Fiction Review

Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, mentioned that each author that worked on Clive Cussler’s books put their own spin on Cussler’s books. Jack DuBrul’s latest Isaac Bell adventure is Clive Cussler The Heist. This is the fifth book DuBrul has written. Signed copies can be ordered through the Webstore. https://bit.ly/3UvP2n0

Here’s the description of Clive Cussler: The Heist.

Detective Isaac Bell faces an attack on the Federal Reserve in this all-new adventure in the #1 New York Times bestselling series from Clive Cussler.

1914: As America’s century of dominance dawns, the country’s greatest detective, Van Dorn agent Isaac Bell, is pitted against a master thief and his assassin accomplice. They’re plotting to pull off the greatest heist in America’s history: the theft of a billion dollars from the newly created Federal Reserve.

When an aerial attack is launched against Woodrow Wilson’s yacht during a meeting among the Federal Reserve’s branch leaders, Bell thwarts it, only to find that the strike was just the opening of an even deadlier gambit. It’s up to Bell to find the link between the attack, the mysterious death of a Newport heiress, and growing evidence of an unimaginably audacious heist.

Double-cross and betrayal are Bell’s stock and trade, but this time, the deeper he delves into the puzzle, the less he seems to understand. He is in a race against his most ruthless opponent yet, to prevent a financial panic that would bring the United States to its knees.

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Clive Cussler was the author of more than eighty books in five bestselling series, including Dirk Pitt®, NUMA® Files, Oregon® Files, Isaac Bell®, and Sam and Remi Fargo®. His life nearly paralleled that of his hero Dirk Pitt. Whether searching for lost aircraft or leading expeditions to find famous shipwrecks, he and his NUMA crew of volunteers discovered and surveyed more than seventy-five lost ships of historic significance, including the long-lost Civil War submarine Hunley, which was raised in 2000 with much publicity. Like Pitt, Cussler collected classic automobiles. His collection featured more than one hundred examples of custom coachwork. Cussler passed away in February 2020.

Jack Du Brul is the author of Clive Cussler The Sea Wolves, the Philip Mercer series (most recently The Lightning Stones,) and is the coauthor with Cussler of the Oregon Files novels Dark Watch, Skeleton Coast, Plague Ship, Corsair, The Silent Sea, and The Jungle, and the Isaac Bell novels The Saboteurs and The Titanic Secret. He lives in Virginia.

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Enjoy the conversation with Jack DuBrul.

Although Barbara Peters welcomed Will Thomas to The Poisoned Pen to discuss his latest Barker and Llewelyn mystery, Death and Glory, they started by discussing the late author Anne Perry. You’ll want to listen to the event if you remember Perry and her books. Now, though, you can order Death and Glory through the Webstore. https://bit.ly/3JNd3RM

Here’s the description of Death and Glory.

In 1894, Cyrus Barker, London’s premier enquiry agent, is entangled in a conspiracy to revive the American Civil War by prominent figures, long believed deceased.

Private Enquiry agent Cyrus Barker, along with his partner Thomas Llewelyn, has a long, accomplished history – he’s taken on cases for Scotland Yard, the Foreign Office, and even the crown itself, fulfilling them all with great skill and discretion. None of those cases, however, are as delicate and complicated as the one laid before him by a delegation of men who, thirty years before, fought for the Confederacy during the American Civil War. These men want to revive the Confederacy with a warship promised to the Rebels from the British Government in 1865. To get it now, they’re threatening to reveal the long-secret treaty with the Confederacy. Barker is hired to use his connections to discreetly bring their threats to the Prime Minister.

With a web of prominent, if secret, supporters throughout England ready to through their support to their efforts to wage war anew on the United States, the delegates are just waiting for the warship to begin their plans. But some of the men are not who they claim to be, and the American government has their own team watching, and waiting, for the right moment to take action.

As this fuse on this powder keg of a situation grows ever shorter, it’s up to Barker & Llewelyn to uncover the real identities and plans of these dangerous men.

