Fiction Review

William Kent Krueger’s latest novel, This Tender Land, appears at #3 on The New York Times Bestseller list on September 22. Did you miss his appearance at The Poisoned Pen? He and Barbara Peters, owner of the bookstore, discussed books, and much more. But, you can not only still watch the event, you can order a signed copy of This Tender Land through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2lPfdc0

Here’s the description of This Tender Land.

“If you liked Where the Crawdads Sing, you’ll love This Tender Land…This story is as big-hearted as they come.” —Parade 

A magnificent novel about four orphans on a life-changing odyssey during the Great Depression, from the New York Times bestselling author of Ordinary Grace. 

1932, Minnesota—the Lincoln School is a pitiless place where hundreds of Native American children, forcibly separated from their parents, are sent to be educated. It is also home to an orphan named Odie O’Banion, a lively boy whose exploits earn him the superintendent’s wrath. Forced to flee, he and his brother Albert, their best friend Mose, and a brokenhearted little girl named Emmy steal away in a canoe, heading for the mighty Mississippi and a place to call their own.

Over the course of one unforgettable summer, these four orphans will journey into the unknown and cross paths with others who are adrift, from struggling farmers and traveling faith healers to displaced families and lost souls of all kinds. With the feel of a modern classic, This Tender Land is an en­thralling, big-hearted epic that shows how the magnificent American landscape connects us all, haunts our dreams, and makes us whole.

*****

This is a conversation you’ll want to watch.

The Hot Book of the Week at The Poisoned Pen is a debut by the screenwriter of “Jurassic Park”. Check out Cold Storage by David Koepp. It’s available through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2m0ravh

“On every level, Cold Storage is pure, unadulterated entertainment.” —Douglas Preston, The New York Times Book Review

For readers of Andy Weir and Noah Hawley comes an astonishing debut by the screenwriter of Jurassic Park: a wild and terrifying adventure about three strangers who must work together to contain a highly contagious, deadly organism

When Pentagon bioterror operative Roberto Diaz was sent to investigate a suspected biochemical attack, he found something far worse: a highly mutative organism capable of extinction-level destruction. He contained it and buried it in cold storage deep beneath a little-used military repository.

Now, after decades of festering in a forgotten sub-basement, the specimen has found its way out and is on a lethal feeding frenzy.  Only Diaz knows how to stop it.

He races across the country to help two unwitting security guards—one an ex-con, the other a single mother.  Over one harrowing night, the unlikely trio must figure out how to quarantine this horror again.  All they have is luck, fearlessness, and a mordant sense of humor.  Will that be enough to save all of humanity

Violence is Golden  Martin Edwards is on fire, with multiple starred reviews and  widespread acclaim for his new mystery series set in 1930s London, featuring a whip-smart amateur sleuth Rachel Savernake and her unlikely cohort, journalist Jacob Flint (Gallows Court, Sept. 2019). Check out the excellent Q&A with this powerhouse mystery author, editor, critic, and expert in Golden Age crime fiction, printed by Publishers Weekly in July.  Click here to read the article

Edwards’ Gallows Court is available through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2lC6utB

Here’s the summary of Gallows Court.

“Superb—a pitch-perfect blend of Golden Age charm and sinister modern suspense, with a main character to die for. This is the book Edwards was born to write.” —Lee Child, #1 New York Times bestselling author

London, 1930

Sooty, sulphurous, and malign: no woman should be out on a night like this. A spate of violent deaths—the details too foul to print—has horrified the capital and the smog-bound streets are deserted. But Rachel Savernake—the enigmatic daughter of a notorious hanging judge—is no ordinary woman. To Scotland Yard’s embarrassment, she solved the Chorus Girl Murder, and now she’s on the trail of another killer.

Jacob Flint, a young newspaperman temporarily manning The Clarion‘s crime desk, is looking for the scoop that will make his name. He’s certain there is more to the Miss Savernake’s amateur sleuthing than meets the eye. He’s not the only one. 

Flint’s pursuit of Rachel Savernake will draw him ever-deeper into a labyrinth of deception and corruption. Murder-by-murder, he’ll be swept ever-closer to its dark heart—an ancient place of execution. Twisted family relationships add to a trust-no-one narrative positively reeking with atmosphere.

