Fiction Review

Thomas Kies, author of the Geneva Chase mysteries, is a little luckier than many of us. He admits it in his “Distractions” post when he talks about his location for quarantine or “social distancing”. I think you’ll enjoy his post. His latest book, Graveyard Bay, and the others in the series, can be found in the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2VH6SoP

Author of the Geneva Chase Mystery Series, Thomas Kies lives and writes on a barrier island on the coast of North Carolina with his wife, Cindy, and Lilly, their shih-tzu. He has had a long career working for newspapers and magazines, primarily in New England and New York, and is currently working on his next novel. (Or, with what’s going on, and so many authors saying they’re having a hard time writing, let’s hope he’s working on his next novel.)

Thank you, Tom. Readers can find Thomas Kies’ “Distraction” books through the Web Store. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

Distractions

If I have to live in exile during these trying times, I’m extremely lucky to be able to do so on a barrier island on the coast of North Carolina.  The beach is only a short walk from our home, my office overlooks our front lawn, and the weather this time of year is perfect.

Nonetheless, I find the news Covid-19 to be overwhelming and I’m having a difficult time concentration on my own writing.   So reading some books I’ve picked up over the last year while at various mystery conferences is proving to be a pleasant distraction.

First up was HEAD WOUNDS by Dennis Palumbo whom I met for the first time at Thrillerfest last summer. 

The book begins with “Miles Davis saved my life.”  You have to love that for a first line.  Like Mr. Palumbo, his protagonist Daniel Rinaldi is a psychologist but Rinaldi, unlike Mr. Palumbo, has an uneasy relationship with the police force.  In HEAD WOUNDS, Rinaldi is bieing hunted by a madman who is systematically targeting all the people who are close him.  The book is a nail-biter from beginning to end. 

While in Dallas for Bouchercon, I picked up BELOW THE FOLD by R.G. Belsky. 

Like my own protagonist, Geneva Chase, Mr. Belsky has created Clare Carlson, a female journalist.  Except Clare has left the shrinking newspaper business and is now producing news for television.  In BELOW THE FOLD, a homeless woman is found murdered. Traditionally barely a blip in a news cycle, Clare digs more deeply and finds a connection to a group of wealthy people, some of whom are murdered and some become suspects.  I kept wondering how in hell Mr. Belsky was going to tie that up.  I’m happy to say that he did a great job.

I’ve had the pleasure of running into Stephen Mack Jones a couple of time now and I can vouch that he’s a great guy and a fantastic writer. .  The latest was at the Virginia Festival of the Book where I scored a copy of LIVES LAID AWAY. 

A non-stop mystery thriller that starts off with a dead girl dressed like Marie Antoinette found thrown off the Ambassador Bridge.  Former cop, August Snow, traverses the underbelly of Detroit in a gun-blazing plot that includes immigration and human trafficking.  It was a definite page-turner.

Lastly, I finally had a chance to read Joseph Finder’s mystery JUDGEMENT. 

The main character is a by-the-book judge, Juliana Brody, who makes a serious mistake in the very first chapter, a one night stand.  Juliana is a mother and wife and it’s the first time she’s ever strayed.  With a jolt, she realizes the trouble she’s in when the man that she had an affair with, a man that she didn’t think she’d ever see again, shows up in her courtroom.  The plot takes her from the fear of losing her husband, to seeing her family put in mortal danger.   It made me wonder what rules I’d break to save my family.

Now, I’m halfway through Annie Hogsett’s latest mystery THE DEVIL’S OWN GAME and enjoying it very much. 

It’s nice to be around her characters, Tom, Allie and Otis.  The book starts right out the gate with a crackerjack murder and brings back a very nasty criminal mastermind, Tito Ricci.  It’s also a page-turner that I fear I will finish much too quickly.  

Stay safe and healthy everyone!

*****

You stay safe and healthy as well, Tom. And, thank you.

Thomas Kies’ latest book is Graveyard Bay. Here’s the summary of the book. Don’t forget. You can find his books, and all the books he discussed, in the Web Store. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

Time is running out…

The nude bodies of a corrupt judge and a Jane Doe are found under the icy, black waters at Groward Bay Marina, chained to the prongs of a mammoth fork lift. A videotape points to Merlin Finn, a ruthless gang leader with a proclivity for bondage and S&M who had recently broken out of prison. In the videotape, he’s wearing a black leather bondage mask.

