You saw the recent list of summer books by CrimeReads, but I’ll always encourage you to examine another list for books you might want to read. With a holiday in the U.S., it’s the perfect day to kick off summer reading. When you check out the list of suggested titles below, don’t forget to look in the Web Store for any that might interest you. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

We’re lucky author Clea Simon misunderstood an editor’s assignment. Because she already put in all the work, she offered me a list that might entice you to add to your TBR (To Be Read) pile. Thank you, Clea.

*****

What are you looking forward to reading this summer? There are so many great books coming out. Here in the Boston area alone, we’ll be celebrating Hallie Ephron’s Careful What You Wish For, (Aug. 6) and Hank Phillippi Ryan‘s The Murder List (Aug. 20). On the cozy side, former Sisters in Crime president Leslie Budewitz has her Chai Another Day coming out June 11, and many others are due soon too. But recently I was asked by an editor to compile a list of summer mysteries and in my desperate attempt to pull together books that weren’t by friends or that haven’t been recently profiled on my own blog, I came up with the following. (Then I found out I had misread the assignment ““ he wanted books that were already out! Oops!). Anyway, here’s a small sampling of what I’m looking forward to, with an eye to every taste. Please let me know what you’re looking forward to ““ we’ve got time, at last, to indulge!

1. “One Small Sacrifice,” Hilary Davidson (out June 1)

 Author of the Anthony award-winning Lily Moore series launches a new police procedural series with NYPD detective Sheryn Sterling unraveling a complicated possible murder.

2. “Conviction,” Denise Mina, (June 18)

Newly single Anna McDonald tunes into a true-crime podcast for distraction only to realize that she knows what really happened ““ and she’s involved ““ in the latest grim psychological suspense from a Scottish master of the genre.

3. “Big Sky, “ Kate Atkinson (June 25) 

After an eight-year hiatus, Yorkshire ex-cop turned private investigator Jackson Brodie (with dog) surfaces in a quiet seaside village where a routine domestic case turns into something darker. 

4. “Paranoid,” Lisa Jackson, (June 25) 

Decades after Rachel Gatson accidentally killed her half-brother, her high school reunion ““ and a string of new murders ““ make her doubt her sanity in this bestseller’s latest psychological suspense.

5. “A Lady’s Guide to Gossip and Murder,” Dianne Freeman (June 26)

The follow-up to the series’ multiple award-winning debut, this frothy, fun historical cozy once again has the American-born Countess of Harleigh solving a murder in Victorian London’s high society.

6. “The Paper Bark Tree Mystery,” Ovidia Yu (June 27) 

The steamy Singaporean summer of 1937 smolders when private detective Su Lin’s ex-boss is murdered in a case involving diamonds, race, and political unrest in this third evocative Crown Colony mystery.

7. “The Whisper Man,” Alex North (June 27) 

A widowed father and his young son move into a strange house in a town haunted by the memory of a serial killer in this truly creepy debut thriller.

8. “The Chain,” Adrian McGinty (July 9) 

To ransom her kidnapped daughter, a mother must kidnap another child, whose parents must then do the same, in this fast-paced, nightmarish thriller from the award-winning suspense author.

9. “Lady in the Lake,” Laura Lippman (July 23) 

Having bolted from a stale marriage in 1966 Baltimore, Maddie Schwarz has transitioned from housewife to crusading journalist, heedlessly seeking the truth about a missing woman in this New York Times-bestselling author’s latest standalone.

10. “The Hounds of Justice,” Claire O’Dell (July 30)

In O’Dell’s second strikingly engaging dystopian Sherlock Holmes pastiche, Dr. Janet Watson once again joins covert agent (and fellow queer black woman) Sara Holmes in infiltrating an extremist group.

11.  “Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead,” Olga Tokarczuk, (Aug. 13) 

This Man Booker International Award finalist veers from straight mystery into fantasy as Janina, the local crank in a Polish resort town, takes a break from astrology to investigate a murder.

12. “The Swallows,” Lisa Lutz, (Aug. 13)  

Best known for the humorous Spellman Files books, Lutz follows up her thriller “The Passenger” by going very dark with this tale of revenge and secrets at a New England prep school.

