The Lefty Awards were announced this past weekend at the Left Coast Crime Convention in Tucson, Arizona. Congratulations to all the winners. Check for the books in the Webstore. https://store.poisonedpen.com/
Best Humorous Mystery Novel
Ellen Byron, Bayou Book Thief (Berkley Prime Crime)
Best Historical Mystery Novel (The Bill Gottfried Memorial) for books set before 1970
Wanda M. Morris, Anywhere You Run (William Morrow)
Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, recently welcomed Donna Leon for a virtual author event. Leon’s latest mystery is So Shall You Reap. There are signed copies of the book available in the Webstore. https://store.poisonedpen.com/item/wLu_br6H3tW-jhoz-94I2A
Here’s the description of So Shall You Reap.
In the thirty-second installment of Donna Leon’s bestselling series, a connection to Guido Brunetti’s own youthful past helps solve a mysterious murder
On a cold November evening, Guido Brunetti and Paola are up late when a call from his colleague Ispettore Vianello arrives, alerting the Commissario that a hand has been seen in one of Venice’s canals. The body is soon found, and Brunetti is assigned to investigate the murder of an undocumented Sri Lankan immigrant. Because no official record of the man’s presence in Venice exists, Brunetti is forced to use the city’s far richer sources of information: gossip and the memories of people who knew the victim. Curiously, he had been living in a small house on the grounds of a palazzo owned by a university professor, in which Brunetti discovers books revealing the victim’s interest in Buddhism, the revolutionary Tamil Tigers, and the last crop of Italian political terrorists, active in the 1980s.
As the investigation expands, Brunetti, Vianello, Commissario Griffoni, and Signora Elettra each assemble pieces of a puzzle—random information about real estate and land use, books, university friendships—that appear to have little in common, until Brunetti stumbles over something that transports him back to his own student days, causing him to reflect on lost ideals and the errors of youth, on Italian politics and history, and on the accidents that sometimes lead to revelation.
DONNA LEON, born in New Jersey in 1942, has worked as a travel guide in Rome and as a copywriter in London. She taught literature in universities in Iran, China, and Saudi Arabia. Commissario Brunetti made her books world-famous. Donna Leon lived in Italy for many years, and although she now lives in Switzerland, she often visits Venice.
Enjoy the discussion of opera, Leon’s Commissario Brunetti, and books.
Isn’t that a great title? Jesse Q. Sutanto, author of Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers, recently appeared for a virtual event for The Poisoned Pen. Lynn Painter, author of a number of romantic comedies, was guest host for the event. You can order a copy of Sutanto’s book through the Webstore. https://store.poisonedpen.com/item/wCIDqQu6pg_DeiXlBQGyzA
Here’s the summary of Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers.
A lonely shopkeeper takes it upon herself to solve a murder in the most peculiar way in this captivating mystery by Jesse Q. Sutanto, bestselling author of Dial A for Aunties.
Vera Wong is a lonely little old lady—ah, lady of a certain age—who lives above her forgotten tea shop in the middle of San Francisco’s Chinatown. Despite living alone, Vera is not needy, oh no. She likes nothing more than sipping on a good cup of Wulong and doing some healthy detective work on the Internet about what her Gen-Z son is up to.
Then one morning, Vera trudges downstairs to find a curious thing—a dead man in the middle of her tea shop. In his outstretched hand, a flash drive. Vera doesn’t know what comes over her, but after calling the cops like any good citizen would, she sort of . . . swipes the flash drive from the body and tucks it safely into the pocket of her apron. Why? Because Vera is sure she would do a better job than the police possibly could, because nobody sniffs out a wrongdoing quite like a suspicious Chinese mother with time on her hands. Vera knows the killer will be back for the flash drive; all she has to do is watch the increasing number of customers at her shop and figure out which one among them is the killer.
What Vera does not expect is to form friendships with her customers and start to care for each and every one of them. As a protective mother hen, will she end up having to give one of her newfound chicks to the police?
Jesse Q. Sutanto grew up shuttling back and forth between Indonesia, Singapore, and Oxford, and considers all three places her home. She has a masters from Oxford University. When she is not writing, she is gaming with her husband or making a mess in the kitchen with her two daughters.
There’s a great deal of laughter in this virtual author event. Enjoy!
