Fiction Review

Sarah Stewart Taylor in Conversation with Carlene O’Connor

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We’re off to Ireland with Sarah Stewart Taylor, author of the Maggie D’Arcy mysteries. A Distant Grave is the second one. Taylor discussed Ireland, gravestones, and books with Carlene O’Connor, author of the Irish Village mysteries, and Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen. You can find copies of books by both authors, including signed copies of A Distant Grave, in the Web Store. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

Here’s the description of A Distant Grave.

In the follow up to the critically acclaimed The Mountains Wild, Detective Maggie D’arcy tackles another intricate case that bridges Long Island and Ireland in A Distant Grave.

Long Island homicide detective Maggie D’arcy and her teenage daughter, Lilly, are still recovering from the events of last fall when a strange new case demands Maggie’s attention. The body of an unidentified Irish national turns up in a wealthy Long Island beach community and with little to go on but the scars on his back, Maggie once again teams up with Garda detectives in Ireland to find out who the man was and what he was doing on Long Island. The strands of the mystery take Maggie to a quiet village in rural County Clare that’s full of secrets and introduce her to the world of humanitarian aid workers half a world away. And as she gets closer to the truth about the murder, what she learns leads her back to her home turf and into range of a dangerous and determined killer who will do anything to keep the victim’s story hidden forever.

With the lyrical prose, deeply drawn characters, and atmospheric setting that put The Mountains Wild on multiple best of the year lists, Sarah Stewart Taylor delivers another gripping mystery novel about family, survival, and the meaning of home.

SARAH STEWART TAYLOR is the author of the Sweeney St. George series and the Maggie D’arcy series. Taylor grew up on Long Island in New York and was educated at Middlebury College in Vermont and Trinity College in Dublin. She lived in Dublin, Ireland in the mid-90s and she now lives with her family on a farm in Vermont where they raise sheep and grow blueberries.

If you want to hear about Ireland or the books by Sarah Stewart Taylor and Carlene O’Connor, you’ll want to watch the video.

Fabian Nicieza & Suburban Dicks

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The recent event at the virtual event celebrated release date for Fabian Nicieza’s debut novel Suburban Dicks. It’s a fascinating discussion of comic books and Nicieza’s life. Nicieza signed a number of copies for The Poisoned Pen, and you can order them through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/3dunUQW

Here’s the summary of Suburban Dicks.

From the cocreator of Deadpool comes a hilariously entertaining debut featuring two unlikely and unforgettable amateur sleuths. An engrossing and entertaining murder mystery full of skewering social commentary, Suburban Dicks examines the racial tensions exposed in a New Jersey suburb after the murder of a gas station attendant.

Andie Stern thought she’d solved her final homicide. Once a budding FBI profiler, she gave up her career to raise her four (soon to be five) children in West Windsor, New Jersey. But one day, between soccer games, recitals, and trips to the local pool, a very pregnant Andie pulls into a gas station–and stumbles across a murder scene. An attendant has been killed, and the bumbling local cops are in way over their heads. Suddenly, Andie is obsessed with the case, and back on the trail of a killer, this time with kids in tow.

She soon crosses paths with disgraced local journalist Kenneth Lee, who also has everything to prove in solving the case. A string of unusual occurrences–and, eventually, body parts–surface around town, and Andie and Kenneth uncover simmering racial tensions and a decades-old conspiracy. Hilarious, insightful, and a killer whodunit, Suburban Dicks is the one-of-a-kind mystery that readers will not be able to stop talking about.

Fabian Nicieza is an Argentine-American comic book writer and editor who is best known as the co-creator of Marvel’s Deadpool and for his work on titles such as X-Men, X-Force, New Warriors, Cable, and Thunderbolts. Suburban Dicks is his debut novel.

Enjoy the conversation between Fabian Nicieza and Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen.

The 2021 Locus Awards Winners

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Congratulations to the 2021 Locus Awards winners. The Locus Science Fiction Foundation announced the winners in each category of the 2021 Locus Awards on June 26, 2021. I’ve only selected the lists of books, winners and nominees, to share here. Check the Web Store for copies of the books. https://store.poisonedpen.com/. If you’re interested in magazines, publishers, etc., you can check Locus’ website, https://locusmag.com/2021/06/2021-locus-awards-winners/.

SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL

FANTASY NOVEL

HORROR NOVEL

YOUNG ADULT NOVEL

FIRST NOVEL

  • WINNER: Elatsoe, Darcie Little Badger (Levine Querido)

ANTHOLOGY

COLLECTION

NON-FICTION

ILLUSTRATED AND ART BOOK

Upcoming Events @ The Poisoned Pen

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Have you seen the calendar of upcoming events at The Poisoned Pen? Most of them are virtual events. You can watch them on the Pen’s Facebook page live, and then many of them will be on YouTube at a later date. Check this schedule, and then the Web Store to order books from your favorite authors. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

Here’s the schedule through July 7.

Elly Griffiths
Paul Doiron
Tapper / Baldacci
Steven Saylor
Hilary Davidson
Riley Sager/May Cobb
Susan Elizabeth Phillips
T.J. Newman
Charles Todd
Dan Fesperman/Francine Mathews

Donna Leon, In Depth

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Soon after the publication of Donna Leon’s Transient Desires, Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, discussed the book with the author. You can still buy a copy of the book and other Commissario Guido Brunetti mysteries through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/3cxq4w8

In case you missed it then, here’s the link to watch the virtual event.

And, here’s the summary of Transient Desires, the latest in the series.


In the landmark thirtieth installment of the bestselling series theNew Yorker has called “an unusually potent cocktail of atmosphere and event,” Guido Brunetti is forced to confront an unimaginable crime

In his many years as a commissario, Guido Brunetti has seen all manner of crime and known intuitively how to navigate the various pathways in his native city, Venice, to discover the person responsible. Now, inTransient Desires, the thirtieth novel in Donna Leon’s masterful series, he faces a heinous crime committed outside his jurisdiction. He is drawn in innocently enough: two young American women have been badly injured in a boating accident, joy riding in the Laguna with two young Italians. However, Brunetti’s curiosity is aroused by the behavior of the young men, who abandoned the victims after taking them to the hospital. If the injuries were the result of an accident, why did they want to avoid association with it?

As Brunetti and his colleague, Claudia Griffoni, investigate the incident, they discover that one of the young men works for a man rumored to be involved in more sinister nighttime activities in the Laguna. To get to the bottom of what proves to be a gut-wrenching case, Brunetti needs to enlist the help of both the Carabinieri and the Guardia di Costiera. Determining how much trust he and Griffoni can put in these unfamiliar colleagues adds to the difficulty of solving a peculiarly horrible crime whose perpetrators are technologically brilliant and ruthlessly organized.

Donna Leon’sTransient Desires is as powerful as any novel she has written, testing Brunetti to his limits and forcing him to listen very carefully for the truth.

There’s a reason I’m recapping this event and the book. Neil Nyren just did an in-depth study of Donna Leon’s books for https://CrimeReads.com. The article is called, “Donna Leon: A Crime Reader’s Guide to the Classics”. Anyone who truly wants to know the author’s body of work should check out this article. You can find it here. https://bit.ly/35S3LA7 If you’re a fan, you’ll thank me for the link to this outstanding article. Enjoy!

Introducing Allison Montclair

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Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, introduced author Allison Montclair as actually Alan Gordon. As Montclair, he’s written the three post-World War II novels featuring Sparks and Bainbridge. He talks about the changeover after the war, and said few people write about the women in England after the war. The two women start a marriage bureau to help rebuild British society as they rebuild their own lives. You can find all three books, including the latest, A Rogue’s Company, in the Web Store. https://bit.ly/35Q1HZp

Here’s the summary of A Rogue’s Company.

*A PW Pick of the Week!*

In Allison Monclair’s A Rogue’s Company, business becomes personal for the Right Sort Marriage Bureau when a new client, a brutal murder, two kidnappings, and the recently returned from Africa Lord Bainbridge threatens everything that one of the principals holds dear.

In London, 1946, the Right Sort Marriage Bureau is getting on its feet and expanding. Miss Iris Sparks and Mrs. Gwendolyn Bainbridge are making a go of it. That is until Lord Bainbridge—the widowed Gwen’s father-in-law and legal guardian—returns from a business trip to Africa and threatens to undo everything important to her, even sending her six-year-old son away to a boarding school.

But there’s more going on than that. A new client shows up at the agency, one whom Sparks and Bainbridge begin to suspect really has a secret agenda, somehow involving the Bainbridge family. A murder and a subsequent kidnapping sends Sparks to seek help from a dangerous quarter—and now their very survival is at stake.


ALLISON MONTCLAIR grew up devouring hand-me-down Agatha Christie paperbacks and James Bond movies. As a result of this deplorable upbringing, Montclair became addicted to tales of crime, intrigue, and espionage. She now spends her spare time poking through the corners, nooks, and crannies of history, searching for the odd mysterious bits and transforming them into novels of her own. She is the author of the Sparks & Bainbridge historical mystery series, which begins with The Right Sort of Man.

