Fiction Review

As Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, said, Hank Phillippi Ryan doesn’t need an introduction to many people. If you don’t know her, let me reverse this post, and share her biography first.

USA Today bestselling author HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN has won five Agatha Awards in addition to Anthony, Macavity, Daphne du Maurier, and Mary Higgins Clark Awards. As on-air investigative reporter for Boston’s WHDH-TV, she’s won 37 Emmys and many more journalism honors, and her work has resulted in new laws, criminals sent to prison, homes saved from foreclosure, and millions of dollars in restitution for victims and consumers. A past president of National Sisters in Crime and founder of MWA University, her novels include Trust Me, The Murder List, the Charlotte McNally series (starting with Prime Time), and the Jane Ryland series (which begins with The Other Woman). Ryan lives in Boston with her husband, a nationally renowned civil rights and criminal defense attorney.

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Signed copies of Ryan’s latest suspense novel, The House Guest, are available through the Webstore. http://bit.ly/3lffUtP

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Here’s the description of The House Guest.

The House Guest is another diabolical cat-and-mouse thriller from USA Today bestselling author Hank Phillippi Ryan—but which character is the cat, and which character is the mouse?

After every divorce, one spouse gets all the friends. What does the other one get? If they’re smart, they get the benefits. Alyssa Macallan is terrified when she’s dumped by her wealthy and powerful husband. With a devastating divorce looming, she begins to suspect her toxic and manipulative soon-to-be-ex is scheming to ruin her—leaving her alone and penniless. And when the FBI shows up at her door, Alyssa knows she really needs a friend.

And then she gets one. A seductive new friend, one who’s running from a dangerous relationship of her own. Alyssa offers Bree Lorrance the safety of her guest house, and the two become confidantes. Then Bree makes a heart-stoppingly tempting offer. Maybe Alyssa and Bree can solve each others’ problems.

But no one is what they seem. And the fates and fortunes of these two women twist and turn until the shocking truth emerges: You can’t always get what you want. But sometimes you get what you deserve.

Other books by Hank Phillippi Ryan:
Her Perfect Life
The First to Lie
The Murder List
On the House
Trust Me

THE JANE RYLAND SERIES:
The Other Woman / The Wrong Girl / Truth Be Told / What You See / Say No More

THE CHARLOTTE MCNALLY SERIES:
Prime Time / Face Time / Air Time / Drive Time

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Hank Phillippi Ryan is always fascinating. She’s such a storyteller. Check out the conversation.

Deborah Goodrich Royce’s psychological thriller, Reef Road, is based on a true crime. When Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen welcomed Royce to the bookstore, she asked Royce to talk about the background for the novel. You can order a signed copy of the novel through the Webstore. https://tinyurl.com/vm8bj8j2

Here’s the description of Reef Road.

A Publishers Weekly Bestseller

When a severed hand washes ashore in the wealthy enclave of Palm Beach, Florida, the lives of two women—a lonely writer obsessed with the unsolved murder of her mother’s best friend and a panicked wife whose husband has disappeared with their children—collide as the world shutters in the pandemic lockdown of 2020.

“Reef Road is magnificent. It feels utterly real, a novel of deeply personal context. It swerves between truth and lies—the lies that lead to an even deeper—and more devastating—truth. Though pure fiction, it reads as compellingly as a mixture of memoir and exposé. It has left me shaken to the core. Deborah Goodrich Royce writes with brilliant understanding of the mystery and occasional grace of trauma.” —Luanne Rice, New York Times bestselling author

A young woman’s life seems perfect until her family goes missing. A writer lives alone with her dog and collects arcane murder statistics. What each of them stands to lose as they sneak around the do-not-enter tape blocking Reef Road beach is exposed by the steady tightening of the cincture encircling them.

In a nod to the true crime that inspired it, Deborah Goodrich Royce’s Reef Road probes unhealed generational scars in a wrenching and original work of fiction. It is both stunning and sexy and, like a bystander surprised by a curtain left open, you won’t be able to look away.

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Deborah Goodrich Royce’s thrillers examine puzzles of identity. Ruby Falls won the Zibby Award for Best Plot Twist in 2021 and Finding Mrs. Ford was hailed by Forbes, Book Riot, and Good Morning America’s “best of” lists in 2019.

She began as an actress on All My Children and in multiple films, before transitioning to the role of story editor at Miramax Films, developing Emma and early versions of Chicago and A Wrinkle in Time.

With her husband, Chuck, Deborah restored the Avon Theatre, Ocean House Hotel, Deer Mountain Inn, United Theatre, Savoy Bookstore, and numerous Main Street revitalization projects in Rhode Island and the Catskills.

