Fiction Review

You may have read rave reviews of Ash Davidson’s debut novel, Damnation Spring. Davidson is an Arizona author, so she appeared in person to film the recent virtual event, hosted by Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen. And, for those of you who were frustrated by the virtual event with T.J. Newman, debut author of Falling, Newman appears for a short time as well. You can find signed copies of Damnation Spring in the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2UPcYqO

Here’s the description of Damnation Spring.

An epic, immersive debut, Damnation Spring is the deeply human story of a Pacific Northwest logging town wrenched in two by a mystery that threatens to derail its way of life.

For generations, Rich Gundersen’s family has chopped a livelihood out of the redwood forest along California’s rugged coast. Now Rich and his wife, Colleen, are raising their own young son near Damnation Grove, a swath of ancient redwoods on which Rich’s employer, Sanderson Timber Co., plans to make a killing. In 1977, with most of the forest cleared or protected, a grove like Damnation—and beyond it 24-7 Ridge—is a logger’s dream.

It’s dangerous work. Rich has already lived decades longer than his father, killed on the job. Rich wants better for his son, Chub, so when the opportunity arises to buy 24-7 Ridge—costing them all the savings they’ve squirreled away for their growing family—he grabs it, unbeknownst to Colleen. Because the reality is their family isn’t growing; Colleen has lost several pregnancies. And she isn’t alone. As a midwife, Colleen has seen it with her own eyes.

For decades, the herbicides the logging company uses were considered harmless. But Colleen is no longer so sure. What if these miscarriages aren’t isolated strokes of bad luck? As mudslides take out clear-cut hillsides and salmon vanish from creeks, her search for answers threatens to unravel not just Rich’s plans for the 24-7, but their marriage too, dividing a town that lives and dies on timber along the way.

Told from the perspectives of Rich, Colleen, and Chub, in prose as clear as a spring-fed creek, this intimate, compassionate portrait of a community clinging to a vanishing way of life amid the perils of environmental degradation makes Damnation Spring an essential novel for our time.

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Ash Davidson was born in Arcata, California, and attended the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Her work has been supported by the Arizona Commission on the Arts and MacDowell. She lives in Flagstaff, Arizona.

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Enjoy the virtual event with Ash Davidson, and later T.J. Newman, two debut authors from Arizona.

William Kent Krueger’s new book, Lightning Strike, is the current Hot Book of the Week at The Poisoned Pen. And, Krueger himself is hot right now. He was the recent subject of a “By the Book” interview in The New York Times. There are signed copies of Lightning Strike available through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2ksjS2X

Here’s the summary of Lightning Strike, a prequel to the Cork O’Connor series.

The author of the instant New York Times bestseller This Tender Land returns with a powerful prequel to his acclaimed Cork O’Connor series—a book about fathers and sons, long-simmering conflicts in a small Minnesota town, and the events that echo through youth and shape our lives forever.

Aurora is a small town nestled in the ancient forest alongside the shores of Minnesota’s Iron Lake. In the summer of 1963, it is the whole world to twelve-year-old Cork O’Connor, its rhythms as familiar as his own heartbeat. But when Cork stumbles upon the body of a man he revered hanging from a tree in an abandoned logging camp, it is the first in a series of events that will cause him to question everything he took for granted about his hometown, his family, and himself.

Cork’s father, Liam O’Connor, is Aurora’s sheriff and it is his job to confirm that the man’s death was the result of suicide, as all the evidence suggests. In the shadow of his father’s official investigation, Cork begins to look for answers on his own. Together, father and son face the ultimate test of choosing between what their heads tell them is true and what their hearts know is right.

In this masterful story of a young man and a town on the cusp of change, beloved novelist William Kent Krueger shows that some mysteries can be solved even as others surpass our understanding.

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William Kent Krueger is the New York Times bestselling author of This Tender Land, Ordinary Grace (winner of the Edgar Award for best novel), as well as eighteen acclaimed books in the Cork O’Connor mystery series, including Desolation Mountain and Sulfur Springs. He lives in the Twin Cities with his family. Learn more at WilliamKentKrueger.com.

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There was no live audience, but Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, was able to talk with William Kent Krueger in person. This event feels so much different than the virtual events since the two were together. Enjoy!

While Patrick Millikin from The Poisoned Pen had some questions for James Lee Burke, Dennis Lehane was the host for the recent event celebrating Burke’s new Holland family novel, Another Kind of Eden. You can still snatch up a signed copy of Another Kind of Eden. https://bit.ly/2SJ8gVl

Here’s the summary of Another Kind of Eden.

