Fiction Review

It doesn’t get much cuter than this book jacket.

David Rosenfelt was recently at The Poisoned Pen to talk about his new Andy Carpenter mystery, The Twelve Dogs of Christmas. Here’s the summary from the Web Store’s page.

“Defense lawyer Andy Carpenter usually tries to avoid taking on new cases at all costs. But this time, he’s happy – eager, even – to take the case that’s just come his way. Andy’s long-time friend Martha Pups” Boyer takes in stray puppies that the local dog rescue center can’t handle, raises them until they’re old enough to adopt, and then finds good homes for them. Not everyone admires the work Pups does as much as Andy does, however. With Christmas just around the corner, one of Pups’s neighbors has just reported Pups to the city for having more than the legal number of pets in her home under the local zoning laws.

“Andy happily takes Pups’s case, and he feels confident in a positive outcome. Who could punish someone for rescuing puppies, after all, especially at Christmastime? But things get a lot more complicated when Randy Hennessey, the neighbor who registered the complaint against Pups, turns up dead. Pups had loudly and publicly threatened Hennessey after he filed his complaint, and Pups was also the one to find his body. All the evidence seems to point to Pups as the killer, and suddenly Andy hasa murder case on his hands. He doesn’t believe Pups could be guilty, but as he starts digging deeper into the truth behind Hennessey’s murder, Andy may find himself facing a killer more dangerous than he ever imagined.

“With his trademark wit, larger-than-life characters, and clever plotting, David Rosenfelt delivers another gripping mystery.”

If the plot sounds intriguing to you, it sounded intriguing to one of the Golden Retriever rescue dog that came to the program. It wanted to buy a copy of The Twelve Dogs of Christmas from Patrick Millikin.

You can also buy a signed copy through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2eRu9OZ

And, if you’d like to hear David Rosenfelt talk about his books with The Poisoned Pen owner Barbara Peters  (and see the Golden Retriever), you can watch the event on Livestream. https://livestream.com/poisonedpen/events/6463484

The Poisoned Pen is hosting the book launch for Michael Connelly’s The Wrong Side of Goodbye, Tuesday, November 1 at 7 PM. (Doors open at 6 PM.)

Please note that the program will be at The Doubletree, 5401 N. Scottsdale Rd., Scottsdale. And, although the first releases said tickets would be required, and there was a charge, that has changed. Tickets are no longer required. If you bought a ticket, you will be notified by someone on the staff.

So, there’s free parking. A cash bar. And, it’s a free book launch for Michael Connelly’s book.

If you can’t make it, you can buy a signed copy through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2eCO8ka

Tim Hallinan will be at The Poisoned Pen on Tuesday, Oct. 25 a5 7 PM, joining Ed Lin, author of Incensed. If you can be there, you really want to hear Hallinan talk about his book, Fields Where They Lay. The latest Junior Bender mystery is our Hot Book of the Week. And, this is the release date for Fields Where They Lay.

There’s a good reason it’s our hot book. Check out these comments.

A Publishers Weekly Editor’s Top 10 Pick for Fall 2016

ҬӬA BookPage Most Anticipated Fall Mystery

 “Comparisons to Raymond Chandler and Donald Westlake are totally deserved and should give you a clue as to whether you’ll like this book as much as I did.”

—Raleigh News & Observer

“It’s hard to top Hallinan’s Junior Bender, the Los Angeles ‘Thief of Thieves’.”

—BookBub

“A plum pudding stuffed with cynical disillusionment, organized and disorganized crime, two Santas, a seasonal miracle, and an ending that earns every bit of its uplift.”

—Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review

“Hallinan deserves to win an Edgar for his ingeniously plotted, often hilarious sixth Junior Bender novel.”

—Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

“Nobody does comic mystery with an edge better than Hallinan.”

—Booklist, Starred Review

“Everything readers could want.”

—Library Journal, Starred Review

It’s three days until Christmas and Junior Bender is up to his ears in shopping mall Santas, Russian mobsters, desperate holiday shoppers, and (’tis the season) murder.

It’s Christmas in Tinsel Town. Well, it’s the week leading up to Christmas, and Junior Bender, divorced father of one and burglar extraordinaire, finds himself at the Edgerton Mall. He’s not just among the last-minute shoppers (though he is that too); he’s also on a job. The Edgerton Mall isn’t exactly full of holiday cheer, despite its two Santas, canned Christmas music, chintzy bows, and metallic garland. The mall is a fossil of an industry in decline; many of its stores are closed, and to make matters worse, there is a rampant shoplifting problem.

Thus Junior Bender, the unwilling fixer for LA’s various underworld bosses, is on the scene. The murderous Russian gangster who owns the mall hires Junior to look into the shoplifting problem for him. But Junior’s surveillance operation doesn’t go well: within two days, two people are dead. It’s obvious that shoplifting is the least of the mall’s problems. Meanwhile, Junior must confront his own deep-seated melancholy at the very notion of Christmas—both present and past.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR   Timothy Hallinan has been nominated for the Edgar, Nero, Shamus, Macavity and Silver Dagger awards. He is the author of nineteen widely praised books, including For the Dead, The Hot Countries, Crashed, Little Elvises, The Fame Thief, King Maybe, and Herbie’s Game, which won the Lefty Award for Best Humorous Mystery. After years of working in the television and music industries, he now writes full-time. He divides his time between California and Thailand.

