Fiction Review

Lisa Gardner’s One Step Too Far is the current Hot Book of the Week at The Poisoned Pen. It also tops holds lists in public libraries, so you might want to order your own signed copy of it through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/32bD6Ql

Here’s the description of One Step Too Far.

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa Gardner, a thrilling new novel that sends missing persons expert Frankie Elkin into a national forest in Wyoming looking for a young man who disappeared without a trace.  But when the search team encounters immediate threats to their survival, Frankie realizes she’s up against something very dark—and she’s running out of time

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Lisa Gardner is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of twenty-one suspense novels, including The Neighbor, which won Thriller of the Year from the International Thriller Writers. An avid hiker, traveler, and cribbage player, she lives in the mountains of New Hampshire with her family.

Congratulations to all of the Left Coast Crime “Lefty” nominees.

If you’re looking for any of these titles, please check the Web Store. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

2022 Left Coast Crime “Lefty” Award Nominations Announced

January 17, 2022 — Albuquerque — Left Coast Crime 2022 will be presenting four Lefty Awards at our 32nd annual convention, to be held in Albuquerque in April: humorous, historical, debut, and best. The awards will be voted on at the convention and presented at a banquet on Saturday, April 9, at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Albuquerque. The award nominees have been selected by the convention registrants. LCC is delighted to announce the 2022 Lefty nominees for books published in 2021:

Lefty for Best Humorous Mystery Novel. The nominees are:
 “¢ Ellen Byron, Cajun Kiss of Death (Crooked Lane Books)
 “¢ Jennifer Chow, Mimi Lee Cracks the Code (Berkley Prime Crime)
 “¢ Elle Cosimano, Finlay Donovan Is Killing It (Minotaur Books)
 “¢ Cynthia Kuhn, How To Book a Murder (Crooked Lane Books)
 “¢ Raquel V. Reyes, Mango, Mambo, and Murder (Crooked Lane Books)
 “¢ Wendall Thomas, Fogged Off (Beyond the Page Books)

Lefty for Best Historical Mystery Novel for books set before 1970. The nominees are:
 “¢ Susanna Calkins, The Cry of the Hangman (Severn House)
 “¢ John Copenhaver, The Savage Kind (Pegasus Crime)
 “¢ Naomi Hirahara, Clark and Division (Soho Crime)
 “¢ Sujata Massey, The Bombay Prince (Soho Crime)
 “¢ Catriona McPherson, The Mirror Dance (Hodder & Stoughton)
 “¢ Lori Rader-Day, Death at Greenway (William Morrow)

Lefty for Best Debut Mystery Novel. The nominees are:
 “¢ Alexandra Andrews, Who Is Maud Dixon (Little, Brown and Company)
 “¢ Marco Carocari, Blackout (Level Best Books)
 “¢ Zakiya Dalila Harris, The Other Black Girl (Atria Books)
 “¢ Mia P. Manansala, Arsenic and Adobo (Berkley Prime Crime)
 “¢ Wanda M. Morris, All Her Little Secrets (William Morrow)

Lefty for Best Mystery Novel (not in other categories). The nominees are:
 “¢ Tracy Clark, Runner (Kensington Books)
 “¢ S.A. Cosby, Razorblade Tears (Flatiron Press)
 “¢ Matt Coyle, Last Redemption (Oceanview Publishing)
 “¢ William Kent Krueger, Lightning Strike (Atria Books)
 “¢ P.J. Vernon, Bath Haus (Doubleday)

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The Left Coast Crime Convention is an annual event sponsored by mystery fans, both readers and authors. Usually 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 32nd annual Left Coast Crime Convention will take place in Albuquerque, New Mexico, April 7″“10, 2022. This year’s Guests of Honor are authors Mick Herron and Catriona McPherson. Kristopher Zgorski is the Fan Guest of Honor, and author Kellye Garrett will serve as Toastmaster.

