Fiction Review

It’s been seven years, but Miss Fisher is back, and Kerry Greenwood’s latest book in the Phryne Fisher series, Death in Daylesford, is the Hot Book of the Week at The Poisoned Pen. You can order copies of it, and other books in the series, through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2JfL7W5

The 7 year wait is over—Miss Fisher is back in a new adventure!

“The real star is Phryne with her Jazz Age fashions, devil-may-care attitude, and dry narrative wit.”—Booklist

Taking the waters has never been more delicious—or dangerous…

When a mysterious invitation for a spa vacation arrives for Miss Phryne Fisher from an unknown retired Captain Herbert Spencer, Phryne’s curiosity is piqued. Spencer runs a retreat in Victoria’s rural spa country for shell-shocked veterans of World War I. It’s a cause after Phryne’s own heart, but what can Spencer want from her?

Phryne and her faithful servant Dot set out for Daylesford, viewing their rural sojourn as a short holiday. While Dot gets to know the remarkable women who run the hotel where they are lodging, Phryne enjoys an enticing meal—and dessert—with the attractive Captain Spencer. But their relaxation is short-lived as they are thrown into treacherous Highland gatherings, a mysterious case of disappearing women, and a string of murders committed under their very noses. Meanwhile, back at home, Phryne’s three wards are busy solving a mystery of their own when a schoolmate is found floating facedown near the docks—and pregnant at the time of her death.

Read the novels that inspired both the Miss Fisher Murder Mysteries and the Ms. Fisher’s Modern Mysteries streaming series on AcornTV.

Phryne Fisher Mysteries by Kerry Greenwood
Cocaine Blues
Flying Too High
Murder on the Ballarat Train

Praise for the Phryne Fisher Mysteries
“Anyone who hasn’t discovered Phryne Fisher by now should start making up for lost time.”—Booklist
“Phryne handsomely demonstates once more that even a compulsion to explore every mystery that comes her way needn’t interfere with her appetite for life.”—Kirkus Reviews

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Kerry Greenwood was born in the Melbourne suburb of Footscray and after wandering far and wide, she returned to live there. She has degrees in English and Law from Melbourne University and was admitted to the legal profession on the 1st April 1982, a day which she finds both soothing and significant. Kerry has written three series, a number of plays, including The Troubadours with Stephen D’Arcy, is an award-winning children’s writer and has edited and contributed to several anthologies. The Phryne Fisher series (pronounced Fry-knee, to rhyme with briny) began in 1989 with Cocaine Blues which was a great success. Kerry has written twenty books in this series with no sign yet of Miss Fisher hanging up her pearl-handled pistol. Kerry says that as long as people want to read them, she can keep writing them. In 2003 Kerry won the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Australian Association.

The 2021 Macavity Award nominees are nominated from books published during 2020. Members of Mystery Readers International as well as subscribers to Mystery Readers Journal nominate the books and stories. The winners will be announced during the opening ceremonies at Bouchercon In New Orleans in August. Check the Web Store for the nominated books. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

Congratulations to the nominees!

Best Novel 

Before She Was Helen, by Caroline B. Cooney (Poisoned Pen Press) 

Blacktop Wasteland, by S.A. Cosby (Flatiron Books) 

Blind Vigil, by Matt Coyle (Oceanview Publishing) 

All the Devils Are Here, by Louise Penny (Minotaur) 

These Women, by Ivy Pochoda (Ecco) 

When She Was Good, by Michael Robotham (Scribner) 

Best First 

Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line, by Deepa Anappara (Random House) 

Murder in Old Bombay, by Nev March (Minotaur) 

The Thursday Murder Club, by Richard Osman (Pamela Dorman Books) 

Winter Counts, by David Heska Wanbli Weiden (Ecco Press) 

Darling Rose Gold, by Stephanie Wrobel (Berkley) 

