S.J. Rozan’s First Do No Harm is a popular book to review this season. Author Dana Stabenow read and reviewed it a couple weeks ago on her blog. You can still order a copy through the Webstore. https://tinyurl.com/4k2rsy8p

Thank you, Dana, for sharing your review.

“When I go,” Juarez said, “I want to leave a crater.”

There’s a thing editors hammer home to the authors of a new book in a series–Don’t forget the backstory! You never know when someone new to a series will pick up a copy of, oh, say the sixteenth book in a series about a two-person PI agency in New York City, one a Chinese American woman and the other an ex-Southerner his partner’s mom persists in calling the “White Baboon” no matter how preppy he dresses with her in mind. Yes, it’s Lydia-and-Bill time again and in this case Rozan serves up a picture-perfect, by the numbers investigation into the murder of a nurse at the hospital where Lydia’s brother Elliott runs the ER. The police have a suspect but Elliott thinks he’s innocent and asks Lydia and Bill to find out who did. 

The victim had not been well-loved, and as the case develops isn’t by Lydia and Bill, either.

“Oh my God,” I said. I was on the verge of adding that if I were on the committee I’d want to kill her, but that seemed monumentally tasteless, considering someone actually had.

The subsequent plot has has more divagations than a sidewinder as Linda and Bill keep turning up an astonishing amount of scams at the hospital, including theft, embezzlement, bribery, payroll fraud, and I’m not sure that room in the basement qualifies as running a brothel but [redacted] sure made a pile off it. The victim was involved in some way in all of the scams but frustratingly none of them was what got her killed. Curiouser and curiouser.

Some old friends reappear, like Linus and Trella

I called my cousin Linus Wong, founder and president of Wong Security Services (“Protecting People Like You from People Like Us”), a two-person cyber firm operating out of Linus’s parents’ garage in Flushing, Queens.
“Cuz!”
“I want to hire you, if you’re not too busy.“
“Too busy for you?” Linus said. “My mom would kill me. Wassup?”

t’s good to have relatives in the biz, whatever that biz is. There are plenty of new people, too, like a progressively crankier NYPD detective

“That lawyer—Cohen?—already left me standing with my thumb up my ass, circumstantial this, circumstantial that, and I didn’t exactly appreciate it. Next time I arrest that weirdo I’ll have all the evidence I need.”
“And if you don’t?” I said.
She stared straight at me. “I won’t arrest him until I do. If you two fuck with me, though, I’ll arrest you on any pretext I can find.”

a security officer I suspect will be working for Lydia and Bill before long

Juarez took two tentative steps forward to get a closer look at the concrete where Sophia Scott had died. “Not much to see, is there?”
“No.”
“When I go,” Juarez said, “I want to leave a crater.”

a couple of morgue attendants, whose proper job title you will learn is “diener,” with a serious pun problem

“Usually it’s not this dead.”
I glanced from one to the other. “You don’t really make dead jokes here.”
“They do,” said Juarez. “And you can’t get them to stop.”
Paul shrugged. “Kills the time.”
“There’s a large body of evidence proving that,” Valerie said. “But Juarez doesn’t dig it. She’s too stiff.”
“Gallows humor,” said Paul. “I mean, we’re just hangin around.”

and a hospital administrator who got rid of her soul so she’d have more room for her ambition to succeed no matter what it cost anyone else.

“The police think it’s likely he’s guilty. So likely that I understand he’s been re-arrested. I get frequent updates on their investigation.”
I almost said, Wonderful for you, so do we, but it could get very playground in here very fast.

It’s a rough-and-tumble week as as Lydia and Bill follow the dead woman down one blind alley after another, discover another victim, and orchestrate a classic “criminal returning to the scene of the crime” denouement where shots are fired, after which there is a very satisfactory showdown with the person both Lydia and I think is the true villain of the piece. You won’t believe what people get up to in those hospitals.

I do so love me an ending where maybe not everyone gets what they want but everyone who deserves it gets their due. A novel where you get a dozen plots for the price of one, told with style and substance and a fully-fleshed out backstory delivered with the subtlety of a truly professional storyteller. A very enjoyable read and one of the best in the series.

