Fiction Review

It was fascinating to hear Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, discuss The Queens of Crime with Marie Benedict. There was a conversation about The Detection Club, and cocktails, and the authors who were the Queens of Crime. You can order signed copies of the book in the Webstore. https://bit.ly/4h0bWMV.

Here is the summary of The Queens of Crime.

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Mystery of Mrs. Christie—a thrilling story of the five greatest women writers of the Golden Age of Mystery and their bid to solve a real-life murder.

London, 1930. The five greatest women crime writers have banded together to form a secret society with a single goal: to show they are no longer willing to be treated as second class citizens by their male counterparts in the legendary Detection Club. Led by the formidable Dorothy L. Sayers, the group includes Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allingham and Baroness Emma Orczy. They call themselves the Queens of Crime. Their plan? Solve an actual murder, that of a young woman found strangled in a park in France who may have connections leading to the highest levels of the British establishment.

May Daniels, a young English nurse on an excursion to France with her friend, seemed to vanish into thin air as they prepared to board a ferry home. Months later, her body is found in the nearby woods. The murder has all the hallmarks of a locked room mystery for which these authors are famous: how did her killer manage to sneak her body out of a crowded train station without anyone noticing? If, as the police believe, the cause of death is manual strangulation, why is there is an extraordinary amount of blood at the crime scene? What is the meaning of a heartbreaking secret letter seeming to implicate an unnamed paramour? Determined to solve the highly publicized murder, the Queens of Crime embark on their own investigation, discovering they’re stronger together. But soon the killer targets Dorothy Sayers herself, threatening to expose a dark secret in her past that she would do anything to keep hidden.

Inspired by a true story in Sayers’ own life, New York Times bestselling author Marie Benedict brings to life the lengths to which five talented women writers will go to be taken seriously in the male-dominated world of letters as they unpuzzle a mystery torn from the pages of their own novels.

---

MARIE BENEDICT is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of The Queens of Crime, The Mitford Affair, Her Hidden Genius, The Mystery of Mrs. Christie, The Only Woman in the Room, Lady Clementine, Carnegie’s Maid, The Other Einstein, and with Victoria Christopher Murray, the Good Morning America Book Club pick The Personal Librarian and the Target Book of the Year The First Ladies. All have been translated into multiple languages, and many have been selected for the Barnes & Noble Book Club, Target Book Club, Costco Book Club, Indie Next List, and LibraryReads List. She lives in Pittsburgh with her family.

---

Enjoy the conversation with Marie Benedict.

Patrick Millikin from The Poisoned Pen has been waiting to talk about To Save the Man with John Sayles. The novel deals with the Wounded Knee Massacre and the Carlisle Indian School. There are signed copies of the book still available in the Webstore. https://bit.ly/4hGb8ha

Here is the description of To Save the Man.

In the vein of Never Let Me Go and Killers of the Flower Moon, one of America’s greatest storytellers sheds light on an American tragedy: the Wounded Knee Massacre, and the ‘cultural genocide’ experienced by the Native American children at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School . . .

In September of 1890, the academic year begins at the Carlisle School, a military-style boarding school for Indians in Pennsylvania, founded and run by Captain Richard Henry Pratt. Pratt considers himself a champion of Native Americans. His motto, “To save the man, we must kill the Indian,” is severely enforced in both classroom and dormitory: Speak only English, forget your own language and customs, learn to be white.

As the young students navigate surviving the school, they begin to hear rumors of a “ghost dance” amongst the tribes of the west—a ceremonial dance aimed at restoring the Native People to power, and running the invaders off their land. As the hope and promise of the ghost dance sweeps across the Great Plains, cynical newspapers seize upon the story to whip up panic among local whites. The US government responds by deploying troops onto lands that had been granted to the Indians. It is an act that seems certain to end in slaughter.

As news of these developments reaches Carlisle, each student, no matter what their tribe, must make a choice: to follow the white man’s path, or be true to their own way of life . . .

---

John Sayles is an American independent film director, screenwriter, actor, and novelist. He has twice been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, for Passion Fish (1992) and Lone Star (1996). He has written eight novels, the most recent being Yellow Earth (2020) and JAMIE MACGILLIVRAY: The Renegade’s Journey (2023), which was a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice.

---

You’ll want to watch Patrick Millikin’s conversation with John Sayles.

Award-winning reviewer Oline Cogdill recently reviewed John McMahon’s Head Cases, the first in a new series. There are still a couple signed copies available in The Poisoned Pen’s Webstore. https://bit.ly/40U9VN9. And, once you’ve read Cogdill’s review from the South Florida Sun Sentinel, youl’ll want to watch the conversation from The Poisoned Pen.

