Fiction Review

Miraculous Mysteries, edited by Martin Edwards, is The Poisoned Pen’s Hot Book of the Week.

Here’s the summary from the Web Store.

Impossible crime stories have been relished by puzzle-lovers ever since the invention of detective fiction. Fiendishly intricate cases were particularly well suited to the cerebral type of detective story that became so popular during the ‘golden age of murder’ between the two world wars. But the tradition goes back to the days of Edgar Allan Poe and Wilkie Collins, and impossible crime stories have been written by such luminaries as Arthur Conan Doyle, G.K. Chesterton, Dorothy L. Sayers and Margery Allingham.

This anthology celebrates their work, alongside long-hidden gems by less familiar writers. Together these stories demonstrate the range and high accomplishment of the classic British impossible crime story over more than half a century.

*****

Interested? You can order a copy through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2t3aSnB

Fiona Barton will be at The Poisoned Pen on Saturday, July 22 at 2 PM to discuss her new novel of psychological suspense, The Child.

Here’s the summary of the book from the Web Store.

One of Time‘s “Top 10 Thrillers to Read This Summer”

The author of the stunning New York Times bestseller The Widow returns with a brand-new novel of twisting psychological suspense.

As an old house is demolished in a gentrifying section of London, a workman discovers a tiny skeleton, buried for years. For journalist Kate Waters, it’s a story that deserves attention. She cobbles together a piece for her newspaper, but at a loss for answers, she can only pose a question: Who is the Building Site Baby?

As Kate investigates, she unearths connections to a crime that rocked the city decades earlier: A newborn baby was stolen from the maternity ward in a local hospital and was never found. Her heartbroken parents were left devastated by the loss.

But there is more to the story, and Kate is drawn—house by house—into the pasts of the people who once lived in this neighborhood that has given up its greatest mystery. And she soon finds herself the keeper of unexpected secrets that erupt in the lives of three women—and torn between what she can and cannot tell…

*****

Interested? For a quick sneak peek of the July 22 event, you can watch Fiona Barton talk about writing on Author Shorts. https://bit.ly/2sPT0Mx

And, you can pre-order The Child through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2t2W7RQ

James W. Ziskin and Christine Carbo were just at The Poisoned Pen for a discussion and signing.

Ziskin signed the latest Ellie Stone novel, Cast the First Stone. The Weight of Night is the latest mystery in Carbo’s series set in Glacier National Park.

Here are the authors discussing their books with Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen.

There are signed copies of Cast the First Stone and The Weight of Night available through the Web Store. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

I know I’ve been mentioning Joseph Kanon frequently here lately, but I have one more piece to share. There’s a delightful interview with him in “By the Book” in the New York Times. If you enjoy his books, you might want to check out the interview. https://nyti.ms/2tqVLkf

And, don’t forget you can order a signed copy of Defectors through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2rFFQ5j

Joseph Finder, author of the thriller, The Switch, and Karen Dionne, author of the novel of psychological suspense, The Marsh King’s Daughter, recently had a conversation with Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen. You can watch that conversation via Livestream. https://livestream.com/poisonedpen/events/7512694

Then, you can order signed copies of their books through the Web Store. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

Did you miss Joseph Kanon when he was at The Poisoned Pen to discuss his latest book, Defectors?

You can still get a signed copy through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2rFFQ5j

And, we have a few photos to share.

Did you miss Martin Walker’s appearance at The Poisoned Pen when he was here to talk about his latest Bruno novel, The Templars’ Last Secret? You can still feel as if you were there by watching it on Livestream. https://livestream.com/poisonedpen/events/7348145

The conversations are always about so much more than the most recent book. This time, Walker and The Poisoned Pen’s owner, Barbara Peters, kick off their conversation with politics and treason.

Watch the Livestream. Then, if you’d like a signed copy of the book, you can order it through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2sFBF9o

It’s hard to love books and not also love libraries. Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen Bookstore, and a world traveler, passed on David Laskin’s recent New York Times article, “The Hidden Treasures in Italian Libraries”. Take a look, and you may fall in love with these libraries as well. https://nyti.ms/2siOk19

Author Don Winslow will be at The Poisoned Pen on Monday, June 19 at 7 PM to discuss and sign his latest book, The Force.

Here’s the description from the Web Store.