It’s always a pleasure to share the lists of award nominees. Congratulations to the 2023 International Thriller Writers Awards Nominees. Check out the list; then check the Webstore for the books. https://store.poisonedpen.com/
BEST HARDCOVER NOVEL
Delilah S. Dawson – THE VIOLENCE (Del Rey) Jennifer Hillier – THINGS WE DO IN THE DARK (Minotaur) Alma Katsu – THE FERVOR (Penguin/Putnam) Jennifer McMahon – THE CHILDREN ON THE HILL (Simon & Schuster) Chris Pavone – TWO NIGHTS IN LISBON (MCD) Catriona Ward – SUNDIAL (Macmillan)
BEST AUDIOBOOK
Kimberly Belle, Fargo Layne, Cate Holahan, Vanessa Lillie – YOUNG RICH WIDOWS (Audible) Narrated by Dina Pearlman, Karissa Vacker, Helen Laser, Ariel Blake Julie Clark – THE LIES I TELL (Audible) Narrated by Anna Caputo, Amanda Dolan J. L. Delozier – THE PHOTO THIEF (CamCat Publishing) Narrated by Rachel L. Jacobs, Jeffrey Kafer Jennifer Hillier – THINGS WE DO IN THE DARK (Macmillan Audio) Narrated by Carla Vega Minka Kent – THE SILENT WOMAN (Blackstone Publishing) Narrated by Christine Lakin, Kate Rudd
BEST FIRST NOVEL
Lauren Nossett – THE RESEMBLANCE (Flatiron Books) Sascha Rothchild – BLOOD SUGAR (Penguin/Putnam) Hayley Scrivenor – DIRT TOWN (Pan Macmillan) Stacy Willingham – A FLICKER IN THE DARK (Minotaur) Erin Young – THE FIELDS (Flatiron Books)
BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL NOVEL
Mary Burton – THE LIES I TOLD (Montlake Romance) Mark Edwards – NO PLACE TO RUN (Thomas & Mercer) Minka Kent – UNMISSING (Thomas & Mercer) Freida McFadden – THE HOUSEMAID (Grand Central Publishing) Wanda Morris – ANYWHERE YOU RUN (William Morrow) Holly Wainwright – THE COUPLE UPSTAIRS (Pan Macmillan) Loreth Anne White – THE PATIENT’S SECRET (Montlake Romance)
BEST SHORT STORY
Dominique Bibeau – RUSSIAN FOR BEGINNERS (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine) Barb Goffman – THE GIFT (Down & Out Books) Smita Harish Jain – PUBLISH OR PERISH (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine) Joyce Carol Oates – 33 CLUES INTO THE DISAPPEARANCE OF MY SISTER (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine) Anna Scotti – SCHRÖDINGER, CAT (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine) Catherine Steadman – STOCKHOLM (Amazon Original Stories)
BEST YOUNG ADULT NOVEL
Melissa Albert – OUR CROOKED HEARTS (Flatiron Books) Gillian French – SUGARING OFF (Algonquin Young Readers) Kate McLaughlin – DAUGHTER (Wednesday Books) Francesca Padilla – WHAT’S COMING TO ME (Soho Teen) Courtney Summers – I’M THE GIRL (Wednesday Books)
BEST E-BOOK ORIGINAL NOVEL
Bill Byrnes – EVASIVE SPECIES (Self-published) Diane Jeffrey – THE COUPLE AT CAUSEWAY COTTAGE (HarperCollins) Grant McKenzie – THE SEVEN TRUTHS OF HANNAH BAXTER (Self-published) Rick Mofina – THE HOLLOW PLACE (Self-published) Carrie Rubin – FATAL ROUNDS (Self-published)
ITW will announce the winners at ThrillerFest XVIII on Saturday, June 3, 2023 at the Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel, New York City.
Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, recently welcomed the father-son writing duo of Mark Sullivan and his son, Connor. Connor’s latest book, Wolf Trap, was the Hot Book of the Week. Mark “grilled” his son about the book. You can find a signed copy of Wolf Trap in the Webstore. https://tinyurl.com/3cdfn5k5
Here’s the description of Wolf Trap.
