The current Hot Book of the Week at The Poisoned Pen is Tana French’s The Witch Elm. The standalone novel, and other books by French, are available through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2OfmU8p

Here’s the description of The Witch Elm.

“Tana French’s best and most intricately nuanced novel yet. . . Get ready for the whiplash brought on by its final twists and turns.” –The New York Times

A brilliant new work of suspense from “the most important crime novelist to emerge in the past 10 years.” (Washington Post)

From the writer who “inspires cultic devotion in readers” (The New Yorker) and has been called “incandescent” by Stephen King, “absolutely mesmerizing” by Gillian Flynn, and “unputdownable” (People), comes a gripping new novel that turns a crime story inside out.

Toby is a happy-go-lucky charmer who’s dodged a scrape at work and is celebrating with friends when the night takes a turn that will change his life – he surprises two burglars who beat him and leave him for dead. Struggling to recover from his injuries, beginning to understand that he might never be the same man again, he takes refuge at his family’s ancestral home to care for his dying uncle Hugo. Then a skull is found in the trunk of an elm tree in the garden – and as detectives close in, Toby is forced to face the possibility that his past may not be what he has always believed.

A spellbinding standalone from one of the best suspense writers working today, The Witch Elm asks what we become, and what we’re capable of, when we no longer know who we are.

On Sunday, October 28 at 1 PM, The Poisoned Pen will host Diana Gabaldon and Chris Humphreys at the Doubletree Resort by Hilton Paradise Valley. All of the information about the event is here. https://bit.ly/2PkXENS

Diana Gabaldon will be signing Voyager: 25th Anniversary Edition. But, you might not be familiar with Canadian author Chris Humphreys. The award-winning author has a fascinating background.

Chris (C.C.) Humphreys was born in Toronto, lived till he was seven in Los Angeles, then grew up in the UK. All four grandparents were actors, and since his father was an actor as well, it was inevitable he would follow the bloodline.

Chris has performed on stages from London’s West End to Hollywood in roles including Hamlet, Caleb the gladiator in NBC’s AD-Anno Domini’, Clive Parnell in “˜Coronation Street’, PC Richard Turnham in ‘The Bill’, the Immortal Graham Ashe in “˜Highlander’, Jack Absolute in ‘The Rivals’ (This performance led to him writing the Jack Absolute novels ““ and they say acting doesn’t pay!). Bizarrely, he was also the voice of Salem the cat in “˜Sabrina the Teenage Witch’.

A playwright, fight choreographer and novelist, he has written eleven adult novels including “˜The French Executioner’, runner up for the CWA Steel Dagger for Thrillers; “˜The Jack Absolute Trilogy’; “˜A Place Called Armageddon’; “˜Shakespeare’s Rebel’ and the international bestseller, “˜Vlad ““ The Last Confession’.

He also writes for young adults, with a trilogy called The Runestone Saga and “˜The Hunt of the Unicorn’. The sequel, “˜The Hunt of the Dragon’, was published Fall 2016.

His recent novel “˜Plague’ won Canada’s Arthur Ellis Award for Best Crime Novel in 2015. The sequel, “˜Fire’ is a thriller set during the Great Fire, published Summer 2016. Both novels spent five weeks in the top ten on 2016’s Globe and Mail and Toronto Star Bestseller lists.

His new novel is “˜Chasing the Wind’ about 1930’s aviatrix ““ and thief! ““ Roxy Loewen, will be published in Canada and the USA in June 2018.

Several of his novels are available as Audiobooks – read by himself! Find him here at Audible:

https://tiny.cc/q83sqy

He is translated into thirteen languages. In 2015 he earned his Masters in Fine Arts (Creative Writing) from the University of British Columbia.

Chris now lives on Salt Spring Island, BC, Canada, with his wife, son and cat, Dickon (who keeps making it into his books!)

Check out his website: https://cchumphreys.com

Copies of Plague and Chasing the Wind will be available for purchase.

