Fiction Review

Patrick Millikin recently hosted Baron Birtcher for a discussion of his latest novel, Knife River, but they also discussed Birtcher’s first book, Roadhouse Blues. You can order Knife River through the Webstore. https://store.poisonedpen.com/item/HTqtcjA7QnjLswv69LzYAw.

Here’s the description of Knife River.

A sheriff fighting to keep the peace in 1970s Oregon faces a shocking secret from his town’s past, in this crime thriller from the author of Reckoning.

There are rules in the West no matter what era you were born in, and it’s up to lawman Ty Dawson to make sure they’re followed in the valley he calls home. The people living on this unforgiving land keep to themselves and are wary of the modern world’s encroachment into their quiet lives.

So it’s not without some suspicion that Dawson confronts a newcomer to the region: a record producer who has built a music studio in an isolated compound. His latest project is a collaboration with a famous young rock star named Ian Swann, recording and filming his sessions for a movie. An amphitheater for a live show is being built on the land, giving Dawson flashbacks to the violent Altamont concert. Not on his watch.

But even beefed up security can’t stop a disaster that’s been over a decade in the making. All it takes is one horrific case bleeding its way into the present to prove that the good ol’ days spawned a brand of evil no one wants to revisit . . .

Praise for the Ty Dawson Mysteries

“The novel combines the mystery and honesty of Craig Johnson’s Longmire with the first-person narration of a fiercely independent Oregon character.” —Sheila Deeth, author of John’s Joy

“A masterful work of a time gone by. . . . Ty Dawson is a cowboy, lawman, father and philosopher like none other.” —Neal Griffin, Los Angeles Times–bestselling author of The Burden of Proof

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Baron Birtcher spent a number of years as a professional musician, and founded an independent record label and management company. His first two novels, Roadhouse Blues and Ruby Tuesday, are Los Angeles Times and Independent Mystery Booksellers Association bestsellers. Birtcher has been nominated for a number of literary awards, including the Nero Award for his novel Hard Latitudes, the Claymore Award for his novel Rain Dogs, and the Left Coast Crime “Lefty” Award for his novel Angels Fall. He was the 2016 Silver Falchion Award winner for his novel Hard Latitudes and the 2018 Winner of the Killer Nashville Reader’s Choice Award for his novel South California Purples.

Birtcher currently divides his time between Portland, Oregon, and Kona, Hawaii.

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Enjoy the conversation with Baron Birtcher.

Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, welcomed Lisa Barr for her first appearance at the bookstore. Asked what her secret is, Peters said one secret is to stay engaged, so she thanks the audience for coming to see the authors. Barr’s new book is The Goddess of Warsaw. There are signed copies in the Webstore. https://bit.ly/4cBFeQ9.

Here’s the summary of The Goddess of Warsaw, a book of revenge and resilience.

“Utterly gripping. . . a transformative and immersive story so powerful and captivating that I could not put it down. . . . Truly one of the best books I’ve read.”—Liv Constantine, bestselling author of The Last Mrs. Parrish

“Lisa Barr’s new historical fiction, The Goddess of Warsaw, gifts the reader with jaw-dropping moments worthy of a Tarantino film, a story that could not be more timely, and a heroine whose ferocity and valor knows no bounds.”—Natalie Jenner, author of the instant international bestseller The Jane Austen Society

The Goddess of Warsaw is an enthralling tale of a legendary Hollywood screen goddess with a dark secret about her life in the Warsaw Ghetto. When the famous actress is threatened by someone from her past, she must put her skills into play to protect herself, her illustrious career, and those she loves, then and now.  

Los Angeles, 2005. Sienna Hayes, Hollywood’s latest It Girl, has ambitions to work behind the camera. When she meets Lena Browning, the enormously mysterious and famous Golden Age movie star, Sienna sees her big break. She wants to direct a picture about Lena’s life—but the legendary actor’s murky past turns out to be even darker than Sienna dreamed. Before she was a Living Legend, Lena Browning was Bina Blonski, a Polish Jew whose life and family were destroyed by the Nazis.

