This is probably preaching to the choir. If you’re reading this blog, you probably order a book occasionally from The Poisoned Pen. But, you might not have thought about why you’re helping out an author.
Nick Douglas wrote a piece recently for lifehacker.com. It’s called, “The Best Thing You Can Do to Support a New Book.” If you have a favorite author with a new book coming out, you might want to take a look at the article. https://bit.ly/2pkVKBS
And, don’t forget The Poisoned Pen’s Web Store when you’re thinking of your favorite authors. https://store.poisonedpen.com/
Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, and Joseph Kanon, author of The Accomplice, have known each other for over twenty years. That always means a conversation will cover a lot of ground and a lot of history. You might want to order copies of Kanon’s books, including a signed copy of The Accomplice, through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/32jNjnG
Here’s the summary of The Accomplice.
“Gripping and authentic…Kanon’s imagination flourishes [and] the narrative propulsion is clear. A thoroughly satisfying piece of entertainment that extends a tentacle into some serious moral reflection.” —The New York Times Book Review
The “master of the genre” (The Washington Post) Joseph Kanon returns with a heart-pounding and intelligent espionage novel about a Nazi war criminal who was supposed to be dead, the rogue CIA agent on his trail, and the beautiful woman connected to them both.
Seventeen years after the fall of the Third Reich, Max Weill has never forgotten the atrocities he saw as a prisoner at Auschwitz—nor the face of Dr. Otto Schramm, a camp doctor who worked with Mengele on appalling experiments and who sent Max’s family to the gas chambers. As the war came to a close, Schramm was one of the many high-ranking former-Nazi officers who managed to escape Germany for new lives in South America, where leaders like Argentina’s Juan Perón gave them safe harbor and new identities. With his life nearing its end, Max asks his nephew Aaron Wiley—an American CIA desk analyst—to complete the task Max never could: to track down Otto in Argentina, capture him, and bring him back to Germany to stand trial.
Unable to deny Max, Aaron travels to Buenos Aires and discovers a city where Nazis thrive in plain sight, mingling with Argentine high society. He ingratiates himself with Otto’s alluring but wounded daughter, whom he’s convinced is hiding her father. Enlisting the help of a German newspaper reporter, an Israeli agent, and the obliging CIA station chief in Buenos Aires, he hunts for Otto—a complicated monster, unexpectedly human but still capable of murder if cornered. Unable to distinguish allies from enemies, Aaron will ultimately have to discover not only Otto, but the boundaries of his own personal morality, how far he is prepared to go to render justice.
“With his remarkable emotional precision and mastery of tone” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review), Joseph Kanon crafts another compelling and unputdownable thriller that will keep you breathlessly turning the pages.
*****
And, here’s your chance to hear that conversation between Joseph Kanon and Barbara Peters.
In The New Yorker, Nora Caplan-Bricker reviews a complex biography, discusses Harriet Vane from Dorothy L. Sayers’ mysteries, and talks about the current golden age of detective stories. You can read her article in the column, “Under Review”. https://bit.ly/2Oevtxr
Although Caplan-Bricker discusses several contemporary mysteries, there are two books in the article that you might want to check out in the Web Store. One is The Mutual Admiration Society: How Dorothy L. Sayers and Her Oxford Circle Remade the World for Women by Mo Moulton. https://bit.ly/2KlcsZ2
Here’s the summary of the book.
A group biography of renowned crime novelist Dorothy L. Sayers and the Oxford women who stood at the vanguard of equal rights
Dorothy L. Sayers is now famous for her Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane detective series, but she was equally well known during her life for an essay asking “Are Women Human?” Women’s rights were expanding rapidly during Sayers’s lifetime; she and her friends were some of the first women to receive degrees from Oxford. Yet, as historian Mo Moulton reveals, it was clear from the many professional and personal obstacles they faced that society was not ready to concede that women were indeed fully human.
Dubbing themselves the Mutual Admiration Society, Sayers and her classmates remained lifelong friends and collaborators as they fought for a truly democratic culture that acknowledged their equal humanity. A celebration of feminism and female friendship, The Mutual Admiration Society offers crucial insight into Dorothy L. Sayers and her world.
*****
The other book is one of Dorothy L. Sayers’ mysteries, Gaudy Night. Together with Moulton’s book, the two are the basis for the review. https://bit.ly/2NQHkTL
Here’s the story of Gaudy Night.
“Gaudy Night stands out even among Miss Sayers’s novels. And Miss Sayers has long stood in a class by herself.”—Times Literary Supplement (London)
Dorothy L. Sayers’s Gaudy Night takes mystery writer Harriet Vane to Oxford University, Harriet’s alma mater, for a reunion, only to find herself the target of a nightmare of harassment and mysterious, murderous threats. Now available as a limited Olive Edition from Harper Perennial.
When Harriet attends her Oxford reunion, known as the Gaudy, the prim academic setting is haunted by a rash of bizarre pranks: scrawled obscenities, burnt effigies, and poison-pen letters, including one that says, “Ask your boyfriend with the title if he likes arsenic in his soup.” Some of the notes threaten murder; all are perfectly ghastly; yet in spite of their scurrilous nature, all are perfectly worded. And Harriet finds herself ensnared in a nightmare of romance and terror, with only the tiniest shreds of clues to challenge her powers of detection, and those of her paramour, the dashing private investigator Lord Peter Wimsey.