Jamie Fraser is not dead — but he is in hell. Waking among the fallen on Culloden Field, he is concerned neither for his men nor his wounds but for his wife and their unborn child. Lord, he prayed passionately, that she may be safe. She and the child. It’s a prayer he’ll utter many times over the next twenty years, never knowing but always hoping that Claire made it through the standing stones, back to the safety of her own time.

If you missed the recent event at The Poisoned Pen featuring authors Martin Limon and Ed Lin, you can still catch it via YouTube. Barbara Peters, owner of the bookstore, interviewed both authors.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irZHoIPoprU&w=560&h=315]

Martin Limon is the author of the Sueno and Bascom novels set in South Korea. The thirteenth in the series, The Line, takes the two men from Seoul to the DMZ. You can order other books in the series and signed copies of The Line through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2Jc3Imz

The description of The Line reads:

George Sueño and Ernie Bascom return for their thirteenth outing, which takes them from Seoul to the DMZ in their most politically charged murder case yet.

The Korean Demilitarized Zone, 1970s: A battered corpse is found a few feet north of the line dividing North and South Korea. When 8th Army CID Agents George Sueño and Ernie Bascom pull the body to the South Korean side on orders from their superiors, they have no idea of the international conflict their small action will spark. Before war breaks out, they must discover who killed Corporal Noh Jong-bei, a young Korean soldier working with the US Army.

The murderer could be from either side of the DMZ. But without cooperation between the governments involved, how can two US military agents interrogate North Korean witnesses? What George and Ernie discover gets them pulled off the case, but fearing they’ve put the wrong man behind bars, they disobey orders in an attempt to discover the truth.

99 Ways to Die is the third in Ed Lin’s Taipei Night Market series. Copies of all three books, including signed copies of 99 Ways to Die, are available through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2qcZ2UR

Here’s the summary of Lin’s book.

In Taipei, Taiwan, the kidnapping of a Mainlander billionaire throws national media into a tizzy—not least because of the famous victim’s vitriolic anti-immigration politics.

Jing-nan has known Peggy Lee, a bullying frenemy who runs her family’s huge corporation, since high school. Peggy’s father has been kidnapped, and the ransom the kidnappers are demanding is not money but IP: a high-tech memory chip that they want to sell in China.

Jing-nan feels sorry for Peggy until she starts blackmailing him into helping out. Peggy is worried the kidnappers’ deadline will pass before the police are able to track down the chip. But when the reluctant Jingnan tries to help, he finds himself deeper and deeper in trouble with some very unsavory characters—the most unsavory of whom might be the victim himself.

You don’t have to live in Arizona to read Steven Cooper’s Gus Parker and Alex Mills crime novels. However, if you appreciate mysteries set there, you’ll want to investigate this series. Cooper’s second in the series, Dig Your Grave, is due out Oct. 30. You can order copies of Cooper’s books through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2NSg97u

Cooper made time to sit “In the Hot Seat”, and answer questions. Thank you, Steven.

Steven, would you introduce yourself to readers?

Hello, readers! I’m so pleased to be spending some time with you for this interview. I’m just gearing up for the release of the second novel in the Gus Parker & Alex Mills series, Dig Your Grave. The book goes on sale October 30, and I’m just discovering that there is not enough time in a day to plan for my events and write my next book.

I’m a native of Massachusetts, but I’ve lived a bit like a nomad throughout my career as a journalist. After living all over the country, I’ve now settled in Atlanta where I’m all but done in journalism and devote my time almost completely to writing fiction.

Before we discuss your characters and Dig Your Grave, what’s your connection to Arizona?

My journalism career landed me in Phoenix in the late 1990s. I worked as an investigative reporter for one of the valley’s television stations. I owned a home in Ahwatukee for many years. I always knew I would write a book or books based in Phoenix. I love the desert.

Tell us about Dig Your Grave, without spoilers.