Left Coast Crime is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation holding annual mystery conventions in the West. Each LCC convention raises money to support a local literary organization and is staffed entirely by volunteers.

For more information on Left Coast Crime 2022, please visit https://leftcoastcrime.org/2022/

Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, recently hosted Dana Stabenow in person for the national book launch of the second in her Eye of Isis series, Disappearance of a Scribe. You can order a signed copy through the Web Store. https://tinyurl.com/2p837zhb

Here’s the summary of Disappearance of a Scribe.

The second in the trilogy of Ancient Egyptian crime novels that began with Death of an Eye.

Two Alexandrian fishermen come across a horrifying sight ““ the body of a skeleton floating upright at the bottom of the sea, anchored in place by a cement weight around his feet. In Alexandria’s rough-and-tumble construction trade they call that ‘being fitted with a pair of Rhakotis sandals’ and what’s worse, he’s the second such victim in two years.

Queen Cleopatra is busy rebuilding her city after the Alexandrian War and these murders are not to be allowed to interfere with this primary task, so she charges Tetisheri, her new Eye of Isis, with the task of finding out who these men were, when they were murdered, and, above all, why.

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Dana Stabenow was born in Anchorage, Alaska and raised on a 75-foot fishing tender. She knew there was a warmer, drier job out there somewhere and found it in writing. Her first Kate Shugak book, A Cold Day for Murder, received an Edgar Award from the Crime Writers of America. She lives in Homer, Alaska. Find her online at stabenow.com.

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Dana Stabenow and Barbara Peters have been to Egypt together, so they can discuss that along with Stabenow’s new book.

Brad Taylor’s recent event at The Poisoned Pen was in-person as well as virtual. He appeared to discuss his latest book, End of Days. There are signed copies available through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2FFEJad

Here’s the description of End of Days.

Pike Logan must stop a deranged killer hell-bent on igniting an international conflagration in this explosive, action-packed thriller from New York Times bestselling author and former special forces officer, Brad Taylor.

When a paragliding trip over the picturesque mountains of Switzerland results in the brutal murder of the former head of Israeli intelligence, Mossad brings in terrorist hunters Aaron and Shoshana to investigate. But they’ll need help to find out who was behind the attack and what they’re planning next. Luckily, Aaron and Shoshana know exactly who to call.

Taskforce operators Pike Logan and Jennifer Cahill have been trapped in Charleston, South Carolina during COVID-19, so when Aaron and Shoshana show up on their doorstep with Israeli passports and a new mission, they jump at the chance to assist their friends. Some suspect that Keta’ib Hezbollah, an Iranian-funded militia group operating in Iraq, might be responsible for the “accidental” deaths of key members of the American and Israeli governments. But something isn’t adding up, and Pike, Jennifer, and the two Mossad operators are determined to find the real assassins before more people are cut down.

As they stumble upon the trail of a serial killer loose on the streets of Rome connected to the deaths and follow evidence leading to the exalted Knights of Malta, they must wade deep into the contentious religious and political fractures of Israel and the greater Middle East. It’s a dangerous world where fanatics and legitimate organizations exist side by side, and it’s up to the Taskforce to determine who is really pulling the strings. What they find could have disastrous consequences not only for them, but for the entire world… 

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Brad Taylor, Lieutenant Colonel (Ret.), is a twenty-one-year veteran of the U.S. Army Infantry and Special Forces, includ­ing eight years with Delta Force. Taylor retired in 2010 after serving more than two decades and participating in Oper­ation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. He has written fourteen New York Times bestsellers and is a security consultant on asymmetric threats for various agencies. He lives in Charleston, South Carolina, with his wife and two daughters.

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Enjoy the recent event featuring Brad Taylor.

Alafair Burke is the author of fourteen books, plus the six books she wrote with Mary Higgins Clark. She and Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, had wonderful stories to tell about Mary Higgins Clark and her commitment to her readers. The event was really featuring Burke’s Find Me, but anyone who watches the virtual event will enjoy the discussion of Clark. You can find signed copies of Find Me in the Web Store. https://bit.ly/3GJqzmt

Here’s the description of Find Me.

