T. Jefferson Parker discusses Wild Instinct

Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, recently welcomed T. Jefferson Parker to the bookstore as he introduces a new character in Wild Instinct. There are signed copies of the book in the Webstore, https://bit.ly/4r2h2OT.

Here’s the description of Wild Instinct.

A gripping high-stakes thriller by three-time Edgar Award winner and New York Times bestselling author T. Jefferson Parker (“A marvel…hits the high-water mark for crime fiction every time out.” —Gregg Hurwitz)

The hunt for the truth is the deadliest game.

Former Marine sniper Lew Gale, now a detective with the Orange County California Sheriff’s Department, is assigned to track and shoot a mountain lion that has killed a man in the rugged country east of Laguna Beach, California. The victim is Bennet Tarlow, a rich developer and man-about-town in upscale coastal Orange County.

The investigation takes a chilling turn when Lew and his new partner, Daniela Mendez, discover that Bennet was dead long before the lion got to him. And while he might have been the first to die, he certainly will not be the last.


T. Jefferson Parker is the author of numerous novels and short stories, the winner of three Edgar Awards (for Silent JoeCalifornia Girl, and the short story “Skinhead Central”), and the recipient of a Los Angeles Times Book Prize for best mystery (Silent Joe). Before becoming a full-time novelist, he was an award-winning reporter. He lives in Fallbrook, California.


Parker discusses writing about the military in his conversation with Barbara Peters. Enjoy the discussion.

Hot New Signed Books

It’s that time of year that you should do your gift-giving shopping so books arrive in time for your holidays. Have you thought about signed books from The Poisoned Pen Bookstore? Order them now so they can get in the mail to you. Order through the Webstore, https://store.poisonedpen.com/

Check out these Hot New Signed Books, featured at the Webstore.

Vanessa Lillie and Eliana Ramage in Conversation

Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, welcomed Vanessa Lillie back to the bookstore along with debut author Eliana Ramage. Lillie’s new book is The Bone Thief. Ramage’s debut novel is To the Moon and Back. There are signed copies of both books available in the Webstore. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

Here’s the description of The Bone Thief.


The Bone Thief

Vanessa Lillie  Publisher: Penguin Publishing GroupFiction / Indigenous – General (see also Indigenous Peoples of Turtle Island or Nativ / Mystery & Detective / Thrillers – Suspense
#774 in bestsellers

#774 in bestsellers

Description

Bio

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Reviews

The Bone Thief is a riveting mystery with a plot that seamlessly blends history with fiction. And Syd Walker is an unforgettable protagonist.”
—Liz Moore, New York Times bestselling author of The God of the Woods

When a Native teenager vanishes from her small town—a place with dark ties to an elite historical society—archaeologist Syd Walker is called to investigate…from bestselling author Vanessa Lillie.

In the hours before dawn at a local summer camp, Bureau of Indian Affairs archaeologist Syd Walker receives an alarming call: newly discovered skeletal remains have been stolen. Not only have bones gone missing, but a Native teen girl has disappeared near the camp, and law enforcement dismisses her family’s fears.

As Syd investigates both crimes, she’s drawn into a world of privileged campers and their wealthy parents—most of them members of the Founders Society, an exclusive club whose members trace their lineage to the first colonists and claim ancestral rights to the land, despite fierce objections from the local tribal community. And it’s not the first time something—or someone—has gone missing from the camp.

The deeper Syd digs, the more she realizes these aren’t isolated incidents. A pattern of disappearances stretches back generations, all leading to the Founders Society’s doorstep. But exposing the truth means confronting not just the town’s most powerful families, but also a legacy of violence that refuses to stay buried.

From the national bestselling author of Blood Sisters (a Washington Post Best Mystery of the Year and Target Book Club pick) comes a new Syd Walker novel that proves the sins of the past are destined to repeat until the truth is finally unearthed.


Vanessa Lillie is an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation and the author of the USA Today bestselling Blood Sisters and suspense novels Little Voices and For the Best, and coauthor of the Widows series. Vanessa hosts an Instagram Live show with crime fiction authors and was a columnist for the Providence Journal. Originally from northeast Oklahoma, she lives on Narragansett land in Rhode Island and is proudly Two Spirit.


Check out the description of To the Moon and Back.

