Fiction Review

Author Dana Stabenow shared a review of The New Forest Murders by Matthew Sweet. There are a couple copies in stock if you would like to check the Webstore. https://bit.ly/45d5AFU

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The New Forest Murders
by Matthew Sweet

Jill Metcalfe’s brother Henry has just been killed in France on a mission to steal Abwehr documents. The news is brought to her and her father by American Army Captain Jack Strafford, who is on his own mission and not just to inform the bereaved. Henry had discovered a spy transmitting bombing coordinates to Germany right from their own village of Larkwhistle, and lived long enough to give Jack just enough information to come to Larkwhistle and ferret him or her out.

And then that very same afternoon the vicar’s son is found murdered in the New Forest at the foot of the tree featured in the children’s book that had made him famous, and Jill dragoons  Jack into taking her on as an aide-de-camp in solving both murders because it’s better than sitting around with her father thinking about Henry.

Unlike some of her contemporaries, Jill had lost a lot of pleasure to the war. Since Hitler crossed the Polish border, there had been little romantic glory to report…Tonight she was making an effort for a provincial dinner party at the home of a woman for whom she did not particularly care, on a mission that made her hot with uneasy excitement. What did one wear, exactly, if the object of the evening was to prove that the host was a German spy plotting to set Southern England ablaze?

Everyone, the vicar, his wife, the publican, his daughter, the invalided Army officer, his wife the author, the postmistress, all of whom Jill has known since she was a child, is a suspect with motives ranging from adultery to treason, and not one of them is entirely what their carefully maintained facade shows to the world.

He wasn’t that sweet little boy from the book, you know.

but to Jill

Peter was the boy at the altar, following his father, his surplice dazzlingly white. He was the consummate tree-climber of whom, she knew, her brother had felt mildly jealous. Or he was the young man who fell out with his father and was reconciled. All these versions of him, she now saw, had only a flat two-dimensional quality.

The mystery Henry leaves behind and the murder of the vicar’s son are both resolved and the lovers united by the end, but there is a quality about this novel that has haunted me since I finished it. Yes, it’s a mystery, or two, really. Yes, there are murders, two of them. One does hope the first murderer is shot by the French after the war, and while the solving of the second mostly due to Jill’s excellent detective work shows Jack just how worthy she is (“You’re wonderful” he says when she realizes that there are two keys to the code they are trying to break), this is more a story about small communities and the secrets they keep about themselves and each other, even in the face of the most horrible war in human history. Beautifully written, highly recommended.

Dana

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Deb Lewis from The Poisoned Pen Bookstore is a little busy right now, but she sent her current list of book selections. The links should take you to the page to see a longer annotation along with a purchase link. If not, here’s the Webstore link, https://store.poisonedpen.com/

The Man Who Died Seven Times by Yasuhiko Nishizawa,  Jesse Kirkwood  

A subversively cozy Japanese crime novel with an ingenious Groundhog Day twist: a teenager’s time-loop race to solve—and possibly prevent—his grandfather’s murder!

The Art of a Lie by Laura Shepherd-Robinson

In 18th-century England, a widowed confectioner is drawn into a web of love, betrayal, and intrigue and a battle of wits in this masterful historical novel from the author of the “delicious puzzle-box of a novel” (The New York Times) and USA TODAY bestseller The Square of Sevens.

The Glass Man by Anders de la Motte  

The Leo Asker series, which will have you “hooked from the very first page” (Kyle Mills, #1 New York Timesbestselling author), continues with this second installment following wayward detective Leonore Asker on a chilling new murder case.

All The Words We Know by Bruce Nash

With wicked humor, genuine poignancy, and clever insight, this is an unforgettable novel about murder, secrets, and memory that is perfect for fans of Richard Osman and Fredrik Backman, and “will be loved by readers wanting to have their heart strings plucked” (The Guardian).

Dead of Summer by Jessa Maxwell

Years after her best friend mysteriously disappeared from a remote New England island, a young woman returns in search of answers in this atmospheric and scintillating thriller from Jessa Maxwell, nationally bestselling author of the “deliciously entertaining” (Sarah Penner, New York Times bestselling author) The Golden Spoon.

My Other Heart by Emma Nanami Strenner  

A missing child, two girls in search of their true identities–a stunning novel of mothers, daughters and best friends

Author Dana Stabenow sent her review of Tom Mead’s latest Joseph Spector locked-room mystery, The House at Devil’s Neck. You can order a signed copy of the book through the Webstore. https://bit.ly/41kXb1T

Thank you, Dana.

