Lee Child is the editor of The Nicotine Chronicles, a collection of sixteen stories contributed by authors such as Joyce Carol Oates and Cara Black. Robert Arellano and Bernice McFadden, who wrote pieces in the book, joined Child for a recent virtual event at The Poisoned Pen. Lee Child led the discussion. You can find copies of the book, both hardcover and paperback, through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/3i4d4R6
Here is the summary of The Nicotine Chronicles.
Lee Child recruits Joyce Carol Oates, Jonathan Ames, Cara Black, and others to reveal nicotine’s scintillating alter egos.
“Typically for Akashic–publisher of the terrific Noir series–the stories approach the subject matter from an impressive number of angles…Akashic has yet to produce a dull anthology, and this one is especially good.” —Booklist
“Sixteen tributes to America’s guiltiest pleasure…Even confirmed anti-smokers will find something to savor.” —Kirkus Reviews
“The most successful entries delve bone-deep into addiction, as characters smoke to smother physical pain, loneliness, and their days…These writers capture the mental gymnastics behind the characters’ bad decisions, and the joy such bad decisions can bring.” —Publishers Weekly
In recent years, nicotine has become as verboten as many hard drugs. The literary styles in this volume are as varied as the moral quandaries herein, and the authors have successfully unleashed their incandescent imaginations on the subject matter, fashioning an immensely addictive collection.
Featuring brand-new stories by: Lee Child, Joyce Carol Oates, Jonathan Ames, Eric Bogosian, Achy Obejas, Michael Imperioli, Hannah Tinti, Ariel Gore, Bernice L. McFadden, Cara Black, Christopher Sorrentino, David L. Ulin, Jerry Stahl, Lauren Sanders, Peter Kimani, and Robert Arellano.
From the introduction by Lee Child:
Food scientists have discovered a complex compound naturally present in, among other things, potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants. The compound offers us a number of benefits: it improves our fine motor skills; it increases our attention spans; it improves our cognitive abilities; it improves our long- and short-term memories; it lessens depression…In and of itself, it has no real downside. It’s called nicotine. We should all get some.
The problem is the delivery system…The most efficient way is to burn dried tobacco leaves and inhale the smoke. Ten seconds later, the compound is in your brain, doing good in all its various ways. Unfortunately, the rest of the smoke doesn’t do good. And therein lies a great mystery of human behavior. To get the good, we risk the bad. Or we prohibit ourselves the good, for fear of the bad. Which approach makes more sense?
*****
I think you’ll enjoy the conversation about the book, and about the authors’ actions during the pandemic.
The Poisoned Pen recently hosted Robert Dugoni for the virtual launch of his book, The Last Agent. Bookstore owner Barbara Peters introduces Dugoni and Edgar Award-winner Angie Kim who acted as host for the event. You can order signed copies of The Last Agent, and copies of Dugoni’s other books, through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2JxAtto
Here’s the summary of The Last Agent.
An Amazon Charts, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal bestselling series.
An American operative in Russia is on the run for his life in a thriller of heart-stopping betrayal and international intrigue by the New York Times bestselling author of The Eighth Sister.
Betrayed by his own country and tried for treason, former spy Charles Jenkins survived an undercover Russian operation gone wrong. Exonerated, bitter, and safe, the retired family man is through with duplicitous spy games. Then he learns of a woman isolated in Moscow’s notorious Lefortovo Prison.
If it’s Paulina Ponomayova, the agent who sacrificed her life to save his, Jenkins can’t leave her behind. But there’s no guarantee it’s her. Or proof Paulina is still alive. To find out, Jenkins must return to Russia. Next move: blackmail Viktor Federov, a former Russian officer with his own ax to grind, into helping him infiltrate Lefortovo. The enemy who once pursued Jenkins across three continents is now the only man Jenkins can trust.
Every step of the way—from Moscow to Scandinavia to the open ocean—they’re hunted by a brutal Russian agent on a killer quest of his own. Out of loyalty to Paulina—dead or alive—Jenkins is putting everyone’s life on the line for a new mission that could be his last.
*****
Enjoy Angie Kim’s excellent interview with Robert Dugoni.
Craig Johnson made a virtual appearance at The Poisoned Pen for the release of his sixteenth Walt Longmire novel, Next to Last Stand. If you watch the video of the event, you’ll also be able to see TV’s Walt Longmire, actor Robert Taylor, who was live from Australia. Before you get that far, though, you’ll watch to check out Johnson’s books in the Web Store. There might still be signed copies of Next to Last Stand available. https://bit.ly/2Qmogf5
Johnson said he needed to give readers something a little lighter after the last two Longmire books. Here’s Next to Last Stand.
The new novel in the beloved New York Times bestselling Longmire series.