New York Times bestselling author James Lee Burke brings readers a captivating tale of justice, love, brutality, and mysticism set in the turbulent 1960s.

The American West in the early 1960s appears to be a pastoral paradise: golden wheat fields, mist-filled canyons, frolicking animals. Aspiring novelist Aaron Holland Broussard has observed it from the open door of a boxcar, riding the rails for both inspiration and odd jobs.

Jumping off in Denver, he finds work on a farm and meets Joanne McDuffy, an articulate and fierce college student and gifted painter. Their soul connection is immediate, but their romance is complicated by Joanne’s involvement with a shady professor who is mixed up with a drug-addled cult. When a sinister businessman and his son who wield their influence through vicious cruelty set their sights on Aaron, drawing him into an investigation of grotesque murders, it is clear that this idyllic landscape harbors tremendous power—and evil. Followed by a mysterious shrouded figure who might not be human, Aaron will have to face down all these foes to save the life of the woman he loves and his own.

The latest installment in James Lee Burke’s masterful Holland family saga, Another Kind of Eden is both riveting and one of Burke’s most ambitious works to date. It dismantles the myths of both the twentieth-century American West and the peace-and-love decade, excavating the beauty and idealism of the era to show the menace and chaos that lay simmering just beneath the surface.

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James Lee Burke is a New York Times bestselling author, two-time winner of the Edgar Award, and the recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship for Creative Arts in Fiction. He’s authored thirty-nine novels and two short story collections. He lives in Missoula, Montana.

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It’s not often that there are two legends in the same virtual event. Enjoy the video featuring James Lee Burke and Dennis Lehane.

Bloodless marks the 20th Agent Pendergast novel by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen welcomed the authors for a virtual event to celebrate the new book. The books went quickly, but you can order a copy through the Web Store, and it will be sent when they’re back in stock. https://bit.ly/2us95e9

Here’s the summary of Bloodless.

Agent Pendergast faces his most unexpected challenge yet when bloodless bodies begin to appear in Savannah, GA, in this next installment of the #1 NYT bestselling series.A legendary heist:
On the evening of November 24, 1971, D. B. Cooper hijacked Flight 305 — Portland to Seattle — with a fake bomb, collected a ransom of $200,000, and parachuted into the night, never to be seen again… Perhaps.

A brutal crime steeped in malevolence:

Fifty years later, Agent Pendergast takes on a bizarre and gruesome case: in the ghost-haunted city of Savannah, Georgia, bodies are found completely drained of blood–sowing panic and reviving the infamous legend of the Savannah Vampire.

A case like no other in Pendergast’s career:

Through twists and turns, Pendergast and his partner, Agent Coldmoon, race to understand how these murders are connected to the most mystifying hijacking in American history. Together, they discover not just the killer-but an unearthly evil beyond all reckoning.

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The thrillers of Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child “stand head and shoulders above their rivals” (Publishers Weekly). Preston and Child’s Relic and The Cabinet of Curiosities were chosen by readers in a National Public Radio poll as being among the one hundred greatest thrillers ever written, and Relic was made into a number-one box office hit movie. They are coauthors of the famed Pendergast series and their recent novels include Crooked River, Verses for the Dead, City of Endless Night, and The Obsidian Chamber. In addition to his novels, Douglas Preston writes about archaeology for The New Yorker and National Geographic magazines. Lincoln Child is a Florida resident and former book editor who has published seven novels of his own, including bestsellers such as Full Wolf Moon and Deep Storm.

Readers can sign up for The Pendergast File, a monthly “strangely entertaining” newsletter from the authors, at their website, PrestonChild.com. The authors welcome visitors to their Facebook page, where they post regularly.

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Enjoy the conversation between the authors and Barbara Peters.

John Charles from The Poisoned Pen recently interviewed Liz Johnson, a local author. Her latest book is Beyond the Tides, the first Prince Edward Island Shores novel. You can order a copy through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/3j9YfQO

Here’s the summary of Beyond the Tides.

Oliver isn’t proud of what he did back then. Angry and broken by his father walking out on his family, he lashed out at Meg–an innocent bystander. But owning a respected fishing fleet on Prince Edward Island is the opportunity of a lifetime, and he’s not about to walk away just because Meg wants him to.