She serves on the governing and advisory boards of the American Film Institute, Greenwich International Film Festival, New York Botanical Garden, Greenwich Historical Society, and the PRASAD Project.

Deborah holds a bachelor’s degree in modern foreign languages and an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Lake Erie College.

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Enjoy Deborah Goodrich Royce’s discussion of Reef Road and writing.

World War II mysteries featuring women have been very popular in recent years. Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, recently welcomed Stephanie Graves for a virtual event. Graves is the author of the the Olive Bright, Pigeoneer series set during the war. Signed copies of A Courage Undimmed, the third book in the historical mystery series, are available in the Webstore. https://tinyurl.com/5n9xenvn

Weaving wartime intrigue, rural village life, and little-known historical facts about the role of carrier pigeons in WWII, Stephanie Graves continues the adventures of British pigeoneer Olive Bright, but as bitter cold weather forces her racing birds indoors in November 1941, Olive is assigned to a new role in the war effort – escorting none other than Lieutenant Commander Ian Fleming on his visit to the Brickendonbury Manor spy training center…

As the weather turns bitterly cold in the dark days of November 1941, fewer pigeons are being conscripted for missions into occupied Europe and Olive fears her covert program may be dropped altogether. In fact, the new CO of the Baker Street intelligence operation at Brickendonbury Manor, Major Blighty, has expressed his doubts regarding her birds—not to mention Olive herself—and assigned her to a far more insignificant role: escort to a visiting officer of the Royal Navy Intelligence Special Branch. 

She’s none too keen on her assignment or her charge—the aloof and arrogant Lieutenant Commander Ian Fleming—but the last place she expects to accompany him is to a séance. Self-proclaimed medium Velda Dunbar—new to the village of Pipley—has drawn fascination and skepticism after a very public channeling of a doomed seaman aboard the HMS Bartholomew, which she claims has sunk. Fleming remains tight-lipped about his reason for attending her séance, but his arrival with Olive raises eyebrows as she is still maintaining the ruse of dating Captain Jameson Aldridge. When murder occurs before her very eyes, Olive must trust her own instincts and not rule out anyone as a suspect—including the secretive Fleming—for one of them is harboring a hidden deadly agenda.

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Stephanie Graves is the author of the Olive Bright mystery series and four romantic novels, written under the pseudonym Alyssa Goodnight. She lives in Houston with her family. Visit her online at msstephgraves.com.

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Check out Stephanie Graves recent conversation with Barbara Peters.

Have you checked out the next few days of events at The Poisoned Pen? Just look at the schedule of this week’s authors, beginning today, and then check for their books in the Webstore. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

Patrick Millikin recently welcomed Jordan Harper, author of Everybody Knows, as well as Robert Anglen from The Arizona Republic, for an event at The Poisoned Pen. Millikin recommends Everybody Knows for a description of Los Angeles as it is today. You can find signed copies in the Webstore. https://bit.ly/3XVQGPe

Here’s the description of Everybody Knows.

A fearless black-bag publicist exposes the belly of the L.A. beast in “one of the best LA noir novels I’ve ever read” (Attica Locke) from Edgar Award-winning author Jordan Harper.

A NYTBR Editors’ Choice Selection

“Ingenious… I’d like to think Chandler himself might get a kick out of Everybody Knows. . . the LA hardboiled mystery form he largely created continues to chronicle a world even more fatally obsessed with images and false gods than he could ever have envisioned.”?Maureen Corrigan, NPR/Fresh Air
Welcome to Mae Pruett’s Los Angeles, where “Nobody talks. But everybody whispers.” As a “black-bag” publicist tasked not with letting the good news out but keeping the bad news in, Mae works for one of LA’s most powerful and sought-after crisis PR firms, at the center of a sprawling web of lawyers, PR flaks, and private security firms she calls “The Beast.” They protect the rich and powerful and depraved by any means necessary. 

After her boss is gunned down in front of the Beverly Hills Hotel in a random attack, Mae takes it upon herself to investigate and runs headfirst into The Beast’s lawless machinations and the twisted systems it exists to perpetuate. It takes her on a roving neon joyride through a Los Angeles full of influencers pumped full of pills and fillers; sprawling mansions footsteps away from sprawling homeless encampments; crooked cops and mysterious wrecking crews in the middle of the night.

Edgar Award-winner Jordan Harper’s EVERYBODY KNOWS is addicting and alarming, a “juggernaut of a novel” and “an absolute tour de force.” It is what the crime novel can achieve in the modern age: portray the human lives at the center of vast American landscapes, and make us thrill at their attempts to face impossible odds.