The House at Devil’s Neck
by Tom Mead

Talk about a throwback–Tom Mead is channeling basically every Golden Age English crime fiction writer from Conan Doyle on here. Nothing is omitted, including the befuddled detective (named Flint, because of course), the always-smarter-than-everyone-else amateur, and a cast of characters with collectively more motive than everyone in that sleeper in Murder on the Orient Express, every single one of whom has a hidden identity. They are marooned together in a storm-bound haunted house (sticking with my Christie comparisons, shades of And Then There Were None) with secret passageways, spooky caretakers, a medium, a magician determined to expose them as a charlatan, and a generator that keeps going out at exactly the wrong moment. Or is it the right one?

Mead is good at channeling Golden Age writing, too, and uses vocabulary in the manner of Michael Gilbert Himself, as in

Like every other aspect of her life, she tended toward maximalism. Her dress was tentlike and funereal; her astrakhan coat as heavy as mammoth hide; a scarf was tied around her head and her throat was cluttered with paste jewellery.

and

Her hair was a tight, cinereous snare of curls, her eyes ringed by crow’s feet like cracked porcelain.

and

Mr. Lennox was bald and unimpressive, with a pinkly sclerotic face and a toothbrush moustache.

I had to look up a word in every sentence.

In Golden Age mysteries there is always a list of something that is missing something that only the amateur notices. There is such a list here, too, in which (also in line with Golden Age mysteries) only a male (and amateur) detective would spot. There is always a surprising motive: here, World War Two is about to begin, although Mead doesn’t refer to this interesting fact until page 84. Sneaky bastard. And then of course there is the gathering together of all the [surviving] cast for the denouement, when Spector (the gifted amateur) reveals all. 

Except there is another reveal later, in Flint’s office, involving a torturously involved explanation that changes a thought- to-be-suicide turned murder turned back into suicide but designed to look like murder…? No wonder Flint was confused. So was I.

I giggled a lot which might or might not have been Mead’s intention, but many readers will enjoy this trip back to the first half of the last century.

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Interested? You can also watch Barbara Peters’ interview with Tom Mead.

Guest host Don Bentley, along with Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, welcomed Kyle Mills to the bookstore. Mills was there to discuss his latest thriller, Fade In. You can order a signed copy through the Webstore, https://bit.ly/4mbJfze And, as long as they’re available, the copies will come with alternative ending bonus chapter that will also be signed.

Here’s the description of Fade In.

When an ex-Navy SEAL ends up injured and imprisoned, a shadowy ring of power brokers offers him the only way out—through a high-stakes military mission. A “searing, cerebral, high-stakes knockout” (Prairies Book Review) international political espionage thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author Kyle Mills.

“Wall to wall action. Great book,” as recommended by bestselling thriller author Brad Thor on Today.
“Fade is a badass operator whom even a coma can’t stop. . . . Plenty of action, plenty of fun.” —Kirkus Reviews

When ex-navy SEAL Salam “Fade” al-Fayed steps in front of a sniper’s bullet, he assumes that he’s reached the end of the road—his death wish has finally been answered.

Instead, he wakes in a hospital. As one of the deadliest operatives in U.S. history, he’s now incapable of even standing without assistance. Alone and wanted by authorities, he’s destined to spend the rest of his life lying in a prison infirmary.

So when a shadowy organization offers him a new identity and next-generation medical care, he has no choice but to agree. Nothing’s free, though. After a grueling rehabilitation, he’s drafted into an elite paramilitary unit. But who’s in charge?

When a dire threat—a highly contagious pathogen—explodes out of China, his question is quickly answered: A select group of the world’s wealthiest and most powerful people has decided that governments are no longer capable of controlling the chaos erupting around the globe. It’s a power grab by billionaires who’ve decided that it’s their time to rule.

With panic rising, the leaders of both democracies and dictatorships prove equally willing to destroy anything and anyone to save themselves. Forced into action before he’s fully ready, Fade finds himself at the sharp end of a mission to stop a menace unlike any he’s faced before. If he fails, the consequences will be unimaginable. But what if he succeeds?

No one elected the people he’s working for. And God sure as hell didn’t ordain them. Has he signed on to save the human race . . . or to help quietly enslave it?

