Fiction Review

Heather Graham has so many published books, there are ten pages in the Web Store under her name. https://bit.ly/2ybSUAA

Although she’s written twenty-six books in her popular Krewe of Hunter series, books that feature a special FBI unit that deals with possible paranormal involvement in crimes, she has many other books.

If you’re a fan of Graham’s, or haven’t yet discovered her, Elizabeth Crowan’s article in Black Gate is an excellent introduction to a fascinating author. You might want to check it out. https://bit.ly/2Ps6039

While Joanne Fluke’s latest mystery is Christmas Cake Murder, it was Raspberry Danish Murder that caught the eye of writer Brittany Ross. Ross discusses Fluke’s series, in great detail in the article “Highly Recommended: Pastry Murder Mysteries” for Eater, https://bit.ly/2PpFzuP.  Of course, because Joanne Fluke appears at The Poisoned Pen, you can order her books, including signed copies of Christmas Cake Murder, through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2o5JYqA

Here’s the summary of Christmas Cake Murder.

It’s Christmas many years ago, and topping young Hannah Swensen’s wish list is becoming the go-to baker in Lake Eden, Minnesota. But as Hannah finds out, revisiting holiday memories can be 
murder . . .
 
With her dream of opening The Cookie Jar taking shape, Hannah’s life matches the hectic December hustle and bustle in Lake Eden—especially when she agrees to help recreate a spectacular Christmas Ball from the past in honor of Essie Granger, an elderly local in hospice care. But instead of poring over decadent dessert recipes for the merry festivities, she instantly becomes enthralled by Essie’s old notebooks and the tale of a woman escaping danger on the streets of New York. Hannah’s surprised by Essie’s secret talent for penning crime fiction. She’s even more surprised when the story turns real. As Hannah prepares to run a bakery and move out of her mother’s house, it’ll be a true miracle if she can prevent another Yuletide disaster by solving a mystery as dense as a Christmas fruitcake . . .

 

Unfortunately, you just missed Lou Berney at The Poisoned Pen. But, his latest book, November Road, is the Hot Book of the Week. You can still order a signed copy through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2DeTAtJ

This is one of the hottest books of the season. You do want to own it. In fact, it’s just been acquired for a film adaptation. https://bit.ly/2PowqTu    Read it now! Here’s the summary:

Set against the assassination of JFK, a poignant and evocative crime novel that centers on a desperate cat-and-mouse chase across 1960s America—a story of unexpected connections, daring possibilities, and the hope of second chances from the Edgar Award-winning author of The Long and Faraway Gone.

Frank Guidry’s luck has finally run out.

A loyal street lieutenant to New Orleans’ mob boss Carlos Marcello, Guidry has learned that everybody is expendable. But now it’s his turn—he knows too much about the crime of the century: the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

Within hours of JFK’s murder, everyone with ties to Marcello is turning up dead, and Guidry suspects he’s next: he was in Dallas on an errand for the boss less than two weeks before the president was shot. With few good options, Guidry hits the road to Las Vegas, to see an old associate—a dangerous man who hates Marcello enough to help Guidry vanish.

Guidry knows that the first rule of running is “don’t stop,” but when he sees a beautiful housewife on the side of the road with a broken-down car, two little daughters and a dog in the back seat, he sees the perfect disguise to cover his tracks from the hit men on his tail. Posing as an insurance man, Guidry offers to help Charlotte reach her destination, California. If she accompanies him to Vegas, he can help her get a new car.

For her, it’s more than a car— it’s an escape. She’s on the run too, from a stifling existence in small-town Oklahoma and a kindly husband who’s a hopeless drunk.

It’s an American story: two strangers meet to share the open road west, a dream, a hope—and find each other on the way.

Charlotte sees that he’s strong and kind; Guidry discovers that she’s smart and funny. He learns that’s she determined to give herself and her kids a new life; she can’t know that he’s desperate to leave his old one behind.

Another rule—fugitives shouldn’t fall in love, especially with each other. A road isn’t just a road, it’s a trail, and Guidry’s ruthless and relentless hunters are closing in on him. But now Guidry doesn’t want to just survive, he wants to really live, maybe for the first time.

Everyone’s expendable, or they should be, but now Guidry just can’t throw away the woman he’s come to love.

And it might get them both killed.

*****

If you missed the event at The Poisoned Pen, you can still read my Q&A with Lou Berney. https://bit.ly/2OKA50V

Tana French, author of the Dublin Murder Squad series, is hot right now with her standalone psychological novel, The Witch Elm. Janet Maslin raves about the book in The New York Times, https://nyti.ms/2CwYIZh. Molly Odintz interviews French at CrimeReads, https://bit.ly/2OjewFj. And, of course you can order The Witch Elm through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2OfmU8p

Here’s the summary of The Witch Elm, Tana French’s first standalone novel.

Named a best book of the fall by Vogue, Entertainment Weekly, Elle,Amazon, PopSugar, The Millions, LitHub, and Parade

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.