A REESE’S BOOK CLUB PICK: “A breathtaking debut about family, identity, and love across generations.” —REESE WITHERSPOON

“Eliana Ramage will break your heart and take you to the stars. From painfully accurate depictions of adolescence to effortless jumps through time and space—I loved it all.” —KILEY REID

In this dazzlingly powerful story of family, ambition and belonging, one young woman’s obsessive quest to become the first Cherokee astronaut irrevocably alters the fates of the people she loves most.

Steph Harper is on the run. She has been all her life, ever since her mother drove five-year-old Steph and her younger sister through the night to Cherokee Nation, a place they had never been, but where she hoped they might finally belong. In response to the turmoil, Steph sets her sights as far away from Oklahoma as she can get, vowing that she will let nothing get in the way of pursuing the rigorous physical and academic training she knows she will need to be accepted by NASA, and ultimately, to go to the moon.

Spanning three decades and several continents, To the Moon and Back encompasses Steph’s turbulent journey, along with the multifaceted and intertwined lives of the three women closest to her: her sister Kayla, an artist who goes on to become an Indigenous social media influencer, and whose determination to appear good takes her life to unexpected places; Steph’s college girlfriend Della Owens, who strives to reclaim her identity as an adult after being removed from her Cherokee family through a challenge to the Indian Child Welfare Act; and Hannah, Steph and Kayla’s mother, who has held up her family’s tribal history as a beacon of inspiration to her children, all the while keeping her own past a secret.

In Steph’s certainty that only her ambition can save her, she will stretch her bonds with each of these women to the point of breaking, at once betraying their love and generosity, and forcing them to reconsider their own deepest desires in her shadow. Told through an intricately woven tapestry of narrative, To the Moon and Back is an astounding and expansive novel of mothers and daughters, love and sacrifice, alienation and heartbreak, terror and wonder. At its core, it is the story of the extraordinary lengths to which one woman will go to find space for herself.


Eliana Ramage holds an MFA in fiction from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She has received residencies and fellowships from the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center, Lambda Literary, Tin House, and Vermont Studio Center. A citizen of the Cherokee Nation, she lives in Nashville with her family. To the Moon and Back is her first novel.


Enjoy the conversation with Vanessa Lillie and Eliana Ramage.

Introducing Debut Author Andrea Catalano

John Charles from The Poisoned Pen introduce author Andrea Catalano for a virtual event. Catalano’s debut novel is The First Witch of Boston. You can order a copy of this historical novel through the Webstore. https://bit.ly/47UXlzQ

Here’s the description of The First Witch of Boston.

A gripping and intimate novel based on the true story of Margaret Jones, the first woman to be found guilty of witchcraft in seventeenth-century Massachusetts.

Massachusetts Bay Colony, 1646. Thomas and Margaret Jones arrive from England to build a life in the New World. Though of differing temperaments, cautious Thomas and fiery Margaret, a healer, are bound by a love that has lasted decades. With a child on the way, their new beginning promises only blessings.

But in this austere Puritan community, comely faces hide malicious intent. Wrong moves or words are met with suspicion, and Margaret’s bold and unguarded nature draws scorn. Soon, Margaret is mistrusted as more cunning woman than kind caregiver. And when personal tragedies, religious hysteria, and wariness of the unknown turn most against her, even the devotion Margaret and her husband share is at risk.

Inspired by actual diary entries and court records, The First Witch of Boston is at once the riveting story of a woman unjustly accused and a love story set amid the political and social turmoil of both Old and New England. Harrowing, and with a deep understanding of the human heart, history is brilliantly imagined.


Andrea Catalano is a historical novelist who holds a master of philosophy in historical studies degree from University of Cambridge, UK. Originally from the Boston area, she currently lives in Texas with her husband, children, two fluffy cats, and many, many books. Find her online at www.andreacatalanoauthor.com.


Enjoy Andrea Catalano’s conversation with John Charles.

Oline Cogdill Reviews The Tin Men

Perfect timing for Oline Cogdill’s review of The Tin Men by Nelson DeMille and Alex DeMille. I summarized Alex DeMille’s appearance at The Poisoned Pen yesterday. Signed books are going fast, so order them while there are still some available. https://bit.ly/4i6h841

Thank you, Oline, for sharing your review from the South Florida Sun Sentinel.