John Sayles told Patrick Millikin it’s always a pleasure to appear virtually for The Poisoned Pen. He also said you should turn his new book, Crucible, upside down, and he mentioned what that is. (Teaser, you have to watch the video.) There are signed copies of Crucible available in the Webstore, https://tinyurl.com/mwpevvea

Here’s the description of Crucible.

“Crucible’ is a sprawling, mural-like novel that engages with the process, the spirit and especially the conflicts of breakneck industrial progress.. . . [with] a dynamic vision of American history.” — Sam Sacks, The Wall Street Journal

From the Oscar-nominated filmmaker comes a complex and sweeping historical novel about Henry Ford — the Elon Musk of his day — and his attempt to rule not only an automotive empire but the rambunctious city of Detroit. It is an epic tale ranging from the 1920s through the second World War, featuring violent labor disputes, misbegotten jungle expeditions, a tragic race riot, and the gestapo tactics of Ford’s private army . . .

Already the gateway for illegal Canadian liquor during Prohibition, the Motor City becomes a crucible for American class conflict during the Great Depression, with an army of laid off Ford workers drifting into the ranks of the burgeoning union movement — Henry Ford’s worst nightmare.  To keep the hundreds of thousands still employed by him in thrall, the man who was formerly ‘America’s favorite tycoon’ recruits black laborers migrating from the deep South to serve as ‘strike insurance’, and gives Harry Bennett, pugnacious as he is diminutive, free reign over the legion of barroom brawlers and ex-cons who make up the company’s ‘Security Department’.

The Model T mogul has also bought a sizable chunk of Brazil’s Amazonian rainforest, vowing to grow his own rubber for tires, but stubbornly refusing to include a botanist in his troop of would-be jungle tamers. As a series of biological plagues descend on the Fordlandia plantation, the racial melting pot he has created in Detroit begins to boil over, and not even the Sage of Dearborn can control the forces that have been unleashed.

The novel’s cast — Ford workers black and white and their families, young radicals, cynical newsmen, gangsters, Brazilian rubber tappers, cameos from boxer Joe Louis and muralist Diego Rivera — create the tapestry of differing points of view that John Sayles has become famous for, the events portrayed fundamental to the country we live in today.

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John Sayles is an independent filmmaker, screenwriter, actor, and novelist.
He has twice been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original 
Screenplay, and once for the National Book Award. He has written eight novels, including, most recently, Jamie MacGillivray and To Save the Man.

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Enjoy the conversation with John Sayles.

Thank you to Michael Barson for sharing his interview with author Jeffrey Siger. Siger is the author of A Study in Secrets, the first in his new Redacted Man mystery series. You can order A Study in Secrets through The Poisoned Pen’s Webstore. https://tinyurl.com/3hcwnwuk

Barson’s interview with Jeffrey Siger appeared in Bookreporter, https://tinyurl.com/r5fcmkn9

Interview: February 5, 2026

A retired gentleman with a complicated past. A missing priceless treasure. A young woman in trouble. A STUDY IN SECRETS kicks off Jeffrey Siger’s Redacted Man mystery series, which features a Sherlock Holmes-worthy sleuth. In this interview conducted by former publicity executive Michael Barson, Siger talks about his fascination with the world’s most famous fictional detective and why he made his protagonist a former intelligence agent; his decision to set the series in present-day New York City; and the biggest challenge he faced while writing this opening installment.

Question: How did your fascination with the character of Sherlock Holmes begin?

Jeffrey Siger: When I was about 12 and toying with the idea of becoming a writer, I received a compendium of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s four novels and 56 short stories as a birthday gift. But back then I never got deeply into the Holmes canon. Rather, I kept telling myself that one day I’d read them all when I had time.

That opportunity took almost 20 years to present itself. I had injured my back in a manner that laid me up for more than a month, and I took that opportunity to read all of Holmes. By the time I’d finished, I’d come to appreciate Conan Doyle’s gift for Victorian prose and his keen insights on the human condition — so much so that often I was able to solve many of the mysteries before their denouement.

From that point on, I felt a strong kinship with Holmes — even more so once I learned that Sherlock Holmes’ father’s name was Siger Holmes.