Fade In tackles the complex threats of international espionage, power imbalances, and global terrorism–and introduces a character destined to take his place among legends like Vince Flynn’s Mitch Rapp, Robert Ludlum’s Jason Bourne, Lee Child’s Jack Reacher, and Daniel Silva’s Gabriel Allon. “The prose snaps and hums. . . Fade In is a gripping, violent, and often heartbreaking book. It’s for readers who like their thrillers with a sharp philosophical bite.” —Literary Titan

Kyle Mills is the author of nine New York Times bestselling Vince Flynn novels featuring Mitch Rapp.

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Kyle Mills is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of twenty-three political thrillers, including nine in Vince Flynn’s Mitch Rapp series and three for Robert Ludlum. He initially found inspiration from his father, an FBI agent and former Interpol director, and still draws on his contacts in the intelligence community to give his books such realism. Avid outdoor athletes and travelers, he and his wife split their time between Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and Granada, Spain. Visit his website at KyleMills.com or connect with him on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram @KyleMillsAuthor.

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Enjoy the conversation with Kyle Mills.

Barbara Peters and Patrick Millikin welcomed Denise Mina for a discussion of her twentieth book, The Good Liar. Today is release day for the book that is on order. You can order your copy of The Good Liar through the Webstore. https://bit.ly/3U46vTZ

Here’s the summary of The Good Liar.

In this provocative mystery from beloved crime writer Denise Mina, new evidence in an old murder case forces one woman to make an impossible choice.

WHAT WILL IT TAKE TO TELL THE TRUTH WHEN YOUR LIFE DEPENDS ON A LIE?

A year ago, a father and his fiancée were brutally murdered in their opulent London townhouse, sparking the most high-profile murder investigation in recent history. Blood spatter expert Doctor Claudia O’Sheil’s evidence put the killer behind bars—or so everyone believes. But since the trial, Claudia’s learned a horrific truth: her evidence and her testimony were wrong. And someone she knows made sure of it.

Now, as she takes the stage to give a career-defining speech before London’s elite, Claudia faces a devastating choice. Protect her children and her career with her continued complicity, or blow the whole conspiracy apart and reveal the truth: not only is the real murderer still out there, but they’re in the audience.

As Claudia steps toward the microphone, she revisits that fateful night. What really happened? And what will Claudia say?

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Denise Mina is the author of twenty novels, including the Reese’s Book Club pick Conviction and its sequel Confidence, as well as The Second Murderer, The Less Dead, The Long Drop—winner of the 2017 McIlvanney Prize for Scottish crime book of the year—and the Garnethill trilogy, the first installment of which won the John Creasey Memorial Award for best first crime novel, among others. Mina has twice received the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award. She lives in Glasgow.

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Enjoy the interview with Denise Mina as she talks about The Good Liar, and mentions the article that inspired the book.

Author Allie Pleiter has an invitation to the Poisoned Pen for everyone. It’s Wed., July 30 at 6:30 PM. Check it out.

Here’s One Sharp Stitch, Pleiter’s mystery. Signed copies are available in the Webstore if you can’t make it on Wednesday. https://bit.ly/46NGrEn

When thirty-something Shelby Phillips returns to her quiet hometown just outside of Asheville, North Carolina, she reluctantly takes over her mother’s Nimble Needle needlepoint shop—and gets entangled in a murder investigation . . .

It’s only temporary. That’s what Shelby Phillips tells herself when she returns to excruciatingly harmless Gwen Lake after her graphic arts career—and the office romance blooming with it—get tossed like rejected design mockups. Her plan is as simple and fool-proof as a tent stitch: manage the family needlepoint shop during her parents’ RV vacation. It’s just a month. It’s not as if they’re retiring . . . right?

When Shelby becomes responsible for hosting a trunk show with local vendors, she’s determined to pull it off. Even if that means dealing with former classmate Kat Katsaros, a rising entrepreneur specializing in needlework scissors. Kat has changed since high school—and she’s angling to take over the Nimble Needle herself. The tension unspools when Shelby makes a terrible discovery on the morning of the event: Kat’s dead body.

Shelby can’t believe the death was an accident. That’s why she’s set on exposing who committed the murder with Kat’s own equipment. She finds help in a new friend, a potential crush, and the surprising support of her sister and the Nimble Needle stitchers. Still, Shelby must move quickly to stop the crafty culprit before her maybe not-so-temporary new life in Gwen Lake comes apart at the seams . . .