“A must-read thriller from a brilliant new talent in the genre.” —Jack Carr, #1 New York Times bestselling author
This “adrenaline rush of a novel” (Lisa Gardner, #1 New York Times bestselling author) follows a shadow operative in the midst of a conspiracy with worldwide implications from the author of the “fast-paced international thriller” (New York Journal of Books) Sleeping Bear.
Set a trap… See who comes.
Under the direction of the Special Activities Center in the Operations Directorate of the CIA, over three hundred highly trained agents operate in the darkest shadows of the country’s covert wars. Plucked from the highest echelons of America’s special mission units, these individuals go through rigorous training by the Agency to perfect the arts of assassination, sabotage, infiltration, and guerrilla warfare.
According to the United States government, this Ground Branch of the CIA does not exist. But when diplomacy and military intervention fails, the President of the United States calls upon it to solve America’s most dangerous crises.
Brian Rhome, a former Ground Branch paramilitary officer, thought his time within this elite group was over. But now, he’s on a desperate race against time around the globe as he confronts the traumas of his past and unravels a deadly conspiracy that threatens the highest levels of American democracy.
Connor Sullivan, the acclaimed author of Sleeping Bear, attended the University of Southern California, where he was the recipient of the Edward W. Moses Award for Creative Writing. During college, he worked for Warner Brothers reading screenplays before relocating with his family to the Gallatin Valley in Montana. Wolf Trap is his second novel. Visit his website at ConnorSullivanAuthor.com.
J.A. Jance is a favorite of in-store audiences at The Poisoned Pen. Barbara Peters, owner of the bookstore, recently welcomed Jance for an author event, just before she was to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award at Left Coast Crime in Tucson. There are signed copies of her latest Ali Reynolds novel, Collateral Damage, available in the Webstore. https://tinyurl.com/43y7ww3z
Here’s the description of Collateral Damage.
Ali Reynolds and High Noon Enterprises face the dangerous consequences of one man’s desperate search for revenge in this unputdownable thriller from J.A. Jance, the New York Times bestselling author who “has been delivering must-read books for a long time” (The Real Book Spy).
After spending twenty years behind bars, Frank Muñoz, a disgraced former cop, is out on parole and focused on just one thing: revenge. The wife who abandoned him after his arrest, the mistress who ratted him out for abetting a money-laundering scheme, the detectives who presided over his case all those years ago—they all have targets on their backs.
For Ali Reynolds, the first Christmas without her father is riddled with grief and uncertainty. And with her husband and founding partner of High Noon Enterprises, B. Simpson, preoccupied by an upcoming New Year’s trip to London, she is ready for a break. But when Stu Ramey barges into her home with grave news about a serious—and suspicious—accident on the highway to Phoenix involving B.’s car, things reach a breaking point.
At the hospital, a groggy, post-op B. insists that Ali take his place at a ransomware conference in London, as troubles brimming around High Noon come to light. But questions remain: Who would go to such lengths to cut the tech company from the picture? And what if Ali and the rest of the team are also in danger?
J.A. Jance is the New York Times bestselling author of the Ali Reynolds series, the J.P. Beaumont series, and the Joanna Brady series, as well as five Southwestern thrillers featuring the Walker family. Born in South Dakota and raised in Bisbee, Arizona, Jance lives with her husband in Seattle, Washington. Visit her online at JAJance.com.
Sometimes, it’s worth going back to catch you up with some of the previous events for The Poisoned Pen. A few weeks ago, Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, hosted Michael Robotham for a virtual author event. Robotham is the author of the third Cyrus Haven book, Lying Beside You. You can order copies through the Web Store. http://bit.ly/3Tfpsli
Here’s the summary of Lying Beside You.
Cyrus Haven and Evie Cormac return in Robotham’s latest page-turning, psychological thriller in this “gripping and eerie” (Karin Slaughter) series, reaffirming why Stephen King has proclaimed this author “an absolute master.”
If I could tell you one thing about my brother, it would be this. Two days after his nineteenth birthday, he killed our parents and twin sisters because he heard voices in his head. As defining events go, nothing else comes close for Elias, or for me.
As a boy, Cyrus Haven survived a family massacre and slowly pieced his life back together. Now, after almost twenty years, his brother is applying to be released from a secure psychiatric hospital—and Cyrus is expected to forgive Elias and welcome him home.
