Virgil Flowers is back, and The Poisoned Pen has him. In fact, John Sandford’s latest book, Bloody Genius, is the current Hot Book of the Week at the bookstore. You can order Sandford’s books, including a signed copy of Bloody Genius, through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2Dncbl0
Here’s the description of Bloody Genius.
Virgil Flowers will have to watch his back–and his mouth–as he investigates a college culture war turned deadly in another one of Sandford’s “madly entertaining Virgil Flowers mysteries” (New York Times Book Review).
At the local state university, two feuding departments have faced off on the battleground of science and medicine. Each carries their views to extremes that may seem absurd, but highly educated people of sound mind and good intentions can reasonably disagree, right?
Then a renowned and confrontational scholar winds up dead, and Virgil Flowers is brought in to investigate . . . and as he probes the recent ideological unrest, he soon comes to realize he’s dealing with people who, on this one particular issue, are functionally crazy. Among this group of wildly impassioned, diametrically opposed zealots lurks a killer, and it will be up to Virgil to sort the murderer from the mere maniacs.
T. Greenwood’s latest novel, Keeping Lucy, is based on true events. You’ll learn more about that when you watch the video as Patrick Millikin from The Poisoned Pen talks about the book with Greenwood. You can order a signed copy of Keeping Lucy, and copies of Greenwood’s other books, through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2mcbjug
Here’s the description of Keeping Lucy.
PopSugar’s 30 Must-Read Books of 2019 Good Housekeeping’s 25 Best New Books for Summer 2019 Better Homes & Gardens 13 New Books We Can’t Wait to Read This Summer
The heartbreaking and uplifting story, inspired by incredible true events, of how far one mother must go to protect her daughter.
Dover, Massachusetts, 1969. Ginny Richardson’s heart was torn open when her baby girl, Lucy, born with Down Syndrome, was taken from her. Under pressure from his powerful family, her husband, Ab, sent Lucy away to Willowridge, a special school for the “feeble-minded.” Ab tried to convince Ginny it was for the best. That they should grieve for their daughter as though she were dead. That they should try to move on.
But two years later, when Ginny’s best friend, Marsha, shows her a series of articles exposing Willowridge as a hell-on-earth–its squalid hallways filled with neglected children–she knows she can’t leave her daughter there. With Ginny’s six-year-old son in tow, Ginny and Marsha drive to the school to see Lucy for themselves. What they find sets their course on a heart-racing journey across state lines—turning Ginny into a fugitive.
For the first time, Ginny must test her own strength and face the world head-on as she fights Ab and his domineering father for the right to keep Lucy. Racing from Massachusetts to the beaches of Atlantic City, through the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia to a roadside mermaid show in Florida, Keeping Lucy is a searing portrait of just how far a mother’s love can take her.
“A heartfelt tale of true friendship, a mother’s unstoppable love, and the immeasurable fortitude of women.” – Booklist
*****
Here’s the video of the T. Greenwood event at The Poisoned Pen.
If the name Paddy Hirsch is familiar to you, and not from his Justice Flanagan thrillers, it may be because he’s an NPR reporter and producer. But, he appeared at The Poisoned Pen on an unusual night for Scottsdale, Arizona. There was a downpour; the store flooded, and Hirsch helped with the mopping up.
However, he was actually at the bookstore to discuss his second book in his historical thriller series. He takes readers back to early 19th century New York City in Hudson’s Kill. You can order copies of both books in the series through the Web Store. The Devil’s Half Mile is the first book. There are signed copies available of Hudson’s Kill. https://bit.ly/2mbfu9E
Here’s the summary of Hudson’s Kill.
Set in 1803 New York, Hudson’s Kill is the riveting next historical thriller from NPR reporter and producer Paddy Hirsch, perfect for fans of The Alienist and Gangs of New York.