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Allie Pleiter is an internationally bestselling author, an accomplished productivity coach, and an avid knitter and needlepointer. In addition to 6 nonfiction books, she has written dozens of popular fiction, mystery, and romance novels with more than 1.6 million copies sold. The creator of The Chunky Method, a time management system, she teaches creative people how to be more productive and productive people how to be more creative through her coaching practice and nationwide speaking engagements. She also is a regular speaker within the crafting and knitting community, appearing at yarn and craft shops as well as national events including Stitches Midwest, Vogue Knitting Live, and the Wanderstitch Cruise onboard Norwegian Cruise Lines. An alumna of Northwestern University, she is a member of Sisters in Crime, the American Needlepoint Guild and the National Speakers Association. She lives with her husband and adorable dog near Charlotte, NC, and can be found online at AlliePleiter.com.

Patrick Millikin recently hosted Joe Pan at The Poisoned Pen Bookstore. Pan is the author of Florida Palms, a debut novel. You can order a signed copy through the Webstore. https://bit.ly/4odjOPY

Here’s the summary of Florida Palms.

The Outsiders meet Sons of Anarchy in this gripping debut about a group of young men dragged into a drug-running operation.

It’s 2009, the height of the Great Recession. Best friends Eddy, Cueball, and Jesse are fresh out of high school and wild at heart, but the economy is in the dumps. With jobs scarce along Florida’s Space Coast, they join a furniture-moving company run by Cueball’s father, a gruff ex-con biker who’s supposedly retired from the fast life. But when a mysterious old boss arrives in town, the payload is switched out, and the young men are coerced into shipping a new designer drug up the East Coast.

What is advertised as a bastion of brotherhood and respect quickly spirals into back-alley deals, bloodshed, and an all-out turf war that will test the bounds of love and friendship. Enticed by larger paychecks, and fueled by burgeoning drug habits, the young friends find themselves trapped between rank opportunists, warring gangsters, meth zombies, crazed bikers, and a blowgun-wielding hitman, all vying for a shot at the big time.

Soaring, ambitious, and deeply humane, Florida Palms is a gritty coming-of-age story with enormous heart and an unflinching vision of the violence and inequities facing forgotten communities. In a relentless race against desperate circumstances, the young friends must fully embrace the crime life or abandon their loyalties and risk ending up face down in the muck of the unforgiving swamps.

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Joe Pan is the author of five poetry books and founder of Brooklyn Arts Press, one of the smallest independent houses ever honored with a National Book Award in Poetry, and publisher of Augury Books, honored with a Lambda Literary Award in Lesbian Poetry. His writing has appeared in the Boston Review, Hyperallergic, The New York Times, and Poets & Writers, and he’s been profiled by Publishers Weekly, The Rumpus, and The Wall Street Journal. He grew up along the Space Coast of Florida and now lives in Los Angeles. With his wife he cofounded BAH, an activist group that serves unhoused populations with sleeping bags and goods. Florida Palms is his debut novel. 

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Check out the conversation with Joe Pan.

Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, toasted author Lisa Scottoline for making the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists. So, you can travel to Tuscany with a signed copy of Scottoline’s The Unraveling of Julia. Copies are available in the Webstore. https://bit.ly/4f1obJu

Here’s the description of The Unraveling of Julia.

An international bestselling author crafts a gothic “thriller with dashes of romance and excellent twists!” (Karin Slaughter, New York Times bestselling author) in which a young widow inherits a Tuscan estate from a mysterious benefactor and finds herself thrust into the crosshairs of a dangerous conspiracy—twisty, transportive, and haunting, this is suspense with a passport.  

Lately, Julia Pritzker is beginning to think she’s cursed. She’s lost her adoptive parents, then her husband is murdered. When she realizes that her horoscope essentially foretold his death, she begins to spiral. She fears her fate is written in the stars, not held in her own hands.

Then a letter arrives out of the blue, informing her that she has inherited a Tuscan villa and vineyard —but her benefactor is a total stranger named Emilia Rossi. Julia has no information about her biological family, so she wonders if Rossi could be a blood relative. Bewildered, she heads to Tuscany for answers.

There, Julia is horrified to discover that Rossi was a paranoid recluse, who believed herself to be a descendent of Duchess Caterina Sforza, a legendary Renaissance ruler. Stunned by her uncanny resemblance to Rossi, and even to Caterina, Julia is further unnerved when she unearths eerie parallels between them, including an obsession with astrology.

Before long, Julia suspects she’s being followed, and strange things begin to happen. Not even a chance meeting with a handsome Florentine can ease her troubled mind. When events turn deadly, Julia’s harrowing struggle becomes a search for her identity, a race to save her sanity, and ultimately, a question of her very survival. 