John McMahon’s new novel, “Head Cases,” launches a new series. (Nathaniel Chadwick/Courtesy)

Book review: ‘Head Cases’ launches new series about brainy FBI agents

‘Head Cases’ by John McMahon. Minotaur, 352 pages, $28

An elite, cerebral FBI team that mainly relies on its collective intellect but doesn’t shy away from action launches what should be a stellar new series from Edgar nominee John McMahon.

“Head Cases” balances fully fleshed-out, quirky characters with McMahon’s fine eye for details about the inner workings of investigations coupled with methodical plotting.
Privately, these five investigators call themselves the Head Cases because, as one character says, they “mostly live in their heads.” Publicly, they are known as the FBI’s Patterns and Recognition team — PAR — that utilizes each individual’s skills. The lead investigator is Gardner Camden, a savant with an eidetic memory and a love of puzzles.

The team’s latest case is tracking a vigilante who targets serial killers. The vigilante’s first victim was a killer Gardner had hunted years before who was believed to have died in a fire seven years ago. Apparently not. The team learns the now deceased killer had been living under the radar in Texas. PAR members believe the killer may be receiving inside information as more murders occur.

The case takes the team from its base in Jacksonville to Miami to Texas and other sites. While Gardner is the main focus of “Head Cases,” McMahon makes sure that each character takes center stage. Joanne Harris earned her nickname, “The Shooter,” as “the pride of the 2012 Olympic shooting team.” Cassie Pardo is “The Analyst,” with exceptional math skills. Frank Roberts, “The Boss,” is old-school FBI while “The Rookie” is Richie Brancato whose entry on the team mystifies the others.

The tight-knit investigators respect each other’s skills and care about their colleagues’ welfare and personal lives, without being intrusive. Rumors that PAR may be dissolved brings them closer but doesn’t affect their devotion to their investigation. McMahon’s precise storytelling in “Head Cases” should assure many adventures with this intelligent team.

Behind the plot: While many thrillers and mysteries are optioned for television or film, John McMahon’s “Head Cases” may be one of the rare exceptions to make it to the screen as it currently is in development with Warner Bros. TV for a streaming series on HBO Max. “Head Cases” is McMahon’s fourth novel. His first novel “The Good Detective” was nominated for the Edgar and ITW Thriller awards.

---

You can also watch John McMahon’s event at The Poisoned Pen with bookstore owner Barbara Peters.

Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, recently welcomed Gregg Hurwitz, author of the Orphan X series. The latest book is Nemesis. There are signed copies of the book available in the Webstore. https://bit.ly/41djQO1.

Here’s the description of Nemesis.

No greater friend. No deadlier enemy.

The explosive new novel in the New York Times bestselling Orphan X series is flipping the acclaimed series on its head. Find out why series superfans and new readers alike are calling it a “knockout” (firstCLUE).

Evan Smoak is a highly trained former government assassin who has survived for years by keeping his circle to a few trusted confidants and a strict code he calls “The Ten Commandments.” But when Evan suddenly finds himself at odds with his oldest friend, all the rules he lives by shatter—and the consequences are murderous.

Tommy Stojack might be Evan’s best friend in the world. He’s a gifted gunsmith who has created much of Evan’s own weapons and combat gear. But now, he has apparently crossed one of Evan’s hardest lines and their argument explodes into open warfare. Now Evan has no choice but to track and face down his only friend.

In the meantime, Tommy has left town in order to honor his own promise to help a dead friend’s son. While Tommy is fighting to save the son with everything he’s got, Evan arrives with vengeance in mind.

But as deadly as the former Orphan X is, there is an even more dangerous threat about to arrive on the scene. The only question left is will any of them get out alive.

---

GREGG HURWITZ is the author of the New York Times bestselling Orphan X novels. Critically acclaimed, his novels have been international bestsellers, graced top ten lists, and have been published in thirty-two languages. Additionally, he’s sold scripts to many of the major studios, and written, developed, and produced television for various networks. Hurwitz lives in Los Angeles.

---

You’ll want to enjoy the conversation with Gregg Hurwitz. But, if you don’t have much time, at least check out the beginning of the video to see Hurwitz’ jacket.

Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, welcomed Steve Berry for a virtual event. Berry brings back his series hero, Cotton Malone, in The Medici Return. There are still a few signed copies of the book available through the Webstore. https://bit.ly/42UbUTd.

Here’s the description of The Medici Return.