Elias is returning to a very different world. Cyrus is now a successful psychologist, working with the police, sharing his house with Evie Cormac, a damaged and gifted teenager who can tell when someone is lying. Evie has gone back to school and is working part-time at an inner-city bar, but she continues to struggle with authority and following rules.
When a man is murdered and his daughter disappears, Cyrus is called in to profile the killer and help piece together Maya Kirk’s last hours. Police believe she was drugged and driven away from the same bar where Evie is working. Soon, a second victim is taken, and Evie is the only person who glimpsed the man behind the wheel.
But there’s a problem. Only two people believe her. One is Cyrus.
The other is the killer.
Michael Robotham is a former investigative journalist whose bestselling psychological thrillers have been translated into twenty-five languages. He has twice won a Ned Kelly Award for Australia’s best crime novel, for Lost in 2005 and Shatter in 2008. His recent novels include When She Was Good, winner of the UK’s Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award for best thriller; The Secrets She Keeps; Good Girl, Bad Girl; When You Are Mine; and Lying Beside You. After living and writing all over the world, Robotham settled his family in Sydney, Australia.
Owen Matthews, author of White Fox, was recently guest author for an event hosted by Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen. You can still order copies of White Fox through the Webstore. https://store.poisonedpen.com/item/Tjsi1wmychPCBqcs3B6tVw
Here’s the description of White Fox.
A page-turning thriller about two competing KGB operatives on a race across Russia and against time to uncover the devastating truth behind the assassination of JFK.
1963. In a desolate Russian penal colony, the radio blares the news of President Kennedy’s death. Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vasin’s new post as director of a gulag camp in the middle of a frozen tundra is far from a promotion. This is where disgraced agents, like Vasin, are sent to disappear and die quietly. But when tensions in the camp mount and a violent revolt breaks out, Vasin finds himself on the run with a mysterious prisoner holding the most dangerous secret in the world: who ordered the murder of President Kennedy.
In a breathless chase that leads them throughout the Soviet Union, from the barren Siberian wastelands, to the stunning halls of the Catherine Palace, and into the gritty streets of Leningrad and Moscow, Vasin must stay one step ahead of the deadliest spy and police organizations in the world, and keep the most wanted man in Russia alive. The journey will push Vasin’s loyalty, morality, and patriotism to the limit, until he faces the ultimate choice: fall in line, or die fighting the system.
With masterly storytelling that weaves together a moment of explosive history with the cutthroat machinations of Soviet politics, Owen Matthews’s White Fox captures the paradigm-shifting assassination from a unique Soviet point of view. This is a page-turning thriller across Russia, where characters facing impossible odds are forced to decide among truth, justice, and all-out war.
OWEN MATTHEWS reported on conflicts in Bosnia, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Chechnya, Iraq, and Ukraine, and was Newsweek‘s bureau chief in Moscow. He is the author of the Black Sun Trilogy, including Black Sun, Red Traitor, and White Fox, and is also the author of several nonfiction books, including Stalin’s Children, Glorious Misadventures, and An Impeccable Spy.
Enjoy the conversation with Owen Matthews and Barbara Peters.
Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, recently welcomed Peter Swanson for a virtual author event. He’s the author of The Kind Worth Killing, the antecedent of his current novel, The Kind Worth Saving. There are signed copies of The Kind Worth Saving available in the Webstore. https://store.poisonedpen.com/item/Vus7kAU5V3UvqUPGWfkD-g
Check out the description of The Kind Worth Saving.
In this spectacularly devious novel by New York Times bestselling author Peter Swanson—featuring the smart and complex Lily Kintner from his acclaimed novel, The Kind Worth Killing—a private eye starts to follow a possibly adulterous husband, but little does he know that the twisted trail will lead back to the woman who hired him.
There was always something slightly dangerous about Joan. So, when she turns up at private investigator Henry Kimball’s office asking him to investigate her husband, he can’t help feeling ill at ease. Just the sight of her stirs up a chilling memory: he knew Joan in his previous life as a high school English teacher, when he was at the center of a tragedy.