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Lisa Scottoline is a #1 bestselling and Edgar Award-winning author of 37 novels. She also wrote and a series of humorous memoirs, co-authored with her daughter, novelist Francesca Serritella. Lisa is President of Mystery Writers of America and she reviews fiction for the New York Times, Washington Post, and The Philadelphia Inquirer. A former trial lawyer, she graduated magna cum laude in three years from the University of Pennsylvania and cum laude from its law school, where she taught Justice & Fiction. There are 30 million copies of her books in print, and she is published in 35 countries. She lives on a Pennsylvania farm with an array of disobedient pets, and she wouldn’t have it any other way.

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Enjoy Lisa Scottoline’s conversation about The Unraveling of Julia.

Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, welcomed Tom Mead back to discuss his latest Joseph Spector mystery, The House at Devil’s Neck. His series is a homage to the locked room mysteries of the Golden Age. You can order a signed copy of The House at Devil’s Neck through the Webstore. https://bit.ly/3GTNOzo

Here’s the description of The House at Devil’s Neck.

An apparent suicide in a London townhouse uncannily mirrors a similar incident from twenty-five years ago, prompting Scotland Yard’s George Flint to delve deep into the past in search of the solution to a long-forgotten mystery.

Meanwhile, Joseph Spector travels with a coach party through the rainy English countryside to visit an allegedly haunted house on a lonely island called Devil’s Neck. The house, first built by a notorious alchemist and occultist, was later used as a field hospital in the First World War before falling into disrepair. The visitors hold a seance to conjure the spirit of a long-dead soldier. But when a storm floods the narrow causeway connecting Devil’s Neck to the mainland, they find themselves stranded in the haunted house. Before long, the guests begin to die one by one, and it seems that the only possible culprit is the phantom soldier.

Flint’s and Spector’s investigations are in fact closely linked, but it is only when the duo are reunited at the storm-lashed Devil’s Neck that the truth is finally revealed. Tom Mead once again creates a brilliant homage to John Dickson Carr and the Golden Age of mysteries with this intricately plotted puzzle.

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Tom Mead is an author, translator, and aficionado of Golden Age crime fiction. He is the creator of the Joseph Spector locked room mystery series, which has been translated into ten languages (and counting), and is soon to be adapted for the screen. His debut novel, Death and the Conjuror, was nominated for the Capital Crime Award for Debut Novel of the Year and the Historical Writers’ Association Debut Crown. It was also named one of the best mysteries of the year by The Guardian and Publishers Weekly. Its sequel, The Murder Wheel, was named one of the Best Traditional Mysteries of 2023 by Crimereads and the Daily Telegraph, as well as nominated for a Capital Crime Award and longlisted for the CWA Historical Dagger Award. His third novel, Cabaret Macabre was published in August 2024, along with a collection of short stories, The Indian Rope Trick and Other Violent Entertainments, in November 2024.

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Enjoy the conversation with Tom Mead.

Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, welcomed Steve Berry for a preview of his new book, The List. He talks about his own background, and signed copies of his book. There are a few signed copies of The List in the Webstore. https://bit.ly/4lz1gYl

Here’s the description of The List.

In the vein of David Baldacci, John Grisham, and Harlan Coben—this is Steve Berry like you’ve never read him before.
 
After a ten-year self-imposed exile, Brent Walker is returning home to Concord, a quaint town in central Georgia nestled close to the Savannah River. Two years ago, his father died, and now Brent, hired by Southern Republic Pulp and Paper Company as its assistant general counsel, is returning to care for his ailing mother.
 
For decades, Southern Republic has invested heavily in Concord, creating a thriving community where its employees live, work, and retire. But the genteel sheen of this quiet town is deceiving, and when a list of cryptic code surfaces, Brent starts to see the cracks. 
 
Southern Republic’s success is based largely on a highly unorthodox and deadly system to control costs, known only to the three owners of the company.  Now, one of them, Christopher Bozin, has had a change of heart. Brent’s return to Concord, a move Bozin personally orchestrated, provides his conscience with a chance at redemption. So a plan is set into motion, one that will not only criminally implicate Bozin’s two partners, but also place Brent Walker square in the crosshairs of men who want him dead—with only one course left available.

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Steve Berry is the New York Times and #1 internationally bestselling author of nineteen Cotton Malone novels, six 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.

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Enjoy Steve Berry’s discussion of the background of The List.

https://www.youtube.com/live/9zmiZR0VpQ4?si=Mi37hk8SdXsFItvM
 
Find and reveal the shocking secret of the list.