Best Critical/Biographical 

Sometimes You Have to Lie: The Life and Times of Louise Fitzhugh, Renegade Author of Harriet the Spy, by Leslie Brody (Seal Press) 

Howdunit: A Masterclass in Crime Writing by Members of the Detection Club, edited by Martin Edwards (HarperCollins) 

Ian Rankin: A Companion to the Mystery Fiction by Erin E. MacDonald (McFarland)

H R.F. Keating: A Life of Crime, by Sheila Mitchell (Level Best Books) 

Southern Cross Crime: The Pocket Essential Guide to the Crime Fiction, Film & TV of Australia and New Zealand by Craig Sisterson (Oldcastle Books) 

Best Short Story 

“Dear Emily Etiquette” by Barb Goffman (Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Sept/Oct 2020) 

“The Boy Detective & The Summer of “˜74″ by Art Taylor (Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, Jan/Feb 2020) 

“Elysian Fields” by Gabriel Valjan (California Schemin’: The 2020 Bouchercon Anthology, edited by Art Taylor; Wildside Press) 

 “Dog Eat Dog” by Elaine Viets (The Beat of Black Wings: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Joni Mitchell, edited by Josh Pachter; Untreed Reads Publishing) 

“The Twenty-Five Year Engagement,” by James W. Ziskin (In League with Sherlock Holmes: Stories Inspired by the Sherlock Holmes Canon, edited by Laurie R. King; Pegasus Crime) 

Sue Feder Memorial Award for Best Historical Mystery 

The Last Mrs. Summers by Rhys Bowen (Berkeley) 

The Cabinets of Barnaby Mayne by Elsa Hart (Minotaur) 

The Turning Tide by Catriona McPherson (Quercus) 

Mortal Music by Ann Parker (Poisoned Pen Press) 

The Mimosa Tree Mystery by Ovidia Yu (Constable) 

Turn to Stone by James Ziskin (Seventh Street Books)

Michael Punke, the author of The Revenant, just released a new novel, Ridgeline. Ridgeline was last week’s Hot Book of the Week. CJ Box just hosted him for The Poisoned Pen. You can order signed copies through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2S8eClX

Here’s the description of Ridgeline.

The thrilling, long-awaited return of the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Revenant

In 1866, with the country barely recovered from the Civil War, new war breaks out on the western frontier—a clash of cultures between the Native tribes who have lived on the land for centuries and a young, ambitious nation. Colonel Henry Carrington arrives in Wyoming’s Powder River Valley to lead the US Army in defending the opening of a new road for gold miners and settlers. Carrington intends to build a fort in the middle of critical hunting grounds, the home of the Lakota. Red Cloud, one of the Lakota’s most respected chiefs, and Crazy Horse, a young but visionary warrior, understand full well the implications of this invasion. For the Lakota, the stakes are their home, their culture, their lives.

As fall bleeds into winter, Crazy Horse leads a small war party that confronts Colonel Carrington’s soldiers with near constant attacks. Red Cloud, meanwhile, wants to build the tribal alliances that he knows will be necessary to defeat the soldiers. Colonel Carrington seeks to hold together a US Army beset with internal discord. Carrington’s officers are skeptical of their commander’s strategy, none more so than Lieutenant George Washington Grummond, who longs to fight a foe he dismisses as inferior in all ways. The rank-and-file soldiers, meanwhile, are still divided by the residue of civil war, and tempted to desertion by the nearby goldfields.

Throughout this taut saga—based on real people and events—Michael Punke brings the same immersive, vivid storytelling and historical insight that made his breakthrough debut so memorable. As Ridgeline builds to its epic conclusion, it grapples with essential questions of conquest and justice that still echo today.

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Michael Punke is the author of several books including The Revenant, a #1 New York Times bestseller and basis for the Academy Award”“winning film. In his diverse professional career, Punke has served as the US ambassador to the World Trade Organization in Geneva, history correspondent for the Montana Quarterly, and an adjunct professor at the University of Montana. As a high school and college student, he worked summers as a living history interpreter at Fort Laramie National Historic Site in Wyoming. He lives with his family in Montana and is an avid outdoorsman.