“Alafair Burke’s latest propulsive thrill-ride is a suspenseful, twisty mystery about memory, friendship and secrets. A page-turner of the highest order.” -Laura Dave, author of The Last Thing He Told Me

The disappearance of a young woman leaves her best friend reeling and an NYPD homicide detective digging into her own past in this twisty mystery about the power of female friendships. From the New York Times bestselling author of The Better Sister and The Wife.

Some pasts won’t stay forgotten . . .

She calls herself Hope Miller, but she has no idea who she actually is. Fifteen years ago, she was found in a small New Jersey town thrown from an overturned vehicle, with no clue to her identity. Doctors assumed her amnesia was a temporary side effect of her injuries, but she never regained her memory. Hope eventually started a new life with a new name in a new town that welcomed her, yet always wondered what she may have left behind—or been running from. Now, she’s leaving New Jersey to start over once again.

Manhattan defense lawyer Lindsay Kelly, Hope’s best friend and the one who found her after the accident, understands why Hope wants a new beginning. But she worries how her friend will fare in her new East Hampton home, far away from everything familiar. Lindsay’s worst fears are confirmed when she discovers Hope has vanished without a trace—the only lead a drop of blood found where she was last seen. Even more ominously, the blood matches a DNA sample with a connection to a notorious Kansas murderer.

With nowhere else to turn, Lindsay calls NYPD homicide detective Ellie Hatcher, the daughter of the cop who dedicated his life to hunting the Kansas killer. Ellie has always believed there was more to the story of her father’s death twenty years earlier—and she now fears that Hope’s recent disappearance could be related.

In pursuit of answers, the women search for the truth beneath long-buried secrets. And when their searches converge, what they find will upend everything they’ve ever known. 

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Alafair Burke is a New York Times bestselling author whose most recent novels include The Wife and The Ex, which was nominated for the Edgar Award for best novel. She also co-authors the bestselling Under Suspicion series with Mary Higgins Clark. A former prosecutor, she now teaches criminal law and lives in Manhattan and East Hampton.

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Enjoy the virtual event featuring Alafair Burke.

Although Charles Cumming was the primary author for the recent Poisoned Pen virtual event to talk about his latest book, Box 88, Joseph Kanon joined the event for a discussion. Kanon and Cumming could talk about spy novels. Kanon will be back in late February to talk about his new book, The Berlin Exchange. You can order both books through the Web Store. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

Here’s the description of Box 88.

One of Parade‘s Most Anticipated Books of 2022!

A secret agent comes of age—and reckons with the legacy of his first mission—in this thriller by New York Times-bestseller Charles Cumming, “the best of the new generation of British spy writers” (The Observer)

Lachlan Kite is a member of BOX 88, an elite transatlantic black ops outfit so covert that not even MI6 and the CIA are certain of its existence — but even the best spy can’t anticipate every potential threat in a world where dangerous actors lurk around every corner. At the funeral of his childhood best friend, Lachlan falls into a trap that drops him into the hands of a potentially deadly interrogation, with his pregnant wife, also abducted, being held as collateral for the information he’s sworn on his own life to protect.

Thirty years earlier Lachlan, then just out of the upper class boarding school where he was reared, was BOX 88’s newest recruit. In the haze of a gap year summer, in which the study of spycraft was intertwined with a journey of self-discovery, he cut his teeth on a special assignment on the coast of France, where a friendship allowed him special access to one of Iran’s most dangerous men. Today, Lachlan’s nostalgia for the trip is corrupted by recollection of the deceit that accompanied it but, in order to save his family, he’ll be forced to revisit those painful memories one last time.

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Charles Cumming is a British writer of spy fiction. He was educated at Eton College (1985-1989) and the University of Edinburgh (1990-1994), where he graduated with 1st Class Honors in English Literature. He’s been described him as “the best of the new generation of British spy writers who are taking over where John le Carré and Len Deighton left off”.