One of the most viewed paintings in American history, Custer’s Last Fight, copied and distributed by Anheuser-Busch at a rate of over two million copies a year, was destroyed in a fire at the 7th Cavalry Headquarters in Fort Bliss, Texas, in 1946. Or was it? When Charley Lee Stillwater dies of an apparent heart attack at the Wyoming Home for Soldiers & Sailors, Walt Longmire is called in to try and make sense of a piece of a painting and a Florsheim shoebox containing a million dollars, sending the good sheriff on the trail of a dangerous art heist.
*****
Here’s your chance to listen to Craig Johnson, the storyteller.
For some reason, Richard Osman’s debut mystery, The Thursday Murder Club, received quite a bit of criticism in Britain. Perhaps it’s because he’s better known there than he is in the U.S. “Richard Osman has worked as an executive producer on numerous UK shows. Richard’s popularity and tremendous knowledge of trivia led to him presenting his own BBC quiz show and several others, as well as being the host of Pointless with 7 million views. He is also a regular on panel shows and writes a column for the Radio Times. He has more than 830k followers across social media.”
However, if people were too polite in Britain, Osman might suspect they were planning his murder. He wrote about that in a recent piece for crimereads.com. It’s called “All British People are Potential Murderers – That’s Why We Love Our Mysteries.” You can read it here. https://bit.ly/3mLB6np
You can find The Thursday Murder Club in the Web Store. https://bit.ly/32Vsd2x Frankly, I found it delightful, with four amateur sleuths who are in their seventies and older. Osman treats them with respect. They’re savvy, shrewd sleuths. Check out the summary.
“A little beacon of pleasure in the midst of the gloom…SUCH FUN!” –Kate Atkinson, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Big Sky
Four septuagenarians with a few tricks up their sleeves A female cop with her first big case A brutal murder Welcome to… THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB
In a peaceful retirement village, four unlikely friends meet weekly in the Jigsaw Room to discuss unsolved crimes; together they call themselves The Thursday Murder Club.
When a local developer is found dead with a mysterious photograph left next to the body, the Thursday Murder Club suddenly find themselves in the middle of their first live case.
As the bodies begin to pile up, can our unorthodox but brilliant gang catch the killer, before it’s too late?
Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, recently discussed Vince Flynn’s Total Power with its author, Kyle Mills, and special guest Brad Thor. Thor says his books have quite a bit in common with the Vince Flynn books. You can still order signed copies of the sixth Mitch Rapp novel, Total Power, through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/32V11RP
Here’s the summary of Total Power.
“Mills’s suspenseful, strikingly original sixth Mitch Rapp novel…is as riveting as anything penned by Mitch’s creator, Vince Flynn (1966″“2013). Mills has really hit his stride with this franchise entry.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) “One of the best thriller writers on the planet.” —The Real Book Spy
In the next thriller in the #1 New York Times bestselling Mitch Rapp series, it’s a race against the clock when ISIS takes out the entire US power grid and throws the country into chaos.
When Mitch Rapp captures ISIS’s top technology expert, he reveals that he was on his way to meet a man who claims to have the ability to bring down America’s power grid. Rapp is determined to eliminate this shadowy figure, but the CIA’s trap fails.
The Agency is still trying to determine what went wrong when ISIS operatives help this cyber terrorist do what he said he could—plunge the country into darkness. With no concept of how this unprecedented act was accomplished, the task of getting the power back on could take months. Perhaps even years.
Rapp and his team embark on a desperate search for the only people who know how to repair the damage—the ones responsible. But his operating environment is like nothing he’s experienced before. Computers and communication networks are down, fuel can no longer be pumped from gas stations, water and sanitation systems are on the brink of collapse, and the supply of food is running out.
Can Rapp get the lights back on before America descends irretrievably into chaos?
This compulsive thriller proves once again that the Mitch Rapp series is “the best of the best when it comes to the world of special ops” (Booklist, starred review).
Author Megan Miranda recently acted as host for Wendy Walker, whose new book, Don’t Look for Me, was just released. You can order a signed copy of Walker’s book, as well as copies of her other books, through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/3hUeIo6
Here’s the summary of Don’t Look for Me.
* An Amazon Best Book of the Month (Mystery & Thriller) * “A twisty, hair-raising tale.”““ Newsweek “A fast-paced psychological drama.” ““ GMA.com “Compulsively readable.” ““ PopSugar “Reinforces Walker’s place at the top of the genre.” ““ Publishers Weekly (starred review) “Addictive.” ““ A.J. Finn, New York Times bestselling author of The Woman in the Window “Gripping.” ““ Adrian McGinty, New York Times bestselling author of The Chain
They said she walked away. But what really happened to Molly Clarke? From the bestselling author of All Is Not Forgotten comes a compelling and emotionally powerful story of a daughter’s desperate search to find her mother before it’s too late.