With the newspaper she works for about to be sold and her job in jeopardy, journalist Geneva Chase investigates pill mills, crooked doctors, and a massive money laundering scheme in an attempt to identify the murdered woman and find the killer. Along the way, she finds herself working with a disgraced New York cop and a host of other unlikely characters with ties to the criminal underworld.

Geneva is clearly hot on the killer’s trail, but when she is kidnapped and held at the mercy of the criminals she hoped to stop, it looks like her chance to uncover the darkness that has seeped through her hometown may be lost forever.

The tenth book in Jeffrey Siger’s Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis series, The Mykonos Mob, was released a year ago. It has just been rereleased in paperback under the title Island of Secrets. Both copies, and other books in the series, are available through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2jC3gpp

For an article in Bookreporter.com, Jeffrey Siger looks back at an earlier book in the series. Mykonos After Midnight was a warning about the future. Now, in this article, Siger talks about the island, and the consequences of activities there. He has accurately forecast the future before. You might want to read his recent article, https://bit.ly/34LQxmZ.

And, of course, if you haven’t already read The Mykonos Mob, pick up Island of Secrets. Here’s the summary.

“A perfect setting and first-rate storytelling.” —Ragnar Jónasson, bestselling author of The Dark Iceland series

From international bestselling author, Jeffrey Siger, comes another heart-stopping story of corruption and intrigue.

The case begins for Athens’ Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis with a literal bang when a corrupt former police colonel who runs a protection racket on Mykonos is gunned down. Suddenly, Kaldis is face-to-face with Greece’s top crime bosses on an island whose natural beauty and reputation as an international playground belies the corruption lurking just beneath the surface.

While Kaldis and his Special Crimes unit wrestle for answers, his wife, Lila, meets an American expat named Toni, a finder of stolen goods and a piano player in a gender-bending bar who has a zest for life and no apparent regard for rules. As Lila and Toni bond over a common desire to mentor young island girls trapped in an exploitative and patriarchal culture, they soon find that their efforts intersect with Kaldis’ investigation in ways that prove to be dangerous for all involved…

 (Previously published as The Mykonos Mob)

Julia Spencer-Fleming’s last book in her Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne series, Through the Evil Days, was published in November 2013. She’s finally back with her new book, Hid from Our Eyes. You’ll be able to watch the virtual event to hear Spencer-Fleming’s account of that gap. You can also order copies of her books, and signed copies of several of them through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2KgausM

Here’s the summary of the latest book, Hid from Our Eyes.

THE USA TODAY BESTSELLER

New York Times bestseller Julia Spencer-Fleming returns to her beloved Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne mystery series with new crimes that span decades in Hid from Our Eyes.

“New parents Clare Fergusson and police chief Russ Van Alstyne tackle three copycat murders and one testy baby in this riveting addition to an acclaimed series” —People magazine

1952. Millers Kill Police Chief Harry McNeil is called to a crime scene where a woman in a party dress has been murdered with no obvious cause of death.

1972. Millers Kill Police Chief Jack Liddle is called to a murder scene of a woman that’s very similar to one he worked as a trooper in the 50s. The only difference is this time, they have a suspect. Young Vietnam War veteran Russ van Alstyne found the body while riding his motorcycle and is quickly pegged as the prime focus of the investigation.

Present-day. Millers Kill Police Chief Russ van Alstyne gets a 911 call that a young woman has been found dead in a party dress, the same MO as the crime he was accused of in the 70s. The pressure is on for Russ to solve the murder before he’s removed from the case.

Russ will enlist the help of his police squad and Reverend Clare Fergusson, who is already juggling the tasks of being a new mother to her and Russ’s baby and running St. Alban’s Church, to finally solve these crimes.

Readers have waited years for this newest book and Julia Spencer-Fleming delivers with the exquisite skill and craftsmanship that have made her such a success.

*****

I think you’ll enjoy the virtual event. Jenn McKinlay, one of the authors who blogs with Spencer-Fleming at Jungle Red Writers, joins bookstore owner Barbara Peters to talk with Julia Spencer-Fleming.

Some authors have as much trouble concentrating as we do. In Wendall Thomas’ case, it’s for a different reason. The author of Lost Luggage and Drowned Under was kind enough to find time to write for us. Look for her books in the Web Store, as well as copies of the books that have helped her get through the social isolation right now. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

Wendall Thomas teaches in the Graduate Film School at UCLA, lectures internationally on screenwriting, and has worked as an entertainment reporter, script consultant, and film and television writer. Her novel, Lost Luggage was nominated for the Lefty and Macavity Awards for Best Debut and the follow-up, Drowned Under, was nominated for a Lefty for Best Humorous Mystery of 2019 .  Her short fiction appears in the crime anthologies LAdies Night (2015), Last Resort (2017) and Murder A-Go-Gos (2019).