BOX 88 is his tenth novel, the start of a new series featuring Lachlan Kite.

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Here’s the description of the forthcoming The Berlin Exchange.

From “master of the genre” (The Washington Post) Joseph Kanon, an espionage thriller set at the height of the Cold War, when a captured American who has spied for the KGB is swapped by the British and returns to East Berlin needing to know who arranged his release and what they want from him.

Berlin. 1963. The height of the Cold War. An early morning spy swap, not at the familiar setting for such exchanges, or at Checkpoint Charlie, where international visitors cross into the East, but at a more discreet border crossing, usually reserved for East German VIPs. The Communists are trading two American students caught helping people to escape over the wall and an aging MI6 operative. On the other side of the trade: Martin Keller, a physicist who once made headlines, but who then disappeared into the English prison system. Keller’s most critical possession: his American passport. Keller’s most ardent desire: to see his ex-wife Sabine and their young son.

The exchange is made with the formality characteristic of these swaps. But Martin has other questions: who asked for him? Who negotiated the deal? The KGB? He has worked for the service long enough to know that nothing happens by chance. They want him for something. Not physics—his expertise is out of date. Something else, which he cannot learn until he arrives in East Berlin, when suddenly the game is afoot.

Filled with intriguing characters, atmospheric detail, and plenty of action Kanon’s latest espionage thriller is one you won’t soon forget.

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Joseph Kanon is the Edgar Award”“winning author of The Accomplice, Defectors, Leaving Berlin, Istanbul Passage, Los Alamos, The Prodigal Spy, Alibi, Stardust, and The Good German, which was made into a major motion picture starring George Clooney and Cate Blanchett. He lives in New York City.

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Enjoy Barbara Peters’ discussion with Charles Cumming and Joseph Kanon.

Mystery Writers of America recently announced the 2022 Grand Master, Raven and Ellery Queen Award recipients, and all three are friends of The Poisoned Pen.

BY MWA · JANUARY 12, 2022

MWA Announces 2022 Grand Master, Raven and Ellery Queen Award Recipients

January 12, 2022 —New York, NY—Today Mystery Writers of America (MWA) announces the recipients of its special awards. The board chose Laurie R. King as the 2022 Grand Master, the 2022 Raven Award recipient is Lesa Holstine, and Juliet Grames will receive the Ellery Queen Award. They will accept their awards at the 76^th Annual Edgar Awards Ceremony, which will be held April 28, 2022, at the Marriott Marquis Times Square in New York City.

“Mystery Writers of America is thrilled to honor Laurie R. King as MWA’s 2022 Grand Master,” said MWA President Alafair Burke. “For more than a quarter century, King has entertained readers around the world with her writings, which range from historical fiction to contemporary police procedurals to gripping standalones and scores of anthology contributions. She is also a generous supporter of readers and fellow writers and a leader within the literary community. She exemplifies the excellence that defines the Grand Master Award, and we are delighted to recognize her achievements.

MWA’s Grand Master Award represents the pinnacle of achievement in mystery writing and was established to acknowledge important contributions to this genre, as well as for a body of work that is both significant and of consistent high quality. Laurie R. King is thebestselling author of 30 novels and other works, including the Mary Russell-Sherlock Holmes stories, beginning with The Beekeeper’s Apprentice (named “One of the 20th Century’s Best Crime Novels” by the IMBA.)  She has won the Agatha, Anthony, Edgar, Lambda, Wolfe, Macavity, Creasey dagger, and Romantic Times Career Achievement awards, has an honorary doctorate in theology, and is a Baker Street Irregular.  Her recent books include Castle Shade and How to Write a Mystery (co-edited with Lee Child.) She has been a member of Mystery Writers of America since 1993 and served on the NorCal and National boards.

