as well as the Secrets of Eden Eld middle grade series. She lives outside of Seattle, where she spends her time playing board games, tending a chaotic vegetable garden, and wrangling dogs and children.

Michael Bennett’s Debut Thriller, Better the Blood

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Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, welcomed New Zealand author Michael Bennett to talk about his debut thriller, Better the Blood. If you watch the event, Bennett talks about his family involvement in the production of the book. You can order a copy of Better the Blood through the Web Store. https://store.poisonedpen.com/item/wLu_br6H3tUtq22IznQevw

Here’s the summary of Better the Blood.

An absorbing, clever debut thriller that speaks to the longstanding injustices faced by New Zealand’s indigenous peoples, by an acclaimed M?ori screenwriter and director

A tenacious M?ori detective, Hana Westerman juggles single motherhood, endemic prejudice, and the pressures of her career in Auckland CIB. Led to a crime scene by a mysterious video, she discovers a man ritualistically hanging in a secret room and a puzzling inward-curving inscription. Delving into the investigation after a second, apparently unrelated, death, she uncovers a chilling connection to an historic crime: 160 years before, during the brutal and bloody British colonization of New Zealand, a troop of colonial soldiers unjustly executed a M?ori Chief.

Hana realizes that the murders are utu—the M?ori tradition of rebalancing for the crime committed eight generations ago. There were six soldiers in the British troop, and since descendants of two of the soldiers have been killed, four more potential murders remain. Hana is thus hunting New Zealand’s first serial killer.

The pursuit soon becomes frighteningly personal, recalling the painful event, two decades before, when Hana, then a new cop, was part of a police team sent to end by force a land rights occupation by indigenous peoples on the same ancestral mountain where the Chief was killed, calling once more into question her loyalty to her roots. Worse still, a genealogical link to the British soldiers brings the case terrifyingly close to Hana’s own family. Twisty and thought-provoking, Better the Blood is the debut of a remarkable new talent in crime fiction.

Michael Bennett (Ng?ti Pikiao, Ng?ti Whakaue) is an award-winning screenwriter, director, and author whose films have been selections at major festivals, including Cannes, Berlin, Toronto, and New York. His nonfiction book, In Dark Places, which explored an infamous miscarriage of justice, won awards, and his young adult graphic novel, Helen and the Go-Go Ninjas, was a finalist for the 2019 New Zealand Book Awards.

Please welcome Michael Bennett.

Stacy Willingham & All the Dangerous Things

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Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, recently welcomed Stacy Willingham to the bookstore. Signed copies of Willingham’s latest book, All the Dangerous Things, are available through the Web Store. https://store.poisonedpen.com/item/3Czr8TaWU99k-B3vrNTtWA

Here’s the description of All the Dangerous Things.

Following up her instant New York Times bestseller, A Flicker in the Dark, Stacy Willingham delivers a totally gripping thriller about a desperate mother with a troubled past in All the Dangerous Things.

One year ago, Isabelle Drake’s life changed forever: her toddler son, Mason, was taken out of his crib in the middle of the night while she and her husband were asleep in the next room. With little evidence and few leads for the police to chase, the case quickly went cold. However, Isabelle cannot rest until Mason is returned to her—literally.

Except for the occasional catnap or small blackout where she loses track of time, she hasn’t slept in a year.

Isabelle’s entire existence now revolves around finding him, but she knows she can’t go on this way forever. In hopes of jarring loose a new witness or buried clue, she agrees to be interviewed by a true-crime podcaster—but his interest in Isabelle’s past makes her nervous. His incessant questioning paired with her severe insomnia has brought up uncomfortable memories from her own childhood, making Isabelle start to doubt her recollection of the night of Mason’s disappearance, as well as second-guess who she can trust… including herself. But she is determined to figure out the truth no matter where it leads.

STACY WILLINGHAM is the New York Times and internationallybestselling author of A Flicker in the Dark. Before turning to fiction, she was a copywriter and brand strategist for various marketing agencies. She earned her BA in magazine journalism from the University of Georgia and MFA in writing from the Savannah College of Art and Design. Her work has been translated in over 30 countries. She currently lives in Charleston, South Carolina, with her husband, Britt, and Labradoodle, Mako, where she is always working on her next book.

I hope you enjoy watching the event. And, I promise you’ll find Stacy Willingham’s introduction to her book to be fascinating.

Debut – Iris Yamashita’s City Under One Roof

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Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, recently welcomed Iris Yamashita whose debut novel is City Under One Roof. There are signed copies of City Under One Roof available through the Web Store. https://store.poisonedpen.com/item/rbwr187Wriu1jVNUZ7rLtQ

Here’s the description of City Under One Roof.

A stranded detective tries to solve a murder in a tiny Alaskan town where everyone lives in a single high-rise building, in this gripping debut by an Academy Award–nominated screenwriter.

When a local teenager discovers a severed hand and foot washed up on the shore of the small town of Point Mettier, Alaska, Cara Kennedy is on the case. A detective from Anchorage, she has her own motives for investigating the possible murder in this isolated place, which can be accessed only by a tunnel.

After a blizzard causes the tunnel to close indefinitely, Cara is stuck among the odd and suspicious residents of the town—all 205 of whom live in the same high-rise building and are as icy as the weather. Cara teams up with Point Mettier police officer Joe Barkowski, but before long the investigation is upended by fearsome gang members from a nearby native village.

Haunted by her past, Cara soon discovers that everyone in this town has something to hide. Will she be able to unravel their secrets before she unravels?”

Iris Yamashita is an Academy Award–nominated screenwriter for the movie Letters from Iwo Jima. She has been working in Hollywood for fifteen years developing material for both film and streaming, has taught screenwriting at UCLA, and is an advocate of women and diversity in the entertainment industry. She has also been a judge and mentor for various film and writing programs, and lives in California.

Enjoy this discussion of the debut novel.