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Enjoy the conversation.

J.A. Jance debuted her latest Ali Reynolds mystery, Unfinished Business, for a Poisoned Pen virtual event. Signed copies of the book are going fast, so check the Web Store. https://bit.ly/3fQACe6

Here’s the summary of Unfinished Business.

In this heart-pounding and sharply written thriller from J.A. Jance, the “grand master of the genre” (The Providence Journal), Ali Reynolds’s personal life is thrown into turmoil just as two men show up on the scene—a former employee of her husband’s who has just been released from prison and a serial killer who sets his sights a little too close to home.

Mateo Vega, a one-time employee of Ali Reynold’s husband, B. Simpson, has spent the last sixteen years of his life behind bars. According to the courts, he murdered his girlfriend. But Mateo knows that her real killer is still on the loose, and the first thing he’s going to do when he gets a taste of freedom is track him down.

After being granted parole, a wary Mateo approaches Stu Ramey of High Noon Enterprises for a reference letter for a job application, but to his surprise, Stu gives him one better: He asks him to come on board and work for B. once again. Just as Mateo starts his new job, though, chaos breaks out at High Noon—a deadbeat tenant who is in arrears has just fled, and tech expert Cami Lee has gone missing.

As Ali races to both find a connection between the two disappearances and help Mateo clear his name with the help of PI J.P. Beaumont, tragedy strikes in her personal life, and with lives hanging in the balance, she must thread the needle between good and evil before it’s too late.

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J.A. Jance is the New York Times bestselling author of the Ali Reynolds series, the J.P. Beaumont series, and the Joanna Brady series, as well as five interrelated Southwestern thrillers featuring the Walker family. Born in South Dakota and brought up in Bisbee, Arizona, Jance lives with her husband in Seattle, Washington, and Tucson, Arizona. Visit her online at JAJance.com.

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Here’s the virtual event with J.A. Jance and Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen.

And, for J.A. Jance’s fans, here’s a little extra, an article she wrote for https://CrimeReads.com. You can find it here. https://crimereads.com/the-art-of-balancing-multiple-mystery-series/

So many books to watch for with this list of nominees. This week, The Private Eye Writers of America announced the Shamus Award nominees for 2021. The nominees come from works published in 2020. Check the Web Store for copies of the books. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

Congratulations to all of the nominees, listed below.

Best Original Private Eye Paperback

Farewell Las Vegas by Grant Bywaters / Wild Rose Press

All Kinds of Ugly by Ralph Dennis / Brash Books

Brittle Karma by Richard Helms / Black Arch Books

Remember My Face by John Lantigua / Arte Publico

Damaged Goods by Debbi Mack / Renegade Press

Best Private Eye Short Story 

“A Dreamboat Gambol” by O’Neil De Noux in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine

“Mustang Sally” by John M. Floyd in Black Cat Mystery Magazine

“Setting the Pick” by April Kelly in Mystery Weekly Magazine

“Show and Zeller” by Gordon Linnzer in Black Cat Mystery Magazine

“Nashua River Floater” by Tom MacDonald in Coast to Coast Noir

 Best Private Eye Novel

What You Don’t See by Tracy Clark / Kensington

Do No Harm by Max Allan Collins / Tor Forge

Blind Vigil by Matt Coyle / Oceanview

House on Fire by Joseph Finder / Dutton

And Now She’s Gone by Rachel Howzell Hall / Tor Forge

Best First Private Eye Novel

Squatter’s Rights by Kevin R. Doyle / Camel Press

Derailed by Mary Keliikoa / Epicenter Press

I Know Where You Sleep by Alan Orloff / Down & Out Books

The Missing American by Kwei Quartey / Soho

Winter Counts by David Heska Wanbli Weiden / Ecco

I won’t promise there are still signed copies of Michael Punke’s Hot Book of the Week, Ridgeline, after C.J. Box hosted him last evening. Check the Web Store to order copies. https://bit.ly/2S8eClX

Here’s the description of Ridgeline.