If you can’t make it to The Poisoned Pen, you can still order a signed copy of Fields Where They Lay through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2e5xIjm

I hope by now that you’ve watched some of the events from The Poisoned Pen via Livestream. We’ve had a few recently that I didn’t have photos for. Even so, you might be interested in catching the events now. Don’t forget we have signed copies of the authors’ books in the Web Store. https://store.poisonedpen.com

Did you miss Jeffrey Siger and Mark Pryor when they were here?

You can still watch their event. https://livestream.com/poisonedpen/events/6463502

Jon Jefferson and Dr. Bill Bass write as Jefferson Bass.

While Jon Jefferson was in the store, Dr. Bass appeared via SKYPE. Do you want to see that program? https://livestream.com/poisonedpen/events/6463351

If you have an hour, and want to feel as if you were at The Poisoned Pen, check out the LIvestream programs.

In Bookstr.com, Mtfrancis talks about the National Archives use of GIFs to bring scenes to life. To illustrate, there are photos of Walt Whitman, Ernest Hemingway, and Mark Twain. Check it out here. https://www.bookstr.com/article/authors-brought-to-life/2555

Randy Wayne White was just in town from Florida, on book tour for Seduced, the fourth Hannah Smith novel.

Check out the drink Randy’s carrying as he enters through the audience.

It’s a Tequila Sunrise in honor of the orange juice in the book, Seduced. The audience did get drinks as well.

Randy brought gifts for the audience, too.

And, he discussed his writing, and answered questions.

Now, maybe he didn’t answer the same type of questions as he answered on “Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me” on Oct. 1.

https://www.npr.org/player/embed/496063010/496214691

If you would like to see the event from The Poisoned Pen, you can watch it on Livestream. https://livestream.com/poisonedpen/events/6496855

You can purchase a signed copy of Randy Wayne White’s Seduced through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2f0ZLoh

Although we have photos from The Poisoned Pen program featuring Lincoln Child & Douglas Preston’s new Agent Pendergast novel, The Obsidian Chamber, we really should start with the competition between the two authors.

Lincoln Child signed 4,000 copies of The Obsidian Chamber in New York for The Poisoned Pen. Naturally, when Douglas Preston came to the store, he tried to out-do his fellow author. We have video of both signings. Here’s The Poisoned Pen’s e-news about the event:

How much fun is this?

Enjoy two time-lapse videos: one of Lincoln Child signing 4000 copies of The Obsidian Chamber (Grand Central $27) in New York City at the beginning of October to ship to The Pen. 7 hours of work compressed into 1.5 minutes. Watch Lincoln at work here. https://www.facebook.com/PrestonandChild/videos/1104170919619402/

So Lincoln ignited a contest with Doug for the best time, and best video.

The time was roughly a tie. Our video of Doug signing the books has an extra. You can spot it (them) HERE.  https://livestream.com/poisonedpen/events/6517784   Note; we will work to slow it down a little so you can enjoy the surprises more. There’s a leaning curve involved for us.

And you can watch a Livestream of what become a rather raucous event as Lincoln wielded a bullhorn when he felt like it, and our laptop computer handling the Skype decided to reboot itself mid-program. Oy. https://livestream.com/poisonedpen/events/6514290. Lincoln Child, who has already signed all our copies, appears by Skype

Our copies come with a postcard of the Pendergast coat of arms. You can order the signed copies of The Obsidian Chamber here. https://bit.ly/2dSS3bL We also have signed copies of earlier Pendergasts and Gideon Crew thriller by Preston & Child. You can order them through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2eyp0di

Now, if you don’t want to watch the Livestream, or if you’d like to see a few photos from the program, we have those as well.

It’s always nice to see a debut author meet an established author’s audience. I remember when Lee Child introduced debut author Cornelia Read at The Poisoned Pen. This time, debut author Joe Ide, author of IQ, shared the stage with John Sandford who is on book tour for Escape Clause, the ninth Virgil Flowers novel.

We have photos, beginning with the authors in the back room.

You can actually see the event, and hear both authors, via Livestream. https://livestream.com/poisonedpen/events/6463472/videos/139171605

And, don’t forget to pick up your signed copies of Escape Clause and IQ through the Web Store. https://store.poisonedpen.com

I realized I never shared some of the photos of crime writers at Bouchercon in New Orleans. It’s a wonderful conference, and a great place to run into favorite authors. So, today, just some pictures of authors you may read, and not recognize. Don’t forget to look for their books in the Web Store! https://store.poisonedpen.com

A teaser clip has been released for Netflix’s upcoming adaptation of Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events that is “so unnerving that it’s caused jolly cut-up Patrick Warburton to become super-serious,” Yahoo News wrote.  https://yhoo.it/2ecrCRN “In this new clip teasing the eight-episode series, which premieres on January 13, 2017, the former Tick steps assumes the role of the narrator for these Unfortunate Events, Lemony Snicket, who chronicled the sad case of the Baudelaire orphans over the course of 13 books…. In the middle of his stone-faced soliloquy, the actor is interrupted from off-screen by a maniacally happy singer who sounds an awful lot like Neil Patrick Harris, who plays the orphans’ sinister guardian and constant nemesis, Count Olaf.””

If you want to be prepared before the series comes out, you can buy Lemony Snicket’s books through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2dJUVHV