New York in 1803 is rife with tension as the city expands, and whoever knows where the city will build can control it. And violence builds as a mysterious provocateur pits the city’s black and Irish gangs against each other.
When a young black girl is found stabbed to death, both Justy Flanagan, now a City Marshal, and Kerry O’Toole, now a school teacher, decide separately to go after the killer. They each find their way to a shadowy community on the fringes of the growing city, where they uncover a craven political conspiracy bound up with a criminal enterprise that is stunning in its depravity.
Justy and Kerry have to fight to save themselves and the city, and only then can they bring the girl’s killer to justice.
*****
You’ll want to listen to Barbara Peters, owner of The Pen, Patrick Millikin, and Paddy Hirsch discuss Hudson’s Kill.
Readers of the blog probably don’t realize I don’t live in Arizona. I appreciate the opportunity to see authors, favorites and debut authors, via the videos as much as you do. The events are always enlightening and entertaining. As Barbara Peters, The Poisoned Pen Bookstore owner, says, they seldom discuss the books, but viewers may learn all about the events, the research, and the people involved in a book.
That was certainly the case when Peters and Patrick Millikin recently hosted authors S.J. Rozan and James Sallis. Rozan is in book tour for Paper Son, a Lydia Chin/Bill Smith mystery with an unexpected setting, Mississippi. Sallis, who appears regularly at The Pen with his band, Three-Legged Dog, is almost an author in residence. In an earlier post, I said his novel, Sarah Jane, is one of the best books I read this year. Books by both authors are available through the Web Store. https://store.poisonedpen.com/
Here’s the description of Paper Son.
The latest Lydia Chin/Bill Smith mystery takes the acclaimed detective duo into the Deep South to investigate a murder within the Chinese community.
The Most Southern Place on Earth: that’s what they call the Mississippi Delta. It’s not a place Lydia Chin, an American-born Chinese private detective from Chinatown, NYC, ever thought she’d have reason to go. But when her mother tells her a cousin Lydia didn’t know she had is in jail in Clarksdale, Mississippi—and that Lydia has to rush down south and get him out—Lydia finds herself rolling down Highway 61 with Bill Smith, her partner, behind the wheel.
From the river levees to the refinement of Oxford, from old cotton gins to new computer scams, Lydia soon finds that nothing in Mississippi is as she expected it to be. Including her cousin’s legal troubles—or possibly even his innocence. Can she uncover the truth in a place more foreign to her than any she’s ever seen?
*****
Here’s the summary of James Sallis’ Sarah Jane.
A spare, sparkling tour de force about one woman’s journey to becoming a cop, by master of noir James Sallis, author of Drive.
Sarah Jane Pullman is a good cop with a complicated past. From her small-town chicken-farming roots through her runaway adolescence, court-ordered Army stint, ill-advised marriage and years slinging scrambled eggs over greasy spoon griddles, Sarah Jane unfolds her life story, a parable about memory, atonement, and finding shape in chaos. Her life takes an unexpected turn when she is named the de facto sheriff of a rural town, investigating the mysterious disappearance of the sheriff whose shoes she’s filling—and the even more mysterious realities of the life he was hiding from his own colleagues and closest friends. This kaleidoscopic character study sparkles in every dark and bright detail—a virtuoso work by a master of both the noir and the tender aspects of human nature.
*****
Now, please check out the video. You never know what you’ll discover!
Although The Poisoned Pen Bookstore will be celebrating its 30th anniversary throughout the year, it’s not every day that the local newspaper, The Arizona Republic, covers the event. The following article was written by Kerry Lengel, but was initially only available to online subscribers of the paper. Thank you to Robert Rosenwald for this copy. Congratulations to everyone at The Poisoned Pen!
On its 30th anniversary, Poisoned Pen Bookstore has more to celebrate than just surviving.
The Poisoned Pen Bookstore marks its 30th anniversary on Oct. 3, but there won’t be much time to celebrate, because the Scottsdale stalwart will be hosting a sold-out event for horror writer Joe Hill and his new collection of short stories, “Full Throttle.”