Thank you, Wendall, for your “Distractions”.

*****

I write in restaurants. I’ve done it since 1992, when I quit my last “real” Hollywood assistant job to become a writer, instantly became creatively paralyzed, and spent much of my days watching The Today Show, going to bargain matinees, and making pointless trips to the dry cleaners—as my savings dwindled.

I realized I needed to treat writing as a job and decided my office would be a Los Angeles coffee shop called Jan’s, where I arrived each morning at 6am, drastically over tipped, and wrote for three hours. Then I came home, took out the dry cleaning, and moved to the historic El Coyote for a working lunch. Although some of the restaurants have changed over the years my routine has not, so for the first weeks of the “Safer at Home” restrictions, I was paralyzed again. Reading helped. So here are a few things I’ve been happily distracted by in the last few weeks. 

One of my favorite new discoveries is author Bill Fitzhugh’s “bug,” series which begins with Pest Control.

This book, featuring a groundbreaking exterminator who hates pesticides, decides to breed “assassin” cockroaches, and winds up being mistaken for a real assassin, had me snorting with laughter. The combination of entomology and bounty killing was just what I needed and, especially if you like Carl Hiaasen, Elmore Leonard, or David Attenboroughs’s nature specials, I highly recommend both this book and the follow up, The Exterminators. 

Being a screenwriter and lecturer in film history, I was also riveted by Sam Wasson’s The Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood.

The book’s insights into the personalities and politics behind this film and the way it dissects one of my favorite eras in cinema was a real treat. I would recommend it for anyone who loves Jack Nicholson, who loves the film, or who loves Hollywood history.

The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins is one of the books I love best and its butler, Gabriel Betteredge—with his devotion to Robinson Crusoe—is one of my favorite characters in literature.

I was lucky enough to adapt this book for the PBS kids’ show, Wishbone, and it’s up there with Alice and Her Adventures Through the Looking Glass as one of stories I return to again and again.

I also headed back to one of my other “comfort” reads, Ngaio Marsh. This time it was Death in a White Tie, where social butterfly Sir Robert Gospell is murdered while spying for the police during debutante season.

I’m particularly partial to the relationship between Inspector Alleyn and his eventual wife, Agatha Troy. (Spoiler Alert!) This is the book where she finally says “Yes,” which invariably cheers me up.

Finally, I’m a North Carolina girl, born and bred, and so am a bit obessed with Vivian Howard of A Chef’s Life.  I’ve owned her cookbook, Deep Run Roots, since it came out and often make her recipes, but I hadn’t had a chance to really read all the text. The stories behind the recipes are just as delicious.

All these books remind me why I wanted to write in the first place, so if I’ve almost gotten my “mojo” back, it’s largely due to these great authors.

*****

Maybe it will be Wendall Thomas’ own books that help you get your “mojo” back. Here’s an introduction to her books and her character, Cyd Redondo.

Macavity Award 2018 nominee, Best First Novel
Left Award 2018 nominee, Best Debut Mystery Novel

“Thomas makes a rollicking debut with this comic mystery featuring an unconventional protagonist who proves to have the skills of MacGyver. With its sexy overtones, this fun, character-driven novel will appeal to Janet Evanovich fans.” —Library Journal STARRED review

Cyd Redondo, a young, third-generation Brooklyn travel agent who specializes in senior citizens, has never ventured farther than New Jersey. Yet even Jersey proves risky when her Travel Agents’ Convention fling, Roger Claymore, leaves her weak in the knees-and everywhere else-then sneaks out of her Atlantic City hotel room at three a.m.

Back in Brooklyn, when she reads about smugglers stopped at JFK with skinks in their socks or monkeys down their pants, she never imagines she will join their ranks. But days after the pet store owner next door to Redondo Travel is poisoned, Cyd wins a free safari. Her boss, Uncle Ray, wants to cash it in for computers, but Cyd is determined to go. When Roger turns up at the Redondo clan’s door, Cyd invites him along as her “plus one.” And just like that she is thrown heels-first into the bizarre and sinister world of international animal smuggling.

She and Roger arrive in Africa, luggage lost, to find two of Cyd’s elderly clients in a local jail. She manages to barter them out, only to discover smugglers have hidden five hundred thousand dollars’ worth of endangered parrots, snakes, frogs, and a lone Madagascan chameleon in the clients’ outbound luggage. When Roger steals the bags—is the U.S. Embassy in on the contraband ring?—Cyd and the chameleon helicopter into the jungle to go after Roger on their own.

