Fiction Review

Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, makes it clear one of the things she enjoys about the bookstore events is the opportunity to introduce new authors to readers. Gillian Flynn is publisher of a new imprint, Gillian Flynn Books at Zando Projects. She was at the bookstore to introduce Margot Douaihy, author of Scorched Grace. You can find signed copies of this Hot Book of the Week in the Webstore at https://tinyurl.com/5xkvyw67

Here’s the description of Scorched Grace.

Sister Holiday, a chain-smoking, heavily tattooed, queer nun, puts her amateur sleuthing skills to the test in this “unique and confident” debut crime novel (Gillian Flynn).

When Saint Sebastian’s School becomes the target of a shocking arson spree, the Sisters of the Sublime Blood and their surrounding New Orleans community are thrust into chaos.

Patience is a virtue, but punk rocker turned nun Sister Holiday isn’t satisfied to just wait around for officials to return her home and sanctuary to its former peace, instead deciding to unveil the mysterious attacker herself. Her investigation leads her down a twisty path of suspicion and secrets, turning her against colleagues, students, and even fellow Sisters along the way. And to piece together the clues of this high-stakes mystery, she must at last reckon with the sins of her own past.

An exciting start to a bold series that breathes new life into the hard-boiled genre, Scorched Grace is a fast-paced and punchy whodunnit that will keep readers guessing until the very end.

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Margot Douaihy is a Lebanese American originally from Scranton, PA, now living in Northampton, MA. She received her PhD in creative writing from the University of Lancaster in the UK. She is the author of the poetry collections Bandit/Queen: The Runaway Story of Belle Starr, Scranton Lace, and Girls Like You. She is a founding member of the Creative Writing Studies Organization and an active member of Sisters in Crime and the Radius of Arab American Writers. A recipient of the Mass Cultural Council’s Artist Fellowship, she was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award, Aesthetica Magazine’s Creative Writing Award, and the Ernest Hemingway Foundation’s Hemingway Shorts. Her writing has been featured in Queer Life, Queer Love; Colorado Review; Diode Editions; The Florida Review; North American Review; PBS NewsHour; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Portland Review; Wisconsin Review; and elsewhere. Margot is an Assistant Professor in Popular Fiction Writing & Literature with Emerson College in Boston. As a coeditor of the Elements in Crime Narrative Series with Cambridge University Press, she strives to reshape crime writing scholarship, with a focus on the contemporary, the future, inclusivity, and decoloniality.

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Enjoy the conversation as Gillian Flynn introduces Margot Douaihy.

It’s ironic that a debut novel involving fires, Scorched Grace, is the “Hot Book of the Week” at The Poisoned Pen. Signed copies of Scorched Grace, Margot Douaihy’s debut novel, are available through the Webstore. https://tinyurl.com/ydjcrv8y

On Saturday, April 22, at 4 PM PDT, Gillian Flynn will introduce Douaihy for a Poisoned Pen event. Flynn is the publisher of the new imprint Gillian Flynn Books from Indie publisher, Zando Projects! Join us on the Pen’s Facebook page (you do not have to be a Facebook member), on the bookstore’s YouTube channel, or in person at the store for the live event.

Here’s the description of Scorched Grace.

Sister Holiday, a chain-smoking, heavily tattooed, queer nun, puts her amateur sleuthing skills to the test in this “unique and confident” debut crime novel (Gillian Flynn).

When Saint Sebastian’s School becomes the target of a shocking arson spree, the Sisters of the Sublime Blood and their surrounding New Orleans community are thrust into chaos.

Patience is a virtue, but punk rocker turned nun Sister Holiday isn’t satisfied to just wait around for officials to return her home and sanctuary to its former peace, instead deciding to unveil the mysterious attacker herself. Her investigation leads her down a twisty path of suspicion and secrets, turning her against colleagues, students, and even fellow Sisters along the way. And to piece together the clues of this high-stakes mystery, she must at last reckon with the sins of her own past.

An exciting start to a bold series that breathes new life into the hard-boiled genre, Scorched Grace is a fast-paced and punchy whodunnit that will keep readers guessing until the very end.