If you enjoy writing, mysteries, and history, I think you’ll enjoy this conversation.

Clare Mackintosh Discussing Hostage

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Clare Mackintosh’s book release event for Hostage was held virtually at The Poisoned Pen. You can order a copy of this thriller through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/3zYk4cr Clare Mackintosh brings her twelve years on the police force to her writing.

Here’s Hostage.

“Feels like a blockbuster movie.”—Lisa Jewell, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Then She Was Gone

You can save hundreds of lives. Or the one that matters most…

From New York Times bestselling author Clare Mackintosh comes a claustrophobic thriller set over 20 hours on-board the inaugural nonstop flight from London to Sydney.

Mina is trying to focus on her job as a flight attendant, not the problems with her five-year-old daughter back home, or the fissures in her marriage. But the plane has barely taken off when Mina receives a chilling note from an anonymous passenger, someone intent on ensuring the plane never reaches its destination: “The following instructions will save your daughter’s life…”

Someone needs Mina’s assistance and knows exactly how to make her comply.

When one passenger is killed and then another, Mina knows she must act. But which lives does she save: Her passengers…or her own daughter and husband who are in grave distress back at home?

It’s twenty hours to landing. A lot can happen in twenty hours.

For fans of the locked-room mystery of One By One and the heart-stopping tension The Last Flight, Hostage is an explosively addictive thriller about one flight attendant and the agonizing decision that will change her life—and the lives of everyone on-board—forever.

Praise for Hostage:

“Surprising twists propel the story to an unexpected finale. Mackintosh has raised her game with this one.”
—Publishers Weekly, STARRED review

“Hypnotically good. Should be a hit, could be a classic…”
—Lee Child, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Jack Reacher series

“Fiendishly clever.”
—Lisa Gardner, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Before She Disappeared

“A propulsive read.”
—Karin Slaughter, New York Times bestselling author of The Silent Wife

“A nail-biter of a thriller.”
—Shari Lapena, New York Times bestselling author of The Couple Next Door

“A true page-turner that will have producers lining up with movie offers.”

CLARE MACKINTOSH is an award-winning New York Times and international bestselling author. She spent twelve years on the police force in England and has written for the Guardian, Good Housekeeping, and other publications. Translated into forty languages, her books have sold more than two million copies worldwide. Clare lives in North Wales with her husband and their three children. She can be found at claremackintosh.com, www.facebook.com/ClareMackWrites or on Twitter at ClareMackint0sh.

Enjoy Barbara Peters’ conversation with Clare Mackintosh, and a visit from surprise guest, Lee Child.

Taylor Adams in Conversation with Craig Johnson

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Taylor Adams’ latest thriller Hairpin Bridge is The Poisoned Pen’s June Crime Book of the Month. Craig Johnson, author of the Longmire books, recently served as guest host for a conversation. You can still order signed copies of Hairpin Bridge through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/3j60eWt

Here’s the summary of Hairpin Bridge.

From the author of the “full-throttle thriller” (A. J. Finn) No Exit—a riveting new psychological page-turner featuring a fierce and unforgettable heroine.

Three months ago, Lena Nguyen’s estranged twin sister, Cambry, drove to a remote bridge seventy miles outside of Missoula, Montana, and jumped two hundred feet to her death. At least, that is the official police version.

But Lena isn’t buying it.

Now she’s come to that very bridge, driving her dead twin’s car and armed with a cassette recorder, determined to find out what really happened by interviewing the highway patrolman who allegedly discovered her sister’s body.

Corporal Raymond Raycevic has agreed to meet Lena at the scene. He is sympathetic, forthright, and professional. But his story still seems a bit off. For one thing, he stopped Cambry for speeding just an hour before she supposedly leaped to her death. Then there are the sixteen attempted 911 calls from her cell phone, made in what was unfortunately a dead zone.

But perhaps most troubling of all, the state trooper is referred to by name in Cambry’s final enigmatic text to her sister: Please Forgive Me. Lena will do anything to uncover the truth. But as her twin’s final hours come into focus, Lena’s search turns into a harrowing tooth-and-nail fight for her own survival—one that will test everything she thought she knew about her sister and herself…

Taylor Adams graduated from Eastern Washington University with the prestigious Edmund G. Yarwood Award. His directorial work has screened at the Seattle True Independent Film Festival and he is an avid fan of suspenseful fiction and film. He lives in Washington state.