Q: Your protagonist in A STUDY IN SECRETS, Michael A, is a former intelligence agent. That’s quite a twist on Conan Doyle’s original premise. What inspired you to move in that direction?

JS: I’d always envisioned my protagonist to be a tall, lean, elderly gentleman who led a reclusive life passing his time reflecting on the lives of those he observed beneath the windows of his elegant park-side townhouse. In hindsight, I subconsciously might have been influenced by the opening scene to each televised episode of Jeremy Brett playing Holmes. It showed him staring out his window at the goings-on below his rooms.

But I’m not responsible for the decision to incorporate a military and intelligence background into Michael A’s character. That was done at the urging of Michael and his fellow characters. To them, that seemed the most credible way of creating a true-to-life character possessing Michael’s captivating skills. Who was I to argue?

Q: Your new Redacted Man series takes place in present-day New York City. Had you ever considered setting the series in any other historical framework instead?

JS: History plays a significant role in the series. In the opening scenes of A STUDY IN SECRETS, Michael A subtly offers his perspective on modern life and why he prefers a lifestyle reminiscent of elegant late-19th-century living. That dichotomy provides a framework for the storyline moving forward at an ever increasing, more complicated pace. As for other settings, yes, I considered several European cities as a prospective locale but settled upon New York because of how well I know the city and its secrets.

Q: In what ways did you have to alter the writing approach you have taken over the past 15 years with your acclaimed Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis series, which now has 14 volumes in print?

JS: What immediately comes to mind is the instrumental roles that Greece’s grandiose settings and unique cultural ways play in the telling of my Kaldis stories. Those elements require a prodigious level of research unnecessary for the Redacted Man series because its stories are driven far more by its characters’ nuances and the intensity of their individual backstories.

In practical terms, it means that when working on a Redacted Man book, I have more time to dangle my toes in the Aegean Sea while contemplating what happens next.

Q: What was the single biggest challenge you ran into during the process of writing A STUDY IN SECRETS?

JS: My biggest challenge was something a bit embarrassing. I simply could not come up with a catchy book title grounded in the real world that was neither too quiet nor too cute. The book’s original working title was “The Narrator,” later changed to “Park of Dreams,” which was abandoned by submission time. That left me struggling through potential titles incorporating words like “Canemaster,” “The Watcher,” “Back in the Fight,” “A Time For Angels,” “Watchful Warrior,” and on and on through more than a hundred potential titles. None of them did anything for me.

So, rather than flipping a coin (make that many coins) to choose a winner, I abdicated my role in the selection process and deferred to my editor to make the choice. It was the wisest decision I could have made, as she came up with dynamite titles for both this debut novel and the overall series.

Q: With the benefit of hindsight, which three authors were most responsible for instilling in you the desire to write crime fiction?

JS: I can’t point to any writers who specifically inspired me to write the Kaldis series, though my work has kindly been compared to such masters of the “exotic” police procedural as Andrea Camilleri and Donna Leon. What does come to mind are the names of writers whose work continues to inspire elements of my books. For example, whenever I think of creating a villain, I think of Cormac McCarthy’s Judge Holden from BLOOD MERIDIAN; for the pace and meter of my dialogue, it’s the plays of August Wilson; and for aspects of Kaldis’ mentor, Tassos Stamatos, K.C. Constantine’s Mario Balzic continues to make me smile.

Thank you to Patrick Millikin from The Poisoned Pen for sharing his tribute to James Sallis, shared from the obituary Millikin wrote at http://Legacy.com.

James Sallis, renowned writer, teacher and musician, died January 27, 2026 at the age of 81 in Phoenix, Arizona after a long illness.

Best known for his Lew Griffin detective novels and the 2005 novella DRIVE (the basis for the 2011 Nicholas Winding Refn film starring Ryan Gosling), Sallis leaves behind a broad body of work that includes eighteen novels, numerous short story and poetry collections, a biography and translations. He was a true man of letters in the old-fashioned sense, a polymath who devoted his life to the printed word.

Sallis’s characters were often survivors who somehow managed to go on, despite heavy odds. He was cosmopolitan and sophisticated, yet remained in many ways a Southern gentleman, with impeccable manners and an easygoing warmth. Sallis had an unwavering curiosity about people, and often carried a small notepad to capture little details — images and snippets of conversations — that interested him.