And as far as owner Barbara G. Peters is concerned, that’s just as it should be. Her insistence on keeping the spotlight on the authors is one of the reasons her homey bookshop has survived the rise and fall of Borders and continues to thrive in the age of Amazon.
“It took me years to get publishers to send authors to Phoenix,” Peters says. “They thought it was just a flyover place with a few cows and no readers. So we started out small, but now we have a huge list of celebrity authors, many of whom start their book tours here, because we are so successful.”
It’s the “˜home bookstore’ of Diana Gabaldon and Clive Cussler
Diana Gabaldon at her Paradise Valley home on May 14, 2014. (Photo: Rob Schumacher/The Republic)
At the top of that list is Scottsdale favorite daughter Diana Gabaldon, creator of the epic “Outlander” series of time-traveling romance. She and other best-selling writers sign truckloads of first editions for Poisoned Pen, making it a neighborhood bookstore with global reach: Peters says 70% of her customers are outside Arizona — and 20% outside the U.S.A.
“That all just kind of happened, thanks to “˜Outlander’ and Diana, thanks to Clive Cussler, Sue Grafton and Doug Preston,” she says. “We’re their home bookstore, and they have fans all over the world.”
“Out of thirty years of books and launch events, one thing that sticks out is the memory of pre-signing 4,000 books in two hours,” Gabaldon says. “Mind you, signing at that rate means having a crew of five people helping you — all of them skillful, coordinated, dexterous, cheerful and untiring. Fortunately, the entire staff at the Pen meets those requirements, and we all survived the effort without so much as a paper cut.”
Poisoned Pen Press will republish classic crime fiction
A display celebrating Banned Book Week at Poisoned Pen Bookstore, September 24, 2019. (Photo: Carly Bowling/The Republic)
Peters does more than sell books. As executive editor of Poisoned Pen Press, she helps to shape them, working with award-winning writers including the British crime novelist and critic Martin Edwards and Arizona’s own James Sallis, whose noirish “Drive” was made into a 2011 film starring Ryan Gosling.
In January, the press became the mystery imprint for Chicago-based Sourcebooks, with Peters staying on as editor. She says selling to a larger (but still independent) publisher gives the “boutique” label the resources to take on bigger projects (and print runs).
“I’m working like 16 hours a day, which at my age is pretty good, trying to keep it all straight,” says Peters, who is 78.
A triumph out of tragedy
It’s a feel-good success story that started out as a real-life horror story. That’s because Peters opened Poisoned Pen with money from a medical malpractice judgment after a botched surgery left her partially paralyzed.
Barbara G. Peters started Poisoned Pen Bookstore 30 years ago. (Photo: Carly Bowling/The Republic)
Born and raised in the Chicago area, Peters had earned two master’s degrees, worked at the Library of Congress, and was studying to become a lawyer in Virginia when she was with diagnosed with breast cancer.
But after starting a double mastectomy in 1981, doctors discovered the diagnosis was mistaken, she says. Then, during a second surgery for breast reconstruction, complications nearly killed her and left her paralyzed below the waist, although she has since recovered the use of one of her legs.
“It was horrible, but I survived it, and my life has been much better since,” she says in typical matter-of-fact fashion.
“˜We were ahead of the curve’
After winning a sizable cash judgment in court, Peters had the resources to reinvent her life, and in 1989 she moved to Arizona, where her parents were living, and opened the Poisoned Pen with her future husband, Robert L. Rosenwald.
It was a specialty shop focused on mysteries, although the focus has expanded over the years to include historical fiction and the literature of the Southwest.
Tourists exploring the Scottsdale arts district would wander in and remark that they wished their own hometown had a bookshop like hers, Peters says. She started taking down names.