From celebrated New York Times bestselling author Steve Berry comes the latest installment in his wildly popular Cotton Malone series—now in development as a streaming series. The Medici Return takes Cotton to Italy to solve a five hundred year-old mystery.  

Cotton Malone is on the hunt for a forgotten 16th century Pledge of Christ—a sworn promise made by Pope Julius II that evidences a monetary debt owed by the Vatican, still valid after five centuries—now worth in the trillions of dollars.  But collecting that debt centers around what happened to the famed Medici of Florence—a family that history says died out, without heirs, centuries ago. 

Who will become the next prime minister of Italy, and who will be the next pope? Finding answers proves difficult until Cotton realizes that everything hinges on when, and if, the Medici return.

---

Steve Berry is the New York Times and #1 internationally bestselling author of nineteen Cotton Malone novels, five stand-alone thrillers, two Luke Daniels adventures, and several works of short fiction. He has over twenty-six million books in print, translated into forty-one languages. With his wife, Elizabeth, he is the founder of History Matters, an organization dedicated to historical preservation. He serves as an emeritus member of the Smithsonian Libraries Advisory Board and was a founding member of International Thriller Writers, formerly serving as its co-president.

---

Enjoy the conversation with Steve Berry.

Book critic Oline Cogdill recently reviewed James L’Etoile’s River of Lies for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, and shared the review with us. You can find signed copies through The Poisoned Pen’s Webstore. https://bit.ly/4jXvlR1

Book review: Homeless camps burn and politics simmers in ‘River of Lies’

‘River of Lies’ by James L’Etoile. Oceanview Publishing, 384 pages, $18.99 

The politics of homelessness — from those who resent housing for the displaced in their neighborhood to developers who see that land as prime real estate — flows throughout “River of Lies,” the second novel in James L’Etoile’s new series about Sacramento police Detective Emily Hunter.

L’Etoile delivers a tightly packed police procedural with a strong current of believable action balanced by a close look at the personal lives of his characters.

Several homeless camps stretch out throughout Sacramento, a controversial situation throughout the city as residents complain about them. But lately arsonists have attacked three camps within a two-week period, destroying the meager possessions of the homeless, “the city’s forgotten shadows.”

The attacks have been exacerbated with many homeless physically attacked. Two men are murdered following arson at a major camp near the river that has more than 200 residents. But the victims are not the homeless — one is the former anti-homeless mayor, the other a social worker.

The investigation falls to Emily and her partner, Javier Medina, both of whom are immediately suspicious of who is behind the fires. The city orders the camp debris cleared, ruining the crime scene, then developers swoop in.

L’Etoile’s attention to the detectives’ personal lives adds context to “River of Lies.” As the police detectives continue their investigation, Emily is drawn to the plight of 8-year-old Willow, whose mother was injured during the attack by the arsonists. Emily also is dealing with trying to keep her mother safe as her mental health declines. The handsome Javier’s problem with his mother is different — she’s always trying to fix him up with a new woman; this time she might be right.

“River of Lies” takes readers through various Sacramento neighborhoods, focusing on the wealthy and the ordinary residents who make up the city. L’Etoile’s 2024 novel “Face of Greed” introduced Emily and her squad; this series should be around for quite a while.

Patrick Millikin from The Poisoned Pen recently had the chance to talk with one of his favorite authors, Walter Mosley. Mosley’s latest PI Joe King Oliver novel is Been Wrong So Long It Feels Like Right. There are signed copies still available in the Webstore. https://bit.ly/4gCVSjU

Here’s the description of Been Wrong So Long It Feels Like Right.

In the latest from “mystery master” Walter Mosley, a family member’s terminal illness leads P.I. Joe King Oliver to the investigation of his life: tracking down his long-lost father, and meanwhile, a new case pits King’s professional responsibility against his own moral code. (TheWashington Post)

Joe King Oliver’s beloved Grandma B has found a tumor, and at her age, treatment is high-risk. She’s lived life fully and without regrets, and now has only a single, dying wish: to see her long-lost son. King has been estranged from his father, Chief Odin Oliver, since he was a young boy. He swore to never speak to the man again when he was taken away in handcuffs. But now, Grandma B’s pure ask has opened King’s heart, and through his hunt, he gains a deeper understanding of his father as a complicated, righteous man—a man defined by women, a man protected by women, a man he wants to know. Although Chief was released from prison years ago, he’s been living underground ever since. Now, King must not only find his father, but prove his innocence, and protect the future of his entire family.