Book review: ‘The Tin Men’ is a fitting tribute to late co-author & a new chapter for his son


‘The Tin Men’ by Nelson and Alex DeMille; Simon & Schuster; 384 pages; $29

Despite the highly entertaining plot and the rip-roaring action, “The Tin Men,” by the father-and-son duo of Nelson and Alex DeMille, comes with sadness. During the writing of this military thriller, Nelson DeMille passed away on Sept. 17, 2024, at age 81, leaving his son to finish the manuscript they had been working on.

As is fitting, Alex DeMille leads off “The Tin Men” recounting how he worked with his father on their series about Army criminal investigators Scott Brodie and Maggie Taylor and how this third novel was concluded.

“The Tin Men” is a fitting tribute to Nelson DeMille’s rich career, which was filled with gripping bestsellers that captivated even those readers not always drawn to thrillers. “The Tin Men” moves briskly and is seamlessly punctuated by believable characters and elaborate-but-realistic military craft, while showing how artificial intelligence can be useful or manipulated to be diabolical.

The intelligent, unrelenting team of Scott and Maggie often are called to take on the tough assignments. The two arrive in the Mojave Desert to investigate the malfunction of D-17s — killer robots called “tin men.” During military testing, “tin men” killed an Army computer scientist. The robots’ speed and capabilities outmatch those of the human soldiers, putting an Army ranger regiment in danger. Scott and Maggie need to find out who is manipulating the robots’ software.

The authors keep the action on full speed as Scott and Maggie go through numerous physical and emotional trials. The DeMilles are careful to keep the story believable — the duo knows how to make smart, quick decisions.

“The Tin Men” is an apt legacy for the late Nelson DeMille and a new path for Alex DeMille.

Alex DeMille discusses The Tin Men

Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, welcomed Alex DeMille for a virtual event for the bookstore. Alex’ father, Nelson DeMille, died while working on The Tin Men, but Alex had worked on both the previous books in the Scott Brodie and Maggie Taylor series. Signed copies of The Tin Men are on the second order in the Webstore. https://bit.ly/4i6h841

Here’s the description of The Tin Men.

At a top-secret Army training facility in the Mojave Desert, Special Agents Scott Brodie and Maggie Taylor plunge into a deadly web of military intrigue, AI technology, and robot soldiers as they unravel the shocking murder of a senior scientist in this gripping thriller from New York Times bestselling authors Nelson DeMille and Alex DeMille.

Army CID Special Agents Scott Brodie and Maggie Taylor team up for their toughest assignment yet as they are dispatched to Camp Hayden to investigate the death of Major Roger Ames, the chief scientist in charge of the top-secret war games being conducted between a platoon of Army Rangers and a fleet of “lethal autonomous weapons.” Brodie and Taylor find themselves at ground zero of the next generation of warfare, and must untangle the complex web of alliances, animosities, and secret agendas among the men and women of the isolated facility.

In a place cut off from the world and exposed to the harsh desert elements, everyone is a suspect—from the zealous camp commander who pushes his men to the limit, to the Rangers slipping into madness due to isolation, grueling training, and rampant abuse of performance-enhancing drugs, to the late Major Ames’s own research colleagues. Brodie and Taylor must uncover layers of deception to find the hidden hand behind the murder of Major Ames, and the real purpose of the activities at Camp Hayden and its terrifying arsenal of next-generation weapons.

This gripping thriller, the final novel from the legendary Nelson DeMille, coauthored with his son Alex DeMille, is a masterful blend of suspense and cutting-edge technology. It is a page-turning and thought-provoking exploration of the implications of AI in modern warfare and is a must-read for fans of military thrillers.


Nelson DeMille was the author of twenty-four novels, seven of which were #1 New York Times bestsellers. His novels include The MazeThe Cuban AffairWord of HonorPlum Island, The Charm SchoolThe Gold Coast, and The General’s Daughter, which was made into a major motion picture starring John Travolta and Madeleine Stowe. With his son Alex DeMille, he cowrote The DeserterBlood Lines, and The Tin Men. Nelson DeMille was a combat-decorated US Army veteran; a member of Mensa, Poets & Writers, and the Authors Guild; and a past president of the Mystery Writers of America. He was also a member of the International Thriller Writers, which honored him as 2015 ThrillerMaster of the Year. He passed away in 2024.