Wondering if “plus one” Roger is actually a minus, Cyd dodges Interpol, faces off with a cobra, steals a diplomatic bag, hijacks a FedEx truck, crashes an eco-safari, winds up in a leopard trap, and is forced to smuggle snakes in her bra. It’s a scramble to find the smugglers, save her clients, and solve Mrs. Barsky’s murder before finding herself at the top of the endangered species list.

“Fans of Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum will cotton to Cyd.” —Publishers Weekly

Eggnog notwithstanding, travel agent Cyd Redondo is not looking forward to the holidays. The borough of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn—along with most of her family—holds her responsible for landing her Uncle Ray in a minimum security prison.

So, when Cyd’s ex-husband, Barry Manzoni, announces his parents have disappeared from an Australian cruise, she rushes Down Under to enlist the help of travel liaison and friend Harriet Archer, who offers a free cabin on the Tasmanian Dream and insider assistance with the search.

Cyd’s flights are delayed, so she hitches a helicopter ride to the ship—which lacks a heli-pad. She and her Balenciaga bag barely survive the harrowing drop, landing on a gorgeous man in a Speedo. When she finally makes it to her cabin, she finds Harriet dead, lying in a pool of blood.

The ship’s doctor/coroner—now wearing a tux instead of his Speedo—declares the death an accident. While Darling Cruises hurries to cover up the “unfortunate event” and sanitize the crime scene, Cyd scrambles to preserve evidence, terrified the murder is connected to the Manzonis’ disappearance, and to prevent the heist of the world’s last Tasmanian tiger.

Do you know how hard people work to get signed books to you? Not only the staff at The Poisoned Pen. This is John Sandford hauling signed copies of his 30th Lucas Davenport book, Masked Prey, to the UPS pick up point to get them back to the store.

Masked Prey is the Hot Book of the Week at The Poisoned Pen. John Sandford did his virtual book launch for the store, discussing his books, characters, and writing with Barbara Peters, owner of the store. You can order signed copy of that title, as well as copies of Sandford’s other books, through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2Dncbl0

Here’s the description of Masked Prey.

Lucas Davenport investigates a vitriolic blog that seems to be targeting the children of U.S. politicians in the latest thriller by #1 New York Times-bestselling author John Sandford.

The daughter of a U.S. Senator is monitoring her social media presence when she finds a picture of herself on a strange blog. And there are other pictures . . . of the children of other influential Washington politicians, walking or standing outside their schools, each identified by name. Surrounding the photos are texts of vicious political rants from a motley variety of radical groups.

It’s obviously alarming–is there an unstable extremist tracking the loved ones of powerful politicians with deadly intent? But when the FBI is called in, there isn’t much the feds can do. The anonymous photographer can’t be pinned down to one location or IP address, and more importantly, at least to the paper-processing bureaucrats, no crime has actually been committed. With nowhere else to turn, influential Senators decide to call in someone who can operate outside the FBI’s constraints: Lucas Davenport.

*****

Now that John Sandford is moving to just one book a year, you’ll want to check out his conversation with Barbara Peters.

Betty Webb is one of those authors who had an unfortunate launch date for her latest book, The Panda of Death. That book has one of the cutest covers I’ve seen, so I jumped at the chance to invite her to write a Distractions piece for the blog. If you like the cover as much as I do, make sure to look for signed copies of the book in the Web Store, as well as copies of Webb’s other Gunn Zoo and Lena Jones mysteries. https://bit.ly/2uhnpCs

As a journalist, Betty Webb interviewed U.S. presidents, astronauts, and Nobel Prize winners, as well as the homeless, dying, and polygamy runaways. The dark Lena Jones mysteries are based on stories she covered as a reporter. Betty’s humorous Gunn Zoo series debuted with the critically acclaimed The Anteater of Death, followed by The Koala of Death. A book reviewer at Mystery Scene Magazine, Betty is a member of National Federation of Press Women, Mystery Writers of America, and the National Organization of Zoo Keepers. Check out her website at https://www.bettywebb-mystery.com/

Thank you, Betty. Look for copies of the books Betty Webb suggests in the Web Store. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

*****

Reading in the Time of Cholera, uh, Corona                                                        By Betty Webb 

How the heck am I staying sane in the third week of Social Distancing (I call it House Arrest)? Well, I do have this monster historical novel I happened to be writing at the time the news about the Corona virus leaked, so instead of going through my usual three drafts, I’m stretching it out to five. When you can’t leave your house, you can afford to get picky about pronouns.