Recommended by New York Times Book Review • NPR/Fresh Air • Wall Street Journal • Washington Post • LA Times •CrimeReads• Alta Online • Lit Hub• Kirkus Reviews• Publishers Weekly• NBC/TODAY and many more!

• An ABA January 2023 Indie Next List Pick •

“The book everybody’s been waiting for” —Michael Connelly
“An absolute tour de force”—S. A. Cosby
“The best mystery novel I’ve read in years” —James Patterson

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Jordan Harper is the Edgar-Award winning author of She Rides Shotgun and Love and Other Wounds. Born and educated in Missouri, he now lives in Los Angeles, where he works as a writer and producer for television.

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Enjoy the conversation about LA noir.

Barbara Peters, the owner of The Poisoned Pen, welcomed Jane Harper back to the bookstore. The Australian author’s current novel, Exiles, is the Hot Book of the Week. You can order the final Aaron Falk book through the Webstore. http://bit.ly/3jsmrke

Here’s the summary of Exiles.

FROM NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AND AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR JANE HARPER COMES EXILES, A CAPTIVATING MYSTERY ABOUT A MISSING MOTHER

“I love Jane Harper’s Australia-based mysteries.” —Stephen King

“Once again Harper proves that she is peerless in creating an avalanche of suspense with intimate, character-driven set pieces…Harper’s legions of fans will exult in reading Exiles.”
—David Baldacci, #1 New York Times bestselling author

Federal Investigator Aaron Falk is on his way to a small town deep in Southern Australian wine country for the christening of an old friend’s baby. But mystery follows him, even on vacation.

This weekend marks the one-year anniversary of Kim Gillespie’s disappearance. One year ago, at a busy town festival on a warm spring night, Kim safely tucked her sleeping baby into her stroller, then vanished into the crowd. No one has seen her since. When Kim’s older daughter makes a plea for anyone with information about her missing mom to come forward, Falk and his old buddy Raco can’t leave the case alone.

As Falk soaks up life in the lush valley, he is welcomed into the tight-knit circle of Kim’s friends and loved ones. But the group may be more fractured than it seems. Between Falk’s closest friend, the missing mother, and a woman he’s drawn to, dark questions linger as long-ago truths begin to emerge. What would make a mother abandon her child? What happened to Kim Gillespie?

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Jane Harper is the New York Times bestselling author of The Dry, Force of Nature, and The Lost Man. Jane previously worked as a print journalist in Australia and the UK and lives in Melbourne with her husband, daughter, and son.

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Enjoy the conversation with Jane Harper and Barbara Peters.

https://www.youtube.com/live/h5mX6ttWkmY?feature=share

Patrick Millikin from The Poisoned Pen recently welcomed Jeff Guinn to the bookstore. Guinn is the author of Waco: David Koresh, the Branch Davidians and a Legacy of Rage. Guinn’s narrative nonfiction book is available through the webstore, http://bit.ly/3HRpSul. Guinn said that many writers of narrative nonfiction talk about what happened, which is important, but not why those events happened. He talks about that in his conversation with Millikin.

Here’s the summary of Waco: David Koresh, the Branch Davidians and a Legacy of Rage.

The definitive account of the disastrous siege at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, featuring never-before-seen documents, photographs, and interviews, from former investigative reporter Jeff Guinn, bestselling author of Manson and The Road to Jonestown.

For the first time in thirty years, more than a dozen former ATF agents who participated in the initial February 28, 1993, raid speak on the record about the poor decisions of their commanders that led to this deadly confrontation. Revelations in this book include why the FBI chose to end the siege with the use of CS gas; how both ATF and FBI officials tried and failed to cover up their agencies’ mistakes; where David Koresh plagiarized his infamous prophecies; and direct links between the Branch Davidian tragedy and the modern militia movement in America. Notorious conspiracist Alex Jones is a part of the Waco story. So much is new, and stunning.

Guinn puts you alongside the ATF agents as they embarked on the disastrous initial assault, unaware that the Davidians knew they were coming and were armed and prepared to resist. Drawing on this new information, including several eyewitness accounts, Guinn again does what he did with his bestselling books about Charles Manson and Jim Jones, shedding new light on a story that we thought we knew.

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Jeff Guinn is the bestselling author of numerous books, including Go Down Together, The Last Gunfight, Manson, The Road to Jonestown, War on the Border, and Waco. He lives in Fort Worth, Texas, and is a member of the Texas Literary Hall of Fame.

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If you like recent American history, you might enjoy the conversation between Jeff Guinn and Patrick Millikin.