The thrilling, long-awaited return of the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Revenant

In 1866, with the country barely recovered from the Civil War, new war breaks out on the western frontier—a clash of cultures between the Native tribes who have lived on the land for centuries and a young, ambitious nation. Colonel Henry Carrington arrives in Wyoming’s Powder River Valley to lead the US Army in defending the opening of a new road for gold miners and settlers. Carrington intends to build a fort in the middle of critical hunting grounds, the home of the Lakota. Red Cloud, one of the Lakota’s most respected chiefs, and Crazy Horse, a young but visionary warrior, understand full well the implications of this invasion. For the Lakota, the stakes are their home, their culture, their lives.

As fall bleeds into winter, Crazy Horse leads a small war party that confronts Colonel Carrington’s soldiers with near constant attacks. Red Cloud, meanwhile, wants to build the tribal alliances that he knows will be necessary to defeat the soldiers. Colonel Carrington seeks to hold together a US Army beset with internal discord. Carrington’s officers are skeptical of their commander’s strategy, none more so than Lieutenant George Washington Grummond, who longs to fight a foe he dismisses as inferior in all ways. The rank-and-file soldiers, meanwhile, are still divided by the residue of civil war, and tempted to desertion by the nearby goldfields.

Throughout this taut saga—based on real people and events—Michael Punke brings the same immersive, vivid storytelling and historical insight that made his breakthrough debut so memorable. As Ridgeline builds to its epic conclusion, it grapples with essential questions of conquest and justice that still echo today.

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Michael Punke is the author of several books including The Revenant, a #1 New York Times bestseller and basis for the Academy Award”“winning film. In his diverse professional career, Punke has served as the US ambassador to the World Trade Organization in Geneva, history correspondent for the Montana Quarterly, and an adjunct professor at the University of Montana. As a high school and college student, he worked summers as a living history interpreter at Fort Laramie National Historic Site in Wyoming. He lives with his family in Montana and is an avid outdoorsman.

Mette Ivie Harrison has a fascinating background. Patrick Millikin from The Poisoned Pen asks her to discuss that before they talk about her latest Linda Wallheim mystery, The Prodigal Daughter. Signed copies of her book are available through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/3vNyREo

Here’s The Prodigal Daughter.

In the wake of the #MeToo movement, has it become easier to speak out about sexual assault in religious communities?

Linda Wallheim, increasingly disillusioned with her religion, has begun marriage counseling with her husband, Kurt, a bishop in the Mormon Church. On other days, Linda occupies herself with happier things, like visiting her five grown sons and their families.

When Linda’s eldest son, Joseph, tells her his infant daughter’s babysitter, a local teenager named Sabrina Jensen, has vanished, Linda can’t help but ask questions. Her casual inquiries form the portrait of a girl under extreme pressure from her parents to be the perfect Mormon daughter, and it eventually emerges that Sabrina is the victim of a terrible crime at the hands of her own classmates—including the high school’s golden boys and future church leaders.

Linda’s search for Sabrina will lead her to the darker streets of Utah and cause her to question whether the Mormon community’s most privileged and powerful will be called to task for past sins.

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Mette Ivie Harrison is the author of the Linda Wallheim mystery series, as well as numerous books for young adults. She holds a PhD in German literature from Princeton University and is a nationally ranked triathlete. A mother of five and member of the Mormon Church, she lives in Salt Lake City.

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Here’s the conversation between Mette Ivie Harrison and Patrick Millikin.