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WILL THOMAS is the author of the Cyrus Barker and Thomas Llewelyn series, including The Black Hand, The Hellfire Conspiracy, The Limehouse Text, To Kingdom Come, and the Shamus and Barry award-nominated Some Danger Involved. He lives with his family in Oklahoma.

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Congratulations to all the winners at the recent Edgar Award ceremony. Here’s the press release from Mystery Writers of America. (Check the list, and then check The Poisoned Pen’s Webstore for titles. https://store.poisonedpen.com/)

May 1, 2024, New York, NY – Mystery Writers of America is proud to announce the winners of the 2024 Edgar Allan Poe Awards, honoring the best in mystery fiction, nonfiction, and television published or produced in 2023. The 78^th Annual Edgar® Awards were celebrated on May 1, 2024, at the New York Marriott Marquis Times Square and live-streamed on YouTube.

BEST NOVEL

Flags on the Bayou by James Lee Burke (Grove Atlantic – Atlantic Monthly Press)

BEST FIRST NOVEL BY AN AMERICAN AUTHOR
 
The Peacock and the Sparrow by I.S. Berry (Simon & Schuster – Atria Books)

BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL
 
Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto

(Penguin Random House – Berkley)

BEST FACT CRIME

Crooked: The Roaring ’20s Tale of a Corrupt Attorney General, a Crusading Senator, and the Birth of the American Political Scandal

by Nathan Masters (Hachette Book Group – Hachette Books)

BEST CRITICAL/BIOGRAPHICAL
 
Love Me Fierce in Danger: The Life of James Ellroy

by Steven Powell (Bloomsbury Publishing – Bloomsbury Academic)

BEST SHORT STORY

“Hallowed Ground,” by Linda Castillo (Macmillan Publishers – Minotaur Books)

BEST JUVENILE

The Ghosts of Rancho Espanto by Adrianna Cuevas

(Macmillan Publishers – Farrar, Straus and Giroux BFYR)

BEST YOUNG ADULT
 
Girl Forgotten by April Henry (Hachette Book Group – LBYR – Christy Ottaviano Books)

BEST TELEVISION EPISODE TELEPLAY

“Escape from Shit Mountain” – Poker Face,

Written by Nora Zuckerman & Lilla Zuckerman (Peacock)

* * * * * *

ROBERT L. FISH MEMORIAL AWARD

“The Body in Cell Two,” Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, May-June 2023 by Kate Hohl

(Dell Magazines)

THE SIMON & SCHUSTER MARY HIGGINS CLARK AWARD
Presented on behalf of Simon & Schuster.

Play the Fool by Lina Chern (Penguin Random House – Bantam)

THE G.P. PUTNAM’S SONS SUE GRAFTON MEMORIAL AWARD
Presented on behalf of G.P. Putnam’s Sons.

An Evil Heart by Linda Castillo (Macmillan Publishers – Minotaur Books)

THE LILIAN JACKSON BRAUN MEMORIAL AWARD

Endowed by the estate of Lilian Jackson Braun.

Glory Be by Danielle Arceneaux (Pegasus Books – Pegasus Crime)

SPECIAL AWARDS

GRAND MASTER

Katherine Hall Page

R.L. Stine

ELLERY QUEEN AWARD

Michaela Hamilton, Kensington Books

Stephen Graham Jones’ The Angel of Indian Lake is the Hot Book of the Week at The Poisoned Pen. There are signed copies still available in the Webstore. https://bit.ly/49W6nve

Here’s the summary of The Angel of Indian Lake.

A National Bestseller

The final installment in the most lauded trilogy in the history of horror novels picks up four years after Don’t Fear the Reaper as Jade returns to Proofrock, Idaho, to build a life after the years of sacrifice—only to find the Lake Witch is waiting for her in New York Times bestselling author Stephen Graham Jones’s finale.