In the September 6, 2019 New York Times, Walter Mosley is identified as “a novelist and screenwriter”. Yes, he is, and his opinion piece stems from his experience as a screenwriter. However, in the mystery field, he is the recipient of the 2016 Grand Master Award from Mystery Writers of America. He is the author of numerous novels, including the award-winning Easy Rawlins mysteries. His books can be found in the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2lJJuIQ

However, today, it’s more important that he’s the author of an opinion piece, “Why I Quite the Writers’ Room”. The subject? “The worst thing you can do to citizens of a democracy is silence them.” You might want to read the article. https://nyti.ms/2zXECDX

Debut mystery writer Sara E. Johnson appears at The Poisoned Pen on Monday, September 9 at 7 PM. She’ll introduce her book, Molten Mud Murder, and her protagonist, Alexa Glock. If you can’t make it, you can order signed copies of the book through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2k7sSur

You can read the summary of Molten Mud Murder here.

Is the past better left undisturbed, or unearthed?

When a body is found half-submerged in a molten mud pot in one of Rotorua’s famous geothermal wonderlands, forensics expert Alexa Glock spots a way to prolong her stay in New Zealand, which she has been visiting for work. Teeth are her expertise, and the investigation needs her help, as other ways of identifying the body may have… melted away.

Joining Detective Inspector Bruce Horne and his team, Alexa discovers that the murder victim, a city councilman, had trespassed on an island sacred to the Maori. The ancient punishment for such a transgression is disaster, demonic possession, or death… and when she visits the island to investigate, the same outcome is promised for her. Alexa doesn’t believe in ancient spirits returning to exact revenge, and when another victim turns up dead she begins to wonder whether the real threat is something—or someone—much closer to home.

*****

Better yet, you can read how Johnson’s year in New Zealand inspired murder. That’s a murder mystery, of course. She wrote about it for BookReporter.com. https://bit.ly/2kzH0Nd

Tickets are still available as of today, but they might not be for long. If you’re interested, you should call soon.

Diana Gabaldon and Tara Bennett discuss and sign

The Making of Outlander The Series: The Official Guide to Seasons Three and Four

Saturday, October 19th at 6:30pm

WHEN:October 19, 2019 @ 6:30 pm ““ 8:30 pm

WHERE:DoubleTree Resort by Hilton Hotel Paradise Valley- Scottsdale
5401 North Scottsdale Road
Scottsdale AZ 85250

COST:$55.00, $60.00 CONTACT: Patrick Millikin 480 947 2974

 Email

The Doubletree Resort by Hilton Hotels Paradise Valley-Scottsdale

5401 N Scottsdale Rd,  Scottsdale AZ 85250 

Doors open at 5:30pm

Cash Bar, Valet Parking available

Ms Gabaldon will only sign copies of MAKING OF OUTLANDER and any of her titles purchased at the event.  She will not be able to sign previously-purchased books.

Ticket Price includes copy of THE MAKING OF OUTLANDER THE SERIES: THE OFFICIAL GUIDE TO SEASONS THREE AND FOUR.

See how the story of Jamie Frasier and Claire Beauchamp Randall comes to life on the screen with this official, photo-filled companion to the third and fourth seasons of the hit Starz television series based on Diana Gabaldon’s bestselling Outlander novels.

I’ve been lucky enough to hear Karin Slaughter a couple times, and even sit at her table for a tea, so I can tell you she’s entertaining and you’ll definitely want to watch the YouTube video of her recent appearance at The Poisoned Pen. It was her last stop on her book tour for The Last Widow. Even with kittens to play with, she signed copies of the book, so you can still order a signed copy through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2zCFccU

With so many people in the audience who were new to the bookstore, owner Barbara Peters talked about the newsletter and the 250 events the store hosts every year. You’ll want to listen to her conversation with Karin Slaughter.

If you don’t want to watch the event, here’s the summary of The Last Widow.

New York Times bestselling author Karin Slaughter brings back Will Trent and Sara Linton in this superb and timely thriller full of devious twists, disturbing secrets, and shocking surprises you won’t see coming

A mysterious kidnapping

On a hot summer night, a scientist from the Centers for Disease Control is grabbed by unknown assailants in a shopping center parking lot. The authorities are desperate to save the doctor who’s been vanished into thin air. 

A devastating explosion

One month later, the serenity of a sunny Sunday afternoon is shattered by the boom of a ground-shaking blast—followed by another seconds later. One of Atlanta’s busiest and most important neighborhoods has been bombed—the location of Emory University, two major hospitals, the FBI headquarters, and the CDC.

A diabolical enemy 

Medical examiner Sara Linton and her partner Will Trent, an investigator with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, rush to the scene—and into the heart of a deadly conspiracy that threatens to destroy thousands of innocent lives. When the assailants abduct Sara, Will goes undercover to save her and prevent a massac

If you only know William Kent Krueger from his beautiful standalone, Ordinary Grace, or his Cork O’Connor mysteries, now you have the chance to meet him at The Poisoned Pen on Thursday, September 5 at 7 PM. Krueger’s on tour for his new standalone, This Tender Land. If you can’t make it to the event, you can order a signed copy through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2ksjS2X (William Kent Krueger is one of the few authors who makes me cry when he talks about books. You’ll want to attend the event if you can.)