Born December 21, 1944 in Helena, Arkansas, James Chappelle Sallis, known to his friends as Jim, was preceded in death by his parents, Horace C. Sallis and Mildred Liming Sallis, his brother John Sallis (the noted philosopher), and son Dylan. He is survived by his loving wife of 35 years, Karyn Sallis.

The music of the South, the Delta blues he heard on Helena’s seminal King Biscuit Time radio broadcast (which featured artists such as Sonny Boy Williamson II and Robert Jr. Lockwood), remained deeply imbedded in his DNA. He would go on to publish several books of musicology, THE GUITAR PLAYERS (1982), JAZZ GUITARS (1984) and THE GUITAR IN JAZZ (1996). Sallis himself was a talented musician and played a variety of stringed instruments, including guitar, dobro, mandolin, fiddle and banjo. Jim was at his best as a performer when he played backup for bands and soloists around the valley, appearing on the albums of several respected Arizona musicians. His trio, Three-Legged Dog, performed at coffee shops and folk festivals around Arizona.

Both Sallis and his brother John, bookish outsiders in parochial 1950s Helena, were destined to leave their hometown behind. For Jim, the ticket out came in the form of a scholarship to Tulane University. Sallis fell in love with New Orleans, a city that he would return to again and again. He met first wife Jane while at Tulane. Sallis would ultimately leave without a degree, briefly attending the University of Iowa before deciding to focus full-time on his writing.

In the mid-1960s, writer Michael Moorcock invited Sallis, only twenty-one at the time, to London to become the fiction editor at New Worlds, the influential “New Wave” science fiction magazine. It was an exciting time for Sallis, who was already developing a name for himself as a short story writer.

1970 saw the publication of Sallis’s first collection of stories and poems, A FEW LAST WORDS. The next few years would be extremely productive ones. Now back in the States, Sallis published a steady stream of reviews, essays, and short stories and edited several story anthologies. Harlan Ellison became an early supporter of Sallis’s work, and remained a committed friend for the rest of his life. Damon Knight and Kate Wilhelm, who ran the Clarion Writers Workshop, also championed and briefly housed the young writer.

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Sallis moved around quite a bit, ultimately settling in Texas. To supplement his writing, he worked as a respiratory therapist, in adult units and in neonatal care. He would draw upon this experience in his novels and also in his essay collection, GENTLY INTO THE LAND OF THE MEATEATERS. Sallis continued to work off and on as a respiratory therapist for many years.

It was while living in Fort Worth that he met and was charmed by Karyn Smith, who worked at a local print shop. They quickly became inseparable. Married in 1991, the couple moved to New Orleans; the following year, THE LONG-LEGGED FLY was published. Attracting attention from major reviewers and kicking off his acclaimed Lew Griffin series, FLY would be a turning point in Sallis’s writing career. His first full-length crime novel, it was unlike anything that had been published before.

A respected critic, Sallis penned book reviews for The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, Fantasy & Science Fiction, and other periodicals and served as a judge for the Philip K. Dick Award in 2019.

As a writer, Sallis drew on influences from everywhere and disliked labels. He sometimes described art and literature as a grand buffet, with high and low art occupying equal space at the table. While he cited novels such as James Joyce’s ULYSSES and William Gaddis’s THE RECOGNITIONS as favorites, and was naturally drawn to surrealist fiction and poetry, he also loved and embraced genre fiction of all kinds: noir, science fiction, westerns. He felt a real kinship with writers such as Jim Thompson, David Goodis and Theodore Sturgeon, and wrote about them extensively in his critical work. His 2001 biography, CHESTER HIMES: A LIFE (a New York Times Notable Book of the Year) brought renewed interest to the neglected master’s work. Sallis’s work earned him a fiercely devoted readership around the world. In 2007 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the annual Bouchercon Awards.