13. “Play With Fire,” William Shaw (Aug. 13) 

In his fourth series outing, Detective Sergeant Cathal Breen can’t get into the swing of 1969 London, but with his pregnant partner Helen Tozer’s help he tackles the murder of a high-society call girl.

14.  “Thirteen,” Steve Cavanaugh (Aug. 13)

Conman-turned-defense attorney Eddie Flynn uses the crooked system against itself, but he’s out manipulated when he’s brought into a Hollywood star’s murder trial in this legal thriller. 

15. Anne Cleeves “The Long Call” (Sept. 3)

With her usual stunningly deft prose, Scottish master Cleeves (“Vera” and “Shetland”) debuts Detective Matthew Venn, who returns to the North Devon evangelical community he once fled when a body washes up on the beach.

*****

A former journalist, Boston’s Clea Simon is the author of more than two dozen mysteries, most recently A Spell of Murder (Polis), Cross My Path(Severn House), andFear on Four Paws (Poisoned Pen Press). She can be reached at www.CleaSimon.com.

When Icelandic crime fiction author Ragnar Jonasson was at The Poisoned Pen recently, his new book, The Island, had not yet been released. He and bookstore owner, Barbara Peters, focused on Rupture, his Ari Thor thriller. Signed copies of Rupture are available through the Web Store, as are copies of Jonasson’s other books, including The Island. https://bit.ly/2YH3avo

Here’s the summary of Rupture.

A huge bestseller in England, France, and Australia, the fourth book in the Ari Thor thriller series from a spectacular new crime writer.  

Hailed for combining the darkness of Nordic Noir with classic mystery writing, author Ragnar Jonasson’s books are haunting, atmospheric, and complex. Rupture, the latest Ari Thór thriller, delivers another dark mystery that is chillingly stunning with its complexity and fluidity.

Young policeman Ari Thór tries to solve a 50-year-old murder when new evidence surfaces. But the case proves difficult in a town where no one wants to know the truth, where secrets are a way of life. He’s assisted by Ísrún, a news reporter in Reykjavik who is investigating an increasingly chilling case of her own. Things take a sinister turn when a child goes missing in broad daylight. With a stalker on the loose, and the town in quarantine, the past might just come back to haunt them.

*****

You can watch Barbara Peters’ conversation with Ragnar Jonasson here.

While The Island wasn’t yet released in this country at the time of this video, it’s now available. Here’s the description.

The newest superstar on the Icelandic crime fiction scene has arrived with a superb followup to The Darkness.  

Shortlisted for the Crime Novel of the Year Award in Iceland
Third Place, Novel of the Year Award 2016 in Iceland, selected by booksellers
One of the bestselling novels in Iceland in 2016

Autumn of 1987 takes a young couple on a romantic trip in the Westfjords holiday—a trip that gets an unexpected ending and has catastrophic consequences.

Ten years later a small group of friends go for a weekend in an old hunting lodge in Elliðaey. A place completely cut off from the outside world, to reconnect. But one of them isn’t going to make it out alive. And Detective Inspector Hulda Hermannsdóttir is determined to find the truth in the darkness.

Ragnar Jonasson burst onto the American scene with Snowblind and Nightblind, the first two novels in the Ari Thor thriller series, and the praise was overwhelming. With The Darkness, he launched a new series featuring a completely new sleuth, Detective Inspector Hulda Hermannsdottir of the Reykjavik Police department. The Island is the second book in this series.

*****

Intrigued? There’s one more teaser. CrimeReads.com recently had an exclusive excerpt from The Island. You can find it here. https://crimereads.com/the-island/

Michael Koryta was recently at The Poisoned Pen while on book tour for his latest thriller, If She Wakes. Author Nick Petrie was the guest host and moderator, in conversation with Koryta. You can order copies of Koryta’s books, including signed copies of If She Wakes, through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2wy0eIj

Here’s the summary of If She Wakes.

Two women fight for their lives against an enigmatic killer in this electrifying novel from a New York Times bestselling author and “master” of thriller writing (Stephen King).

