Fiction Review

Edan Lepucki and Bookstores

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If you’re reading this post, you’re undoubtedly a fan of bookstores. So is Edan Leducki, author of Woman No. 17.

Woman No. 17

She recently did a short video talking about two subjects – bookstore shopping and her favorite punctuation mark.  https://bit.ly/2qnYbm8

Edan Lepucki

 

Here’s the description of Lepucki’s Woman No. 17.

New York Times bestselling author Edan Lepucki’s Woman No. 17 “reads like a Hollywood HIlls film noir.” — Seattle Times
 
High in the Hollywood Hills, writer Lady Daniels has decided to take a break from her husband. Left alone with her children, she’s going to need a hand taking care of her young son if she’s ever going to finish her memoir. In response to a Craigslist ad, S arrives, a magnetic young artist who will live in the secluded guest house out back, care for Lady’s toddler, Devin, and keep a watchful eye on her older, teenage son, Seth. S performs her day job beautifully, quickly drawing the entire family into her orbit, and becoming a confidante for Lady.

But in the heat of the summer, S’s connection to Lady’s older son takes a disturbing, and possibly destructive, turn. And as Lady and S move closer to one another, the glossy veneer of Lady’s privileged life begins to crack, threatening to expose old secrets that she has been keeping from her family. Meanwhile, S is protecting secrets of her own, about her real motivation for taking the job. S and Lady are both playing a careful game, and every move they make endangers the things they hold most dear.

Darkly comic, twisty and tense, this mesmerizing new novel defies expectation and proves Edan Lepucki to be one of the most talented and exciting voices of her generation.

Woman No. 17 can be ordered through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2rWdsaI

Joseph Finder, Boy and Writer

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Long before Joseph Finder was the author of The Switch, he was a boy who fell in love with one author’s book.

Switch

Finder tells that story in a recent article for Publishers Weekly. https://bit.ly/2qTZCGt. It’s the story of an author who cared enough to answer a young boy, answers that inspired him.

You can read the article. You can also meet Joseph Finder at The Poisoned Pen on Saturday, June 17 at 2 PM when he’s on book tour for The Switch. You can pre-order a signed copy of the book through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2qThvY5

Here’s the description of The Switch.

A simple mix up throws one innocent man into the crosshairs of sinister government secrets and ruthless political ambitions in New York Timesbestselling author Joseph Finder’s timely, electrifying new thriller.

Michael Tanner is on his way home from a business trip when he accidentally picks up the wrong MacBook in an airport security line. He doesn’t notice the mix-up until he arrives home in Boston, but by then it’s too late. Tanner’s curiosity gets the better of him when he discovers that the owner is a US senator and that the laptop contains top secret files.

When Senator Susan Robbins realizes she’s come back with the wrong laptop, she calls her young chief of staff, Will Abbott, in a panic. Both know that the senator broke the law by uploading classified documents onto her personal computer. If those documents wind up in the wrong hands, it could be Snowden 2.0—and her career in politics will be over. She needs to recover the MacBook before it’s too late.

When Will fails to gain Tanner’s cooperation, he is forced to take measures to retrieve the laptop before a bigger security breach is revealed.  He turns to an unscrupulous “fixer” for help.  In the meantime, the security agency whose files the senator has appropriated has its own methods, darker still—and suddenly Tanner finds himself a hunted man, on the run, terrified for the safety of his family, in desperate need of a plan, and able to trust no one.

Jo Nesbø at The Poisoned Pen

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Jo Nesbø, author of The Thirst, just appeared at The Poisoned Pen. You can watch the event on Livestream here. https://livestream.com/poisonedpen/events/7348078

thirst

Here’s the summary of the book.

#1 International Best Seller

In this electrifying new thriller from the author of Police and The Snowman, Inspector Harry Hole hunts down a serial murderer who targets his victims . . . on Tinder.