His 2005 novella DRIVE, originally rejected by his publisher, ultimately found a home at The Poisoned Pen Press. It would go on to become his best-known work (The New York Times called it “a perfect noir novel”). Sallis’s work earned him a fiercely devoted readership around the world. In 2007 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the annual Bouchercon Awards. The Killer is Dying (2011) won France’s Grand Prix de la Litterature Policiere as well as the UK’s Hammett Award. While he loved the film version of DRIVE and enjoyed the exposure it brought to his work, Sallis wasn’t particularly interested in self-promotion or in writing for a commercial audience. He disliked having author blurbs on his books (although his publisher managed to override this occasionally).

A brilliant and intuitive instructor, beloved by his students, Sallis taught creative writing at Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles, at Phoenix College for fourteen years, and in workshops for the Piper Center for Creative Writing at Arizona State University. He encouraged his students to dig deep within themselves for material. “Write about what scares you,” he admonished. “Write about what you don’t understand.” Sallis wrote constantly, and he encouraged his students to do the same. In 2015, he left Phoenix College when he refused on principle to sign a state loyalty oath.

As serious as he was about his work, Sallis had a great sense of humor and an infectious laugh. He had an appreciation for the absurd, loved puns, and was an aficionado of bad action films (“Roadhouse” being a particular favorite) and cheap poorly-dubbed martial arts movies.

Fond of animals, Sallis and his wife Karyn kept many cats as pets, and provided committed care to a community of ferals in his Phoenix neighborhood. He had infinite patience with cats. Several of the felines, initially leery of humans, yielded under Sallis’s gentleness and sought him out for attention.

James Sallis was dedicated to his art and he led by example. As Paul Oliver of Soho Press expressed it, Sallis was “the platonic ideal of what a writer can be.”

On his desk was a scrap of paper where Jim had jotted a note to himself of a phrase to be used in the latest manuscript: “I spent the morning taking myself too seriously, which left the question how the afternoon and evening might be occupied.”

The world is diminished by his passing.

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If you wish to donate in his memory, the family suggests the ACLU and the Humane Society as worthy charities that Jim valued.

This is perfect. I can share critic Oline Cogdill’s review of S.J. Rozan’s Lydia Chin/Bill Smith mystery, First Do No Harm. Cogdill’s review was first published in the South Florida Sun Sentinel. A month ago, Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, discussed the book with Rozan. You can order a copy through the Pen’s Webstore, https://tinyurl.com/4k2rsy8p. Then, after reading the review, you can watch the YouTube video from the bookstore, shared at the end of the review.

Thank you, Oline.

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Book review: See why ‘First Do No Harm’ is light years beyond the typical medical thriller

‘First Do No Harm’ by S.J. Rozan; Pegasus Crime; 320 pages; $27.95

Although S.J. Rozan’s latest novel about private investigators Lydia Chin and Bill Smith is set in a hospital, “First Do No Harm” is light years away from being a medical thriller. Instead, she uses the hospital background to explore intricacies of big business (especially of medical centers), sabotage and family issues in the kind of tightly focused plot that Rozan is known for.

It’s been three years since Rozan’s last Lydia and Bill novel, “The Mayors of New York,” yet the award-winning author doesn’t miss a beat in returning to these popular characters, who are known for their insight, intelligence and camaraderie. “First Do No Harm,” the 16th in this series, continues Rozan’s ongoing looks at New York, Asian culture and Lydia’s close-knit family, wrapped in a private detective novel — themes that began with her debut, “China Trade,” in 1994.

In “First Do No Harm,” Dr. Elliott Chin, who runs the emergency room at River Valley Downstate Medical Center, wants to hire his sister and Bill. His friend, Jordy Kazarian, a morgue assistant, has been accused of murdering nurse Sophia Scott, whose body he found in the medical center’s basement.

Elliott, one of Lydia’s four brothers, believes his friend is innocent, even though Jordy’s father, a high-powered doctor and administrator at the hospital, urges him to plead guilty.

Lydia and Bill’s investigation centers on the life of Sophia, who appeared to be working to prevent a nurses’ strike. Coworkers and the administration were divided on Sophia’s motives — some called her committed to her job, others considered her a diva who refused to cooperate. The detectives also discover many cover-ups.

“So many scams and grifts, so much lying and covering up, so many motives for this murder,” says Lydia.

The detectives also find the hospital itself has many secrets. The basement, which is supposed to be off-limits to most has a lot of activity including a nap room and a “hook-up room.”