Warsaw, 1943. A member of the city’s Jewish elite, Bina Blonski and her husband, Jakub, are imprisoned in the ghastly, cramped ghetto along with the rest of Warsaw’s surviving Jews. Determined to fight back against the brutal Nazis, the beautiful, blonde Aryan-looking Bina becomes a spy, gaining information and stealing weapons outside the ghetto to protect her fellow Jews. But her dangerous circumstances grow complicated when she falls in love with Aleksander, an ally in resistance—and Jakub’s brother. While Lena accomplishes amazing feats of bravery, she sacrifices much in the process.

Over a decade after escaping the horrors of the ghetto, Bina, now known as Lena, rises to fame in Hollywood. Yet she cannot help but be reminded of her old life and hungers for revenge against the Nazis who escaped justice after the war. Her power and fame as a movie star offer Lena the chance to right the past’s wrongs . . . and perhaps even find the happy ending she never had.

A gripping page-turner of one of history’s most heroic uprisings and an actress whose personal war never ends, The Goddess Of Warsaw is filled with secrets, lies, twists and turns, and a burning pursuit of justice no matter the cost.

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Lisa Barr is the New York Times bestselling author of Woman on Fire, The Unbreakables, and the award-winning historical thriller Fugitive Colors. She has served as an editor for The Jerusalem Post, managing editor of Today’s Chicago Woman and Moment magazine, and as an editor and reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times. She has appeared on Good Morning America and Today for her work as an author, journalist, and blogger. Actress Sharon Stone is set to produce and star in the film adaptation of Woman on Fire. 

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Enjoy the conversation with Lisa Barr.

Barbara Peters and her dog, Scooter, welcomed a debut author, Rosalie M. Lin, to The Poisoned Pen. Lin’s debut, Daughter of Calamity is a fantasy novel set in 1930s Shanghai that is receiving rave reviews. There are signed copies of this debut novel in the Webstore. https://bit.ly/4cwPyIV.

Here is the description of Daughter of Calamity.

Genres collide in this dark and atmospheric reimagining of 1930s Shanghai for fans of Nghi Vo and S. A. Chakraborty.

Jingwen spends her nights as a showgirl at the Paramount, one of the most lavish clubs in Shanghai, competing ruthlessly to charm wealthy patrons. To cap off her shifts, she runs money for her grandmother, the exclusive surgeon to the most powerful gang in the city. A position her grandmother is pressuring her to inherit…

When a series of dancers are targeted—the attacker stealing their faces—Jingwen fears she could be next. And as the faces of the dancers start appearing on wealthy foreign socialites, she realizes Shanghai’s glittering mirage of carefree luxury comes at a terrible price.

Fighting not just for her own safety but that of the other dancers—women who have simultaneously been her bitterest rivals and only friends—Jingwen has no choice but to delve into the city’s underworld. In this treacherous realm of tangled alliances and ancient grudges, silver-armed gangsters haunt every alley, foreign playboys broker deals in exclusive back rooms, and the power of gods is wielded and traded like yuan. Jingwen will have to become something far stranger and more dangerous than her grandmother ever imagined if she hopes to survive the forces waiting to sell Shanghai’s bones.

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Rosalie M. Lin is a Chinese-American writer from the San Francisco Bay Area. She has, at various points in the past decade, graduated with a degree in Comparative Literature, pole-danced in two Beijing nightclubs, and dropped out of a biomedical PhD program before seriously pursuing her original dream of becoming an author. Daughter of Calamity is her debut novel.

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Enjoy the conversation about Shanghai and Lin’s debut.

If you’ve read the blog for very long, watched The Poisoned Pen’s interviews on YouTube or Facebook, or went to the bookstore, you know Patrick Millikin. Patrick just did a podcast, an episode of “Watch with Jen”, and talked about one of his favorite noir novels, Nightmare Alley, as well as the two films made from it. Here’s the link so you can listen.

Watch With Jen – S5: E12 – NIGHTMARE ALLEY with Patrick Millikin | Patreon

https://www.patreon.com/posts/105577230?utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_source=android.

As a Phoenix-based cinephile & bibliophile, it was a joy & honor to bring on another local film & literature lover in the form of my brilliant friend Patrick Millikin of Scottsdale’s world-famous Poisoned Pen Bookstore. Deciding to give listeners an in-depth exploration of a classic noir novel & its adaptations, in this rich, fascinating, & admittedly spoiler-filled conversation, we dive into author William Lindsay Gresham’s dark masterpiece NIGHTMARE ALLEY & the 1947 & 2021 film adaptations from directors Edmund Goulding & Guillermo del Toro that followed. I’m incredibly proud of this episode, which gives listeners the experience of a great night of thoughtful discussion at Poisoned Pen from wherever they push play around the world. Enjoy!