On being notified of the honor, King said, “I am sure I’m not the only person who greeted the announcement that they had been given this extreme honor of the mystery world first with silence, then with, “Really?  Me??”  I mean, any list that begins with Agatha Christie and touches on such gods as Ross MacDonald and Daphne du Maurier, Ngaio Marsh and John Le Carré, Tony Hillerman and—well, you get the idea. “˜I am honored’ is an inadequate response (You are sure you counted the votes, right?) when what I mean is, “˜I am stunned, dumbfounded, gobsmacked.’ And honored too, of course—intensely, humbly, and gratefully.”

Previous Grand Masters include Charlaine Harris, Jeffery Deaver, Barbara Neely, Martin Cruz Smith, William Link, Peter Lovesey, Walter Mosley, Lois Duncan, James Ellroy, Robert Crais, Ken Follett, Martha Grimes, Sara Paretsky, James Lee Burke, Sue Grafton, Stephen King, Mary Higgins Clark, Lawrence Block, P.D. James, Ellery Queen, Daphne du Maurier, Alfred Hitchcock, Graham Greene, and Agatha Christie, to name a few.

The Raven Award recognizes outstanding achievement in the mystery field outside the realm of creative writing. For 2022, Mystery Writers of America selected librarian, a blogger, and book reviewer Lesa Holstine.

Upon learning she would receive the Raven Award, Lesa Holstine reacted with disbelief, “You’re kidding!” Holstine said, “I’m grateful to the MWA Board, and to mystery writers everywhere who have provided so much enjoyment over the years.”

Previous Raven Award recipients includeMalice Domestic, Left Coast Crime, Marilyn Stasio, The Raven Bookstore, Sisters in Crime, and Oline Cogdill.

Holstine has worked in public libraries since she was 16. For almost 50 years, she’s shared her love of books, especially mysteries, with library patrons, and is presently the Collections Manager at the Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library in Evansville, Indiana. She is in the 18^th  year of writing her award-winning blog, Lesa’s Book Critiques, has been the blogger for Poisoned Pen Bookstore for over four years, and reviews mysteries for Mystery Readers’ Journal and Library Journal, where she was named Reviewer of the Year in 2018. She has received the 2011 Arizona Library Association Outstanding Library Service Award and the David S. Thompson Special Service Memorial Award. She is a member of Sisters in Crime and serves on the Left Coast Crime Standing Committee.

The Ellery Queen Award was established in 1983 to honor “outstanding writing teams and outstanding people in the mystery-publishing industry.” This year the Board chose to honor Juliet Grames, SVP, Associate Publisher at Soho Press, where she has curated the award-winning Soho Crime imprint since 2011. Her debut novel, The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna, was published by Ecco/HarperCollins and has been translated into ten languages.

On learning she would receive the Ellery Queen Award, Grames said, “I am astonished and moved by this great honor. There is no community I could be prouder to work in: the creators in our genre are not only artists but activists and thoroughly good people. It is a great privilege to nurture and amplify their voices, and I humbly thank every author who has ever trusted me with that privilege. It is also a great privilege to work for a publisher, Bronwen Hruska, whose values—both literary and philosophical—align so perfectly with mine. This recognition belongs to them, although I am honored to be their representative.”

Previous Ellery Queen Award winners include Reagan Arthur, Kelley Ragland, Linda Landrigan, Neil Nyren, Charles Ardai, and Janet Hutchings.

The Edgar Awards, or “Edgars,” as they are commonly known, are named after MWA’s patron saint Edgar Allan Poe and are presented to authors of distinguished work in various categories. MWA is the premier organization for mystery writers, professionals allied to the crime-writing field, aspiring crime writers, and those who are devoted to the genre. The organization encompasses some 3,000 members including authors of fiction and non-fiction books, screen and television writers, as well as publishers, editors, and literary agents. For more information on Mystery Writers of America, please visit the website: www.mysterywriters.org

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The EDGAR (and logo) are Registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office by the Mystery Writers of America, Inc.