“We sent out newsletters, thousands of them, with order forms, and people sent checks,” she says. “Overseas people, we had their fax numbers. It was much harder to collect money because credit cards weren’t so international and PayPal wasn’t up. But the point is, by the time this whole new age (of Internet commerce) came along, we were actually way ahead of the curve. …
“Publishing is so completely dysfunctional and irrational that I just couldn’t resist trying things, and every time I tried things, we got bigger.”
Barbara G. Peters says 70 percent of Poisoned Pen Bookstore’s customers are from outside of Arizona, September 24, 2019. (Photo: Carly Bowling/The Republic)
“˜The best editor working in mysteries’
Not every experiment panned out. In 2005 she opened a second store in downtown Phoenix but was forced to close two years later.
Poisoned Pen Press, on the other hand, has succeeded beyond her wildest dreams.
It was her husband who took the lead on opening a publishing house in 1997. A “techie,” Rosenwald got interested in print-on-demand technology and saw a market for republishing out-of-print mysteries, Peters says. Soon enough, they were giving emerging authors their first big break — and regularly garnering starred reviews from Publishers Weekly.
“She makes my voice better, truer, rather than trying to impose her own,” he says. “She’s the best editor working in mysteries today. And I know because I started with the late Ruth Cavin at St. Martin’s, who was a legend.”
Peters says she learned those skills “on the job.”
“The bookstore was a great training ground,” she says. “As a result of talking to authors for 30 years, there’s not much I don’t know about how they work and what they think is important.”
Poisoned Pen staff will inherit the bookstore
Last year, while working out the details of the sale to Sourcebooks, Peters started the nonprofit Poisoned Pen Foundation to develop and promote local writing talent, building on the current partnership with Gabaldon.
As for the bookstore, Peters says she has made arrangements to leave it to her employees after she dies.
“And I’ve told them if they decide I’m just not capable of being the CEO anymore, they need to tell me, and then I’ll fade away,” she says. “But I don’t have any plans to retire, because it’s so much fun. What else can I do?”
The Clive Cussler Collector’s Society is proud to announce the 15th Annual Convention. This year’s event will be held in Phoenix, Arizona on October 11th, 12th, and 13th of 2019. The event is open to the public and you do not need to be a member to attend. Join us on Facebook
If you’re a fan of Clive Cussler’s books, you’ll want to check out the registration information, and the entire schedule for the convention. There’s still time to register! https://www.cusslersociety.com/convention.html
The Poisoned Pen Bookstore is the home bookstore for Clive Cussler. Check the Web Store for his books, or for audiobooks of his titles. https://bit.ly/2nmDDtR
Mary Anna Evans, author of the Faye Longchamp mysteries, will be at The Poisoned Pen on Saturday, Sept. 28 at 2:00 PM. She’ll be signing the latest in her archaeological mystery series, Catacombs. You can order copies of Evans’ books, including Catacombs, though the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2IrcqLo
With Evans’ appearance at the bookstore, it’s the perfect time to share a link to an article she wrote for CrimeReads, “On Archaeology and Crime Fiction”. You can find the article here. https://bit.ly/2nraOMY
Here’s the summary of Evans’ Catacombs.
What secrets lie deep beneath the surface?
A deafening explosion rocks a historic Oklahoma City hotel, sending archaeologist Faye Longchamp-Mantooth crashing to the marble floor of the lobby. She’s unhurt but shaken—after all, any time something blows up in Oklahoma City, the first word on everyone’s lips is the same: bomb.
Faye is in town for a conference celebrating indigenous arts, but is soon distracted by the aftermath of the explosion, which cracks open the old hotel’s floor to reveal subterranean chambers that had housed Chinese immigrants a century before. Faye is fascinated by the tunnels, which are a time capsule back to the early 20th century—but when the bodies of three children are discovered deep beneath the city, her sense of discovery turns to one of dread…
You might be familiar with Ann Cleeves’ books in the Shetland Island series, or her Vera Stanhope series. Maybe you’ve watched “Shetland” or “Vera”. Cleeves has also written other books. She just released the first in the new Two Rivers series, The Long Call.That book is the selection of this month’s British Crime Club. You can order copies of Cleeves’ books, including The Long Call, through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2ku5KGF
It’s truly an honor to interview Ann Cleeves.