A murderer is stalking prominent, affluent men in the Valley of the Sun. One after another end up dead, their bodies dumped in crudely dug graves at Phoenix cemeteries. This may or may not be the work of a serial killer. It could be a targeted case of revenge. Detective Alex Mills of the Phoenix Police Department is stumped, so when his friend, the reluctant psychic Gus Parker offers to help, he’s game. Gus, who doesn’t always trust his own visions, sees a haunted past associated with these murders. But he doesn’t know who’s doing the haunting or who will end up dead next, especially when some of the messages seem to be meant for him. Both he and Mills will find that the secrets hiding in the valley have a past to be reckoned with.

Gus is an interesting character to pair with a police detective. I know you could give me a comeback such as he came from your imagination, but where does Gus come from?

Gus doesn’t come from my imagination in the same way that the other characters evolve. Gus is very much shaped by circumstances in my own life that I can’t explain. I’m not psychic, but I’ve had experiences (experiences that cannot be explained away as coincidences) that have given me chills and made me question intuition on a very deep level. Few people live in the moment; even fewer people are self-aware enough to ponder their connections to the universe. Gus is always pondering, always exploring, always intuiting the people, places and things around him. Plus he’s a former surfer dude. He’s my alter ego.

Would you tell us about your publishing journey? Every author’s experience is different.

I started writing the first book in the Gus Parker & Alex Mills series, Desert Remains, in 2007. I wrote and rewrote. I stopped. I started again. I rewrote and revised and put it away. A few years later, I was drawn to it again. I pulled it out of the drawer and realized that I had to give it life. Maybe it was intuition or maybe it was resolve, but I knew the book, this book compared to others I had written, would find its way toward publication. Once completed, I queried several agents, and while they had mostly kind and constructive things to say about the manuscript, nothing clicked. I soon decided that maybe this wasn’t the best way to approach the querying phase. Instead, I searched for conferences where I could pitch my manuscript face-to-face to agents. The first conference I attended was mostly exploratory. For my second conference, I had the option of submitting a manuscript partial ahead of time for an agent to review. So, I sent off fifty pages, and a month or so later when I walked into the room for my appointment with the agent, she greeted me with a huge smile and said, “Oh Steven, what can I say? I love this. I want to see more.”

I tried to play it cool. But I was anything but cool. Those were the sweetest words I had heard in a very long time. That agent would go on to read the full manuscript, make some important suggestions, accept a “˜revise and resubmit,’ and sign me to her agency. With a month and a half after signing me, she sold my novel in a two-book deal. (I was surprised at the offer because I had written Desert Remains as a standalone. The publisher wanted a series. Who was I to question?) I certainly liked my characters well enough to bring them back for more.

What has been the most exciting moment or event of your career as an author?

After the excitement of walking into that appointment and hearing the agent’s reaction, I think the most exciting moment had to be when I got the news that the book had sold. There’s nothing quite like that. As for events, I must say I had a blast at the 2018 Tucson Festival of Books. It exceeded my expectations. To be surrounded by so many enthusiastic readers and fellow writers was BLISS. Pure bliss. I love meeting readers and talking about what appeals to them in a book.

What are you working on now?

The third book in the Gus Parker and Alex Mills series.

What’s on your TBR (To Be Read) pile?

Dead is Best   Jo Perry

Idyll Hands   Stephanie Gayle

A Reckoning in Back Country   Terry Shames

The Bomb Maker   Thomas Perry

Trust Me Hank Phillippi Ryan

November Road Lou Berney

The Disappeared   C.J. Box

What author or book do you feel has been underappreciated?

Jo Perry. Her voice is so distinctive, and her stories curl around you in such an intimate way. She’s dark and she’s light and she plays with the shades in between with the deftness of an artist.

Thank you, Steven. Steven Cooper’s website can be found at https://stevencooperbooks.com

Michael Harvey will be at The Poisoned Pen on Wednesday, Oct. 24 at 7 PM to discuss and sign his latest novel, Pulse. Can’t make it? You can pre-order a signed copy of Pulse, or order other novels by Harvey through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2ylObfx

PULSE drops October 23, 2018!