The murder victim, a self-declared Tinder addict. The one solid clue—fragments of rust and paint in her wounds—leaves the investigating team baffled.
Two days later, there’s a second murder: a woman of the same age, a Tinder user, an eerily similar scene.
The chief of police knows there’s only one man for this case. But Harry Hole is no longer with the force. He promised the woman he loves, and he promised himself, that he’d never go back: not after his last case, which put the people closest to him in grave danger.
But there’s something about these murders that catches his attention, something in the details that the investigators have missed. For Harry, it’s like hearing “the voice of a man he was trying not to remember.” Now, despite his promises, despite everything he risks, Harry throws himself back into the hunt for a figure who haunts him, the monster who got away.

STARRED REVIEW 
“Exceptional . . . Nesbo depicts a heartbreakingly conflicted Harry, who both wants to forget the horrors he’s trying to prevent and knows he has to remember them in all their grim detail.”
—Publishers Weekly

Jo Nesbo event

Even if you weren’t one of the happy people in the audience, shown here with the author and his book, you can get a signed copy of The Thirst. Look for it in the Web Store.

https://bit.ly/2qN6iYQ

The Photos Behind a Best Seller

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Have you seen the nonfiction book, Killers of the Flower Moon, by David Grann?

Flower Moon

Here’s the description from the Web Store.

“Disturbing and riveting…Grann has proved himself a master of spinning delicious, many-layered mysteries that also happen to be true…It will sear your soul.” —Dave Eggers, New York Times Book Review

From New Yorker staff writer David Grann, #1 New York Times best-selling author of The Lost City of Z, a twisting, haunting true-life murder mystery about one of the most monstrous crimes in American history

In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Indian nation in Oklahoma. After oil was discovered beneath their land, they rode in chauffeured automobiles, built mansions, and sent their children to study in Europe.
Then, one by one, the Osage began to be killed off. The family of an Osage woman, Mollie Burkhart, became a prime target. Her relatives were shot and poisoned. And it was just the beginning, as more and more members of the tribe began to die under mysterious circumstances.
In this last remnant of the Wild West—where oilmen like J. P. Getty made their fortunes and where desperadoes like Al Spencer, the “Phantom Terror,” roamed—many of those who dared to investigate the killings were themselves murdered. As the death toll climbed to more than twenty-four, the FBI took up the case. It was one of the organization’s first major homicide investigations and the bureau badly bungled the case. In desperation, the young director, J. Edgar Hoover, turned to a former Texas Ranger named Tom White to unravel the mystery. White put together an undercover team, including one of the only American Indian agents in the bureau. The agents infiltrated the region, struggling to adopt the latest techniques of detection.  Together with the Osage they began to expose one of the most chilling conspiracies in American history.
In Killers of the Flower Moon, David Grann revisits a shocking series of crimes in which dozens of people were murdered in cold blood. Based on years of research and startling new evidence, the book is a masterpiece of narrative nonfiction, as each step in the investigation reveals a series of sinister secrets and reversals. But more than that, it is a searing indictment of the callousness and prejudice toward American Indians that allowed the murderers to operate with impunity for so long. Killers of the Flower Moon is utterly compelling, but also emotionally devastating.

*****

Even more compelling are the photos that inspired Grann’s book. Grann recently wrote an article that included the rare archival photos behind the book. https://bit.ly/2q0Ol61

If we’ve caught your attention and you want to buy the book, we have signed copies in the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2r0GEkn

The Story Factory

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What do Don Winslow, Steve Hamilton and Meg Gardiner have in common? Shane Salerno and The Story Factory.

Here’s the story behind The Story Factory. https://bit.ly/2qX1MYH

Intrigued? You can ask Steve Hamilton about it on Wednesday, May 24 at 7 PM. He’ll be at The Poisoned Pen, hosted by Nicholas Petrie.

And, don’t forget, you can buy books by the authors represented by The Story Factory through the Web Store. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

Anthony Award Nominations

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Congratulations to the nominees for the 2017 Anthony Awards. The awards, voted on by the attendees at Bouchercon, the World Mystery Convention, will be presented at this year’s convention in Toronto in October.