I feel a little funny asking you this question, but some readers may not be familiar with your work. Ann, would you introduce yourself to readers, please?
I’m a crime writer who’s been very, very lucky. For the first twenty years of publication, I had very little commercial success. That meant I could practice my craft without any pressure at all and I still had time to spend with my daughters as they were growing up. Writing was an escape and a joy ““ and it still is. In those early days, I was supported by libraries and by my family. For more than forty years I was married to Tim, an ornithologist, who spent his career working for a conservation charity. I met him in Shetland and his work took me to some of the beautiful places that act as a backdrop to my stories. I still live in my little house in Whitley Bay, a seaside town on the north-east coast.
Your best-known books are set in the Shetlands and Northumberland. What attracted you to Devon for your new series?
I grew up in North Devon and I still have friends there. When my husband suddenly died, nearly two years ago, I needed to run away, not just from the memories of our life together, but from the sympathy of the people who’d known us as a couple. I ran to my old school friend and to a place I’d been very happy. We visited some of the beautiful beaches and small towns of my youth and talked for hours about the people we knew then. The Long Call developed out of those places and those conversations.
Would you introduce us to Matthew Venn?
Matthew grew up in a small evangelical community as the beloved only son of doting parents. When he was eighteen, he lost his faith, at least the very rigid faith of his parents and he was cast out. His way of dealing with the sudden lack of order was to join the police force. There he found the sense of duty, honour and service that he’d grown up with. At the start of the novel, he’s looking in at the funeral of his father, not feeling that he’d be welcome to join in. He’s back in North Devon after living and working in the city of Bristol, and this is his first case in the Two Rivers region. He’s more optimistic now, happier, married to Jonathan and living in the low, white house on the shore. I’m hoping that in future books, he’ll develop more of a sense of humour!
Tell us about The Long Call, without spoilers, please.
The Long Call begins with the body of a man found on a beach, Crow Point, a spit of sand at the point where the rivers Taw and Torridge meet. At first the detectives think that the victim is a homeless man, but it seems his background is complex. He volunteers at The Woodyard, a community arts centre with a space for adults with a learning disability. The Woodyard becomes the centre of the investigation, which makes life difficult for Matthew, because Jonathan was the leading light in creating the place, and he’s now the manager.
This is just my opinion. I see Jimmy Perez, Vera Stanhope, and, in The Long Call, Matthew Venn and his sergeant, Jen Rafferty, as troubled people, somewhat socially awkward. How do their experiences make them better investigators?
One of my favourite crime writers, Georges Simenon, says that the role of his detective, Inspector Maigret, is “˜to understand not to judge.’ It’s much easier to understand the pain of the victims’ families and the motives for murder, if the detective hasn’t had a trouble-free and undemanding life. Like writers, I think good detectives have to be a little apart: observers, good listeners.
This will be your third series, after “Vera” and “Shetland” that’s adapted for television. What appeals to you when you see your characters and settings portrayed on screen?
Television is a very different form from prose and I’m delighted to leave the script-writing to the people who know what they’re doing! I don’t feel precious about the adaptations. Once the books reach readers, they don’t belong to me any longer. Reading is a creative activity, and each reader brings their own history and prejudice to the story, the images they see in their minds will be different from the ones in mine. Letting a TV production company interpret the novels, is just one step further in the process. Both Shetland and Vera are made by Silverprint Pictures and I think I’ve been very fortunate. The company has captured the atmosphere, place and central characters beautifully. I’m delighted that Silverprint has optionedThe Long Calltoo. I watch the shows like every other viewer.