John Valeri recently interviewed Leslie S. Klinger for CriminalElement.com. Klinger’s new book is Classic American Crime Fiction of the 1920s. The Poisoned Pen already has signed copies of the new release. You can order copies of Klinger’s other books, or a signed copy of Classic American Crime Fiction of the 1920s through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2QwIJx8

Here’s the description of Klinger’s Classic American Crime Fiction of the 1920s.

American crime writing was reborn in the 1920s. After years of dominance by British authors, new American writers—with fresh ideas about the detective and the mystery—appeared on the scene and rose to heights of popularity not witnessed since the success of the Sherlock Holmes tales in America.

Classic American Crime Writing of the 1920s—including House Without a Key, The Benson Murder Case, The Roman Hat Mystery, Red Harvest, and Little Caesar—offers some of the very best of that decade’s writing. Earl Derr Biggers wrote about Charlie Chan, a Chinese-American detective, at a time when racism was rampant. S. S. Van Dine invented Philo Vance, an effete, rich amateur psychologist who flourished while America danced and the stock market rose. The quintessential American detective Ellery Queen leapt onto the stage, to remain popular for fifty years. Dashiell Hammett brings readers another mystery narrated by the Continental Op. W. R. Burnett, created the indelible character of Rico, the first gangster antihero.

Each of the five novels included is presented in its original published form, with extensive historical and cultural annotations and illustrations added by Edgar-winning editor Leslie S. Klinger, allowing the reader to experience the story to its fullest. Klinger’s detailed foreword gives an overview of the history of American crime writing from its beginnings in the early years of America to the twentieth century. This gorgeously illustrated volume includes over 100 color and black and white images as well as an introduction by the eminent mystery publisher Otto Penzler.

*****

Now, check out John Valeri’s Q&A with Leslie S. Klinger. It includes a hint as to what Klinger is working on next. https://bit.ly/2E5etbj

I couldn’t resist. In the recent New York Times‘ “Scene of the Crime”, Marilyn Stasio reviews books by two authors who will be at The Poisoned Pen in the next couple weeks. https://nyti.ms/2CrP6Pc

John Sandford will be here on Tuesday, October 9 at 7 PM, joining Lou Berney, author of November Road. Sandford’s Holy Ghost is a Virgil Flowers novel, reviewed by Stasio. If you order a signed copy of Holy Ghost through the Poisoned Pen, it comes with a special postcard that fits the storyline. It says “Wardell Holland for Mayor”, along with a few of his campaign slogans. https://bit.ly/2Rs6cRn

Joe Ide, author of Wrecked, the latest IQ novel, will join Wallace Stroby, author of Some Die Nameless, on Monday, October 15 at 7 PM. You can order a signed copy of Wrecked through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2NXfw1n

You’ll always want to check the Web Store for books, signed or unsigned. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

The Scotiabank Giller Prize is a literary prize given to a Canadian author of a novel or short story collection published in English in the previous year. The 2018 finalists had books published in 2017. The finalists are below.

Although you can order copies of all of the finalists through the Web Store, https://store.poisonedpen.com/ , the Poisoned Pen has signed copies of Patrick DeWitt’s French Exit. https://bit.ly/2QrgCzo

Congratulations to all of the finalists.

Most of us would guess by looking at Reavis Z. Wortham’s photo that his Red River mysteries take place in Texas or the Southwest. We’d be right with the Texas guess. Wortham is a Poisoned Pen Press author whose seventh Red River mystery, Gold Dust, came out in September. You can order copies of Wortham’s books, including a signed copy of Gold Dust, through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2yinlUS

Michael Barson recently discussed Gold Dust and Wortham’s writing career with the author for BookReporter.com. You can find Reavis Z. Wortham’s introduction to the latest mystery, and the discussion under Author Talk. https://bit.ly/2OaQprY

October 9 is release date for Lou Berney’s November Road. There’s been all kinds of buzz about this title. It’s one of the most talked about novels of the fall. Berney won the Edgar, Anthony, Barry, and Macavity Awards for The Long and Faraway Gone. He’ll be at the Poisoned Pen on the 9th, along with John Sandford, author of Holy Ghost. You can meet both authors at 7 PM that evening. If you can’t make it, you can order a signed copy of November Road through the Web Store.  https://bit.ly/2DeTAtJ

 

Don’t spoil November Road for yourself, but you might want to check out Bill Sheehan’s review in The Washington Post. (Hint: he loves it.)  https://wapo.st/2ICpmjv

I jumped at the chance to interview Lou Berney. Here are his answers to the questions from “In the Hot Seat”.

Lou, would you introduce yourself to readers?

I’m the author of four novels, all from William Morrow, one of which ““ The Long and Faraway Gone ““ won the Edgar Award. I’ve also worked as a screenwriter in Hollywood but my true love is fiction. My wife and I live now in Oklahoma City, my hometown, where I teach in the low-residency MFA program at Oklahoma City University.

Tell us about your latest novel, November Road, without spoilers?

November Road is a thriller and a love story set right after the Kennedy assassination in 1963. It’s about a big-city mafia lieutenant named Frank Guidry who realizes he knows too much about what happened in Dallas and has to go on the run for his life. At the same time the other main character, Charlotte Roy, a woman stuck in a small town and married to an alcoholic husband, takes her two young daughters and goes on the run from her life. The two characters end up meeting on the road and…let’s just say that things get complicated (and dangerous).