It’s been four years in prison since Jade Daniels last saw her hometown of Proofrock, Idaho, the day she took the fall, protecting her friend Letha and her family from incrimination. Since then, her reputation, and the town, have changed dramatically. There’s a lot of unfinished business in Proofrock, from serial killer cultists to the rich trying to buy Western authenticity. But there’s one aspect of Proofrock no one wants to confront…until Jade comes back to town. The curse of the Lake Witch is waiting, and now is the time for the final stand.

New York Times bestselling author Stephen Graham Jones has crafted an epic horror trilogy of generational trauma from the Indigenous to the townies rooted in the mountains of Idaho. It is a story of the American west written in blood.

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Stephen Graham Jones is the New York Times bestselling author of The Only Good Indians. He has been an NEA fellowship recipient and a recipient of several awards including the Ray Bradbury Award from the Los Angeles Times, the Bram Stoker Award, the Shirley Jackson Award, the Jesse Jones Award for Best Work of Fiction from the Texas Institute of Letters, the Independent Publishers Award for Multicultural Fiction, and the Alex Award from American Library Association. He is the Ivena Baldwin Professor of English at the University of Colorado Boulder.

Today is Independent Bookstore Day, and the chance to celebrate at The Poisoned Pen Bookstore. The bookstore has participated in all ten previous celebrations. If you’re in town, you can shop at the store all day Saturday where a special sale, 20% most items, will go on from 10 AM to 6 PM. This sale is IN STORE ONLY.

If you are an audiobook lover, there is a special deal at Libro.fm, our audiobook partner. Sale extends through Sunday April 28. This is a wonderful way to add support to The Pen. The sale books link is Libro.fm/sale

Again, if you’re in town, stop in and join author Douglas Preston from 9:30 AM to 10:30 AM at The Pen for conversation about his books and future plans. And, you never know what other authors might drop in during the day at The Pen.

Most of all, thank you for supporting The Poisoned Pen for almost thirty-five years.

A Killing on the Hill is Robert Dugoni’s first historical thriller. He talks about that book and his past with Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen. Signed copies of A Killing on the Hill are available in the Webstore. https://bit.ly/44eohbc

Here’s the summary of A Killing on the Hill.

A gripping new thriller from New York Times bestselling author Robert Dugoni.

The Great Depression. High-level corruption. And a murder that’s about to become Seattle’s hottest mystery. It’s the kind of story that can make a reporter’s career. If he lives to write about it.

Seattle, 1933. The city is in the grips of the Great Depression, Prohibition, and vice. Cutting his teeth on a small-time beat, hungry and ambitious young reporter William “Shoe” Shumacher gets a tip that could change his career. There’s been a murder at a social club on Profanity Hill—an underworld magnet for vice crimes only a privileged few can afford. The story is going to be front-page news, and Shoe is the first reporter on the scene.

The victim, Frankie Ray, is a former prizefighter. His accused killer? Club owner and mobster George Miller, who claims he pulled the trigger in self-defense. Soon the whole town’s talking, and Shoe’s first homicide is fast becoming the Trial of the Century. The more Shoe digs, the more he’s convinced nothing is as it seems. Not with a tangle of conflicting stories, an unlikely motive, and witnesses like Ray’s girlfriend, a glamour girl whose pretty lips are sealed. For now.

In a city steeped in Old West debauchery, Shoe’s following every lead to a very dangerous place—one that could bring him glory and fame or end his life.

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Robert Dugoni is a critically acclaimed New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and Amazon Charts bestselling author, reaching over ten million readers worldwide. He is best known for the Tracy Crosswhite police procedural series. He is also the author of the Charles Jenkins espionage series, the David Sloane legal thriller series, and several stand-alone novels, including Her Deadly Game, The 7th Canon, Damage Control, and The World Played Chess. His novel The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell was named Suspense Magazine’s 2018 Book of the Year, and Dugoni’s narration won an AudioFile Earphones Award. The Washington Post named his nonfiction exposé The Cyanide Canary a Best Book of the Year. Several of his novels have been optioned for movies and television series. Dugoni is the recipient of the Nancy Pearl Book Award for fiction and a three-time winner of the Friends of Mystery Spotted Owl Award for best novel set in the Pacific Northwest. He has been a finalist for many other awards. Dugoni’s books are sold in more than twenty-five countries and have been translated into more than thirty languages. He lives in Seattle. Visit his website at www.robertdugonibooks.com.