Bio: Patrick Millikin is a bookseller at The Poisoned Pen in Scottsdale and a freelance writer and editor. He is the editor of the anthology Phoenix Noir and The Highway Kind: Tales of Fast Cars, Desperate Drivers and Dark Roads, and his work has appeared in Publishers Weekly, Los Angeles Review of Books, and other publications. A longtime devotee of noir fiction, Millikin leads a popular book group called The Hardboiled Discussion Group (now in its twenty-fourth year).

Referenced & Related:

The Poisoned Pen Bookstore Website

The Poisoned Pen YouTube Channel, Twitter, & Instagram

NIGHTMARE ALLEY (1947) – “The Fool Who Walks in Motley” – Criterion Collection essay by Kim Morgan

Listen to the Watch With Jen™ Podcast on RSS, Spotify, Google, Stitcher, Apple, Pandora, and More

Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, welcomed Meg Gardiner to the bookstore on release day for Shadow Heart. You can order signed copies of this serial killer book through the Webstore. https://bit.ly/3VZ6Adz.

Here’s the description of Shadow Heart.

What happens when two serial killers begin to compete with each other?

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Meg Gardiner comes a new high-octane thriller in the acclaimed UNSUB series.

FBI Special Agent Caitlin Hendrix faces a case from nightmares.

In a Tennessee prison, Efrem Judah Goode draws haunting portraits of women he claims he has killed. Around the country, desperate families of the missing seek answers in his eerie drawings. And on darkened back roads and New York City streets, a new killer poses duct-taped bodies at the sites of Goode’s murders.

Two serial killers are locked in a twisted rivalry. To stop the brutal slayings, FBI profiler Caitlin Hendrix must unravel the connection between Goode and the Broken Heart Killer. Their warped competition destroys anyone in their path. Caught between a manipulative psychopath and a ruthless UNSUB, Caitlin has to dive into not one, but two dark and twisted minds. She will risk everything, plunging into the depths of their depraved clash to hunt down an unstoppable killer.

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Meg Gardiner is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of sixteen novels. Her thrillers have won the Edgar Award and been summer reading picks by the Today show and O, the Oprah Magazine. In August 2022 her latest novel, Heat 2, coauthored with Michael Mann, debuted at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list. A former lawyer and three-time Jeopardy! champion, Gardiner lives in Austin, Texas.

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Enjoy the conversation with Meg Gardiner.

Patrick Millikin from The Poisoned Pen welcomed Walter Mosley back to the bookstore. Mosley read to the audience from his new Easy Rawlins book, Farewell, Amethystine, and talked about his book. You can order a copy of the book through the Webstore. https://bit.ly/3VmCG1a.

Here’s the description of Farewell, Amethystine.

From “master of the genre” (Washington Post) Walter Mosley, Detective Easy Rawlins’ latest client sends him down a warren of memory and nostalgia—blinding him to reason and risk.

January 1970 finds Ezekiel “Easy” Rawlins, LA’s premier Black detective, at 50 years of age despite all expectations.  He has a loving family, a beautiful home, and a thriving investigation agency.  All is right with the world… and then Amethystine Stoller, his own personal Helen of Troy, arrives. Her ex-husband is missing. A simple enough case. But even as Easy takes his first step in the investigation he trips.  He falls into the memory of things past. Little things, like loss, love, a world war, and a hunger that has eaten at him since he was a Black boy on his own on the streets of Fifth Ward, Houston, Texas.

The missing ex, a young white man named Curt Fields, is found dead. Easy’s only real friend in the LAPD, Melvin Suggs, has gone into hiding rather than allow his femme fatale wife to go to the gas chamber.  And that’s only the beginning.

Easy finds himself pressed into a reckoning. All of his success cannot succor his heart. The 1970’s have ushered in new expectations of men and women, Black and White, and Easy has to make a choice that will almost certainly hasten a permanent descent, one that might sunder his soul.

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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.”

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Enjoy Walter Mosley’s appearance at The Poisoned Pen.