On Sunday, November 17 at 2 PM, author Paula Munier will appear at The Poisoned Pen, alongside authors Hank Early, Scott Graham, and Margaret Mizushima. John Valeri refers to Munier as “a triple threat”. In a recent review for Criminal Element, he says, ” In addition to serving as agent extraordinaire for a cadre of esteemed authors, she’s written five popular non-fiction titles, including three on the craft of writing—Plot Perfect, The Writer’s Guide to Beginnings, and Writing with Quiet Hands. Last year, she entered the realm of crime fiction with A Borrowing of Bones; that title—which was both a USA Today bestseller and a nominee for the prestigious Mary Higgins Clark Award—launched a new series featuring former military police officer Mercy Karr and her bomb-sniffing dog, Elvis. Their saga continues with November’s Blind Search. ” You can read Valeri’s review of Blind Search here. https://bit.ly/372ONX9
Signed copies of Blind Search, along with copies of Munier’s other books, are available through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/373HChB
Here’s the description of Blind Search.
Former Army MP Mercy Carr and her retired bomb-sniffing dog Elvis are back in Blind Search, the sequel to the page-turning, critically acclaimed A Borrowing of Bones
It’s October, hunting season in the Green Mountains—and the Vermont wilderness has never been more beautiful or more dangerous. Especially for nine-year-old Henry, who’s lost in the woods. Again. Only this time he sees something terrible. When a young woman is found shot through the heart with a fatal arrow, Mercy thinks that something is murder. But Henry, a math genius whose autism often silences him when he should speak up most, is not talking.
Now there’s a murderer hiding among the hunters in the forest—and Mercy and Elvis must team up with their crime-solving friends, game warden Troy Warner and search-and-rescue dog Susie Bear, to find the killer—before the killer finds Henry. When an early season blizzard hits the mountains, cutting them off from the rest of the world, the race is on to solve the crime, apprehend the murderer, and keep the boy safe until the snowplows get through.
Inspired by the true search-and-rescue case of an autistic boy who got lost in the Vermont wilderness, Paula Munier’s mystery is a compelling roller coaster ride through the worst of winter—and human nature.
The winners of the 2019 New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards were recently announced at an awards banquet held at the Tanoan Country Club in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Awards were presented in 66 categories, from poetry to history and nonfiction to children’s books.
1,545 books were entered in this year’s awards
program and 182 of those entries were selected as finalists, which were
announced in September 2019. Entries came from large and small publishers from
all across the country. Any books by Arizona or New Mexico authors or
publishers were eligible as well as books that focused on either Arizona or New
Mexico. Because of that entries came from small, one book publishers as well as
large national publishers like St Martin’s Press, Random House, Globe Pequot,
and even Penguin Books. Many entries came from academic publishers all across
the region. Entries this year were up 7%.
Joseph Kanon, author of The Accomplice, will be at The Poisoned Pen Bookstore on Wednesday, November 13 at 7 PM. Audience members will be able to meet Kanon and have him sign their copies of the current Hot Book of the Week. Copies of Kanon’s books, including signed copies of The Accomplice, are available through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/32jNjnG
Here’s the description of The Accomplice, the current Hot Book of the Week.
“Gripping and authentic…Kanon’s imagination flourishes [and] the narrative propulsion is clear. A thoroughly satisfying piece of entertainment that extends a tentacle into some serious moral reflection.” —The New York Times Book Review
The “master of the genre” (The Washington Post) Joseph Kanon returns with a heart-pounding and intelligent espionage novel about a Nazi war criminal who was supposed to be dead, the rogue CIA agent on his trail, and the beautiful woman connected to them both.
Seventeen years after the fall of the Third Reich, Max Weill has never forgotten the atrocities he saw as a prisoner at Auschwitz—nor the face of Dr. Otto Schramm, a camp doctor who worked with Mengele on appalling experiments and who sent Max’s family to the gas chambers. As the war came to a close, Schramm was one of the many high-ranking former-Nazi officers who managed to escape Germany for new lives in South America, where leaders like Argentina’s Juan Perón gave them safe harbor and new identities. With his life nearing its end, Max asks his nephew Aaron Wiley—an American CIA desk analyst—to complete the task Max never could: to track down Otto in Argentina, capture him, and bring him back to Germany to stand trial.
Unable to deny Max, Aaron travels to Buenos Aires and discovers a city where Nazis thrive in plain sight, mingling with Argentine high society. He ingratiates himself with Otto’s alluring but wounded daughter, whom he’s convinced is hiding her father. Enlisting the help of a German newspaper reporter, an Israeli agent, and the obliging CIA station chief in Buenos Aires, he hunts for Otto—a complicated monster, unexpectedly human but still capable of murder if cornered. Unable to distinguish allies from enemies, Aaron will ultimately have to discover not only Otto, but the boundaries of his own personal morality, how far he is prepared to go to render justice.