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTODvp0vRJE?showinfo=0&w=560&h=315]

 

Why do you think authors want to write novels with the Kennedy assassination as a pivotal event?

It was such a seismic event in American history, something that really changed the way people thought about the country, the future, themselves.

Do you consider Frank Guidry and your character Shake Bouchon from Gutshot Straight and Whiplash River to be heroes or antiheroes? Why?

 

 

I think they’re both characters who start out as antiheroes and then are faced with the possibility of becoming something more, something better, than that. With November Road, I was never sure what path Frank would take until he actually took it.

You’ve sent your lead characters on road trips to Las Vegas several times. Why Las Vegas?

That’s a good question. I don’t know! All I can say is that, for me, Vegas fit the story each time. I will say I’ve always been fascinated by Vegas in the 1960s. It was such a glamorous, swinging place, but also one with some dark, hidden sides. For a novelist, what’s not to love about that?

Will you write another adventure for Shake? What kind of freedom do you have when you write a standalone versus a series book?

I’ve already written another adventure for Shake, Double Barrel Bluff, but it might be a couple of years before it’s released. I loved writing the Shake novels, but standalones are much more up my alley, I’ve discovered. There’s the freedom to do anything you want, to start from scratch, to write new rules and then break them if you want. All bets are off, and I find that very exciting.

What are you working on now?

Right now I’m about a hundred pages into a psychological thriller about marriage.

Are you still writing screenplays?

I haven’t written a screenplay in a while, but I’ve got a couple of limited-series TV ideas I’d really like to explore. There’s so much great TV now and there are creative possibilities that didn’t exist five or ten years ago.

A personal question. Where do you like to take visitors when they come to Oklahoma City?

When someone comes to visit, I like to take them to one of my favorite pho restaurants (there are many). Oklahoma City has some of the best Vietnamese food in the country. And if it’s basketball season, I’ll take them to a Thunder game, which is always fun.

What’s on your TBR (To Be Read) pile?

My TBR pile is huge and teetering, but I’ll tell you a few of the writers I’m really looking forward to reading next: Lisa Unger, Kate Atkinson, Sheena Kamal, Ace Atkins, Kellye Garrett, Jeff Abbott, Hilary Davidson, Lyndsay Faye.

What author do you feel has been underappreciated?

Ivy Pochoda’s novel Wonder Valley was nominated for an L.A. Times Book Award, but I think she should have been nominated for ““ and won ““ all the awards. She’s an amazing novelist.

You can check out Lou Berney’s website at https://www.louberney.com/

 

In The Austin Chronicle, Rosalind Faires calls Sherry Thomas’ latest Lady Sherlock mystery, The Hollow of Fear, “A cut above the rest”. Here’s Faires’ entire review. https://bit.ly/2OylfKC

On Saturday, October 6 at 2 PM, you can meet Sherry Thomas and celebrate publication of The Hollow of Fear with a Holmesian-themed Victorian tea. If you can’t make it to the Poisoned Pen event, you can still order Thomas’ books, including signed copies of The Hollow of Fear, through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2RoAyUY

Here’s praise for Sherry Thomas’ Lady Sherlock mysteries.

“Loaded with suspense…a riveting and absorbing read…a beautifully written novel; you’ll savor the unraveling of the mystery and the brilliance of its heroine.”—NPR.org

 “Clever historical details and a top-shelf mystery add to the winning appeal of this first volume in the “˜Lady Sherlock’ series. A must-read for fans of historical mysteries.”—Library Journal (starred review)

 “Readers of Victorian fiction, romance, and detective stories will each find something to draw them in.”

—Kirkus Reviews

 “Well researched, well plotted, well written. Thank you, Sherry Thomas.”—Suspense Magazine

“Thomas’s use of language, the way she uses gender reversal to conceal revelations, and the intricacies of her plotting mean that I will rediscover more things to relish in A Study in Scarlet Women each time I reread it.”—NPR.com

“A completely new, brilliantly conceived take on the iconic detective…a plot worthy of the master at his best.”—Booklist

*****

And, here’s the summary of Thomas’ new book, The Hollow of Fear.

Charlotte Holmes, Lady Sherlock, returns in the Victorian-set mystery series from the USA Today bestselling author of A Conspiracy in Belgravia and A Study in Scarlet Women, an NPR Best Book of 2016.

Under the cover of “Sherlock Holmes, consulting detective,” Charlotte Holmes puts her extraordinary powers of deduction to good use. Aided by the capable Mrs. Watson, Charlotte draws those in need to her and makes it her business to know what other people don’t.

Moriarty’s shadow looms large. First, Charlotte’s half brother disappears. Then, Lady Ingram, the estranged wife of Charlotte’s close friend Lord Ingram, turns up dead on his estate. And all signs point to Lord Ingram as the murderer.

With Scotland Yard closing in, Charlotte goes under disguise to seek out the truth. But uncovering the truth could mean getting too close to Lord Ingram–and a number of malevolent forces…