The acclaimed, award-winning, bestselling author of The Cartel—voted one of the Best Books of the Year by more than sixty publications, including the New York Times—makes his William Morrow debut with a cinematic epic as explosive, powerful, and unforgettable as Mystic River and The Wire.

Recommended for summer reading by Amazon, Newsday, New York Times, Time Magazine, Miami Herald, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Edmond News, Rutland Herald, Seattle Times, AM New York, BookBub, and theREALbookspy.com

Our ends know our beginnings, but the reverse isn’t true . . .

All Denny Malone wants is to be a good cop.

He is “the King of Manhattan North,” a, highly decorated NYPD detective sergeant and the real leader of “Da Force.” Malone and his crew are the smartest, the toughest, the quickest, the bravest, and the baddest, an elite special unit given unrestricted authority to wage war on gangs, drugs and guns. Every day and every night for the eighteen years he’s spent on the Job, Malone has served on the front lines, witnessing the hurt, the dead, the victims, the perps. He’s done whatever it takes to serve and protect in a city built by ambition and corruption, where no one is clean—including Malone himself.

What only a few know is that Denny Malone is dirty: he and his partners have stolen millions of dollars in drugs and cash in the wake of the biggest heroin bust in the city’s history. Now Malone is caught in a trap and being squeezed by the Feds, and he must walk the thin line between betraying his brothers and partners, the Job, his family, and the woman he loves, trying to survive, body and soul, while the city teeters on the brink of a racial conflagration that could destroy them all.

Based on years of research inside the NYPD, this is the great cop novel of our time and a book only Don Winslow could write: a haunting and heartbreaking story of greed and violence, inequality and race, crime and injustice, retribution and redemption that reveals the seemingly insurmountable tensions between the police and the diverse citizens they serve. A searing portrait of a city and a courageous, heroic, and deeply flawed man who stands at the edge of its abyss, The Force is a masterpiece of urban living full of shocking and surprising twists, leavened by flashes of dark humor, a morally complex and utterly riveting dissection of modern American society and the controversial issues confronting and dividing us today.

*****

Janet Maslin just reviewed The Force in the New York Times. https://nyti.ms/2sqfHXj

If you can’t make it to The Poisoned Pen on Monday, you can still order a signed copy of The Force through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2rk4fZO  According to Patrick Millikin, the copies will come with “an exclusive behind-the-book essay that gives insight into the inspiration for writing The Force“.

As Laurie R. King mentions at the beginning of the Livestream film, Lockdown is not a Mary Russell book.

Here’s the summary of the novel.

A community comes together when threatened by someone with a thirst for revenge in this stunningly intricate, tautly plotted novel of rich psychological suspense from the New York Times bestselling author of the Mary Russell mysteries.

Career Day at Guadalupe Middle School: A day given to innocent hopes and youthful dreams. A day no one in attendance will ever forget.

A year ago, Principal Linda McDonald arrived at Guadalupe determined to overturn the school’s reputation for truancy, gang violence, and neglect. One of her initiatives is Career Day—bringing together children, teachers, and community presenters in a celebration of the future. But there are some in attendance who reject McDonald’s bright vision.

A principal with a secret. A husband with a murky past. A cop with too many questions. A kid under pressure to prove himself. A girl struggling to escape a mother’s history. A young basketball player with an affection for guns.

Even the school janitor has a story he dare not reveal.

But no one at the gathering anticipates the shocking turn of events that will transform a day of possibilities into an explosive confrontation.

Tense, poignant, and brilliantly paced, Laurie R. King’s novel charts compelling characters on a collision course—a chain of interactions that locks together hidden lives, troubling secrets, and the bravest impulses of the human heart.

Advance praise for Lockdown

“A riveting story of suspense and tragedy out of the most seemingly mundane ingredients: kids and adults preparing for a day at school. The violence doesn’t explode until we’re well into the book, but the lead-up to the explosion has the feel of a brewing storm: we know something is going to happen, even if we don’t know what it is. A fine thriller, as timely as it is gripping.”—Booklist (starred review)

*****

You can watch the entire discussion of the book via Livestream. https://livestream.com/poisonedpen/events/7348143

Or, you can just enjoy the photos.

I’m sorry you can’t taste the cake. You can, however, get a signed copy of Lockdown through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2spAhai