Now Joan needs his help in proving that her husband is cheating. But what should be a simple case of infidelity becomes much more complicated when Kimball finds two bodies in an uninhabited suburban home with a “for sale” sign out front. Suddenly it feels like the past is repeating itself, and Henry must go back to one of the worst days of his life to uncover the truth.
Is it possible that Joan knows something about that day, something she’s hidden all these years? Could there still be a killer out there, someone who believes they have gotten away with murder? Henry is determined to find out, but as he steps closer to the truth, a murderer is getting closer to him, and in this hair-raising game of cat and mouse only one of them will survive.
Peter Swanson is the author of seven novels, including The Kind Worth Killing, winner of the New England Society Book Award, and finalist for the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger; Her Every Fear, an NPR book of the year; Before She Knew Him, and Eight Perfect Murders. His books have been translated into 30 languages, and his stories, poetry, and features have appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction, The Atlantic Monthly, Measure, The Guardian, The Strand Magazine, and Yankee Magazine. He lives on the North Shore of Massachusetts, where he is at work on his next novel.
Here’s the conversation with Peter Swanson and Barbara Peters.
Even as it started, Rupert Holmes’ event was humorous. Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, recently welcomed the author of Murder Your Employer: McMasters Guide to Homicide. You can order a signed copy through the Webstore. https://store.poisonedpen.com/item/1hgzL4GgOuXOFd65O0n0Yw
Here’s the summary of Murder Your Employer.
From the diabolical imagination of Edgar Award–winning novelist, playwright, and story-songwriter Rupert Holmes comes a devilish thriller with a killer concept: The McMasters Conservatory for the Applied Arts, a luxurious, clandestine college dedicated to the fine art of murder where earnest students study how best to “delete” their most deserving victim.
Who hasn’t wondered for a split second what the world would be like if a person who is the object of your affliction ceased to exist? But then you’ve probably never heard of The McMasters Conservatory, dedicated to the consummate execution of the homicidal arts. To gain admission, a student must have an ethical reason for erasing someone who deeply deserves a fate no worse (nor better) than death. The campus of this “Poison Ivy League” college—its location unknown to even those who study there—is where you might find yourself the practice target of a classmate…and where one’s mandatory graduation thesis is getting away with the perfect murder of someone whose death will make the world a much better place to live.
Prepare for an education you’ll never forget. A delightful mix of witty wordplay, breathtaking twists and genuine intrigue, Murder Your Employer will gain you admission into a wholly original world, cocooned within the most entertaining book about well-intentioned would-be murderers you’ll ever read.
Rupert Holmes’s much celebrated career ranges from chart-topping story songs with surprising twists—“Escape (The Pina Colada Song)”—to Tony Award–winning whodunit musicals—The Mystery of Edwin Drood—Edgar Award–winning comedy-thrillers—Accomplice—and the Nero Wolfe Best American Mystery Novel nominated Where the Truth Lies, made into an Atom Egoyan motion picture starring Colin Firth and Kevin Bacon. Called “an American treasure” (Los Angeles Times), “a true Renaissance man” by Newsweek, “a comic genius” (Kirkus Reviews) and simply “a genius” (The Times, London), Rupert Holmes brings his wickedly clever storytelling talents to this outrageous and darkly comic mystery set in a secret, idyllic campus where students learn how to “do in others as you would have others do you in.”
Rupert Holmes has received two Edgar Awards from the Mystery Writers of America, and multiple Tony® and Drama Desk Awards for his Broadway mystery musicals, including the book of Curtains and his sole creation, the Tony® Award–winning Best Musical The Mystery of Edwin Drood. His first novel, Where the Truth Lies, was nominated for a Nero Wolfe award for Best American Mystery Novel, was a Booklist Top Ten Debut Novel, and became a motion picture starring Colin Firth and Kevin Bacon. His second novel, Swing, was the first novel with its own original, clue-bearing musical score. He has adapted Agatha Christie, John Grisham, and R.L. Stine for the Broadway and international stage. His short stories have been anthologized in such collections as Best American Mystery Stories, Christmas at the Mysterious Bookshop,and On a Raven’s Wing. Holmes’s earliest story-songs were published in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine and he is also the writer/vocalist of several Billboard Top 10 hits, including his Billboard #1 multi-platinum classic with a memorable twist-ending: “Escape (The Pina Colada Song).”