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Margot Douaihy is a Lebanese American originally from Scranton, PA, now living in Northampton, MA. She received her PhD in creative writing from the University of Lancaster in the UK. She is the author of the poetry collections Bandit/Queen: The Runaway Story of Belle Starr, Scranton Lace, and Girls Like You. She is a founding member of the Creative Writing Studies Organization and an active member of Sisters in Crime and the Radius of Arab American Writers. A recipient of the Mass Cultural Council’s Artist Fellowship, she was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award, Aesthetica Magazine’s Creative Writing Award, and the Ernest Hemingway Foundation’s Hemingway Shorts. Her writing has been featured in Queer Life, Queer Love; Colorado Review; Diode Editions; The Florida Review; North American Review; PBS NewsHour; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Portland Review; Wisconsin Review; and elsewhere. Margot is an Assistant Professor in Popular Fiction Writing & Literature with Emerson College in Boston. As a coeditor of the Elements in Crime Narrative Series with Cambridge University Press, she strives to reshape crime writing scholarship, with a focus on the contemporary, the future, inclusivity, and decoloniality

Don Winslow recently appeared at The Poisoned Pen to talk about the second book in his latest trilogy. There are signed copies of City of Dreams available in the Webstore. https://bit.ly/41jEOII Barbara Peters, owner of the bookstore, and Rboert Anglen from The Arizona Republic, welcomed him and talked with him.

Here’s the description of City of Dreams.

Following the epic, ambitious, instant New York Times bestseller City on Fire, “The Godfather for our generation” (Adrian McKinty), comes the dramatic second novel in an epic crime trilogy from Don Winslow, #1 internationally bestselling author of the Cartel trilogy (The Power of the Dog, The Cartel and The Border).

Hollywood.

The city where dreams are made. 

On the losing side of a bloody East Coast crime war, Danny Ryan is now on the run. The Mafia, the cops, the FBI all want him dead or in prison. With his little boy, his elderly father and the tattered remnants of his loyal crew of soldiers, he makes the classic American migration to California to start a new life.

A quiet, peaceful existence.

But the Feds track him down and want Danny to do them a favor that could make him a fortune or kill him. 

And when Hollywood starts shooting a film based on his former life, Danny demands a piece of the action and begins to rebuild his criminal empire.

Then he falls in love.

With a beautiful movie star who has a dark past of her own.

As their worlds collide in an explosion that could destroy them both, Danny Ryan has to fight for his life in a city where dreams are born.

Or where they go to die.

From the shores of Rhode Island to the deserts of California where bodies disappear, from the power corridors of Washington where the real criminals operate to the fabled movie studios of Hollywood where the real money is made, City of Dreams is a sweeping saga of family, love, revenge, survival and the fierce reality behind the dream.

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Don Winslow is the author of twenty-three acclaimed, award-winning international bestsellers, including six New York Times bestsellers (Savages, The Kings of Cool, The Cartel, The Force, The Border and City on Fire). Savages was made into a feature film by three-time Oscar-winning writer-director Oliver Stone and a screenplay by Shane Salerno, Winslow and Stone. Winslow’s epic Cartel trilogy has been adapted for TV and will appear as a weekly series on FX in 2023. The Force is soon to be a major motion picture from 20th Century Studios starring Matt Damon with James Mangold directing from a Scott Frank screenplay. Additional Winslow books are currently in development at Netflix, Warner Brothers, Sony and Working Title and he has recently written a series of acclaimed short stories for Audible narrated by four-time Oscar nominee Ed Harris.

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Enjoy Winslow’s discussion of his career.

Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, recently welcomed C.S. Harris, author of Who Cries for the Lost. That novel is the eighteenth book in the Sebastian St. Cyr series. There are signed copies of Who Cries for the Lost available in the Webstore. https://bit.ly/43FoljD

Here’s the summary of Who Cries for the Lost.