PREORDER TODAY! The story of a Boston murder that defies all expectations—optioned for film by New Line Cinema and 21 Laps Entertainment, the company behind Stranger Things and Amy Adams’ big-screen thriller Arrival.

The book trailer for Pulse is enough to make you want to read the book.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAFMK1mryaQ&w=560&h=315]

If that’s not enough, though, here’s the summary.

“Harvey’s lethal imagination is cranked to eleven in this one . . . his best yet by far.  Superb!”
— Lee Child

The story of a Boston murder that defies all expectations—optioned for film by 21 Laps, the company behind Stranger Things and Arrival

Boston, 1976. In a small apartment above Kenmore Square, sixteen-year-old Daniel Fitzsimmons is listening to his landlord describe a seemingly insane theory about invisible pulses of light and energy that can be harnessed by the human mind. He longs to laugh with his brother Harry about it, but Harry doesn’t know he’s there—he would never approve of Daniel living on his own. None of that matters, though, because the next night Harry, a Harvard football star, is murdered in an alley.

Detectives “Bark” Jones and Tommy Dillon are assigned to the case. The veteran partners thought they’d seen it all, but they are stunned when Daniel wanders into the crime scene. Even stranger, Daniel claims to have known the details of his brother’s murder before it ever happened. The subsequent investigation leads the detectives deep into the Fitzsimmons brothers’ past. They find heartbreaking loss, sordid characters, and metaphysical conspiracies. Even on the rough streets of 1970s Boston, Jones and Dillon have never had a case like this.

Pulse is a novel laced with real danger and otherworldly twists—a master class by an endlessly gifted writer.

Warren C. Easley is a Poisoned Pen Press author whose latest Cal Claxton Oregon Mystery, Moving Targets, was the subject of a recent review in Bookreporter.com. You can find Roz Shea’s review here. https://bit.ly/2P0LRUJ

Easley’s books, including signed copies of Moving Targets, are available through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2PHMRdO

Here’s the description of Moving Targets.

“With Moving Targets, Warren Easley delivers another humdinger of a tale featuring the City of Roses. But there’s so much more to like about this story than just its evocative Portland setting. Cal Claxton is a guy worth rooting for, and the gang who aid him in solving the complex and dangerous mystery involved are a fun bunch to follow. If you’re not familiar with these gems out of Oregon, now’s the perfect time to give Warren Easely and Cal Claxton a try. You won’t be disappointed.” –William Kent Krueger, award-winning, bestselling author of Ordinary Grace and the Cork O’Connor series

When a young woman walks into Caffeine Central, Cal Claxton’s law office in downtown Portland, he has no idea that agreeing to help her will turn his life upside down. His new client is the adopted daughter – “I’m brown and they’re white” – of a Portland power couple famed for their real estate development firm and charitable work.

Sculptor Angela Wingate, once a wild child, and her recently widowed mother, Margaret, had grown close after years of estrangement. A grieving Angela is hesitant but nonetheless determined to learn if Margaret’s recent death was a hit-and-run while out on her morning jog in her ritzy neighborhood, or something more – like murder. Angela is frustrated at the lagging police investigation and by her growing sense of something sinister at work.

As the ever-curious Cal begins to poke the principal players at Wingate Properties and to question Margaret’s will, links surface between a lucrative riverfront project and a ruthless Russian ring. With a possible deadly foreign assassin in play, the threat level rises and the body count starts to grow.

Decidedly outgunned, Cal enlists his Cuban friend Nando, an enterprising investigator with an on-call hacker, and a bouncer at a strip club who knows the Russian underworld. And Cal gradually develops other allies – a skeptical police captain and a city councilwoman who opposes the massive riverfront project. In a separate battle, he recruits neighbors and officials who may help him kill the reboot of a quarry operation that threatens his beloved farmhouse home in rural Dundee, a loss that would also be tragic for his beloved dog, Archie.

Beneath this story run the narratives of several strong women connected to Cal who are learning just how powerful they can be as they change up their lives.