“First Do No Harm” is another satisfying novel from the ever-reliable Rozan.

Behind the plot

S.J. Rozan had put Lydia Chin and Bill Smith on hiatus while she teamed up with John Shen Yen Nee for a series set in 1924 London that’s a clever homage to Sherlock Holmes.

That series teams up a well-known judge and a novelist, both Chinese, for vivid details about the era, offering insight into racism, underground gambling, opium dens, and the interest in Chinese antiques and goods. The judge wryly observes that “the current fashion for our art does not, it seems, translate to a fashion for our persons.”

The authors pepper their series with real people such as mathematician Bertrand Russell and poet Ezra Pound.

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Enjoy the conversation from The Poisoned Pen with S.J. Rozan.

Olivia Fierro welcomed Kaira Rouda back to The Poisoned Pen. The staff had a fun time discussing Rouda’s book titles. Her latest is We Were Never Friends. There are signed copies available in the Webstore. https://tinyurl.com/mchcer8u

Here’s the description of We Were Never Friends.

Sisters? Forever. Friends? NEVER. Who knew a reunion weekend could be so deadly?

Meet the sorority sisters of Theta Gamma Mu:

• Roxy Callahan Gentry, the ruthless former sorority president and current hostess who has painstakingly choreographed every detail of this weekend—even matching the cocktails to her couture—to prove that she remains their undisputed queen
• Amelia Dell, the widow drenched in old money and alcohol, with her big pot-stirring spoon and uninvited boy-toy in tow
• Jamie Vale, the double-legacy pledge, straight-A student with no sparkle, now a top cardiologist with a picture-perfect family—and a well-guarded bad habit
• Beth Harrison, the scholarship student who never quite fit in and was only admitted because her best friend Sunny insisted that the two were a package deal
• Sunny Spencer, the carefree and beloved friend to all, or so it seemed—until she wasn’t

They’ve been summoned to Roxy’s luxurious Palm Springs vacation home to celebrate the engagement of her son to Beth’s daughter. But the refurbished 1920s estate is eerily reminiscent of the hotel where tragedy struck during Spring Break twenty-five years ago. Long-simmering tensions and shocking secrets begin bubbling to the surface like bodies—because while the weekend was supposed to be about celebrating the future, it’s not so easy to bury the past…

For fans of Shari Lapena, Mary Kubica, and B. A. Paris, We Were Never Friends is an unputdownable, riveting train wreck full of dark humor and bad behavior.

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KAIRA ROUDA is an award–winning, USA Today bestselling author of contemporary fiction that explores what goes on beneath the surface of seemingly perfect lives. Her novels include The Widow, Somebody’s Home, The Next Wife, The Favorite Daughter, Best Day Ever, All the Difference, Beneath the Surface, and Under the Palms. The Next Wife was named a Suspense Magazine’s Best Book of 2021, and a 2022 Silver Falchion for Best Suspense Novel and first runner-up for Best Book of the Year.

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Enjoy the conversation with Kaira Rouda and Olivia Fierro.

Patrick Millikin recently interviewed Jonathan Kellerman for The Poisoned Pen. Jigsaw is the forty-first novel in the Alex Delaware series. Millikin takes Kellerman all the way back in his own personal history in this fascinating discussion. Kellerman talked about his own life, as well as his Delaware books and his books with his son, Jesse. Kellerman only signs books for The Poisoned Pen, so if you want a signed copies of Jigsaw, check out the Webstore. https://tinyurl.com/ypn5d3v

Here’s the description of Jigsaw.

The iconic thriller series that inspired the upcoming streaming show on Prime Video, in development now!

Psychologist Alex Delaware and Detective Milo Sturgis, the most beloved duo in American crime fiction, return in this electric novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling “master of suspense” (Los Angeles Times).

This one looked like a slam dunk: a young woman found dead at her kitchen table, DNA on cigarette butts linking quickly to an ex-boyfriend with a criminal record. Or so homicide lieutenant Milo Sturgis thought. Then everything changed and a quick close turned into a mind-bending whodunit. That’s when Milo called in psychologist Alex Delaware, his best friend and a long-term consultant on “those cases.” The ones that are different.