Sebastian St. Cyr must confront a savage killer and save his closest friend from the hangman’s noose in this heart-pounding new historical mystery from the USA Today bestselling author of When Blood Lies.

June 1815. The people of London wait, breathlessly, for news as Napoleon and the forces united against him hurtle toward their final reckoning at Waterloo. Among them is Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin, frustrated to find himself sidelined while recovering from a dangerous wound he recently received in Paris. When the mutilated corpse of Major Miles Sedgewick surfaces from the murky waters of the Thames, Sebastian is drawn into the investigation of a murder that threatens one of his oldest and dearest friends, Irish surgeon Paul Gibson.

Gibson’s lover, Alexi Sauvage, was tricked into a bigamous marriage with the victim. But there are other women who may have wanted the cruel, faithless Major dead. His mistress, his neglected wife, and their young governess who he seduced all make for compelling suspects. Even more interesting to Sebastian is one of Sedgewick’s fellow officers, a man who shared Sedgewick’s macabre interest in both old English folklore and the occult. And then there’s a valuable list of Londoners who once spied for Napoleon that Sedgewick was said to be transporting to Charles, Lord Jarvis, the Regent’s powerful cousin who also happens to be Sebastian’s own father-in-law.

The deeper Sebastian delves into Sedgewick’s life, the more he learns about the Major’s many secrets and the list of people who could have wanted him dead grows even longer. Soon others connected to Sedgewick begin to die strange, brutal deaths and more evidence emerges that links Alexi to the crimes. Certain that Gibson will be implicated alongside his lover, Sebastian finds himself in a desperate race against time to stop the killings and save his friends from the terror of the gallows.

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C. S. Harris is the USA Today bestselling author of more than twenty-five novels, including the Sebastian St. Cyr Mysteries; as C. S. Graham, a thriller series coauthored by former intelligence officer Steven Harris; and seven award-winning historical romances written under the name Candice Proctor.

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Enjoy the conversation about history and literature.

It’s not too late to schedule time to watch your favorite authors appear for The Poisoned Pen in April. Anne Hillerman? Elly Griffiths with her final Ruth Galloway mystery (for now?), The Last Remains. Check the schedule, and check the Webstore for books by authors you enjoy reading. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

Patrick King from The Poisoned Pen recently welcomed authors Scott Graham and Margaret Mizushima to the bookstore. Graham’s Saguaro Sanction is the eighth book in his National Park Mystery Series. There are signed copies of Margaret Mizushima’s eighth book in the Timber Creek K-9 Mystery Series, Standing Dead. You can order both books through the Webstore. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

Here’s the summary of Saguaro Sanction.

Janelle Ortega and Chuck Bender are drawn deep into a threatening web of hostility and deceit in Saguaro National Park in this page-turner of a mystery.

“A winning blend of archaeology and intrigue, Graham’s series turns our national parks into places of equal parts beauty, mystery, and danger.”
—EMILY LITTLEJOHN, author of Lost Lake

When Janelle Ortega’s cousin from Mexico is found brutally murdered at a remote petroglyph site in Saguaro National Park, she and her husband, archaeologist Chuck Bender, are drawn deep into a threatening web of hostility and deceit stretching south across the US-Mexico border and back in time a thousand years, to when the Hohokam people thrived in the Sonoran Desert.

Book 8 in Scott Graham’s National Park Mystery Series introduces readers to the landscapes and cultural histories of Saguaro National Park in southern Arizona, providing an inside look at the wonders of the wildly popular national park and its archaeological and cultural complexities.

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Scott Graham is the author of the acclaimed National Park Mystery series, featuring archaeologist Chuck Bender and Chuck’s spouse, Janelle Ortega. In addition to the National Park Mystery series, Scott is the author of five nonfiction books, including Extreme Kids, winner of the National Outdoor Book Award. Scott is an avid outdoorsman who enjoys backpacking, river rafting, skiing, and mountaineering. He has made a living as a newspaper reporter, magazine editor, radio disk jockey, and coal-shoveling fireman on the steam-powered Durango-Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad. He lives with his spouse, who is an emergency physician, in Durango, Colorado.