Meg’s father has the perfect solution: Oliver and Meg must work the business together, and at the end of the season, he’ll decide who gets it. Along the way, they may discover that their stories are more similar than they thought . . . and their dreams aren’t what they expected.

Bestselling author Liz Johnson invites you back to Prince Edward Island for a brand-new series about family, forgiveness, and the kind of love that heals all wounds

You can watch the conversation about Liz Johnson’s career and book here.

Let’s preview a few upcoming virtual events. I’m sure there are several you won’t want to miss. Mark them on your calendars, and then check the Web Store for the authors’ books. https://store.poisonedpen.com/ You’ll be able to join the event on The Poisoned Pen’s Facebook page.

Check out these events.

I know how much Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, likes to introduce a debut author. Ashley Winstead’s debut novel is In My Dreams I Hold a Knife. Multi-award winning author and journalist Hank Phillippi Ryan hosted the recent virtual event on behalf of the bookstore. You can order signed copies of the debut through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/3D6Z6t9

Here’s the summary of In My Dreams I Hold a Knife.

“[A] mordant debut novel….examines what it means to covet the lives of others, no matter the cost.”—The New York Times

“Tense, twisty, and packed with shocks.”—Riley Sager, New York Times bestselling author of Survive The Night

Six friends.
One college reunion.
One unsolved murder.

Ten years after graduation, Jessica Miller has planned her triumphant return to her southern, elite Duquette University, down to the envious whispers that are sure to follow in her wake. Everyone is going to see the girl she wants them to see—confident, beautiful, indifferent. Not the girl she was when she left campus, back when Heather Shelby’s murder fractured everything, including the tight bond linking the six friends she’d been closest to since freshman year.

But not everyone is ready to move on. Not everyone left Duquette ten years ago, and not everyone can let Heather’s murder go unsolved. Someone is determined to trap the real killer, to make the guilty pay. When the six friends are reunited, they will be forced to confront what happened that night—and the years’ worth of secrets each of them would do anything to keep hidden.

Told in racing dual timelines, with a dark campus setting and a darker look at friendship, love, obsession, and ambition, In My Dreams I Hold A Knife is an addictive, propulsive read you won’t be able to put down.

“Beautiful writing, juicy secrets, complex female characters, and drumbeat suspense—what more could you want from a debut thriller?”—Andrea Bartz, author of Reese’s Book Club pick We Were Never Here

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Ashley Winstead directs communications for a national philanthropy. She holds a Ph.D. in contemporary American literature and a B.A. in English and Art History. She lives in Houston, TX

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Enjoy this introduction to a debut author and novel.

Paper & Blood is the second book in Kevin Hearne’s Ink & Sigil series. The Poisoned Pen was once his local bookstore. The store still hosts him for virtual events. You can find copies of Paper & Blood in the Web Store. They come with signed book plates. https://bit.ly/2Glm6Lt

Here’s the summary of Paper & Blood.

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Iron Druid Chronicles comes book two of an “action-packed, enchantingly fun” (Booklist) spin-off series, as an eccentric master of rare magic solves a supernatural mystery Down Under!

There’s only one Al MacBharrais: Though other Scotsmen may have dramatic mustaches and a taste for fancy cocktails, Al also has a unique talent. He’s a master of ink and sigil magic. In his gifted hands, paper and pen can work wondrous spells. 

But Al isn’t quite alone: He is part of a global network of sigil agents who use their powers to protect the world from mischievous gods and strange monsters. So when a fellow agent disappears under sinister circumstances in Australia, Al leaves behind the cozy pubs and cafes of Glasgow and travels to the Dandenong Ranges in Victoria to solve the mystery.

The trail to his colleague begins to pile up with bodies at alarming speed, so Al is grateful his friends have come to help—especially Nadia, his accountant who moonlights as a pit fighter. Together with a whisky-loving hobgoblin known as Buck Foi and the ancient Druid Atticus O’Sullivan, along with his dogs, Oberon and Starbuck, Al and Nadia will face down the wildest wonders Australia—and the supernatural world—can throw at them, and confront a legendary monster not seen in centuries.

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Kevin Hearne hugs trees, pets doggies, and rocks out to heavy metal. He also thinks tacos are a pretty nifty idea. He is the author of The Seven Kennings series and the New York Times bestselling series The Iron Druid Chronicles, and co-author of The Tales of Pell with Delilah S. Dawson.