Everyone takes a different path to publication. How did you become a published author?
I went to my local library and looked at the books most similar to mine and made a note of the publisher. Then I sent out a letter and script. In those days, publishers still looked at unsolicited manuscripts and the third company I approached bought the novel. It’s not that easy now!
If you had to recommend 5 books to a person so they could get a feel for your reading taste, what 5 would you pick?
The Lost Domain by Alain Fournier, Toxic Shock by Sara Paretsky, Scrublands by Chris Hammer, Maigret in Vichy by Georges Simenon, Slow Horses by Mick Herron.
Even though we might not recognize some of the titles, what books were your favorites as a child?
I loved mysteries even as a child. My favourite author was Malcolm Saville, who was great at writing place. I very soon moved on to the short stories of Conan-Doyle and G K Chesterton.
*****
Ann, Thank you so much for taking the time to answer questions.
James Sallis appeared at The Poisoned Pen on Tuesday, September 24, and, unfortunately, most of us missed the event. That doesn’t mean you have to miss his latest book. Sarah Jane is the Hot Book of the Week at the bookstore. You can order a signed copy of it, along with other books by Sallis, through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2mn23Di
Here’s the summary of Sarah Jane. (Just my opinion, but it’s one of the best books I’ve read this year.)
A spare, sparkling tour de force about one woman’s journey to becoming a cop, by master of noir James Sallis, author of Drive.
Sarah Jane Pullman is a good cop with a complicated past. From her small-town chicken-farming roots through her runaway adolescence, court-ordered Army stint, ill-advised marriage and years slinging scrambled eggs over greasy spoon griddles, Sarah Jane unfolds her life story, a parable about memory, atonement, and finding shape in chaos. Her life takes an unexpected turn when she is named the de facto sheriff of a rural town, investigating the mysterious disappearance of the sheriff whose shoes she’s filling—and the even more mysterious realities of the life he was hiding from his own colleagues and closest friends. This kaleidoscopic character study sparkles in every dark and bright detail—a virtuoso work by a master of both the noir and the tender aspects of human nature.
Craig Johnson, author of the Longmire books, recently appeared at The Poisoned Pen, on book tour for Land of Wolves. If you missed the event, you missed a true storyteller in the oral tradition. He’s been at the bookstore with every one of his books. Barbara Peters, owner of The Pen, has been a supporter since the beginning. You can order copies of Johnson’s books, including signed copies of Land of Wolves, through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2Qmogf5
Here’s the summary of the latest Longmire story, Land of Wolves.
The new novel in Craig Johnson’s beloved New York Times bestselling Longmire series.
“It’s the scenery—and the big guy standing in front of the scenery—that keeps us coming back to Craig Johnson’s lean and leathery mysteries.” —The New York Times Book Review
Recovering from his harrowing experiences in Mexico, Sheriff Walt Longmire returns to Absaroka County, Wyoming, to lick his wounds and try once again to maintain justice in a place with grudges that go back generations. When a shepherd is found dead, Longmire suspects it could be suicide. But the shepherd’s connection to the Extepares, a powerful family of Basque ranchers with a history of violence, leads the sheriff into an intricate investigation of a possible murder.
As Walt searches for information about the shepherd, he comes across strange carvings on trees, as well as play money coupons from inside Mallo Cup candies, which he interprets as messages from his spiritual guide, Virgil White Buffalo. Longmire doesn’t know how these little blue cards are appearing, but Virgil usually reaches out if a child is in danger. So when a young boy with ties to the Extepare clan arrives in town, the stakes grow even higher.
Even more complicating, a renegade wolf has been haunting the Bighorn Mountains, and the townspeople are out for blood. With both a wolf and a killer on the loose, Longmire follows a twisting trail of evidence, leading to dark and shocking conclusions.
*****
Even better, you can watch Barbara Peters and Craig Johnson in conversation. Enjoy the stories!