The Agatha Award nominees were announced recently. Congratulations to all of the nominees. I’m sure those who follow The Poisoned Pen will recognize some of the names. Check the list, and then check the webstore (Under Shop) for your favorite authors. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

MALICE DOMESTIC announced the Agatha Award Nominees. Congratulations to all. The Agatha Awards will be presented Saturday, April 29, 2023, during Malice Domestic 35.

Best Contemporary Novel

Bayou Book Thief, Ellen Byron (Berkley Prime Crime)
Death By Bubble Tea, Jennifer J. Chow (Berkley)
Fatal Reunion, Annette Dashofy (Level Best Books)
Dead Man’s Leap, Tina de Bellegarde (Level Best Books)
A World of Curiosities, Louise Penny (Minotaur)

Best Historical Novel

The Counterfeit Wife, Mally Becker (Level Best Books)
Because I Could Not Stop for Death, Amanda Flower (Berkley)
The Lindbergh Nanny, Mariah Fredericks (Minotaur)
In Place of Fear, Catriona McPherson (Mobius)
Under a Veiled Moon, Karen Odden (Crooked Lane Books)

Best First Novel

Cheddar Off Dead, Korina Moss (St. Martin’s)
Death in the Aegean, M. A. Monnin (Level Best Books)
The Bangalore Detectives Club, Harini Nagendra (Constable)
Devil’s Chew Toy, Rob Osler (Crooked Lane Books)
The Finalist, Joan Long (Level Best Books)
The Gallery of Beauties, Nina Wachsman (Level Best Books)

Best Short Story

“Beauty and the Beyotch,” Barb Goffman (Sherlock Holmes Magazine, Feb. 2022)
“There Comes a Time,” Cynthia Kuhn, Malice Domestic Murder Most Diabolical (Wildside Press)
“Fly Me to the Morgue,” Lisa Q Mathews, Malice Domestic Mystery Most Diabolical (Wildside Press)
“The Minnesota Twins Meet Bigfoot,” Richie Narvaez, Land of 10,000 Thrills, Bouchercon Anthology (Down & Out Books)
“The Invisible Band,” Art Taylor, Edgar & Shamus Go Golden (Down & Out Books)

Best Non-Fiction

The Life of Crime: Detecting the History of Mysteries and Their Creators, Martin Edwards (HarperCollins)
The Handbook to Agatha Christie: The Bloomsbury Handbook to Agatha Christie, Mary Anna Evans and J. C. Bernthal (Bloomsbury Academic)
The Science of Murder: The Forensics of Agatha Christie, Carla Valentine (Sourcebooks)
Promophobia: Taking the Mystery Out of Promoting Crime Fiction, Diane Vallere Ed. (Sisters in Crime)
Agatha Christie: An Elusive Woman, Lucy Worsley (Pegasus Crime)

Best Children’s/YA Mystery

Daybreak on Raven Island, Fleur Bradley (Viking Books for Young People)
In Myrtle Peril, Elizabeth C. Bunce (Algonquin Young Readers)
#shedeservedit, Greg Herren (Bold Strokes Books)
Sid Johnson and the Phantom Slave Stealer, Frances Schoonmaker (Auctus Publishers)
Enola Holmes and the Elegant Escapade, Nancy Springer (Wednesday Books)

The weather may keep authors from home, but fortunately social media still allows The Poisoned Pen to host them no matter where they are. Matt Witten was stuck in Boston, but Barbara Peters, owner of the bookstore, was still able to have a conversation about books and writing for television. Witten’s latest book, Killer Story, is available through the Web Store. http://bit.ly/3Dhr4nM

Here’s the description of Killer Story.

How far will she go to catch the killer—and make her podcast a hit?

Talented and idealistic young reporter Petra Kovach is on the brink of being laid off from her third failing newspaper in a row. To save her job, she pitches the launch of a true crime podcast about a sensational, unsolved murder.

Years earlier, an alt-right YouTuber was killed in her Harvard dorm room, and the case went cold. Petra knew the victim—she was once her camp counselor and loved her like a little sister, despite their political differences.

Petra’s investigation gets off to a rocky start, as her promising leads quickly shrivel up. In her passionate quest for justice—and clicks—Petra burns sources and breaks laws, ultimately putting her own life on the line. Even as her star rises, she worries it could all come crashing down at any moment if her actions are exposed.

When her machinations start to backfire, there’s only one way to fix everything and solve the murder—even though it may cost her everything she loves.

Perfect for fans of Karin Slaughter and Harlan Coben

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Matt Witten is a TV writer, novelist, playwright, and screenwriter. His television writing includes such shows as House, Pretty Little Liars, and Law & Order. His TV scripts have been nominated for an Emmy and two Edgars, and he has written four mystery novels, winning a Malice Domestic award for best debut novel. He has also written stage plays that have been produced throughout the world.