They called it a “walk away.” The car abandoned miles from home. The note found at a nearby hotel. The shattered family. It happens all the time. Women disappear, desperate to start over. But what really happened to Molly Clarke?
The night Molly disappeared began with a storm, running out of gas, and a man offering her a ride to safety. But when the doors lock shut, Molly begins to suspect she has made a terrible mistake.
A new lead brings Molly’s daughter, Nicole, back to the small, desolate town where her mother was last seen to renew the desperate search. The locals are sympathetic and eager to help. The innkeeper. The bartender. Even the police. Until secrets begin to reveal themselves and Nicole comes closer to the truth about that night—and the danger surrounding her.
*****
Or, here’s another way of looking at the book. Adam Walker’s GifNotes at Criminal Element, provides the basic elements of the book with the help of Gifs. https://bit.ly/33IHSBE
*****
You can listen to the conversation between Wendy Walker and Megan Miranda via The Poisoned Pen’s podcast. https://youtu.be/bQ9jKkb73A0
While many of Libby Fischer Hellman’s novels are set in Chicago, she’s taken readers around the world in her novels. Her October 7 release, A Bend in the River, will take readers to Vietnam. You can order Hellmann’s novels through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/3cg9jqa
Libby Fischer Hellmann left a career in broadcast news in Washington, DC and moved to Chicago over 35 years ago, where she, naturally, began to write gritty crime fiction. Thirteen novels and many short stories later, she claims they’ll take her out of the Windy City feet first. She has been nominated for many awards in the mystery writing community and has even won a few. Her novels include the now five-volume Ellie Foreman series, which she describes as a cross between Desperate Housewives and 24; the hard-boiled 4-volume Georgia Davis PI series, and three stand-alone historical thrillers that Libby calls her Revolution Trilogy. Her short stories have been published in a dozen anthologies, the Saturday Evening Post, and Ed Gorman’s 25 Criminally Good Short Stories collection.
I’ve noticed that writers have had one of two responses to the pandemic. Either they are paralyzed by the virus, its rampant spread, and all the attendant issues it’s brought; or they are energized and more productive because of the extra time at home and fewer social events. I would have pegged myself in the former camp, but I turned out to be the latter. I finished two novels, redecorated my daughter’s old doll house, and read more than usual. Who knew? My pandemic reading was eclectic. Whether that’s because of the pandemic or just coincidence, I have no idea. Still, it was difficult to pare the books I read down to three.
Dark Towers: Deutsche Bank, Donald Trump, and an Epic Trail of Destruction, David Enrich
I was fascinated by Trump’s relationship with Deutsche Bank so I was excited to dive in. What I found was that Trump was a small “subplot” of the story, but one that, in retrospect, was entirely predictable. Enrich paints a picture of a financial institution so motivated toward growth that they ignored the rules and flaunted their avarice. Think of Michael Douglas’s Gordon Gekko in “Wall Street” or Leo DiCaprio’s Jordan Belfort in “The Wolf of Wall Street” at the helm of a bank. In a narrative that’s engaging and reads like fiction, Enrich traces the history of a once dignified institution that lost its way, forfeiting 95% of its value in the process. The one man who had doubts and might have steered the bank away from its reckless direction, William Broeksmit, was either too weak or too wrapped up in a fog of alcohol and depression, to do much. Enter Donald Trump, who himself ignored rules and flaunted his avarice. The two were made for each other. An oversimplification? Perhaps. But anyone with an interest in banking and finance should dig into this excellent read.
The Huntress, Kate Quinn
Back to fiction. First, I need to confess I’m a sucker for WW2 novels; never (IMHO) has there been a time where the contrast between heroes and cowards was so clear and consequential.
Kate Quinn’s The Huntress, set in the US just after World War II, follows The Alice Network, Quinn’s phenomenal read about European women risking everything to spy on Nazis.
This time, a prominent Nazi woman accused of war crimes against Polish children, has escaped justice. When a German “widow” with a little girl in tow turns up in a Boston suburb, the daughter of the man she eventually marries thinks something about the woman is “off.”
At the same time, a British team led by a former journalist is actively hunting war criminals. His wife (a marriage of convenience) is an unorthodox female Russian aviator who knows the Huntress and escaped her clutches. All the threads come together in a masterfully plotted mystery that I couldn’t put down.