But I’m probably reading as much as I’m writing. Just for the hell of it, I decided to re-read the UNABRIDGED version of Stephen King’s apocalyptic gore-fest, “The Stand,” you know that cute little 1,500-something book where a flu named Captain Tripps comes alone and kills almost everyone. Ah, God bless escapist reading.

After reading “Station Eleven,” wherein a new Ice Age kills almost everybody (shades of Uncle Stevie) by Emily St. John Mandel, I was thrilled to receive her follow-up novel, “The Glass Hotel,” where there is no Ice Age and only one or two deaths.

“The Glass Hotel” mainly takes place in a posh hotel on a remote Vancouver Island, and was nowhere near as edgy as “Station Eleven,” but I found its almost-hallucinatory plot strangely irresistible. And the ending was just the kind I like: weird.

But I also enjoyed the non-weird “Miracle Creek,” by Angie Kim, about a Korean family whose father has built a pressurized oxygen chamber that’s rumored to cure all sorts of ills, but one day it blows up and all hell ““ much of it racist — breaks loose in the small Virginia town where they’ve been living. The various tangents this book explored gave me a lot to think about while I had all this time on my hands.

But now we come to the book that surprised me the most while I was under House Arrest (Oops, I meant “Socially-Distanced”). “Disappearing Earth,” by Julia Phillips, showed me a whole new world.

While I was Writer-In-Residence at the Mesa, AZ, Library, I was allowed access to their stacks of ARCs (Advance Reading Copies), and not long after I started my three-month gig, I took it home. The book is set in the Kamchatka Peninsula of Russia, and at first all the characters and their names and nicknames (you know those long-winded Russians!) kept me from getting past the first chapter. But once I couldn’t leave the house, I picked it up again. And whoo-boy, am I glad I did. Ostensibly about two kidnapped sisters, and the village that refuses to stop looking for them, “Disappearing Earth” was an introduction to a tribe and society relatively unknown to most of us in the U.S. who aren’t anthropologists. In this book, the characters’ names are very different, as well as their customs, so it took me a while to figure out what was really going on, but when I did… Anyway, by the end of “Disappearing Earth,” I’d learned that all around the world, in Manhattan and in isolated Kamchatkan villages, we all want safety for our children. 

P.S. I just realized that three out of my four choices were all by women. Hmm. Wonder if that means anything.

*****

And, if you choose a copy of one of Betty Webb’s books, you’ll be choosing to read one by another woman. Here’s the summary of Webb’s The Panda of Death.

California zookeeper Theodora Bentley is now happily married to Sheriff Joe Rejas. The Gunn Zoo is celebrating the arrival of Poonya, an adorable red panda, who forms a strong bond with Teddy. All appears fairytale blissful in the small Monterey Bay village of Gunn Landing until Teddy’s mother-in-law, mystery writer Colleen Rejas, has discovered through DNA testing that Joe has sired a son he knew nothing about. Dylan Coyle, 18, arrives to meet his biological family… and then is arrested for murder.

By the end of the book, besides solving the crime, Teddy and Colleen have learned that the term “family” does not always mean blood kin. It often includes those who—although no blood relationship—are still held close in our hearts.

Dean Koontz has corresponded with Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, for eight years. So, the two can discuss his Jane Hawke books, golden retrievers, and his latest book, Devoted. Signed copies of Devoted are available through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2LjYVjr

Here’s the summary of Dean Koontz’ latest book, Devoted.

From Dean Koontz, the international bestselling master of suspense, comes an epic thriller about a terrifying killer and the singular compassion it will take to defeat him.

Woody Bookman hasn’t spoken a word in his eleven years of life. Not when his father died in a freak accident. Not when his mother, Megan, tells him she loves him. For Megan, keeping her boy safe and happy is what matters. But Woody believes a monstrous evil was behind his father’s death and now threatens him and his mother. And he’s not alone in his thoughts. An ally unknown to him is listening.

A uniquely gifted dog with a heart as golden as his breed, Kipp is devoted beyond reason to people. When he hears the boy who communicates like he does, without speaking, Kipp knows he needs to find him before it’s too late.

Woody’s fearful suspicions are taking shape. A man driven by a malicious evil has set a depraved plan into motion. And he’s coming after Woody and his mother. The reasons are primal. His powers are growing. And he’s not alone. Only a force greater than evil can stop what’s coming next.