ANTHONY AWARD NOMINATIONS for 2017

Best Novel

You Will Know Me ““ Megan Abbott [Little, Brown]
Where It Hurts ““ Reed Farrel Coleman [G.P. Putnam’s Sons]
Red Right Hand ““ Chris Holm [Mulholland]
Wilde Lake ““ Laura Lippman [William Morrow]
A Great Reckoning ““ Louise Penny [Minotaur]

Best First Novel

Dodgers ““ Bill Beverly [Crown]
IQ ““ Joe Ide [Mulholland]
Decanting a Murder ““ Nadine Nettmann [Midnight Ink]
Design for Dying ““ Renee Patrick [Forge]
The Drifter ““ Nicholas Petrie [G.P. Putnam’s Sons]

Best Paperback Original

Shot in Detroit ““ Patricia Abbott [Polis]
Leadfoot ““ Eric Beetner [280 Steps]
Salem’s Cipher ““ Jess Lourey [Midnight Ink]
Rain Dogs ““ Adrian McKinty [Seventh Street]
How to Kill Friends and Implicate People ““ Jay Stringer [Thomas & Mercer]
Heart of Stone ““ James W. Ziskin [Seventh Street]

Best Short Story

“Oxford Girl” ““ Megan Abbott, Mississippi Noir [Akashic]
“Autumn at the Automat” ““ Lawrence Block, In Sunlight or in Shadow [Pegasus]
“Gary’s Got A Boner” ““ Johnny Shaw, Waiting to Be Forgotten [Gutter]
“Parallel Play” ““ Art Taylor, Chesapeake Crimes: Storm Warning [Wildside]
“Queen of the Dogs” ““ Holly West, 44 Caliber Funk: Tales of Crime, Soul and Payback [Moonstone]

Best Critical Nonfiction Work

Alfred Hitchcock: A Brief Life ““ Peter Ackroyd [Nan A. Talese]
Letters from a Serial Killer ““ Kristi Belcamino & Stephanie Kahalekulu [CreateSpace]
Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life ““ Ruth Franklin [Liveright]
Something in the Blood: The Untold Story of Bram Stoker ““ David J. Skal [Liveright]
The Wicked Boy: The Mystery of a Victorian Child Murderer ““ Kate Summerscale [Bloomsbury/Penguin]

Best Children’s/YA Novel

Snowed ““ Maria Alexander [Raw Dog Screaming]
The Girl I Used to Be ““ April Henry [Henry Holt]
Tag, You’re Dead ““ J.C. Lane [Poisoned Pen]

Tag
My Sister Rosa ““ Justine Larbalestier [Soho Teen]
The Fixes ““ Owen Matthews [HarperTeen]

Best Anthology

Unloaded: Crime Writers Writing Without Guns ““ Eric Beetner, ed. [Down & Out]
In Sunlight or in Shadow ““ Lawrence Block, ed. [Pegasus]
Cannibals: Stories from the Edge of the Pine Barrens ““ Jen Conley [Down & Out]
Blood on the Bayou: Bouchercon Anthology 2016 ““ Greg Herren, ed. [Down & Out]
Waiting To Be Forgotten: Stories of Crime and Heartbreak, Inspired by the Replacements ““ Jay Stringer, ed. [Gutter]

Best Novella (8,000-40,000 words)

Cleaning Up Finn ““ Sarah M. Chen [CreateSpace]
No Happy Endings ““ Angel Luis Colón [Down & Out]
Crosswise ““ S.W. Lauden [Down & Out]
Beware the Shill ““ John Shepphird [Down & Out]
The Last Blue Glass ““ B.K. Stevens, Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, April 2016 [Dell]

Historical Mysteries & The Poisoned Pen

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On Saturday, May 20 at 2 PM, three authors who have mysteries with roots in the past will appear at The Poisoned Pen. Gian Sardar is the author of the debut, You Were Here. Radha Vatsal’s historical mystery is Murder Between the Lines. Rosemary Simpson will sign What the Dead Leave Behind. Intrigued?

You can order signed copies of any or all of the books through the Web Store. https://store.poisonedpen.com/