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You’ll want to hear Robert Dugoni’s story of the background for A Killing on the Hill.

While Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, welcomed Douglas Preston for his appearance at the bookstore, guest host James Rollins talked with Douglas Preston about his books, including the new one, Extinction. Signed copies of Extinction can be ordered through the Webstore, and they come with exclusive trading cards, while supplies last. https://bit.ly/44e4kBw

Here’s the summary of Extinction.

With Extinction, #1 New York Times bestselling author Douglas Preston has written a page-turning thriller in the Michael Crichton mode that explores the possible and unintended dangers of the very real efforts to resurrect the woolly mammoth and other long-extinct animals.

Erebus Resort, occupying a magnificent, hundred-thousand acre valley deep in the Colorado Rockies, offers guests the experience of viewing woolly mammoths, Irish Elk, and giant ground sloths in their native habitat, brought back from extinction through the magic of genetic manipulation. When a billionaire’s son and his new wife are kidnapped and murdered in the Erebus back country by what is assumed to be a gang of eco-terrorists, Colorado Bureau of Investigation Agent Frances Cash partners with county sheriff James Colcord to track down the perpetrators.

As killings mount and the valley is evacuated, Cash and Colcord must confront an ancient, intelligent, and malevolent presence at Erebus, bent not on resurrection—but extinction.

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DOUGLAS PRESTON has published forty books of both nonfiction and fiction, of which over thirty have been New York Times bestsellers, a half-dozen reaching the #1 position. He is the co-author, with Lincoln Child, of the Pendergast series of thrillers. He also writes nonfiction pieces for the New Yorker Magazine. He worked as an editor at the American Museum of Natural History in New York and taught nonfiction writing at Princeton University. He is president emeritus of the Authors Guild and serves on the Advisory Board of the School for Advanced Research in Santa Fe.

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Enjoy the conversation with Douglas Preston and James Rollins.

Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, welcomed Anne Hillerman to the bookstore to discuss Lost Birds. There are signed copies of the latest Leaphorn, Chee and Manuelito mystery in the Webstore. https://bit.ly/3JyVm8c

Here’s the description of Lost Birds.

“Anne Hillerman is a star.”—J. A. Jance, New York Times bestselling author

From New York Times bestselling author Anne Hillerman, a thrilling and moving chapter in the Leaphorn, Chee & Manuelito series involving several emotionally complex cases that will test the detectives in different ways.

Joe Leaphorn may be long retired from the Navajo Tribal Police, but his detective skills are still sharp, honed by his work as a private detective. His experience will be essential to solve a compelling new case: finding the birth parents of a woman who was raised by a bilagáana family but believes she is Diné based on one solid clue, an old photograph with a classic Navajo child’s blanket. Leaphorn discovers that his client’s adoption was questionable, and her adoptive family not what they seem. His quest for answers takes him to an old trading post and leads him to a deadly cache of long-buried family secrets.

As that case grows more complicated, Leaphorn receives an unexpected call from a person he met decades earlier. Cecil Bowleg’s desperation is clear in his voice, but just as he begins to explain, the call is cut off by an explosion and Cecil disappears. True to his nature, Leaphorn is determined to find the truth even as the situation grows dangerous. Investigation of the explosion falls in part to Officer Bernadette Manuelito, who discovers an unexpected link to Cecil’s missing wife.

Bernie also is involved in a troubling investigation of her own: an elderly weaver whose prize-winning sheep have been ruthlessly killed by feral dogs.