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Enjoy the virtual event with Kevin Hearne, hosted by Patrick King from The Poisoned Pen.

At the time of the virtual event celebrating Naomi Hirahara’s Clark and Division, The Poisoned Pen’s August Historical Crime book of the Month, Barbara Peters, owner of the bookstore, said they only had two signed copies left. They’re probably all sold out by now, but you can check the Web Store. https://bit.ly/3svq7C0

There were so many positive reviews of this book. Here’s the summary of Clark and Division.

Set in 1944 Chicago, Edgar Award-winner Naomi Hirahara’s eye-opening and poignant new mystery, the story of a young woman searching for the truth about her revered older sister’s death, brings to focus the struggles of one Japanese American family released from mass incarceration at Manzanar during World War II.

Chicago, 1944: Twenty-year-old Aki Ito and her parents have just been released from Manzanar, where they have been detained by the US government since the aftermath of Pearl Harbor, together with thousands of other Japanese Americans. The life in California the Itos were forced to leave behind is gone; instead, they are being resettled two thousand miles away in Chicago, where Aki’s older sister, Rose, was sent months earlier and moved to the new Japanese American neighborhood near Clark and Division streets. But on the eve of the Ito family’s reunion, Rose is killed by a subway train.

Aki, who worshipped her sister, is stunned. Officials are ruling Rose’s death a suicide. Aki cannot believe her perfect, polished, and optimistic sister would end her life. Her instinct tells her there is much more to the story, and she knows she is the only person who could ever learn the truth.

Inspired by historical events, Clark and Division infuses an atmospheric and heartbreakingly real crime fiction plot with rich period details and delicately wrought personal stories Naomi Hirahara has gleaned from thirty years of research and archival work in Japanese American history.

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Naomi Hirahara is the Edgar Award”“winning author of the Mas Arai mystery series, including Summer of the Big Bachi, which was a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year and one of Chicago Tribune‘sTen Best Mysteries and Thrillers; Gasa Gasa Girl; Snakeskin Shamisen; and Hiroshima Boy. She is also the author of the LA-based Ellie Rush mysteries. A former editor of The Rafu Shimpo newspaper, she has co-written non-fiction books like Life after Manzanar and the award-winning Terminal Island: Lost Communities of Los Angeles Harbor. The Stanford University alumna was born and raised in Altadena, CA; she now resides in the adjacent town of Pasadena, CA.

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Enjoy the discussion of this fascinating historical mystery.

First, before I share Thomas Kies’ recent blog post, let me introduce the virtual event for Thursday, August 19. Warren Easley, author of No Witness, and Thomas Kies, author of Shadow Hill, will be appearing at 1:30 PM PDT. You can “attend” the event at The Poisoned Pen’s Facebook page. Books by both Sourcebooks/Poisoned Pen Press authors are available through the Web Store. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

Kies’ fourth Geneva Chase Crime Reporter novel, Shadow Hill, has just been released. Because Kies’ Geneva Chase has just switched careers, from crime reporter to private investigator, I asked Tom to talk about that. Why did Geneva change careers? What does it have to do with the state of newspapers today? 

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In my newest mystery, SHADOW HILL, my protagonist, Geneva Chase, has left a fulltime job at her hometown newspaper to work for a company that uses journalists and ex-cops to collect intelligence for well paying clients.  She’s gone from being a crime reporter to being a PI.

The main reason she left journalism is her newspaper, the Sheffield Post, is on the brink of being purchased by a major media conglomerate.  

Geneva is based on several women I’ve worked with over the years when I too worked in the newspaper and publishing business.  

It’s a business that I loved.  I did everything, including working as a pressman on a Goss web press in Detroit, becoming a staff writer, eventually becoming an editor, then moving into advertising management, and ultimately becoming the publisher and general manager of a magazine publishing house here on the coast of North Carolina. 

I even delivered newspapers during a blizzard in one of the company’s ancient, rear-wheel drive vans.   Yikes.  Sliding sideways down a hill in a blinding snowstorm is a real adrenaline rush.

Every single day, the business was exciting, interesting, and fun, but filled with the pressures of working on a deadline.  

Unfortunately, the business has changed.  The combination of the Great Recession, the effects of the Internet, and Covid-19 has been disastrous for newspapers.  Their main source of revenue is advertising and all three of the factors I presented have shrunk that revenue stream.  

Before the Great Recession, the housing market was booming.  Real estate companies were spending a fortune in the classified section of newspapers, along with car dealerships, and companies looking to hire employees.  