The Poisoned Pen just held the book launch for The Horsewoman by James Patterson and Mike Lupica. Lupica says, “It’s a thriller. It’s a family novel. It’s a novel set in showjumping, but at its heart it’s about two women who love each other, but they love showjumping, too.” You can order a copy through the Web Store, and the copies come with signed bookplates. https://bit.ly/3zM8xxb

Here’s the summary of The Horsewoman.

Emotions rule us all—and turn two women’s lives into a ride they can barely control in this “hugely entertaining, riveting page-turner.” —#1 bestselling author Louise Penny

Maggie Atwood and Becky McCabe, mother and daughter, both champion riders, vowed to never, ever, go up against one another. 

Until the tense, harrowing competitions leading to the Paris Olympics. 

Mother and daughter share a dream: to be the best horsewoman in the world.

Coronado is Maggie’s horse. An absolutely top-tier Belgian warmblood. 
Sky is Becky’s horse. A small, speedy Dutch warmblood. 

Only James Patterson could bring you such breakneck speed, hair-raising thrills and spills.  

Only hall of fame sportswriter Mike Lupica could make it all so real.

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James Patterson is the world’s bestselling author. The creator of Alex Cross, he has produced more enduring fictional heroes than any other novelist alive. He lives in Florida with his family.

Mike Lupica is a veteran sports columnist—spending most of his career with the New York Daily News—who is now a member of the National Sports Media Association Hall of Fame. For three decades, he was a panelist on ESPN’s The Sports Reporters. As a novelist, he has written sixteen New York Times bestsellers. His daughter has been a competitive rider since the age of ten.

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It’s a mother-daughter story. “It’s a thriller. It’s a family novel. It’s a novel set in showjumping.” Enjoy the book launch with James Patterson and Mike Lupica.

Charles Cumming. Alafair Burke. Dana Stabenow. Stephen Hunter. Sulari Gentill. Five days, and five popular authors appearing virtually for The Poisoned Pen. I understand February is jammed with authors as well. Mark your favorite authors on the calendar, and don’t forget to check the Web Store for their books. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

Then, prepare to watch the virtual events on Facebook or YouTube.

The Torqued Man is Peter Mann’s debut novel, and Mann discusses the inspiration for the book in The Poisoned Pen’s virtual event. There are signed copies of this debut available through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/3HLdJE2

Here is the summary of The Torqued Man.

“A damn good read.”—Alan Furst

A brilliant debut novel, at once teasing literary thriller and a darkly comic blend of history and invention, The Torqued Man is set in wartime Berlin and propelled by two very different but equally mesmerizing voices: a German spy handler and his Irish secret agent, neither of whom are quite what they seem.

Berlin—September, 1945. Two manuscripts are found in rubble, each one narrating conflicting versions of the life of an Irish spy during the war. 

One of them is the journal of a German military intelligence officer and an anti-Nazi cowed into silence named Adrian de Groot, charting his relationship with his agent, friend, and sometimes lover, an Irishman named Frank Pike. In De Groot’s narrative, Pike is a charismatic IRA fighter sprung from prison in Spain to assist with the planned German invasion of Britain, but who never gets the chance to consummate his deal with the devil. 

Meanwhile, the other manuscript gives a very different account of the Irishman’s doings in the Reich. Assuming the alter ego of the Celtic hero Finn McCool, Pike appears here as the ultimate Allied saboteur. His mission: an assassination campaign of high-ranking Nazi doctors, culminating in the killing of Hitler’s personal physician.

The two manuscripts spiral around each other, leaving only the reader to know the full truth of Pike and De Groot’s relationship, their ultimate loyalties, and their efforts to resist the fascist reality in which they are caught.

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Peter Mann has a PhD in Modern European history and is a past recipient of the Whiting Fellowship. He teaches history and literature at Stanford and the University of San Francisco. He is also a graphic artist and cartoonist. This is his first novel.

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Check out this discussion with Peter Mann.