Alex DeMille is a filmmaker and novelist. He grew up on Long Island and received a BA from Yale University and an MFA in film directing from UCLA. His films have played to acclaim at festivals worldwide, and he has been awarded a number of fellowships for his screenplays. The Deserter and Blood Lines, his first two novels cowritten with his father, Nelson DeMille, were instant New York Times bestsellers. He lives in Brooklyn with his family.


There are a few technical difficulties with the video of the conversation with Alex DeMille, but you should enjoy hearing from DeMille and Peters.

Tasha Alexander and Andrew Grant in Conversation

Authors Tasha Alexander and Andrew Grant joined The Poisoned Pen’s owner, Barbara Peters, for an event at the bookstore. Alexander’s latest Lady Emily mystery is The Sisterhood. Grant’s latest Jack Reacher novel is Exit Strategy. There are signed copies of both books available through the Webstore. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

Here’s the summary of the nineteenth Lady Emily mystery, The Sisterhood.

Lady Emily investigates the murder of a glamorous debutante in the next irresistible mystery of Tasha Alexander’s New York Times bestselling series.

London, 1907: When the Season’s most accomplished and elegant debutante, Victoria Goldsborough, collapses and dies at her engagement ball, the great and good of London Society prepare to mourn the tragic loss of an upstanding young woman. But all is not what it seems, and after a toxic beverage is revealed to be the cause of death, the king himself instructs Lady Emily and her husband Colin Hargreaves to unearth the truth.

Who would want to harm one of the most popular women of the year? Is it her fiancé with whom she had an unusually brief courtship; a rival for his affections bitter at being cast aside; her best friend who is almost certainly hiding a secret from Colin and Emily; a disappointed suitor with a hidden gambling habit; or a notorious jewel thief who has taken a priceless tiara from the Goldsborough home? When a second debutante succumbs to poison, the race is on to find a ruthless killer.

Emily and Colin’s investigation leads to a centuries old tomb in the center of London with a mysterious link to another death dating back to Roman times and the violent reign of Boudica, ancient Britain’s fearsome warrior queen. As the stakes rise and the clock ticks down, Emily must find the killer before they strike again.


TASHA ALEXANDER is the author of the New York Times bestselling Lady Emily mystery series. The daughter of two philosophy professors, she studied English literature and medieval history at the University of Notre Dame. She and her husband, novelist Andrew Grant, live on a ranch in southeastern Wyoming.


Check out the description of Exit Strategy.

Jack Reacher will make three stops today. Not all of them were planned for. The page-turning new Jack Reacher thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling authors Lee Child and Andrew Child.

Don’t miss the hit streaming series Reacher!

First—a Baltimore coffee shop. A seat in the corner, facing the door. Black coffee, two refills, no messing around. A minor interruption from two of the customers, but nothing he can’t deal with swiftly. As he leaves, a young guy brushes against him in the doorway. Instinctively Reacher checks the pocket holding his cash and passport. There’s no problem. Nothing is missing.

Second—a store to buy a coat. Nothing fancy. Something he can ditch when he heads to warmer climates. Large enough to fit a man the size of a bank vault. As he pulls out his cash, he finds something new in his pocket. A handwritten note. A desperate plea for help.

Third—wherever this bend in the road takes him. Impressed by the guy’s technique and intrigued by the message, Reacher makes it his mission to find out more . .


Lee Child is the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling Jack Reacher series and the complete Jack Reacher story collection, No Middle Name. Foreign rights in the Reacher series have been sold in one hundred territories. A native of England and a former television director, Lee Child lives in England and Wyoming.

Andrew Child, who also writes as Andrew Grant, is the author of RUN, False Positive, False Friend, False Witness, Invisible, and Too Close to Home. He is the #1 bestselling co-author of the Jack Reacher novels The Sentinel, Better Off Dead, No Plan B, The Secret, In Too Deep, and Exit Strategy. Child and his wife, the novelist Tasha Alexander, live on a wildlife preserve in Wyoming.


Enjoy the discussion with Tasha Alexander and Andrew Child.