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Here’s the description of Standing Dead.

From critically acclaimed, master thriller author Margaret Mizushima, comes the eighth installment of the award-winning Timber Creek K-9 mysteries.

“Tense and satisfying,” (JA Jance) Standing Dead is the perfect read for fans of CJ Box and Longmire.

Deputy Mattie Cobb and her sister, Julia, travel to Mexico to visit their mother, but when they arrive, they discover that she and her husband have vanished without a trace. Back in Timber Creek, Mattie finds a chilling note on her front door telling her to look for “him” among the standing dead up in the high country.

The sheriff’s department springs into action and sends a team to the mountains, where Mattie’s K-9 partner, Robo, makes a grisly discovery—a body tied to a dead pine tree. Mattie is shocked when she realizes she knows the dead man. And then another note arrives, warning that Mattie’s mother is in desperate straits. In a last-ditch gambit, Mattie must go deep undercover into a killer’s lair to save her mother—or die trying.

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Margaret Mizushima is the author of the award-winning and internationally published Timber Creek K-9 Mysteries. She serves as president for the Rocky Mountain Chapter of Mystery Writers of America, was elected the 2019 Writer of the Year by Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers, and is also a member of Northern Colorado Writers, Sisters in Crime, Pikes Peak Writers, and Women Writing the West. She lives in Colorado on a small ranch with her veterinarian husband where they raised two daughters and a multitude of animals. She can be found on Facebook/AuthorMargaretMizushima, Twitter @margmizu, Instagram at margmizu, and her website at www.margaretmizushima.com.

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Enjoy the conversation.

Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, recently talked about Will Thomas’ Barker and Llewelyn novels with the author. Heart of the Nile, set in London in 1893, is the fourteenth book in the series. There are signed copies of the book available in the Webstore. https://bit.ly/3oj73bK

Here is the summary of Heart of the Nile.

London, 1893 – deadly doings are afoot in the British Museum and private enquiry agents Cyrus Barker and Thomas Llewelyn must unravel a mystery involving a mummy, a giant ruby and a murder, in Will Thomas’s Heart of the Nile.

Cyrus Barker, along with his former assistant and now partner Thomas Llewelyn, is the premier enquiry agent in all of 19th century London, and beyond. They’ve thwarted the designs of villains and crooks off all sorts, helped Scotland Yard crack their most challenging cases, and worked for the Her Majesty’s Government at the very highest levels. But nothing has been quite as challenging and dangerous as the latest case that comes to find them.

In 1893, a volunteer at the British Museum makes a startling discovery. When examining a mummy in the museum’s collection, he discovers there is a giant ruby in the shape of a heart buried in the chest of the mummy. Even more startling, the mummy might well be Cleopatra. The following morning, the volunteer is found floating in the Thames and the ruby has gone missing. Hired by the victim’s wife to learn the truth behind his death, Barker and Llewelyn find themselves in the crosshairs – now they must avoid a violent street gang, a ruthless collector, and the British Museum itself in order to find the killer and safeguard the gem.

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WILL THOMAS is the author of the Cyrus Barker and Thomas Llewelyn series, including The Black Hand, The Hellfire Conspiracy, The Limehouse Text, To Kingdom Come, and the Shamus and Barry award-nominated Some Danger Involved. He lives with his family in Oklahoma.

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Enjoy the discussion with Will Thomas.

Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, recently welcomed Sally Hepworth, author of The Soulmate. There are signed copies of the thriller available in the Webstore. https://bit.ly/3mxzQcb

Here’s the description of The Soulmate.

Prepare yourself for a thrilling, addictive novel about marriage, betrayal, and the secrets that push us to the edge in this latest book from the bestselling author of The Good Sister and The Younger Wife.

Picture a lovely cottage on a cliff, with sloping lawns, walking paths, and beautiful flowers. It’s Gabe and Pippa Gerard’s dream home in a sleepy coastal town. But their perfect house hides something sinister. The tall cliffs have become a popular spot for people to end their lives. Over the past several months, Gabe comes to their rescue, literally talking them off the ledge.