John Charles from The Poisoned Pen always likes to ask authors who they are outside of being a writer. Copenhaver says teaching is an important part of who he is. He’s the author of Hall of Mirrors, and there are signed copies of it available in the Webstore. https://bit.ly/45twlWk.

Here’s the summary of Hall of Mirrors.

When a popular mystery novelist dies suspiciously, his writing partner must untangle the author’s connection to a serial killer in award-winning John Copenhaver’s new novel set in 1950s McCarthy-era Washington, DC.

In May 1954, Lionel Kane witnesses his apartment engulfed in flames with his lover and writing partner, Roger Raymond, inside. Police declare it a suicide due to gas ignition, but Lionel refuses to believe Roger was suicidal.

A month earlier, Judy Nightingale and Philippa Watson—the tenacious and troubled heroines from The Savage Kind—attend a lecture by Roger and, being eager fans, befriend him. He has just been fired from his day job at the State Department, another victim of the Lavender Scare, an anti-gay crusade led by figures like Senator Joseph McCarthy and J. Edgar Hoover, claiming homosexuals are security risks. Little do Judy and Philippa know, but their obsessive manhunt of the past several years has fueled the flames of his dismissal.

They have been tracking their old enemy Adrian Bogdan, a spy and vicious serial killer protected by powerful forces in the government. He’s on the rampage again, and the police are ignoring his crimes. Frustrated, they send their research to the media and their favorite mystery writer anonymously, hoping to inspire someone, somehow, to publish on the crimes—anything to draw Bogdan out. But has their persistence brought deadly forces to the writing team behind their most beloved books?

In the wake of Roger’s death, Lionel searches for clues, but Judy and Philippa threaten his quest, concealing dark secrets of their own. As the crimes of the past and present converge, danger mounts, and the characters race to uncover the truth, even if it means bending their moral boundaries to stop a killer.

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John Copenhaver won the 2019 Macavity Award for Best First Mystery for Dodging and Burning and the 2021 Lambda Literary Award for Best Mystery for The Savage Kind. He is a co-founder of Queer Crime Writers and an at-large board member of Mystery Writers of America. He cohosts on the House of Mystery Radio Show. He’s a faculty mentor in the University of Nebraska’s Low-Residency MFA program and teaches at VCU in Richmond, VA.

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Enjoy the conversation with John Copenhaver.

John Charles welcomed debut author Jenny Erlingsson for a virtual event for The Poisoned Pen. Erlingsson discussed her background and her first novel, Her Part to Play. You can order a copy of the book through the Webstore. https://bit.ly/3xs5M7d.

Here’s the summary of Her Part to Play.

Desperate for extra income after her mother’s passing, Adanne accepts a last-minute job as a makeup artist for a movie filming in her small Alabama hometown. She’s working to save her parents’ legacy and help her brother, but the money hardly seems worth having to face the actor who got her fired from her last job in Hollywood.
 
John Pope has made his share of mistakes over the years. But after turning his life over to God and enduring a messy breakup, he’s ready to start rebuilding his career. Imagine his surprise when the woman called in to cover for his usual makeup artist is a quiet but feisty newcomer on the set–and definitely not a fan.
 
Sparks of tension–and could that be attraction?–fly between them, but Adanne hates the spotlight, and John’s scheming manager has bigger plans for him than to end up with the humble makeup girl from the small-town South. Can these star-crossed lovers find their way to happiness? Or will the bright lights of Hollywood blind their eyes to what’s right in front of them?
 
Debut author Jenny Erlingsson’s diverse cast comes alive with faith, romance, and a touch of humor to create a story worthy of the big screen.

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Jenny Erlingsson is an author and speaker of Nigerian descent. After 12 years working in junior high and women’s ministry, she moved with her family from Alabama to Iceland. When she’s not running after her four kids or ministering alongside her husband, she can be found writing romantic fiction and creative nonfiction to inspire deep faith in diverse settings, as well as encouraging other writers. Her other writings have been featured on (in)courage, Live Original, Velvet Ashes, and more. And in the margins, you might find her reading five books at a time with a side of Icelandic chocolate. Learn more at JennyErlingsson.com.

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Enjoy Jenny Erlingsson’s discussion of her background and first novel.

Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, welcomed Steve Berry and Grant Underwood for a virtual event. Their new book, Red Star Falling, is the current Hot Book of the Week at the bookstore. You can order signed copies through the Webstore. https://bit.ly/3Rt0dfR.

Here’s the description of Red Star Falling.

From New York Times bestselling authors Steve Berry and Grant Blackwood comes an action-packed adventure: in the waning days of the Cold War, Luke Daniels embarks on a quest in search of the legendary library of Ivan the Terrible—the unlikely key to ending a looming threat orbiting two hundred miles above the earth. 

Wrapping up his latest assignment for the Magellan Billet, Luke Daniels receives a surprise visit from the head of a former-CIA operation named Sommerhaus — a failed attempt to assemble an espionage network within the Ukraine on the eve of the Russian invasion.  Sommerhaus ranks high on Luke’s list of painful regrets for it was during this mission that his friend, CIA case officer John Vince, was captured by Russian operatives and supposedly executed.  But Luke is provided some shocking news.  Vince is alive, in failing health, locked behind the walls of Russia’s brutal Solovetsky Island prison, and has a critical message he’ll give to no one but Luke.  Needing no further convincing Luke vows to bring Vince home.  

However, just as he manages to extract his friend from prison Vince tragically dies and his final words are rambling and incoherent.  Just bits and pieces.  But enough to plunge Luke into a hunt for something lost since the 15th century.  The legendary library of the first Tsar of All Russia, Ivan the Terrible.  

Within that priceless collection of rare manuscripts is the key to unraveling a modern-day cipher and stopping a secret Soviet satellite program that still exists.  But Luke is not the only one on the trail.  Others, both inside and out of Russia, want the library for a totally different reason — to re-start the Red Star program and finally unleash its destructive potential.  Luke’s mission is clear.  Find the lost library, solve the puzzle, and prevent Red Star falling.

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Steve Berry is the New York Times and #1 internationally bestselling author of eighteen Cotton Malone novels, five stand-alone thrillers, and several works of short fiction. He has more than 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.
 
Grant Blackwood is the New York Times bestselling author of the Briggs Tanner series, (The End of Enemies, The Wall of Night, and An Echo of War); the co-author of the Fargo Adventure Series (Spartan Gold, Lost Empire, and The Kingdom) with Clive Cussler; co-author of The Kill Switch with James Rollins; and co-author of the #1 New York Times bestseller, Dead or Alive, with Tom Clancy.  A U. S. Navy veteran, Grant spent three years aboard a guided missile frigate as an Operations Specialist and a Pilot Rescue Swimmer. Grant lives in Colorado, where he is working on his own standalone series starring a new hero.

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Enjoy the conversation with Steve Berry and Grant Blackwood.

Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, and Patrick Millikin welcomed Rob Hart to the bookstore. Hart is the author of Assassins Anonymous, so they started by talking about crime novels that centered around the bad guys – thieves, hit men, robbers. Enjoy the discussion, and then you can order a signed copy of Hart’s Assassins Anonymous in the Webstore. https://bit.ly/4ejDRad.

Here’s the summary of Assassins Anonymous.

“The best kind of thriller. . . . Suspenseful, sentimental, and ultimately redemptive, Assassins Anonymous is a can’t-miss novel.” — S. A. Cosby,  author of All the Sinners Bleed

In this clever, surprising, page-turner, the world’s most lethal assassin gives up the violent life only to find himself under siege by mysterious assailants. It’s a kill-or-be-killed situation, but the first option is off the table. What’s a reformed hit man to do?

Mark was the most dangerous killer-for-hire in the world. But after learning the hard way that his life’s work made him more monster than man, he left all of that behind, and joined a twelve-step group for reformed killers.

When Mark is viciously attacked by an unknown assailant, he is forced on the run. From New York to Singapore to London, he chases after clues while dodging attacks and trying to solve the puzzle of who’s after him. All without killing anyone. Or getting killed himself. For an assassin, Mark learns, nonviolence is a real hassle.

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Rob Hart is the author of The Paradox Hotel, The Warehouse, and the Ash McKenna crime series, and the co-author of Scott Free with James Patterson. He’s worked as a book publisher, a reporter, a political communications director, and a commissioner for the city of New York. Hart lives on Staten Island.

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Enjoy the discussion with Rob Hart.