Tara Beckley is a senior at idyllic Hammel College in Maine. As she drives to deliver a visiting professor to a conference, a horrific car accident kills the professor and leaves Tara in a vegetative state. At least, so her doctors think. In fact, she’s a prisoner of locked-in syndrome: fully alert but unable to move a muscle. Trapped in her body, she learns that someone powerful wants her dead–but why? And what can she do, lying in a hospital bed, to stop them?

Abby Kaplan, an insurance investigator, is hired by the college to look in to Tara’s case. A former stunt driver, Abby returned home after a disaster in Hollywood left an actor dead and her own reputation–and nerves–shattered. Despite the fog of trauma, she can tell that Tara’s car crash was no accident. When she starts asking questions, things quickly spin out of control, leaving Abby on the run and a mysterious young hit man named Dax Blackwell hard on her heels.

Full of pulse-pounding tension, If She Wakes is a searing, breakneck thriller from the genre’s “best of the best” (Michael Connelly).

*****

Now, you can eavesdrop on the conversation between Michael Koryta and Nick Petrie.

Janet Napolitano signs HOW SAFE ARE WE? HOMELAND SECURITY SINCE 9/11

 WHEN:May 28, 2019 @ 7:00 pm ““ 8:00 pm

WHERE:Madison Performing Arts Center 
5627 N 16th St
Phoenix
AZ 85016
COST:$32.00 or 45.00 CONTACT: Patrick Millikin 480-947-2974 Email

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A Very Special Evening With

Janet Napolitano

In Conversation with Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego!

Former Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security and former Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano offers an insightful analysis of American security at home and a prescription for the future.

Created in the wake of the greatest tragedy to occur on U.S. soil, the Department of Homeland Security was handed a sweeping mandate: make America safer. It would encompass intelligence and law enforcement agencies, oversee natural disasters, commercial aviation, border security and ICE, cybersecurity, and terrorism, among others. From 2009-2013, Janet Napolitano ran DHS and oversaw 22 federal agencies with 230,000 employees.

In How Safe Are We?, Napolitano pulls no punches, reckoning with the critics who call it Frankenstein’s Monster of government run amok, and taking a hard look at the challenges we’ll be facing in the future. But ultimately, she argues that the huge, multifaceted department is vital to our nation’s security. An agency that’s part terrorism prevention, part intelligence agency, part law enforcement, public safety, disaster recovery make for an odd combination the protocol-driven, tradition-bound Washington D.C. culture. But, she says, it has made us more safe, secure, and resilient.

Napolitano not only answers the titular question, but grapples with how these security efforts have changed our country and society. Where are the failures that leave us vulnerable and what has our 1 trillion dollar investment yielded over the last 15 years? And why haven’t we had another massive terrorist attack in the U.S. since September 11th, 2001? In our current political climate, where Donald Trump has politicized nearly every aspect of the department, Napolitano’s clarifying, bold vision is needed now more than ever.

Venue:

The Madison Center for the Arts  

5601 N 16th St, Phoenix, AZ 85016

7pm Event.  Doors Open at 6pm.

Plenty of free parking.

Tickets Required to attend ““ Please Click Here to Purchase tickets

Can’t attend the event but still wish to order a signed copy?  CLICK HERE!

Co-hosted by The Maricopa County Democratic Party!

What are you doing this weekend?

As you can see, Jayne Ann Krentz, writing as Amanda Quick, and Meg Tilly will be at the Poisoned Pen on Saturday, May 25 at 2 PM. You should RSVP to JohnC@PoisonedPen.com, due to space. Krentz will be signing Tightrope, and Tilly will sign Cliff’s Edge. Can’t make it? Order signed copies through the Web Store. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

Here are the book covers and descriptions of the authors’ latest novels.

An unconventional woman and a man shrouded in mystery walk a tightrope of desire as they race against a killer to find a top secret invention in this New York Times bestselling novel from Amanda Quick.

Former trapeze artist Amalie Vaughn moved to Burning Cove to reinvent herself, but things are not going well. After spending her entire inheritance on a mansion with the intention of turning it into a bed-and-breakfast, she learns too late that the villa is said to be cursed. When the first guest, Dr. Norman Pickwell, is murdered by his robot invention during a sold-out demonstration, rumors circulate that the curse is real. 