*****

Are you a fan of Dean Koontz’ books? You’ll want to attend the virtual event, his conversation with Barbara Peters.

It’s always a joy to bring you a piece from Rhys Bowen, and today she has several book Distractions for us. She’s the author of several beloved series, the Lady Georgie books (Her Royal Spyness), the Molly Murphy mysteries, and, going back in time, the Evan Evans ones. These books are available through the Web Store, along with signed copies of her latest historical mystery, Above the Bay of Angels. https://bit.ly/2LV4U1i You can also find Bowen’s “Distractions” in the Web Store. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

Rhys Bowen is the New York Times bestselling author of more than forty novels, including The Victory Garden, The Tuscan Child, and the World War II”“based In Farleigh Field, the winner of the Left Coast Crime Award for Best Historical Mystery Novel and the Agatha Award for Best Historical Novel. Bowen’s work has won twenty honors to date, including multiple Agatha, Anthony, and Macavity awards. Her books have been translated into many languages, and she has fans around the world, including seventeen thousand Facebook followers. A transplanted Brit, Bowen divides her time between California and Arizona. To learn more about the author, visit www.rhysbowen.com. She’s also part of the team of seven authors who blog at https://www.jungleredwriters.com/

Thank you, Rhys.

*****

Hi, Rhys Bowen reporting in from isolation. It’s not too hard here as we are at our Arizona winter home, everything is in full bloom, the sun is shining and we are surrounded by hills. I have a good office to get lots of work done—only I’m finding it really hard to concentrate and work. Is that true for you? And I have a books I’ve been dying to read, plenty of time…but I can’t seem to pick them up, and especially I don’t want to tackle dark subjects.

So here are three books I’ve enjoyed over the past couple of weeks:

Julia Spencer-Fleming’s Hid From Our Eyes. 

I had read this months ago when I was asked to blurb it, but now, with publication day this week and having to do an online chat about it, I re-read it and enjoyed it as much as the first time—maybe a little more now that I knew whodunnit. I love the idea of three stories, three time periods, all cleverly interwoven with one of the main characters involved in past and present crimes. Well done, Julia.

Donna Leon’s Inspector Brunetti series.

I’m just finishing writing a book set in Venice, a place I have loved since we spent childhood summers there. So re-reading this series is helping me to stay in that glorious space. I find as I read the books (some of which I’ve read before, some are new) that I am smiling and saying, “Oh, I know where coffee shop is!  I’ve crossed that bridge.”  For those of you who have not read the books, they are all compelling mysteries but with the addition of a deep knowledge and great feel and love for Venice. And a very real and warm and human protagonist.

Don’t smile, but I’ve just re-read the Chronicles of Narnia.

Such good stories and so perfect for this difficult time. So reassuring to know that good triumphs over evil in each of the books and that it all comes right in the end.

The last book I want to mention is my own latest book that came out in February and hasn’t had the usual amount of hype because of the crisis.

It’s called ABOVE THE BAY OF ANGELS and it’s a historical mystery set mainly in the South of France, featuring a young woman with a secret who becomes a cook for Queen Victoria. There is scandal and food and the South of France. A perfect recipe for a book, I think.

Stay safe and make sure you support your local bookstores, like the Poisoned Pen, many of whom will ship to you.

I remember that quote from The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (I’m sure it came from somewhere else first but I’m not sure where). It will all come right in the end and if it is not right, it is not yet the end.We must keep repeating that.

Your friend,

Rhys Bowen

*****

Thank you, Rhys.

You can find all of the books Rhys Bowen mentioned through the Web Store, including signed copies of her latest book, Above the Bay of Angels. Here’s the summary of that book.

“…Sweeping and intimate, warm and gripping. I loved it!” —Louise Penny, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Chief Inspector Gamache novels

A single twist of fate puts a servant girl to work in Queen Victoria’s royal kitchen, setting off a suspenseful, historical mystery by the New York Times bestselling author of The Tuscan Child and The Victory Garden.

Isabella Waverly only means to comfort the woman felled on a London street. In her final dying moments, she thrusts a letter into Bella’s hand. It’s an offer of employment in the kitchens of Buckingham Palace, and everything the budding young chef desperately wants: an escape from the constrictions of her life as a lowly servant. In the stranger’s stead, Bella can spread her wings.

Arriving as Helen Barton from Yorkshire, she pursues her passion for creating culinary delights, served to the delighted Queen Victoria herself. Best of all, she’s been chosen to accompany the queen to Nice. What fortune! Until the threat of blackmail shadows Bella to the Riviera, and a member of the queen’s retinue falls ill and dies.