Jess Armstrong & Charles Finch in Conversation

Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, hosted Jess Armstrong and Charles Finch at the bookstore recently. Their new books are both set in England. Armstrong’s latest book is The Devil in Oxford. Finch’s latest book in the Charles Lenox series is The Hidden City. There are signed copies of both books available in the Webstore. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

Here’s the description of The Devil in Oxford.


The Devil in OxfordA Ruby Vaughn MysteryRuby Vaughn Mysteries #3

Jess Armstrong  Publisher: St. Martin’s Publishing GroupFiction / Mystery & Detective – Women Sleuths / Romance – Historical – 20th Century / Gothic
Forthcoming demand:

Description

Bio

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Reviews

Set after the Great War, Jess Armstrong’s USA Today bestselling and award-winning series is historical gothic murder mystery at its best, and Ruby Vaughn returns in The Devil in Oxford.

If someone were to ask American heiress Ruby Vaughn how exactly the occult came to play such a large role in her life, she would immediately point to her octogenarian housemate and employer, Mr. Owen. Together, the pair run a rare book shop in Exeter. Mr. Owen’s penchant for arcane, unusual—and occasionally illegal—books has been known to get Ruby into her fair share of trouble. And after the last year, she is looking forward to spending a quiet holiday in picturesque Oxford while Mr. Owen attends the annual meeting of his antiquarian society. Secretly, Ruby is also looking for a holiday from her confounding feelings for Ruan Kivell, the intriguing folk healer Pellar that she met in Cornwall.

When Mr. Owen secures two tickets to an upcoming exhibition of artifacts amassed by disgraced scholar Julius Harker, Ruby reluctantly agrees to attend. The evening turns out to be more eventful than either of them bargained for. Harker’s dead body is discovered amongst the collection, his business partner is hastily arrested, and Ruan arrives…wanting to speak with Ruby. It seems both the arcane and her Pellar have followed Ruby to Oxford.

The murder case is suspicious at best, but the last thing Ruby wants is another investigation. That is, until an old friend comes begging for Ruby’s help. It soon becomes painfully clear that there is more going on in Oxford than meets the eye. Ruby and Ruan will have to uncover the dark secrets of the competitive world of antiquities while trying to understand the peculiar force that keeps drawing them back together.


JESS ARMSTRONG is the USA Today bestselling author of the Ruby Vaughn Mysteries. Her debut novel, The Curse of Penryth Hall, won the Minotaur Books/Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel Award. She has a master’s degree in American history but prefers writing about imaginary people to the real thing. Jess lives in New Orleans with her historian husband, two children and ever growing number of pets and plants. When she’s not working on her next project, she’s probably thinking about cheese, baking, on social media, or some combination of the above.


Here’s the summary of The Hidden City.

Against the vividly drawn backdrop of Victorian London, amateur sleuth Charles Lenox must unlock a mystery concealed in the architecture of the city itself, in this new novel from acclaimed author Charles Finch.

It’s 1879, and Lenox is convalescing from the violent events of his last investigation. But a desperate letter from an old servant forces him to pick up the trail of a cold case: the murder of an apothecary seven years before, whose only clue is an odd emblem carved into the doorway of the building where the man was killed. When Lenox finds a similar mark at the site of another murder, he begins to piece together a hidden pattern which leads him into the corridors of Parliament, the slums of East London, and ultimately the very heart of the British upper class.

At the same time, Lenox must contend with the complexities of his personal life: a surprising tension with his steadfast wife, Lady Jane, over her public support of the early movement for women’s suffrage; the arrival of Angela Lenox, a mysterious young cousin from India, with an unexpected companion; the dizzying ascent of his brother, Sir Edmund Lenox, to one of the highest political posts in the land; the growing family of his young partners in detection, Polly and Dallington; and the return of the problems that have long bedeviled one of his closest friends, the dashing Scottish physician Thomas McConnell.

Featuring a beloved cast of characters, a top-notch puzzle, and Finch’s trademark humor and richness of historical detail, The Hidden City is a novel by a master at the top of his form.