Simultaneously, King finds himself in a moral bind. Marigold Hart, the wife of a powerful Californian billionaire, has gone missing, along with their seven-year-old daughter. Orr is brutish and dangerous, and King realizes after locating her that it’s in her best interest to stay hidden. But are his motives pure? There is something magnetic about Marigold; he can’t help but want her near.  

In the latest installment in the Joe King Oliver series, no good deed goes unpunished. Emotionally stirring, pulse-pounding, and undeniably sexy, Been Wrong So Long It Feels Like Right shows Walter Mosley at his best.

---

WALTER MOSLEY is one of America’s most celebrated writers. He was given the 2020 National Book Award’s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, named a Grand Master of the Mystery Writers of America, and honored with the Anisfield-Wolf Award, a Grammy, a PEN USA Lifetime Achievement Award, the Robert Kirsch Award, numerous Edgars, and several NAACP Image Awards. His work is translated into 25 languages.  He has published fiction and nonfiction in The New Yorker, Playboy, and The Nation. As an executive producer, he adapted his novel, The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey, for AppleTV+ and serves as a writer and executive producer for FX’s “Snowfall.”

---

Enjoy the conversation with Walter Mosley.

Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, recently welcomed Robert Dugoni and Jeff Langholz to the bookstore to discuss Hold Strong. You can still order signed copies of the novel. https://bit.ly/4hswej7.

Here’s the summary of Hold Strong.

From Robert Dugoni, Jeff Langholz, and Chris Crabtree comes an epic and inspiring novel—based on true events—about love, heroism, and resilience during the darkest chapters of World War II.

Sam Carlson is a projectionist in small-town Minnesota, where fantasies unspool in glorious black and white—for him and for his sweetheart, college-bound math whiz Sarah Haber. When the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor, Sam is sent to the Philippines and captured as a POW. Brutalized but unbroken by the Bataan Death March and POW camps, Sam is one of eighteen hundred starved and weakened prisoners herded into the cargo hold of a barbaric hell ship called the Arisan Maru, his survival doubtful.

Determined to use her math skills on the home front, Sarah is recruited to Washington, DC, into the covert field of code breaking. When Sarah intercepts a message about a Japanese convoy, the US Navy’s mission is clear: sink the Arisan Maru and send it to the bottom of the South China Sea. Now, the lives of the two young lovers are about to inadvertently collide in one of the most shocking acts of World War II.

Anchored in an extraordinary true story and breathlessly re-created, Hold Strong is a one-of-a-kind novel that explores faith, courage, survival, and coming home against insurmountable odds.

---

Robert Dugoni is the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and Amazon Charts bestselling author of the Tracy Crosswhite series; the Charles Jenkins series; the David Sloane series; several standalone novels, including A Killing on the Hill, The World Played Chess, and The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell; and coauthor of the nonfiction exposé The Cyanide Canary, a Washington Post Best Book of the Year. Dugoni is the recipient of the Nancy Pearl Book Award for fiction, a multi-time winner of the Friends of Mystery Spotted Owl Award for best novel set in the Pacific Northwest, and a finalist for many other awards. His books are sold in more than twenty-five countries, have been translated into more than thirty languages, and have reached millions of readers worldwide. For more information, visit robertdugonibooks.com.

Jeff Langholz, PhD, is an award-winning teacher, researcher, entrepreneur, and writer whose work has appeared in more than 250 media outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, National Geographic, and the Economist. His adventures span five continents and include stints as a rice farmer in West Africa with the Peace Corps, a Fulbright Scholar in South Africa, a salmon fisherman in Alaska, a tree farmer in Central America, and a mediator in New York. He lives along Monterey Bay in California.

Chris Crabtree teaches middle and high school English language arts and literature at Costa Rica International Academy in Guanacaste, Costa Rica. Chris and his wife, Vera, live in a rustic, rural town on the outskirts of Santa Cruz, Costa Rica, with their dogs Bety and Bruno.

---

Enjoy the conversation with Robert Dugoni and Jeff Langholz.

Patrick Millikin from The Poisoned Pen recently welcomed Christopher Farnsworth to the bookstore. Farnsworth’s new book is the latest Jesse Stone mystery, Robert B. Parker’s Buried Secrets. There are signed copies of the book available in the Webstore. https://bit.ly/42Hx7zI

Here is the description of Robert B. Parker’s Buried Secrets.

Police Chief Jesse Stone investigates the mystery behind a dead body found strewn with photos of murder victims and placed on top of $2 million in cash, before a mob of hit men converge on Paradise.

Just another day in Paradise . . . 