His previous novel, The Necklace, has been optioned for film by Appian Way and Cartel Pictures, with Leonardo DiCaprio attached as producer. Killer Story is his most recent novel.

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This is an interesting conversation about writing and Killer Story. Enjoy!

Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, recently welcomed authors Kathryn Lasky and Ana Reyes to the bookstore. Lasky’s Light on Bone is a mystery featuring Georgia O’Keefe as an amateur sleuth. Ana Reyes’ The House in the Pines is a NYTimes bestseller and the Reese Witherspoon January Pick of the Month. There are signed copies of both books in the Web Store. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

Here’s the summary of Light on Bone.

“Step aside Miss Marple, Eugenia Potter, and Kinsey Millhone—Georgia O’Keeffe is the new sleuth in town! Kathryn Lasky brings the rich imagination of her YA and Juvenile books to Light On Bone, a stunning, suspenseful adult mystery. Vivid prose brushstrokes bring the legendary artist, the Southwest landscape she loved, and a complicated plot with historical and imagined characters to life.”—Katherine Hall Page, author of the award-winning Faith Fairchild series

Kathryn Lasky has written an exciting new adult amateur sleuth mystery set in New Mexico in the 1930s. The sleuth is Georgia O’Keefe, who actually did suffer a nervous breakdown in 1933 when her husband Alfred Stieglitz had a somewhat public affair, was hospitalized for psychiatric treatment, and then traveled to the Ghost Ranch in New Mexico to paint. O’Keefe was approaching the peak of her fame and success, having just sold a painting for a record price. The narrative begins when she discovers the slain body of a priest in the desert. The plot includes several other murders, Georgia’s burgeoning romance with the local sheriff, an international espionage plot involving Charles Lindbergh (who is staying at the ranch with his wife Anne), and lots of intricate twists and turns leading to a thoroughly unforeseen denouement. The strength of this story is how Lasky’s elegant writing captures the emotional depth of this artist’s turmoil and so stunningly reveals O’Keeffe’s perception of the landscape that moves her to paint. It is not simply a who-dunnit mystery, but much more: It is a narrative of healing and resurrection of spirit.

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Kathryn Lasky is the award winning author of many children’s books as well as several adult novels including Night Gardening and the Calista Jacobs mystery series. Her best selling series The Guardians of Ga’Hoole was made into a Warner Brothers movie Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole directed by Zack Snyder. She is the recipient of a Newbery Honor award and twice winner of the National Jewish Book Award, as well as recognition from Amnesty International for her novel The Extra. Her work has been translated into nineteen languages worldwide. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

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Here’s the description of The House in the Pines.

An instant New York Times bestseller!

“This is an absolute, can’t-put-it-down thriller…It’s truly a wild ride that had me flying through chapter after chapter—which I think is the perfect way to kick off your year of reading.” —Reese Witherspoon (Reese’s Book Club Jan ’23 Pick)

Armed with only hazy memories, a woman who long ago witnessed her friend’s sudden, mysterious death, and has since spent her life trying to forget, sets out to track down answers. What she uncovers, deep in the woods, is hardly to be believed….

Maya was a high school senior when her best friend, Aubrey, mysteriously dropped dead in front of the enigmatic man named Frank whom they’d been spending time with all summer.

Seven years later, Maya lives in Boston with a loving boyfriend and is kicking the secret addiction that has allowed her to cope with what happened years ago, the gaps in her memories, and the lost time that she can’t account for. But her past comes rushing back when she comes across a recent YouTube video in which a young woman suddenly keels over and dies in a diner while sitting across from none other than Frank. Plunged into the trauma that has defined her life, Maya heads to her Berkshires hometown to relive that fateful summer—the influence Frank once had on her and the obsessive jealousy that nearly destroyed her friendship with Aubrey.

At her mother’s house, she excavates fragments of her past and notices hidden messages in her deceased Guatemalan father’s book that didn’t stand out to her earlier. To save herself, she must understand a story written before she was born, but time keeps running out, and soon, all roads are leading back to Frank’s cabin….

Utterly unique and captivating, The House in the Pines keeps you guessing about whether we can ever fully confront the past and return home.

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Ana Reyes has an MFA from Louisiana State University. Her work has appeared in Bodega, Pear Noir!, New Delta Review, and elsewhere. She lives in Los Angeles where she teaches creative writing to older adults at Santa Monica College. The House in the Pines is her first novel.

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Enjoy the conversation with Kathryn Lasky and Ana Reyes.