Charles Finch is a novelist and literary critic, author of the beloved Charles Lenox mysteries, following one of the earliest private detectives in Victorian London. The books have appeared multiple times on the USA Today bestseller list. He has written numerous essays, articles, and reviews for The New York TimesThe Chicago TribuneSlateNew York, and The Guardian, and was honored with the 2017 Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing by the National Book Critics Circle. He subsequently served on the NBCC’s board, and has also been a board member of the arts colony Ragdale and was one of three judges for the 2021 Pen-Faulkner Prize. He lives in Los Angeles with his family.


Enjoy the conversation with Jess Armstrong and Charles Finch.

Jesse Kellerman discusses Coyote Hills

Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, recently welcomed Jesse Kellerman for a virtual event. Kellerman wrote Coyote Hills with his father Jonathan Kellerman. There are signed copies of Coyote Hills available through the Website. https://bit.ly/4olXOSD

Here’s the description of Coyote Hills.

The electric new Clay Edison thriller from the New York Times bestselling, acclaimed father-son duo who write “brilliant, page-turning fiction” (Stephen King)

Clay Edison has left behind the Alameda County coroner’s office to strike out on his own as a private investigator. He’s perfectly happy working low-stakes embezzlement cases—that is, until PI Regina Klein calls him with a mystery only he can solve. The son of a wealthy couple has washed up dead on the shores of San Francisco Bay with drugs in his system and a head injury. The police are calling it an accident. But the parents are adamant something’s not right—and as Clay digs deeper, he uncovers a horrifying tangle of betrayal and lies.


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, 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.

Jesse Kellerman won the Princess Grace Award for best young American playwright and is the author of Sunstroke, Trouble (nominated for the ITW Thriller Award for Best Novel), The Genius (winner of the Grand Prix des Lectrices de Elle), The Executor, and Potboiler (nominated for the Edgar Award for Best Novel). He lives in California.


Enjoy the conversation with Jesse Kellerman.

Oline Cogdill discusses The Vanishing Place

Thank you to critic Oline Cogdill for her review of The Vanishing Place by Zoe Rankin. You can order copies through The Poisoned Pen’s website. https://bit.ly/3LgXKou

Book review: ‘The Vanishing Place’ uncovers a New Zealand spot so hidden that few can escape from it


‘The Vanishing Place’ by Zoë Rankin; Berkley; 384 pages; $30

Deep in New Zealand’s bush is “The Vanishing Place,” a place so hidden that few people can escape from it and practically no one can find it, as Zoë Rankin so evocatively describes in her fascinating debut.

The rich scenery of New Zealand and Scotland become facets in themselves while informing the gripping plot and shaping the believable characters who inhabit these lands. “The Vanishing Place” works as a story about reinventing oneself and living off the grid, as well as about family bonds and reconciling the past with the present.

Two decades ago, Effie was “a bush girl,” who lived isolated deep in New Zealand’s wilderness with her parents and three siblings — no modern conveniences, no formal education, no medical help when her mother died in childbirth. After a violent incident, Effie escaped and reinvented herself as a police officer in Scotland, but her mind was “never free of the bush.”

Her friends and colleagues know a little about her past, but not everything. Then, Effie is contacted by Lewis, a childhood friend who is one of two people who know her background. Now, a police officer in New Zealand, Lewis needs her help. A girl about 8 years old has stumbled out of the bush, covered in blood, refusing to speak except to say her name is Anya.

Anya looks exactly as Effie did as a child. Lewis suspects Anya also has been raised deep in the wilderness and, judging by the blood, may have witnessed a murder. Reluctantly, Effie returns to New Zealand to help Anya, who may be her niece.

Rankin immerses “The Vanishing Place” in scenery, beginning with a harrowing scene in Scotland as the story moves to New Zealand. Rankin skillfully alternates her story from Effie’s childhood to now, allowing the plot to unravel at the perfect pace.

Behind the plot

Australian-centered mysteries such as those by Jane Harper have become increasingly popular, but so have those based in New Zealand. Interest in New Zealand mysteries dates back to Dame Edith Ngaio Marsh’s classic detective novels during the Golden Age of Mysteries, predominantly in the 1920s and ’30s. The Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel is a prestigious honor for Kiwi writers. More recent New Zealand mystery authors include Jacqueline Bublitz, Paul Cleave, Becky Manawatu, J.P. Pomare, Rose Carlyle, among others. You can also get a glimpse of New Zealand with the 11-season TV series, “The Brokenwood Mysteries.”