Until one day, he doesn’t. When Pippa discovers Gabe knew the victim, the questions spiral. . . .Did the victim jump? Was she pushed? And would Gabe, the love of Pippa’s life, her soulmate . . . lie? As the perfect façade of their marriage begins to crack, the deepest and darkest secrets begin to unravel. Because sometimes, the most convincing lies are the ones we tell ourselves.

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Sally Hepworth has lived around the world, spending extended periods in Singapore, the United Kingdom and Canada. She is the author of The Secrets of Midwives, The Things We Keep, The Mother’s Promise, The Family Next Door and The Mother-in-Law. Sally now lives in Melbourne with her husband, three children, and one adorable dog.

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Enjoy the conversation with Sally Hepworth and Barbara Peters.

We lost author Anne Perry on Monday, April 10 when she died in Los Angeles at age 84. She had been a frequent guest at The Poisoned Pen, although, due to the pandemic, recent appearances had been virtual. She always hoped to get back for another in-person appearance.

Six months ago, Perry appeared to talk about her latest Elena Standish novel, A Truth to Lie For. There’s no better tribute than to share that appearance so fans can hear her talk about her books one last time. May she rest in peace.

Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, recently welcomed John Sandford and Dana Stabenow for the book launch of their latest books. John Sandford’s second Letty Davenport novel is Dark Angel. Dana Stabenow’s 23rd Kate Shugak novel, Not the Ones Dead, is the current Hot Book of the Week at the bookstore. There are signed copies of both titles in the Webstore. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

Here’s the description of Dark Angel.

Letty Davenport, the tough-as-nails adopted daughter of Lucas Davenport, takes on an undercover assignment that brings her across the country and into the crosshairs of a dangerous group of hackers.

Letty Davenport’s days working a desk job at are behind her. Her previous actions at a gunfight in Texas—and her incredible skills with firearms—draw the attention of several branches of the US government, and make her a perfect fit for even more dangerous work. The Department of Homeland Security and the NSA have tasked her with infiltrating a hacker group, known only as Ordinary People, that is intent on wreaking havoc. Letty and her reluctant partner from the NSA pose as free-spirited programmers for hire and embark on a cross country road trip to the group’s California headquarters.

While the two work to make inroads with Ordinary People and uncover their plans, they begin to suspect that the hackers are not their only enemy. Someone within their own circle may have betrayed them, and has ulterior motives that place their mission—and their lives—in grave danger.

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John Sandford is the pseudonym for the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist John Camp. He is the author of thirty Prey novels; four Kidd novels; twelve Virgil Flowers novels; three YA novels coauthored with his wife, Michele Cook; and three other books.

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Here’s the summary of Dana Stabenow’s Not the Ones Dead.

The gripping new Kate Shugak novel by New York Times bestselling author Dana Stabenow.

What seems a tragic accident soon becomes a murder investigation as Kate is drawn into a case of political intrigue.

A mid-air collision in the Alaskan wilderness between two small aircraft leaves ten people dead. Was it a bird strike, pilot error… or premeditated murder?

Then an eleventh body is found in the wreckage: a man shot gangland style, twice in the chest and once in the head.

In an investigation that reaches to the highest levels of government, justice may not be served, but Kate Shugak is determined that the truth will out, even at the risk of her life and the lives of those she loves most.

Reviewers on Dana Stabenow’s Kate Shugak series:

‘An antidote to sugary female sleuths: Kate Shugak, the Aleut private investigator’ —New York Times
‘Crime fiction doesn’t get much better than this‘ —Booklist
‘If you are looking for something unique in the field of crime fiction, Kate Shugak is the answer‘ —Michael Connelly

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Dana Stabenow was born in Anchorage, Alaska and raised on a 75-foot fishing tender. She knew there was a warmer, drier job out there somewhere and found it in writing. Her first book in the bestselling Kate Shugak series, A Cold Day for Murder, received an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America. Follow Dana at stabenow.com

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Enjoy the discussion with John Sandford and Dana Stabenow.