Exploring the emotionally complex issues of adoption of Indigenous children by non-native parents, Anne Hillerman delivers another thought-provoking, gripping mystery that brings to life the vivid terrain of the American Southwest, its people, and the lore and traditions that make it distinct.

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ANNE HILLERMAN is the bestselling author of the Leaphorn, Chee & Manuelito series. Lost Birds is her ninth novel in the series, which was created by her father, Tony Hillerman. She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Tucson, Arizona, and is at work on her next novel.

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Enjoy the conversation with Anne Hillerman.

Karen E. Olson’s new book, An Inconvenient Wife, is the Hot Book of the Week at The Poisoned Pen. Barbara Peters, owner of the bookstore, welcomed Karen for a virtual event. There are still signed copies of the books left in the Webstore. https://bit.ly/3vSipbb

Here’s the summary of An Inconvenient Wife.

This astonishing crime novel—inspired by the Tudor era—takes the reader into the world of Kate Parker, who has just married billionaire Hank Tudor when a headless body is discovered near their summer home . . .

Kate Parker knows what she’s getting into when she marries billionaire businessman Hank Tudor—she’s his sixth wife, after all, and was by his side (as his assistant) when his fifth marriage to actress Caitlyn Howard fell apart.

But honeymoon plans go awry when a headless body is discovered near Hank’s summer home, forcing Kate to contend with two more of his exes: Catherine Alvarez—the first—who lives as a shut-in with her computers, carefully following Tudor Enterprises; and Anna Klein—the fourth—who runs a bed-and-breakfast where she and her wife keep a steady eye on things—particularly Hank’s children, Lizzie and Teddy.

In this clever and suspenseful reimagining of Tudor era betrayals, these three women become entwined in a deadly game of cat and mouse—with each other, Hank, and Hank’s brilliant fixer, Tom Cromwell—as Kate seeks to solve the puzzle of who the murdered woman is, who killed her, and whether her death has any connection to the other headless body from eight years ago.

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Karen E. Olson is the winner of the Sara Ann Freed Memorial Award and a Shamus Award finalist. She is the author of the Annie Seymour mysteries, the Tattoo Shop mysteries, and the Black Hat thrillers. Karen was a longtime editor, both in newspapers and at Yale. She lives in North Haven, Connecticut.

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Enjoy the discussion of the Tudors and Karen E. Olson’s An Inconvenient Wife.

Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, asked Megan Miranda about the settings for her books. Daughter of Mine was inspired by a writers’ retreat she attended. There are signed copies of Daughter of Mine available through the Webstore. https://bit.ly/4b2tTb0

Here’s the description of Daughter of Mine.

Her father was the town detective. Her mother its most notorious criminal. Now the secrets of Mirror Lake are coming to the surface…and changing everything. “[A] stunning psychological thriller from one of the most insightful writers around” (CrimeReads), don’t miss the latest from Megan Miranda, the instant New York Times bestselling author of All the Missing Girls, The Last to Vanish, and The Only Survivors.

When Hazel Sharp, daughter of Mirror Lake’s longtime local detective, unexpectedly inherits her childhood home, she’s warily drawn back to the town—and people—she left behind almost a decade earlier. But Hazel’s not the only relic of the past to return: a drought has descended on the region, and as the water level in the lake drops, long-hidden secrets begin to emerge…including evidence that may help finally explain the mystery of her mother’s disappearance.

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Megan Miranda is the New York Times bestselling author of All the Missing Girls, The Perfect Stranger, The Last House Guest, which was a Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick, The Girl from Widow Hills, Such a Quiet Place, The Last to Vanish, and The Only Survivors. She has also written several books for young adults. She grew up in New Jersey, graduated from MIT, and lives in North Carolina with her husband and two children. Follow @MeganLMiranda on Twitter and Instagram, @AuthorMeganMiranda on Facebook, or visit MeganMiranda.com.

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Enjoy the conversation with Megan Miranda and Barbara Peters.