In the chaotic aftermath of the spectacle, Amalie watches as a stranger from the audience disappears behind the curtain. When Matthias Jones reappears, he is slipping a gun into a concealed holster. It looks like the gossip that is swirling around him is true—Matthias evidently does have connections to the criminal underworld. 

Matthias is on the trail of a groundbreaking prototype cipher machine. He suspects that Pickwell stole the device and planned to sell it. But now Pickwell is dead and the machine has vanished. When Matthias’s investigation leads him to Amalie’s front door, the attraction between them is intense, but she knows it is also dangerous. Amalie and Matthias must decide if they can trust each other and the passion that binds them, because time is running out.

Here’s the summary of Cliff’s Edge.

Meg Tilly returns with a second gripping romantic suspense novel set on the idyllic Solace Island in the Pacific Northwest.

Eve Harris is all set to house-sit and run the bakery she shares with her sister while Maggie goes on her honeymoon, but there’s one problem—the house is already occupied. By a movie star. He claims to be her brother-in-law’s friend, and not only does he insist on staying, he also offers to help. Playing house has never been so tempting…

Rhys Thomas is looking for a place to lie low after wrapping up his latest film, so when Luke offers up his house as a safe haven, Rhys sees the perfect opportunity for a little R & R. But rest is the last thing on his mind as he and Eve grow close. 

But Eve and Rhys are not as alone as they think. And as danger trails Eve, it will take everything Rhys has to save the woman he loves.

Although Thomas Harris’ Cari Mora is the Hot Book of the Week at The Poisoned Pen, signed copies are in short supply. I can’t even promise they’ll be available by the time you read this post. Check the Web Store for copies of the book or the audiobook. https://bit.ly/2EnbDvP

Here’s the description of Cari Mora.

From the creator of Hannibal Lecter and The Silence of the Lambs comes a story of evil, greed, and the consequences of dark obsession.

Twenty-five million dollars in cartel gold lies hidden beneath a mansion on the Miami Beach waterfront. Ruthless men have tracked it for years. Leading the pack is Hans-Peter Schneider. Driven by unspeakable appetites, he makes a living fleshing out the violent fantasies of other, richer men. 

Cari Mora, caretaker of the house, has escaped from the violence in her native country. She stays in Miami on a wobbly Temporary Protected Status, subject to the iron whim of ICE. She works at many jobs to survive. Beautiful, marked by war, Cari catches the eye of Hans-Peter as he closes in on the treasure. But Cari Mora has surprising skills, and her will to survive has been tested before.

Monsters lurk in the crevices between male desire and female survival. No other writer in the last century has conjured those monsters with more terrifying brilliance than Thomas Harris. Cari Mora, his sixth novel, is the long-awaited return of an American master.

Diane Les Becquets is the author of the thriller, The Last Woman in the Forest. She recently took part in a video, talking about three books she’s reading. Before the video, just a reminder you can order a signed copy of The Last Woman in the Forest through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2HsJDJq

Here’s the summary of The Last Woman in the Forest.

From the national bestselling author of Breaking Wild, a riveting and powerful thriller about a woman whose greatest threat could be the man she loves.…

Marian Engström has found her true calling: working with rescue dogs to help protect endangered wildlife. Her first assignment takes her to northern Alberta, where she falls in love with her mentor, the daring and brilliant Tate. After they’re separated from each other on another assignment, Marian is shattered to learn of Tate’s tragic death. Worse still is the aftermath in which Marian discovers disturbing inconsistencies about Tate’s life, and begins to wonder if the man she loved could have been responsible for the unsolved murders of at least four women.

Hoping to clear Tate’s name, Marian reaches out to a retired forensic profiler who’s haunted by the open cases. But as Marian relives her relationship with Tate and circles ever closer to the truth, evil stalks her every move.…

*****

Here’s Diane Les Becquets’ video about what she’s reading. If any of these books interest you, don’t forget to check the Web Store. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

Patrick Millikin recently hosted Jeffery Deaver, author of The Never Game, and Chris Pavone, author of The Paris Diversion. You can order signed copies of those books, and other books by the authors, through the Web Store. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

Of course, at The Poisoned Pen, conversations are never just about the book. Check out the video.

Here’s the description of The Never Game.

From the bestselling and award-winning master of suspense, the first novel in a thrilling new series, introducing Colter Shaw.