Starting in 2007-2008, the housing bubble burst followed by cascading disasters in employment and consumer confidence.  Companies who always knew about the Internet, suddenly found it very attractive.  It was cheap and easy to use.   The lucrative classified pages in newspapers diminished to a disastrous level. The advertising in the main pages of the paper also either got smaller or went away altogether.

According to a New York Times article in December of 2019, over the past 15 years, more than one in five papers in the United States has shuttered, and the number of journalists working for newspapers has been cut in half, according to research by the University of North Carolina’s School of Media and Journalism. That has led to the rise of hollowed-out “ghost papers” and communities across the country without any local paper. “Ghost papers” are publications what have severely cut the staff in their newsrooms making any kind of investigative reporting non-existent. 

Covid-19 has delivered even more pain to newspapers.  When the world shut down in March of 2020, stores, shops, bars, and restaurants all closed their doors for months. Advertising became even scarcer.  Even with the world starting to open back up, the number of pages in your local newspaper has become less and less.  

An unexpected circumstance from the experience of working from home, more newspaper companies are closing their newsrooms, having offsite printing companies produce their publications, and selling their buildings and other physical assets.

A huge part of the joy of working for a newspaper was being with the people you worked with.  Yes, the pressure of daily deadlines could lead to fraying nerves and in-office tension.  But at the end of the day, these people were your “newspaper family”.  Even though I’ve been out of the business for more than ten years, I still stay in close touch with a lot of them even if it’s through social media on the Internet.

Speaking of the Internet, the way people get their news has changed dramatically.

The transition of news from print, television and radio to digital spaces has caused huge disruptions in the traditional news industry, especially the print news industry. It’s also reflected in the ways individual Americans say they are getting their news. A large majority of Americans get news at least sometimes from digital devices, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted Aug. 31-Sept. 7, 2020.

More than eight-in-ten U.S. adults (86%) say they get news from a smartphone, computer or tablet “often” or “sometimes,” including 60% who say they do so often. This is higher than the portion who get news from television, though 68% get news from TV at least sometimes and 40% do so often. Americans turn to radio and print publications for news far less frequently, with half saying they turn to radio at least sometimes (16% do so often) and about a third (32%) saying the same of print (10% get news from print publications often).

So, I’m transitioning Geneva Chase, crime reporter, into going freelance, working gigs for her newspaper on occasion, and working for a company called Lodestar Analytics that does open-source research as well as instigating deep dive investigations.  

Personally, I still like newspapers.  I get the paper out of Raleigh every day (even they’ve stopped printing on Saturdays, however) and my local newspaper (which has cut back from three days a week to two), as well as the Sunday New York Times (which seems to be flourishing).

I also subscribe to a digital Washington Post feed and routinely scan other websites (all free) for news from around the globe. I’m a news junkie and the Internet feeds my addiction. 

Still, I’m happiest when I’m writing scenes where Geneva Chase is working in the newsroom.  She’s got ink in her veins. I’d like to think that I do too.

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For those looking to start with the first in the series, Random Road introduces Geneva Chase. If you’d like to catch up with her latest case, here’s the summary of Shadow Hill.

How far would someone go to protect corporate profits?

Just days before Morris Cutter, a retired powerful oil executive, is scheduled to give a pseudo-scientific report to Congress that will delay crucial action on climate change for decades, he and his wife are found shot to death in their Greenwich, Connecticut, home. The police call it murder-suicide. The couple’s son refuses to accept the official conclusion and hires Geneva Chase, crime reporter turned private detective, to prove otherwise.

Genie soon learns that there are suspects everywhere, including within the deceased’s immediate family. Morris Cutter’s own daughter hadn’t spoken with him in years, and his nephew is a climate activist with a radical organization. But Cutter’s former company has a vested interest in keeping a low profile until it is able to present its mock-science on Capitol Hill. Genie is bribed, then threatened, to wrap up her investigation before the scheduled hearing date—and to concur with the police findings.

When the lead scientist of the study goes missing, followed by Cutter’s daughter, Genie begins to piece together what actually may have happened to Morris and Julia Cutter, putting herself in harm’s way as she races to find the truth.

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Thomas Kies’ website is https://thomaskiesauthor.com/

Shadow Hill by Thomas Kies. Sourcebooks/Poisoned Pen Press, 2021. ISBN 9781464214400 (paperback), 320p.