Dark Matter, Blake Crouch
The novel I’m still thinking about six months later is Blake Crouch’s Dark Matter. Blake, who never fails to produce a thoughtful yet anxiety-producing thriller, turns to sci-fi this time, and describes a series of infinite parallel worlds that can be accessed by opening a door after drinking a special formula. The hero tries to reclaim his wife and lover, while at the same time another version of himself masquerades as him in an effort to literally steal the hero’s life, including his wife. Although it sounds complex, it essentially becomes a love story similar to the film, An Affair To Remember, where the hero has a deadline by which he must open the right door and find his true love. Still, thinking about infinite parallel realities where one small decision can generate an alternate universe is mind-blowing, and I admit I drank the Kool-Aid. Great read!
A close runner up (#4) was The Book Of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd. It’s always a huge risk to tamper with the life of Jesus; indeed, to insinuate a different history for him, but Kidd does exactly that. In this book, Jesus has a wife, and the story is written from her point of view. Kidd does tread carefully, making Ana fall head over heels in love with Jesus. He returns her affection, but it’s clear he has other priorities. It’s an ambitious premise, and Monk humanizes all the characters in the novel, giving Ana her own journey and voice. I love to see authors stretch their wings, and The Book Of Longings, while not altogether satisfying, is worth the read.
*****
Here’s Libby Fischer Hellmann’s own latest book, A Bend in the River. Its an October 7 release, but you can pre-order it now.
When their village is destroyed, two sisters face their futures alone. Will the uncertainties of war keep them apart forever? In 1968 two young Vietnamese sisters flee to Saigon after their village on the Mekong River is attacked by American forces and burned to the ground. The only survivors of the massacre that killed their family, the sisters struggle to survive but become estranged, separated by sharply different choices and ideologies. Mai ekes out a living as a GI bar girl, but Tam’s anger festers, and she heads into jungle terrain to fight with the Viet Cong. For nearly ten years, neither sister knows if the other is alive. Do they both survive the war? And if they do, can they mend their fractured relationship? Or are the wounds from their journeys too deep to heal? In a stunning departure from her crime thrillers, Hellmann delves into a universal story about survival, family, and the consequences of war. A Bend in the River is a remarkable historical fiction standalone novel. If you enjoy a saga of survival against all odds with unforgettable female characters, you’ll love Libby Fischer Hellmann’s sweeping epic.
In honor of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, today I’m pointing to books about her in the Web Store. Check them out. https://bit.ly/33MPByN
Start with My Own Words, “The New York Times bestselling book from Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg—”a comprehensive look inside her brilliantly analytical, entertainingly wry mind, revealing the fascinating life of one of our generation’s most influential voices in both law and public opinion” (Harper’s Bazaar).“
Or, maybe you’d prefer Jeffrey Rosen’s Conversations with RBG. “In her own words, Ruth Bader Ginsburg offers an intimate look at her life and career, through an extraordinary series of conversations with the head of the National Constitution Center.“
There are even books for children in the Web Store. I’m sure, if you’re interested, that you’ll find a book or two to fit your needs.
The new schedule of virtual events takes us almost to the end of September. Of course, I’ll continue to advise you to check the website for updates and changes. In the meantime, make sure you order books early from your favorite authors who are appearing at The Poisoned Pen. You can find their books in the Web Store. https://store.poisonedpen.com/
There’s a terrific schedule of authors coming up! I hope you find one or two of your favorite authors here. Or, watch an event with an author you haven’t yet discovered. Enjoy!
Robert DugoniCraig JohnsonMark PryorNicotine ChroniclesBrian FreemanRachel Howzell HallAnn Cleeves/ Martin EdwardsRichard OsmanS Graham/ M Mizushima
Mike Lupica has taken over writing Robert B. Parker’s Jesse Stone novels. His first one, Fool’s Paradise, is the nineteenth in the series. Guest host, author Joe Ide, gave Lupica a hard time in a recent conversation for Poisoned Pen. Check out Mike Lupica’s books in the Web Store, including signed copies of Fool’s Paradise. https://bit.ly/3iJKnK8
Here’s the summary of Fool’s Paradise.
When an unknown man is found murdered in Paradise, Jesse Stone will have his hands full finding out who he was–and what he was seeking.
When a body is discovered at the lake in Paradise, Police Chief Jesse Stone is surprised to find he recognizes the murder victim–the man had been at the same AA meeting as Jesse the evening before. But otherwise, Jesse has no clue as to the man’s identity. He isn’t a local, nor does he have ID on him, nor does any neighboring state have a reported missing person matching the man’s description. Their single lead is from a taxi company that recalls dropping off the mysterious stranger outside the gate at the mansion of one of the wealthiest families in town…
Meanwhile, after Jesse survives a hail of gunfire on his home, he wonders if it could be related to the mysterious murder. When both Molly Crane and Suitcase Simpson also become targets, it’s clear someone has an ax to grind against the entire Paradise Police Department.
*****
Enjoy the conversation between Mike Lupica and Joe Ide about Jesse Stone and the books.