Just look at these events that kick off June at The Poisoned Pen. You can see all of them live at https://www.facebook.com/thepoisonedpenbookstore, and catch many of them later on YouTube. Check out the authors’ books at the Web Store. Some will be signed! https://store.poisonedpen.com/

Don’t you love the subtitle of John Mullan’s book, The Artful Dickens: The Tricks and Ploys of the Great Novelist? He and Patrick Millikin from The Poisoned Pen talk about the fact that some of the techniques used by modern novelists are not new. Dickens did it first. You can order a copy of the book through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/3p4EbAl

Here’s The Artful Dickens: The Tricks and Ploys of the Great Novelist.

‘One for your Christmas list … A feast of Dickensian knowledge’ The Times

‘This is a marvellous, endlessly illuminating book … It doesn’t go on the shelf alongside other critics; it goes on the shelf alongside Dickens’ Howard Jacobson

Discover the tricks of a literary master in this essential guide to the fictional world of Charles Dickens.

From Pickwick to Scrooge, Copperfield to Twist, how did Dickens find the perfect names for his characters?

What was Dickens’s favourite way of killing his characters?

When is a Dickens character most likely to see a ghost?

Why is Dickens’s trickery only fully realised when his novels are read aloud?

In thirteen entertaining and wonderfully insightful essays, John Mullan explores the literary machinations of Dickens’s eccentric genius, from his delight in clichés to his rendering of smells and his outrageous use of coincidences. A treat for all lovers of Dickens, this essential companion puts his audacity, originality and brilliance on full display.

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John Mullan is a professor in the English department at UCL. He writes the regular ‘Guardian Book Club’ column on fiction in the Guardian and frequently appears on the BBC’s Review Show. He was a judge of the ‘Best of the Booker Prize’ in 2008 and a judge of the Man Booker Prize itself in 2009. He has lectured widely on Jane Austen in the UK and also in the US, and makes regular appearances at the UK literary festivals.

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Enjoy the conversation.

There were a few technical difficulties with the scheduled Poisoned Pen virtual event for Edgar Award-winning author Ben Winters’ The Quiet Boy, so people missed it. Now, you have the chance to see/hear him in conversation with author Duane Swierczynski and Patrick Millikin from the bookstore. There are signed copies on the way to the bookstore. You can order them through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/3yTYB3V

Here’s The Quiet Boy.

From the “inventive…entertaining and thought-provoking” (Charles Yu) New York Times-bestselling author of Underground Airlines and Golden State, this sweeping legal thriller follows a sixteen-year-old who suffers from a neurological condition that has frozen him in time—and the team of lawyers, doctors, and detectives who are desperate to wake him up. 

In 2008, a cheerful ambulance-chasing lawyer named Jay Shenk persuades the grieving Keener family to sue a private LA hospital. Their son Wesley has been transformed by a routine surgery into a kind of golem, absent all normal functioning or personality, walking in endless empty circles around his hospital room.  In 2019, Shenk—still in practice but a shell of his former self—is hired to defend Wesley Keener’s father when he is charged with murder . . . the murder, as it turns out, of the expert witness from the 2008 hospital case. Shenk’s adopted son, a fragile teenager in 2008, is a wayward adult, though he may find his purpose when he investigates what really happened to the murdered witness.

Two thrilling trials braid together, medical malpractice and murder, jostling us back and forth in time.

The Quiet Boy is a book full of mysteries, not only about the death of a brilliant scientist, not only about the outcome of the medical malpractice suit, but about the relationship between children and their parents, between the past and the present, between truth and lies.  At the center of it all is Wesley Keener, endlessly walking, staring empty-eyed, in whose quiet, hollow body may lie the fate of humankind.

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Ben H. Winters is the New York Times bestselling author of Underground Airlines and the Last Policeman trilogy. The second novel in the trilogy, Countdown City, was an NPR Best Book of 2013 and the winner of the Philip K. Dick award. The Last Policeman was the recipient of the 2012 Edgar Award, and was also named one of the Best Books of 2012 by Amazon.com and Slate. Ben lives with his family in Los Angeles, CA.

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