Then there’s another one: an old woman found brutally murdered, her body stashed in a deep freeze and mutilated. And when Milo learns who she is, he’s stunned. This victim is someone he once knew. Complicating matters further, her home is an extreme hoarder’s den, virtually impassable due to years of stored trash and apparently meaningless objects. Except for the envelopes of cash stashed among the garbage. As Alex and Milo dig deeper into the seemingly unrelated crimes, they discover shocking links between the victims and realize they have a labyrinthine—and deadly—puzzle to solve.

Cast against the unforgettable L.A. ambience unique to the novels of Jonathan Kellerman, this is classic Delaware at its best.

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Jonathan Kellerman has lived in two worlds: clinical psychologist and #1 New York Times bestselling author of more than fifty crime novels. His unique perspective on human behavior has led to the creation of the Alex Delaware series as well as The Butcher’s Theater, Billy Straight, The Conspiracy Club, Twisted, True Detectives, and The Murderer’s Daughter. With his wife, bestselling novelist Faye Kellerman, he co-authored Double Homicide and Capital Crimes. With his son, bestselling novelist Jesse Kellerman, he co-authored Coyote Hills, The Lost Coast, The Burning, Half Moon Bay, A Measure of Darkness, Crime Scene, The Golem of Hollywood, and The Golem of Paris. He is also the author of two children’s books and numerous nonfiction works, including Savage Spawn: Reflections on Violent Children and With Strings Attached: The Art and Beauty of Vintage Guitars. He has won the Goldwyn, Edgar, and Anthony awards and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Psychological Association, and has been nominated for a Shamus Award. Jonathan and Faye Kellerman live in California with a brilliant dog.

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Enjoy the discussion with Jonathan Kellerman.

It’s with permission that I share Soho Press’ tribute to James Sallis. When I was in Arizona, I saw him perform at The Poisoned Pen with his band, the Three-Legged Dog. I know what a friend he was to the bookstore. It was Poisoned Pen Press that originally published Sallis’ book, Drive. Paul Oliver from Soho allowed me to use this post.

Soho Press is grieved to announce the death of author James Sallis, who passed away on Tuesday, January 27, 2026, peacefully, with his wife, Karyn, by his side, after a long illness. No funeral is planned. If you feel moved to donate in his memory, the family suggests the ACLU or the Humane Society as worthy charities that Jim valued. He was preceded in death by his parents, his brother (the philosopher John Sallis), and his son, Dylan. He is survived by his wife of 35 years, Karyn. 

In many ways Jim was the platonic ideal of what a writer can be, though he probably would not like it put thus. As an artist the work was everything to Jim, and he worked without boundaries or careerism. Perhaps best known for his existentialist crime fiction and neo-noirs like Drive, which was adapted by Nicolas Winding Refn into the Ryan Gosling-led film of the same name, Jim was also a poet, musicologist, literary historian, critic, editor and teacher.

His career began writing science fiction for publications edited by the likes of Damon Knight and Harlan Ellison, who was an ardent fan of Sallis and championed his work in the 1960s and ’70s. At this time Jim helped edit the influential New Worlds publication under the direction of Michael Moorcock.

As a reader and appreciator of culture, Jim was as curious and uninhibited as he was as a writer. It was a joy to talk about art in all forms with him, but his grand view of literature matched his personal approach to craft. To Jim it didn’t matter where or how good work came into existence, or how it was shelved. His groundbreaking collection of short biographical work on Jim Thompson, David Goodis and Chester Himes, collected as Difficult Lives Hitching Rides, had no critical precedent and helped usher in a new era of appraisal for now legendary writers who at the time were nearly or totally out of print. He collected and played with alacrity an impressive number of string instruments and his love of the blues and jazz was lifelong.

Jim wrote without cynicism about the strength of the human spirit and invested dignity into all his characters, no matter how far on the edge of society they live—characters like P.I. Lew Griffin, Sheriff Sarah Jane and a man known simply as “Driver.” He knew that good fiction was to be set against the faults of society but also serves to remind us that salvation is the realm of the individual.

We mourn his passing deeply but find joy in the notion that his work will be read for as long as there are books.