“With his remarkable emotional precision and mastery of tone” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review), Joseph Kanon crafts another compelling and unputdownable thriller that will keep you breathlessly turning the pages.
I didn’t catch all of the Sourcebook/Poisoned Pen Press authors who were at Bouchercon, but I did find some of them wandering around. And, unfortunately for you, I’m in several of the photos. But, I didn’t want to cut out an author just because I’m in the picture.
I hope you enjoy the photo gallery. And, don’t forget to check the Web Store for these authors’ books! https://store.poisonedpen.com
That’s Sulari Gentill on the right. She’s the author of the Rowland Sinclair mysteries. She’s also a Ned Kelly Award winner. (I’m on the left.)
Although Sulari Gentill is the only Poisoned Pen Press author, the Australian authors all just appeared @ The Poisoned Pen. Here’s Emma Viskic, Robert Gott, Sulari Gentill and Jock Serong.
Here’s Mary Anna Evans, author of the Faye Longchamp Archaeological mysteries.That’s Dr. David Chaudoir and me with Poisoned Pen Press author Wendall Thomas. Wendall is the author of the Cyd Redondo mysteries. Have you read Jeffrey Siger’s Andreas Kaldis mysteries set in Greece? You really should.That’s Triss Stein, author of the Erica Donato mysteries on the left, and Annie Hogsett on the right. She’s the author of the Somebody’s Bound to Wind Up Dead mysteries.
You might recognize Martin Edwards. He’s a frequent guest at the bookstore. Sometimes he’s the host. He’s an author and the editor of the British Library Crime Classics. Thomas Kies writes the Geneva Chase mysteries. Bree Baker is the author of the Seaside Cafe mysteries.
There were a number of other Sourcebooks/Poisoned Pen Press authors at Bouchercon. I thought you might just want to put a face to the name of one or two of your favorite Poisoned Pen authors. Check out Poisoned Pen Bookstore’s Instagram page for other photos. https://www.instagram.com/poisonedpenbookstore/
I was hoping I could share this with all of you, especially after I met a number of these authors at Bouchercon, the World Mystery Convention. Tomorrow, I’ll share photos of some of the Sourcebook/Poisoned Pen Press authors, along with the Australian authors featured today.
When The Poisoned Pen Bookstore hosted International Crime Night, it featured “Four Aussies, Two South Africans and an Octopus”. You can check the Web Store for books by Michael Stanley, Tim Maleeny, Sulari Gentill, Robert Gott, Jock Serong and Emma Viskic. https://store.poisonedpen.com
Nicholas Meyer recently appeared at The Poisoned Pen, talking about his latest Sherlock Holmes novel, The Adventure of the Peculiar Protocols. You can catch that event here.
Why do I bring it up again? Adam Langer just interviewed Meyer for CrimeReads, in an article, “26 Years Later, Nicholas Meyer is Returning to Sherlock Holmes. Why Now?” https://bit.ly/34LQPcr
If the video and the article intrigue you, you might want to pick up a signed copy of The Adventure of the Peculiar Protocols through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/33s8plu
With the international bestseller The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, Nicholas Meyer brought to light a previously unpublished case of Sherlock Holmes, as recorded by Dr. John H. Watson. Now Meyer returns with a shocking discovery—an unknown case drawn from a recently unearthed Watson journal.
January 1905: Holmes and Watson are summoned by Holmes’ brother Mycroft to undertake a clandestine investigation. An agent of the British Secret Service has been found floating in the Thames, carrying a manuscript smuggled into England at the cost of her life. The pages purport to be the minutes of a meeting of a secret group intent on nothing less than taking over the world.
Based on real events, the adventure takes the famed duo—in the company of a bewitching woman—aboard the Orient Express from Paris into the heart of Tsarist Russia, where Holmes and Watson attempt to trace the origins of this explosive document. On their heels are desperate men of unknown allegiance, determined to prevent them from achieving their task. And what they uncover is a conspiracy so vast as to challenge Sherlock Holmes as never before.
Although I’m linking to Michael Barson’s recent interview in Bookreporter.com, https://bit.ly/2Ctdpdr, as Director of Publicity for Poisoned Pen Press, he gave me permission to use the opening paragraph of the article.
Poisoned Pen Press/Sourcebooks recently announced the launch of its new line, The Haunted Library of Horror Classics, which will debut in January 2020 with a new edition of Gaston Leroux’s 1911 classic, THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA. Each volume in the Haunted Library will feature a specially written introduction by a horror literature scholar or author, and include notes and annotations explaining the work’s historical context and the vocabulary of its day. The brainchild of Lisa Morton, a past president of the Horror Writers Association (HWA), the series is edited by Leslie S. Klinger and Eric J. Guignard, both longtime members of the HWA. In this Q&A conducted by Michael Barson, the Director of Publicity at Poisoned Pen Press, Klinger and Guignard explain what led to the formation of the Haunted Library line and preview some of the other titles that will be published in the months to come.
*****
If you’re a fan of horror novels, you’ll want to check out the interview, available here. https://bit.ly/2Ctdpdr