Before the summary, here’s a note from William Kent Krueger.

The best stories are those that come most deeply from an author’s heart. This Tender Land is a story that began to take shape in my heart long ago. At first, it whispered to me gently. With each passing year, its voice became a bit louder, more insistent, until finally it fairly shouted at me to be written. I knew it would be the most ambitious project I’ve ever undertaken, epic in proportion and intimate in detail. I wanted to use this story to talk about things important to me—family, home, our capacity for generosity in the face of great privation, and the difficulties that confront us all in our spiritual journey. I knew there would be great risks in this undertaking, that I would be asking a lot of myself and of my readers, but that lovely voice from my heart told me I had no choice. The story had to be written.

Although I care about the characters in every novel I compose, I fell deeply in love with the four Vagabonds. As I prepared to have them embark on their long river odyssey in the summer of 1932, I knew they would be greatly challenged by the experiences ahead of them and dramatically changed, but because I cared for them all so very much, I wanted only the best for them in the end.

The story is set against the backdrop of the Great Depression, and it often deals with the hardships endured by so many during that tragic era. I tried to be realistic in that portrayal, but also compassionate. And because I’m a child of the Midwest, I did my best to paint the Heartland landscape with loving strokes.

It’s an old-fashioned kind of storytelling, and I wasn’t certain if it would find an audience among modern readers, but I decided not to worry about this. I believe that if, as Hemingway put it, you write true, you will find your audience. I have tried to write the story as truly as it spoke to me from my heart. My hope is that it will speak to you in the same way.

*****

Here’s the summary of This Tender Land.

For fans of Before We Were Yours and Where the Crawdads Sing, a magnificent novel about four orphans on a life-changing odyssey during the Great Depression, from the New York Times bestselling author ofOrdinary Grace. 

1932, Minnesota—the Lincoln School is a pitiless place where hundreds of Native American children, forcibly separated from their parents, are sent to be educated. It is also home to an orphan named Odie O’Banion, a lively boy whose exploits earn him the superintendent’s wrath. Forced to flee, he and his brother Albert, their best friend Mose, and a brokenhearted little girl named Emmy steal away in a canoe, heading for the mighty Mississippi and a place to call their own.

Over the course of one unforgettable summer, these four orphans will journey into the unknown and cross paths with others who are adrift, from struggling farmers and traveling faith healers to displaced families and lost souls of all kinds. With the feel of a modern classic, This Tender Land is an en­thralling, big-hearted epic that shows how the magnificent American landscape connects us all, haunts our dreams, and makes us whole.

The sixth book in Stieg Larrson’s Millennium series, The Girl Who Lived Twice by David Lagercrantz, is the current Hot Book of the Week at The Poisoned Pen. You can order a signed copy of this latest title through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2kbdNYR

Here’s the summary of The Girl Who Lived Twice.

The sixth Lisbeth Salander story–the crime-fiction phenomenon that has sold more than 90 million copies worldwide.

Lisbeth Salander–the fierce, unstoppable girl with the dragon tattoo–has disappeared. She’s sold her apartment in Stockholm. She’s gone silent electronically. She’s told no one where she is. And no one is aware that at long last she’s got her primal enemy, her twin sister, Camilla, squarely in her sights. 

Mikael Blomkvist is trying to reach Lisbeth. He needs her help unraveling the identity of a man who lived and died on the streets in Stockholm–a man who does not exist in any official records and whose garbled last words hinted at possible damaging knowledge of people in the highest echelons of government and industry. In his pocket was a crumpled piece of paper with Blomkvist’s phone number on it. 

Once again, Salander and Blomkvist will come to each other’s aid, moving in tandem toward the truths they each seek. In the end, it will be Blomkvist–in a moment of unimaginable self-sacrifice–who will make it possible for Lisbeth to face the most important battle of her life, and, finally, to put her past to rest.

It’s always a pleasure to introduce readers to a debut mystery author. Sara E. Johnson’s first book, Molten Mud Murder, will be released on September 3 from Sourcebooks/Poisoned Pen Press. You can order a signed copy of the debut, set in New Zealand, through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2PKbISm

Sara, congratulations on the release of Molten Mud Murder, your first book.  Would you introduce yourself to readers?

I live in Durham, NC with my husband Forrest and goldendoodle Beau. I love to read, write, travel with my husband (we just returned from Minnesota’s North Shore where we kayaked, hiked, and ate lots of fresh trout), walk the dog, and practice yoga. I am a former middle school reading specialist, and continue working part time helping kids read and write. 