Enjoy the conversation between Taylor Adams and Craig Johnson.

Dream Girl, The Hot Book of the Week

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Two days of The Poisoned Pen’s Hot Book of the Week. Although to be honest, when we share those author conversations, many of the books are hot. The current Hot Book of the Week is Laura Lippman’s Dream Girl. You can find signed copies of it in the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2TWlymZ

Here’s the description of Dream Girl.

“With this tip of the hat to Stephen King’s Misery, Dream Girl is funny and suspenseful, with a dread-worthy final twist.” —People

“My dream novel. I devoured this in three days. The sharpest, clearest-eyed take on our #MeToo reckoning yet. Plus: enthralling.” —Megan Abbott, Edgar Award-winning author of Dare Me and The Fever

Following up on her acclaimed and wildly successful New York Times bestseller Lady in the Lake, Laura Lippman returns with a dark, complex tale of psychological suspense with echoes of Misery involving a novelist, incapacitated by injury, who is plagued by mysterious phone calls.

In the end, has anyone really led a blameless life?

Injured in a freak fall, novelist Gerry Andersen is confined to a hospital bed in his glamorous high-rise apartment, dependent on two women he barely knows: his incurious young assistant, and a dull, slow-witted night nurse.

Then late one night, the phone rings. The caller claims to be the “real” Aubrey, the alluring title character from his most successful novel, Dream Girl. But there is no real Aubrey. She’s a figment born of a writer’s imagination, despite what many believe or claim to know. Could the cryptic caller be one of his three ex-wives playing a vindictive trick after all these years? Or is she Margot, an ex-girlfriend who keeps trying to insinuate her way back into Gerry’s life?

And why does no one believe that the call even happened?

Isolated from the world, drowsy from medication, Gerry slips between reality and a dreamlike state in which he is haunted by his own past: his faithless father, his devoted mother; the women who loved him, the women he loved.

And now here is Aubrey, threatening to visit him, suggesting that she is owed something. Is the threat real or is it a sign of dementia? Which scenario would he prefer? Gerry has never been so alone, so confused ““ and so terrified.

Chilling and compulsively readable, touching on timely issues that include power, agency, appropriation, and creation, Dream Girl is a superb blend of psychological suspense and horror that reveals the mind and soul of a writer.

Since Laura Lippman’s debut in 1997, she has been recognized as a distinctive voice in mystery fiction and named one of the “essential” crime writers of the last 100 years. Her books have won most of the major awards in her field and been translated into more than twenty languages. She lives in Baltimore and New Orleans with her daughter.

Hot Book of the Week

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Have you checked out Beatriz Williams’ Our Woman in Moscow? There are signed copies available in the Web Store of this Hot Book of the Week. https://bit.ly/3gTTGHK

Here’s Our Woman in Moscow.

MOST ANTICIPATED NOVEL OF SUMMER 2021 ACCORDING TO BUSTLE, BUZZFEED, AND SHEREADS! INAUGURAL BOOK CLUB PICK FOR NEW PEACOCK SHOW “BOOKED”!

The New York Times bestselling author of Her Last Flight returns with a gripping and profoundly human story of Cold War espionage and family devotion.

In the autumn of 1948, Iris Digby vanishes from her London home with her American diplomat husband and their two children. The world is shocked by the family’s sensational disappearance. Were they eliminated by the Soviet intelligence service? Or have the Digbys defected to Moscow with a trove of the West’s most vital secrets?

Four years later, Ruth Macallister receives a postcard from the twin sister she hasn’t seen since their catastrophic parting in Rome in the summer of 1940, as war engulfed the continent and Iris fell desperately in love with an enigmatic United States Embassy official named Sasha Digby. Within days, Ruth is on her way to Moscow, posing as the wife of counterintelligence agent Sumner Fox in a precarious plot to extract the Digbys from behind the Iron Curtain.

But the complex truth behind Iris’s marriage defies Ruth’s understanding, and as the sisters race toward safety, a dogged Soviet KGB officer forces them to make a heartbreaking choice between two irreconcilable loyalties.

Beatriz Williams is the bestselling author of thirteen novels, including Her Last Flight, The Summer Wives, and The Golden Hour, as well as All the Ways We Said Goodbye, cowritten with Lauren Willig and Karen White. A native of Seattle, she graduated from Stanford University and earned an MBA in finance from Columbia University. She lives with her husband and four children near the Connecticut shore, where she divides her time between writing and laundry.