Having prepared the royal guest’s last meal, Bella is suspected of the poisonous crime. An investigation is sure to follow. Her charade will be over. And her new life will come crashing down—if it doesn’t send her to the gallows.

*****

One final treat. Here’s a recent book chat between Rhys Bowen and Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen Bookstore. Signed copies of both books they discuss, Julia Spencer-Fleming’s Hid From Our Eyes, and Cara Black’s Three Hours in Paris, are available through the Web Store. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

I don’t always have a book trailer to share for a debut novelist. I’m pleased that I have the opportunity to introduce you to Katharine Schellman, author of The Body in the Garden. I hope we interest you enough that you want to order a copy of the historical mystery through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2xXjIHb

Katharine, would you introduce yourself to readers?   

Thanks so much for having me!

I’m a former actor, a trained dancer, and a one-time political consultant. But my husband once said he should have known I was meant to write murder mysteries because I’m constantly killing our houseplants. The Body in the Garden is my debut novel, and saying that out loud still feels surreal!

Without spoilers, tell us about The Body in the Garden.

The Body in the Garden is a historical mystery. There’s a dead body, a few red herrings, and an amateur sleuth who is determined to find the truth.

It’s also the story of Lily Adler, a young widow in early 19th-century England who is trying to rebuild her life. She lives in an era where being widowed granted women a lot of social and financial freedom that they wouldn’t have otherwise had (which is a perfect situation for a sleuth to be in). But for her, it came at the cost of losing someone she loved deeply. 

Lily is trying to find out what comes next for her, and she (almost literally) stumbles over an answer to that question when a stranger is found murdered at her friend’s home.

Introduce us to Lily Adler, please. Would you also talk about Captain Jack Hartley?

Lily was an interesting character to write because her circumstances require a certain suspension of disbelief. The average person struggling with grief doesn’t find purpose again by solving a murder! But she’s also someone standing at a big crossroads: the life she planned fell apart, and now she has to create a new one and isn’t sure how to do that. 

That feeling, I think, is something most people can relate to, and it’s what I hope grounds her as a character.

And I love that you asked about Jack! Jack was the childhood best friend of Lily’s husband, and he becomes an unexpected source of support through her grief. 

Like Lily, Jack is a bit of an outsider in London society, partly because of his wartime experience in the navy and partly because of his Anglo-Indian family. Unlike Lily, though, Jack isn’t very bothered by that. He’s very extroverted and enjoys being charming and popular. 

My goal was for them to really balance each other out — each one helps the other grow in ways that seemed impossible at the beginning of the book. The tone of my original draft was more darkly comic and tongue-in-cheek. Though subsequent drafts changed, a bit of that playfulness remains in Lily and Jack’s friendship. They were so much fun to write together!

Why did you pick 1815 London as the time and setting for your first mystery?

One of my main characters was inspired by Miss Lambe from Jane Austen’s Sanditon, so setting it in early 19th century England happened naturally. That was a place and time that I had read a lot of fiction set in or written during, so I thought I was really familiar with the era. When I started writing, though, I discovered how much I still had to learn.

I hope the final book gives readers a new look at an era that might already think they know everything about. I wanted to show a bit of how much was going on beneath the surface of a world that was superficially very placid and elegant.

You did such a beautiful job with the descriptions of society, social classes, and London of this time. Please tell us about your research and sources.

I had to research everything, from checking maps for the names of landmarks to reading letters and court records for a sense of colloquial speech to studying fashion plates to learn about nuances of dress. I especially had to do a lot of research into what life would have been like for people who were not upper class, or not white, or not wealthy. 

Fortunately, there are lots of amazing historians out there whose books and research I could use. I listed many of them in my author’s note at the end of the book, but the most fun to read was probably Georgette Heyer’s Regency World by Jennifer Kloester. I’d recommend anyone interested in the time period pick that one up!

For me, research isn’t a one-and-done thing: I was looking things up and checking details all the way through my last pass with my editor. Of course, only about 30% of that research actually makes an appearance in the novel, but it informed everything I wrote. But in spite of all that, the book is still a work of fiction. My goal is to try to create as realistic a world as possible but still tell a good story. So there are certainly moments where I’ve made the decision not to worry about historical details! They just might not be where you expect.

I’m not looking for spoilers for the next book, but can you tell us anything about the next book in the Lily Adler series?