Thank you to critic Oline Cogdill for her review of James Grippando’s The Right to Remain. Cogdill’s review first appeared in the South Florida Sun Sentinel. You can order a copy of the book through The Poisoned Pen’s Webstore, https://tinyurl.com/3v7prx8r

Book review: James Grippando’s ‘Right To Remain’ is 20th Jack Swyteck novel — and it’s a nail-biter

‘The Right To Remain’ by James Grippando; Harper; 352 pages; $30

James Grippando’s novels about Miami criminal defense attorney Jack Swyteck offer a compelling meld of Florida’s legal system and contemporary issues, with domestic drama and the value of friendship added.

Grippando’s 20th Swyteck novel, “The Right To Remain” upholds his high standards, with a look at an issue many people may not be aware of — companies hired by police agencies to dispose of firearms. It is a nail-biting, suspenseful legal thriller.

Jack’s latest client, Elliott Stafford, is not what he was expecting, nor is the case as simple as it first appears. Elliott is accused of murdering retired FBI agent Owen Pollard, who was a partner in VanPoll firearms disposal. Owen’s death initially was ruled a suicide; his body was found in his kitchen by his wife, Helena. But Elliott, a member of VanPoll’s finance team, becomes a suspect after he is subpoenaed by a grand jury. The case begins with murky motives. Owen had a volatile marriage, as he and Helena often argued over the rearing of their 6-year-old son. Owen also didn’t get along with business partner C.J. Vandermeer, who is eccentric with a violent streak.

Defending Elliott becomes a challenge. He goes on a “speech strike,” refusing to talk to Jack or assist in any way with his defense. Elliott’s past and his link with the Pollards add to the labyrinth plot.

“The Right To Remain” moves at a brisk pace, as Grippando delves into the ethics of weapons disposal, gin trafficking, scams targeting couples desperate to adopt a child, and family relationships and identity. Jack and his wife, Andie, are a strong couple but wrestle with raising a bright daughter and maneuvering their big careers. Jack’s work as a criminal defense lawyer and Andie’s position as an FBI agent mandate they keep secrets from each other so as not to compromise their cases.

As usual, Grippando uses Miami as more than a background, showing readers the heat, history and demands of life in South Florida. Grippando, who lives in Coral Gables and himself is a lawyer, takes readers by the hand, leading them into the courtroom to show how the legal system works, or sometimes doesn’t, and the rivalry among lawyers.

Grippando keeps the plot of “The Right To Remain” as fresh as when he began this series with “The Pardon” in 1994.

Patrick Millikin welcomed Mike Lawson back to The Poisoned Pen to discuss his latest Joe DeMarco thriller, The Asset. You can order a signed copy of the 19th in the series through the Webstore, https://shorturl.at/rz28z

Here’s the description of The Asset.

Backchannel intel points Joe DeMarco in the direction of a possible double agent in the latest pulse-pounding thriller from Edgar and Barry Award finalist Mike Lawson starring his beloved Washington DC troubleshooter.

In the middle of the night, on a winding road in a suburb outside of Washington D.C., a homeless veteran is killed in a hit-and-run—a tragedy that barely catches the attention of the media and police.

Days later, John Mahoney, the former Speaker of the House, is confronted by Diane Lake, an ex-CIA agent turned political researcher with a knack for digging up unsavory intelligence on some of D.C.’s biggest players. Diane is there with a gift for Mahoney: the news that Lydia Chang, the wife of one of his biggest rivals, might be working undercover as a Chinese agent.

Knowing it’s too early to get the FBI involved, Mahoney does the only thing left to do. He calls in Joe DeMarco.

DeMarco might not have the title of political researcher, but he’s no stranger to digging up dirt either. As DeMarco starts his investigation, he soon learns there’s a lot more going on than Mahoney suspected, and instead of answers, all he finds are more questions. Who’s the mysterious man Lydia Chang has been meeting in the park? Does Diane Lake have an ulterior motive? And why does everything point back to a random hit-and-run?

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Mike Lawson is a former senior civilian executive for the US Navy. He is the Edgar Award-nominated author of more than fifteen novels starring Joe DeMarco and three novels with his protagonist Kay Hamilton.

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Enjoy the conversation with Mike Lawson.