Kate Morton’s latest novel, The Clockmaker’s Daughter, is the current Hot Book of the Week at The Poisoned Pen. You can order Morton’s other books, or a signed copy of The Clockmaker’s Daughter, through the Web Store.  https://bit.ly/2RUoY4c

Here’s the description of The Clockmaker’s Daughter.

A rich, spellbinding new novel from the author of The Lake House—the story of a love affair and a mysterious murder that cast their shadow across generations, set in England from the 1860s until the present day.

My real name, no one remembers.
The truth about that summer, no one else knows.

In the summer of 1862, a group of young artists led by the passionate and talented Edward Radcliffe descends upon Birchwood Manor on the banks of the Upper Thames. Their plan: to spend a secluded summer month in a haze of inspiration and creativity. But by the time their stay is over, one woman has been shot dead while another has disappeared; a priceless heirloom is missing; and Edward Radcliffe’s life is in ruins.

Over one hundred and fifty years later, Elodie Winslow, a young archivist in London, uncovers a leather satchel containing two seemingly unrelated items: a sepia photograph of an arresting-looking woman in Victorian clothing, and an artist’s sketchbook containing the drawing of a twin-gabled house on the bend of a river.

Why does Birchwood Manor feel so familiar to Elodie? And who is the beautiful woman in the photograph? Will she ever give up her secrets?

Told by multiple voices across time, The Clockmaker’s Daughter is a story of murder, mystery, and thievery, of art, love, and loss. And flowing through its pages like a river, is the voice of a woman who stands outside time, whose name has been forgotten by history, but who has watched it all unfold: Birdie Bell, the clockmaker’s daughter.

Laurie R. King, author of the Mary Russell books, recently traveled in Europe with Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen. Barbara passed on King’s account of their trip from the News & Nonsense newsletter. You’ll probably be as envious as I am.

Hello all—I’m home again! And instead of looking out my window and seeing this— Or this— I look at this— Yeah, that view is a real hardship, right? Five weeks away, with a week in England followed by Bucharest, then a river trip up the Danube, ending in Budapest, and a drive to Vienna, and a couple days in Monaco before returning to family in England and then home. During which I saw history from the Mesolithic To the Roman (Lots of Roman) And Medieval pausing to visit the Belle Epoque before descending into the Communist era’s art And architecture and venturing into the modern(ish) With fascinating places that mixed all the eras, styles, and purposes into a palimpsest of centuries I also discovered a million ideas I’d never suspected.  Among other things, that they’re big on honey there in Serbia and Romania… I saw hives lined up along the river and honey for sale—in shops, outdoor markets, along the roadside Hive art appeared on buildings and posters and…in a tasting. (The yellowish pollen mix was okay, but that with toasted sesame was amazing!) And in case you’re wondering, now that my feet are back on Californian soil, I’m about to wander around for some events.  Such as MWA NorCal’s upcoming Mystery Week—where I’ll be— Emceeing for Noir at the Bar In conversation with Ellen Kirschman at the Belmont Library And on the Santa Cruz panel And on December 8, in Scottsdale with my good buddies Les Klinger and Dana Stabenow to celebrate Dana’s novel, Death of an Eye,  and our new collection It’s out in December—you can pre-order a signed copy from The Poisoned Pen, or from your local Indie bookshop, or Barnes & Noble, or Amazon. Thanks for following me on this amazing journey, and as we look towards the end of a largely chaotic and difficult year, may you be blessed with unexpected beauty waiting to be discovered, sometimes beneath your very feet.

Laurie R. King’s website is https://laurierking.com/

King’s books can be found in the Poisoned Pen’s Web Store. https://bit.ly/2yDn27l

Are you a fan of noir? Los Angeles is the setting for so many crime novels that fit that description. Now, Ross MacDonald and Gal Beckerman have put together a map and listing of nine novels, “Mapping Out Where Noir Lives in the City of Angels” in a recent New York Times article. https://nyti.ms/2CdeuYf

Check the Poisoned Pen’s Web Store for the books mentioned. https://store.poisonedpen.com

And, if you’re in the store, talk to Patrick Millikin about books if you’re looking for noir.