My editor and I are still working out some details, but I can say without spoilers that there are many familiar faces and Lily will be asked to help catch another murderer. Readers will also meet her father and get a peek at that tumultuous relationship. Lily might discover that he knows a thing or two about the person who was murdered! 

Everyone takes a different path to publication. How did you become a published author?

I first announced that I wanted to be a writer when I was about six years old, and I was fortunate to get a lot of encouragement from my parents, who are big readers. I wrote my first novel when I was 15, and it was thoroughly terrible. It, and several others, are saved on my hard drive and will never see the light of day again! But each one was really good practice. 

The first draft of the book that eventually became The Body in the Garden was not good (and that’s a generous assessment). But when I read back through it, I knew it had potential, and I was still really excited about the characters and the story. So I started editing.

After five drafts and input from some very generous readers, I was ready to start querying. That was a surprisingly wonderful and encouraging experience! I signed with my agent four weeks after I sent my first query letter. We spent the summer revising, went on submission that fall, and sold the book to Crooked Lane in April, just under a year after I started querying. Publication was scheduled for April 7, 2020, just under a year after that.

So from starting to write that very first draft of the book to my pub date will be about five years. It felt very long at the time. But I’ve discovered that, in the grand scheme of traditional publishing, five years isn’t much time at all!

What mysteries did you read that led you to want to write a historical mystery?

I didn’t realize it when I first started writing this book, but I really grew up with mysteries. I read many mysteries for kids that my mother had held onto from her childhood; Mystery at Laughing Water by Dorothy Maywood Bird was one of the first I fell in love with. And I used to watch Masterpiece Theatre with my parents, so lots of Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot stories. 

When I got a little older, I started reading all the Agatha Christie books those shows were based on, which eventually led me to more modern crime writers. So mysteries — especially traditional and historical mysteries — were something that I spent a lot of time with and really loved.

It never really occurred to me to write my own, though! All my “novels in a drawer” are in other genres. Before I started writing The Body in the Garden, it wasn’t a genre I had ever pictured myself writing in, even though it was one I loved reading. I generally start with characters, rather than plot. So for a while, I had these people in my head, and I wasn’t sure what would bring them together in this setting. When I finally realized it was a dead body, everything just clicked: “Oh, that’s what they’re doing here!”

Of course, once I started writing I discovered that reading and loving mysteries does not translate to knowing how to write one. I had to spend several drafts learning how to structure and develop a mystery. It was — and is! — a fun challenge.

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?

Only five? That’s going to be tough. Let’s go with:

1. Persuasion by Jane Austen
2. Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie
3. A Study in Scarlet Women by Sherry Thomas
4. The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin
5. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

That’s four genres between five books — my reading taste is very eclectic! If I could list ten, things would start to get really wild…

    

You’ll want to “attend” the virtual event in which Cara Black will talk about her Hot Book of the Week, the standalone Three Hours in Paris. It’s a re-imagined event. Cara Black discusses Three Hours in Paris with Barbara via Skype, for live broadcast Tuesday, April 14 at 5 PM MST on our Facebook Channel. Watch it in real time or check it out later on FB or Youtube! We will have signed books, so reserve your copy at the Web Store now. https://bit.ly/2Rs8PEs You can also order copies of Black’s Aimee Leduc Investigation novels from the Web Store.

Three Hours in Paris is the current Hot Book of the Week. Check out the description, and plan to watch the event on April 14.

In June of 1940, when Paris fell to the Nazis, Hitler spent a total of three hours in the City of Light—abruptly leaving, never to return. To this day, no one knows why.

The New York Times bestselling author of the Aimée Leduc investigations reimagines history in her masterful, pulse-pounding spy thriller, Three Hours in Paris.

Kate Rees, a young American markswoman, has been recruited by British intelligence to drop into Paris with a dangerous assignment: assassinate the Führer. Wrecked by grief after a Luftwaffe bombing killed her husband and infant daughter, she is armed with a rifle, a vendetta, and a fierce resolve. But other than rushed and rudimentary instruction, she has no formal spy training. Thrust into the red-hot center of the war, a country girl from rural Oregon finds herself holding the fate of the world in her hands. When Kate misses her mark and the plan unravels, Kate is on the run for her life—all the time wrestling with the suspicion that the whole operation was a set-up.

Cara Black, doyenne of the Parisian crime novel, is at her best as she brings Occupation-era France to vivid life in this gripping story about one young woman with the temerity—and drive—to take on Hitler himself.

*Features an illustrated map of 1940s Paris as full color endpapers