Chief of Police Jesse Stone is on his way home from a long shift when a call comes in for a welfare check on an elderly resident of the wealthy seaside town of Paradise, Massachusetts. Inside a house packed with junk and trash is a man’s dead body. It’s a sad, lonely end, but nothing criminal . . . until Jesse finds the photos of murder victims strewn around the corpse, on top of a treasure trove of $2 million in cash.

Jesse takes on the case and finds a trail leading to an aging mobster who will do whatever it takes to keep the past from coming to light. Before long, Jesse has a price on his head as hit men converge on Paradise to take back the cash and destroy any remaining evidence. But the real danger might be coming from inside his own department. Jesse Stone must unearth the truth buried under the wreckage of a dead man’s life . . . before he winds up in the ground himself.

---

Robert B. Parker was the author of seventy books, including the legendary Spenser detective series, the novels featuring Chief Jesse Stone, and the acclaimed Virgil Cole/Everett Hitch westerns, as well as the Sunny Randall novels. Winner of the Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Award and long considered the undisputed dean of American crime fiction, he died in January 2010.

Christopher Farnsworth worked as a reporter in Arizona and California before selling his first screenplay. He now pens successful crime and thriller novels. His books have been published in a dozen countries, and translated into ten languages, and optioned for film and television. A loyal reader of Robert B. Parker since his high school days, Farnsworth currently resides in Los Angeles with his family.

---

Enjoy the conversation with Christopher Farnsworth.

Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, recently spoke with Kevin Wade about his debut novel, Johnny Careless. Not only are we sharing that conversation, but we have some coverage from Celadon Books Newsletter. First, there are still signed copies of Johnny Careless available through the Webstore. http://bit.ly/4aC8S82

Here’s the note from Celadon Books Newsletter.

“Kevin Wade knows how to craft a killer tale — he’s a veteran screenwriter and the showrunner of the hit police procedural series Blue Bloods. With his new novel, Wade delivers a first-rate crime narrative that’s “fresh and wildly entertaining, [with] characters so real you expect them to walk through the door” (Patricia Cornwell, New York Times bestselling author). Johnny Careless focuses on the mysterious murder of Johnny Chambliss, a privileged man nicknamed “Johnny Careless” for his reckless approach to life. When Johnny’s corpse is found in the Bayville waters off Long Island’s North Shore, Jeep Mullane — Chambliss’s childhood friend and the local police chief — plunges into the case. Johnny’s rich, cagey relatives and perplexing ex-wife make the investigation harder than it should be. And since Jeep grew up modestly in an area of staggering wealth, his search for the truth is just as much a story about the haves and have-nots as it is a thrilling murder mystery.”

---

The description of Johnny Careless is below.

“A fast-moving classic crime novel” (John Sandford) crafted by the veteran screenwriter and showrunner for the acclaimed police procedural series Blue Bloods, Johnny Careless is Kevin Wade’s razor-sharp debut novel.

Police Chief Jeep Mullane has been bounced back home to Long Island’s North Shore by a heartbreaking case that both earned him his NYPD detective’s shield and burned him out of the Job. Now heading up a small local police department, he finds himself navigating the same geography he did growing up there as the son of an NYPD cop. Jeep is a “have-not” among the glittering “haves,” a sharp-witted, down-to-earth man in a territory defined and ruled by multigenerational wealth and power and the daunting tribal codes and customs that come with it.

When the corpse of Jeep’s childhood friend Johnny Chambliss—born into privilege and known as “Johnny Careless” for his reckless, golden-boy antics—surfaces in the Bayville waters, past collides with present, and Jeep is pulled into a treacherous web. He is challenged by Johnny’s wealthy and secretive family and his beautiful, enigmatic ex-wife as he untangles a knotted mystery fraught with theft, corrupt local moguls, and decades-old secrets, all while grappling with his own deep-seated grief for his lost pal.

A fast-paced story, Johnny Careless “combines grit and wit in a way that conjures Donald Westlake or Robert Parker in full stride” (Carl Hiassen).

---

Kevin Wade is a playwright, screenwriter, and television writer and producer whose credits include the stage plays Key Exchange, Mr. & Mrs., and Cruise Control, and the screenplays for Working Girl (seven Academy Award nominations), True Colors, Mr. Baseball, Junior, Meet Joe Black, and Maid in Manhattan. For television, he created the ABC television drama Cashmere Mafiaand in 2010 joined the rookie CBS drama Blue Bloods as a writer. Starting with the second season and for the rest of the show’s fourteen year-run, Wade served as its showrunner, executive producer, and back-seat driver.

---

Enjoy the conversation with Kevin Wade.