“You have been abandoned.”

A young woman has gone missing in Silicon Valley and her father has hired Colter Shaw to find her. The son of a survivalist family, Shaw is an expert tracker. Now he makes a living as a “reward seeker,” traveling the country to help police solve crimes and private citizens locate missing persons. But what seems a simple investigation quickly thrusts him into the dark heart of America’s tech hub and the cutthroat billion-dollar video-gaming industry. 

“Escape if you can.”

When another victim is kidnapped, the clues point to one video game with a troubled past–The Whispering Man. In that game, the player has to survive after being abandoned in an inhospitable setting with five random objects. Is a madman bringing the game to life?

“Or die with dignity.”

Shaw finds himself caught in a cat-and-mouse game, risking his own life to save the victims even as he pursues the kidnapper across both Silicon Valley and the dark ‘net. Encountering eccentric game designers, trigger-happy gamers and ruthless tech titans, he soon learns that he isn’t the only one on the hunt: someone is on his trail and closing fast.

The Never Game proves once more why “Deaver is a genius when it comes to manipulation and deception” (Associated Press).

*****

Here’s The Paris Diversion.

“The most clever plot twist of the year.”—Washington Post

“I nominate Kate Moore, the protagonist of Chris Pavone’s sizzling new thriller The Paris Diversion, for patron saint of working wives and mothers everywhere.”—Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review

“The Paris Diversion is the best espionage novel I’ve read this year.  Smart, sophisticated and suspenseful, this is Pavone’s finest novel to date—and that’s saying something.”—Harlan Coben, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Fool Me Once

“Deliciously twisty . . . This involving work has been skillfully engineered for maximum reader enjoyment.”—The Wall Street Journal

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Expats. Kate Moore is back in a pulse-pounding thriller to discover that a massive terror attack across Paris is not what it seems—and that it involves her family

American expat Kate Moore drops her kids at the international school, makes her rounds of chores, and meets her husband Dexter at their regular café: a leisurely start to a normal day, St-Germain-des-Prés.

Across the Seine, tech CEO Hunter Forsyth stands on his balcony, wondering why his police escort just departed, and frustrated that his cell service has cut out; Hunter has important calls to make, not all of them technically legal.

And on the nearby rue de Rivoli, Mahmoud Khalid climbs out of an electrician’s van and elbows his way into the crowded courtyard of the world’s largest museum. He sets down his metal briefcase, and removes his windbreaker.

That’s when people start to scream.

Everyone has big plans for the day. Dexter is going to make a small fortune, finally digging himself out of a deep financial hole, via an extremely risky investment. Hunter is going to make a huge fortune, with a major corporate acquisition that will send his company’s stock soaring. Kate has less ambitious plans: preparations for tonight’s dinner party—one of those homemaker obligations she still hasn’t embraced, even after a half-decade of this life—and an uneventful workday at the Paris Substation, the clandestine cadre of operatives that she’s been running, not entirely successfully, increasingly convinced that every day could be the last of her career. But every day is also a fresh chance to prove her own relevance, never more so than during today’s momentous events.

And Mahmoud? He is planning to die today. And he won’t be the only one.

As long as we’re helping you build your reading list for the summer, here’s a list that will take you a while to get through. CrimeReads recently published their “Most Anticipated Crime Books of Summer”. Check out their list, https://bit.ly/2WLNsi4, and then check the Web Store for these books. https://store.poisonedpen.com

And, keep checking the upcoming events and calendar because some of those authors of “most anticipated crime books” will be at The Poisoned Pen. https://poisonedpen.com

What a fabulous article for all of us who are always looking for books to add to our TBR (To Be Read) piles, and authors to add. The Sunday Times in the U.K. recently named their 100 favorite crime and spy novels published since 1945, and only 28 of them were by women. In response, The Guardian asked authors such as Val McDermid, Dreda Say Mitchell, Ann Cleeves, Elly Griffiths, and Sharon Bolton for further suggestions. Check this terrific list. Then, check the Web Store for books you might want to own. https://store.poisonedpen.com

Here’s the link to the article. https://bit.ly/2VQqD0l

It’s actually an important article by a newspaper that regularly covers crime fiction. Please check it out.