Would you introduce us to Alexa Glock?

My pleasure! Alexa Glock, mid-thirties, is lured to New Zealand by a visiting  odontology fellowship. Never married, she is better with teeth than men. She goes geeky over duct tape evidence and doesn’t let caution tape stand in her way. The lab is her happy place, yet she feels a yearning for love and companionship that she tries to outrun. 

Before you tell us about Molten Mud Murder, would you tell us about the mud pots?

Geothermal mud pots are one of New Zealand’s coolest ““ well, most awesome ““ features. I saw my first boiling, plopping pot in Rotorua on the North Island, and I knew I had to write a mystery in that setting. The acid in the viscous mud decomposes rock. Imagine what it does to a body!

Tell us about Molten Mud Murder, without spoilers.

A good mystery starts with a body. In this case, a tourist group discovers one half-submerged in a molten mud pot. 

Alexa barrels her way onto the scene and into the lives of Rotorua’s finest, especially Detective Inspector Bruce Horne. There’s something about his glacial blue eyes that gets under her skin, even though she’s sworn off men.

Danger lurks in “the land of the long white cloud.” The murder victim had trespassed on a sacred island forbidden to Pakeha, or non-Maori, and Alexa must follow suit. The Maori community believe the rules of tapu have been disregarded and the consequences are disaster, demonic possession, or death.

Alexa doesn’t believe in the three Ds, but when she discovers an unorthodox death threat in her rented cottage, she reconsiders. A second murder heats the case to the boiling point.  At the heart of Molten Mud Murderis an age-old debate: Is the past better left undisturbed, or unearthed? And at what cost either way?

Feel free to tell me we’ll have to wait for this next issue to be discussed in a future book. Alexa is always in a hurry. She seems impulsive, and tends to steamroll over people at times. Is this just her nature, or is there something else you can tell us about her?

Alexa lacks self-awareness, and because she has cut ties with her family and colleagues in the States, she doesn’t have a sounding board (and she doesn’t think she needs one).

Can you tell us anything about the next book in the Alexa Glock series?

I am super excited about the next Alexa Glock mystery, coming out in September, 2020. Great white sharks have been circling New Zealand’s Stewart Island for centuries. Until the arrival of shark-cage tourism, islanders and sharks left each other alone. But when a man’s shark-ravaged body washes ashore, it confirms what locals have been hashing out at the pub: cage-diving has changed the sharks’ behavior. Turned them into man eaters. Alexa, working as a traveling forensic scientist,  is dispatched to identify the remains. As she measures bite patterns, she makes a discovery that has her chumming for a different species: man.

You lived in New Zealand for a year. Where did you take visitors when they came?

Milford Sound. Milford Sound. Milford Sound. That’s how many times we went with visitors to this incredibly beautiful remote fjord on the South Island. Waterfalls, rain forest,  Mitre Peak, seals, dolphins, penguins. Did I mention rain? 

Now, for a few personal questions. 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?

These are five books I would (and have) reread:

The Shipping News by Annie Proulx

I Know This Much is True by Wally Lamb

The Poems of Robert Frost

The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

Were there books you read as child that led you to mysteries? What were your favorite books as a child?

When, at ten years old, I read the storm scene in Carolyn Keene’s The Bungalow Mystery, the world around me dissolved. I was in a skiff on Moon Lake with Helen and Nancy, lightning flashing, waves crashing, about to be devoured by the storm. The blue-cloth copy I still have was given to my mother in 1942.

When I was younger, I loved my Lonely Doll Learns a Lessonbook by Dare Right. And I read all the Little House books.

What’s on your TBR (To Be Read) pile?

It is a treat to answer this. I am on my 39^th book so far this year. I am currently finishing Michelle Obama’s Becoming. I have found it inspirational and touching. Next up is Death of a Rainmaker by Laurie Loewenstein. I heard Laurie speak on an author panel at Malice Domestic, and her book sounded great. I am also reading Dreyer’s English by Benjamin Dreyer. Who knew colons (“little trumpet blasts . . . don’t use so many of them that you give your reader a headache”) were such fun? The audio book I am listening to next (after I finish Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb) is Denise Mina’s Conviction. I have heard her compared to Tana French, so I am psyched.  I always have a book of poetry going. I am reading Tianna Clark’s Equilibrium. Her poem “Spot in Antioch” breaks my heart. Finally, I am doing an author event with fellow North Carolinian Thomas Kies at The Poisoned Pen in Scottsdale, Arizona in September. I can’t wait to read his newest: Graveyard Bay.

Thank you, Sara, for taking time for the interview. Good luck with Molten Mud Murder, and the launch of a new series!