Fiction Review

Iceland’s First Lady, Eliza Reid, is the author of the current Hot Book of the Week at The Poisoned Pen. She’ll be joined by guest host, Yrsa Sigurdardottir, on Friday, Feb. 18 at 12 noon, 2 PM ET, as they discuss Reid’s book, Secrets of the Sprakkar: Iceland’s Extraordinary Women and How They Are Changing the World. You can order the book through the Web Store. https://tinyurl.com/5n8zpeh7

Here’s the description of Secrets of the Sprakkar.

THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER!

“Secrets of the Sprakkar is a fascinating window into what a more gender-equal world could look like, and why it’s worth striving for. Iceland is doing a lot to level the playing field: paid parental leave, affordable childcare, and broad support for gender equality as a core value. Reid takes us on an exploration not only around this fascinating island, but also through the triumphs and stumbles of a country as it journeys towards gender equality.”

—Hillary Rodham Clinton

Iceland is the best place on earth to be a woman—but why?

For the past twelve years, the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report has ranked Iceland number one on its list of countries closing the gap in equality between men and women. What is it about Iceland that makes many women’s experience there so positive? Why has their society made such meaningful progress in this ongoing battle, from electing the world’s first female president to passing legislation specifically designed to help even the playing field at work and at home? And how can we learn from what Icelanders have already discovered about women’s powerful place in society and how increased fairness benefits everyone?

Eliza Reid, the First Lady of Iceland, examines her adopted homeland’s attitude toward women—the deep-seated cultural sense of fairness, the influence of current and historical role models, and, crucially, the areas where Iceland still has room for improvement. Reid’s own experience as an immigrant from small-town Canada who never expected to become a first lady is expertly interwoven with interviews with dozens of sprakkar (“extraordinary women”) to form the backbone of an illuminating discussion of what it means to move through the world as a woman, and how the rules of society play more of a role in who we view as “equal” than we may understand. Secrets of the Sprakkar is a powerful and atmospheric portrait of a tiny country that could lead the way forward for us all.

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ELIZA REID is the co-founder of the acclaimed Iceland Writers Retreat. Eliza grew up near Ottawa, Canada, and moved to Iceland in 2003. She is the sitting First Lady of Iceland.

Mark Greaney’s latest Gray Man thriller, Sierra Six, has been the Hot Book of the Week at The Poisoned Pen. The eleventh book in the series is a prequel that provides the history of Court Gentry, the Gray Man. But, the story also tells a current story. Greaney talks about it with the video. And, of course, you can order a copy through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/34Xpbyd

Here’s the description of Sierra Six.

It’s been years since the Gray Man’s first mission, but the trouble’s just getting started in the latest entry in the #1 New York Times bestselling series.

Before he was the Gray Man, Court Gentry was Sierra Six, the junior member of a CIA action team.

In their first mission they took out a terrorist leader, at a terrible price. Years have passed. The Gray Man is on a simple mission when he sees a ghost: the long-dead terrorist, but he’s remarkably energetic for a dead man. 

A decade of time hasn’t changed the Gray Man. He isn’t one to leave a job unfinished or a blood debt unpaid.

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Mark Greaney‘s research for the Gray Man novels, including Relentless, One Minute Out, Mission Critical, Agent in Place, Gunmetal Gray, Back Blast, Dead Eye, Ballistic, On Target, and The Gray Man, has taken him to more than twenty countries and trained alongside military and law enforcement in the use of firearms, battlefield medicine, and close-range combative tactics. With Marine LtCol Rip Rawlings, he wrote the New York Times bestseller Red Metal. He is also the author of the New York Times bestsellers Tom Clancy Support and Defend, Tom Clancy Full Force and Effect, Tom Clancy Commander in Chief, and Tom Clancy True Faith and Allegiance. With Tom Clancy, he coauthored Locked On, Threat Vector, and Command Authority.

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Enjoy Mark Greaney’s conversation with Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, and with an actual in-person audience.

The Grayson Sherbrooke Otherworldly Adventures, Books 1-5, is Catherine Coulter’s latest collection of novellas. Coulter discusses her numerous books with Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen. You can order a signed copy through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/3Jk5Oyq

Here’s the description of The Grayson Sherbrooke Otherworldly Adventures, Books 1-5. The book has a perfect cover for Valentine’s Day, doesn’t it?

Much like the hero of his frightening gothic adventure stories, well-known English author Grayson Sherbrooke has his own share of run-ins with peculiar supernatural beings, both good and evil. From his home on the northern coast of England, Sherbrooke leaps into these otherworldly mysteries to find the truth with the help of his son, Pip; his beautiful neighbor, Miranda, and her daughter, P. C.; and an orphan named Barnaby.

Set in the mid-nineteenth century and featuring a delightfully quirky cast of characters, The Grayson Sherbrooke Novella Collection will keep you entertained for hours as you join Sherbrooke and his rag-tag team of investigators to solve bizarre, out-of-this-world cases.

This collection includes five books in Coulter’s supernatural series: The Strange Visitation at Wolffe Hall, The Resident Evil at Blackthorn Manor, The Ancient Spirits of Sedgwick House, The Virgin Bride of Northcliffe Hall, and The Red Witch of Ravenstone Folly.

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Catherine Coulter is a #1 New York Times bestselling author. She has written more than eighty novels, including the popular FBI Thriller series. She earned an MA degree in European history at Boston College and is a former Wall Street speechwriter.

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Enjoy Coulter’s discussion of her background and books.

Let’s talk vodka, and the kick-off to Gregg Hurwitz’ latest Orphan X novel, Dark Horse. There are signed copies of Dark Horse, the seventh one in the series, through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/35XBfjC

Here’s the summary of Dark Horse.

“Awesome and propulsive.” —New York Times

Gregg Hurwitz’s New York Times bestselling series returns when Orphan X faces his most challenging mission ever in Dark Horse.

Evan Smoak is a man with many identities and a challenging past. As Orphan X, he was a government assassin for the off-the-books Orphan Program. After he broke with the Program, he adopted a new name and a new mission–The Nowhere Man, helping the most desperate in their times of trouble. Having just survived an attack on his life and the complete devastation of his base of operations, as well as his complicated (and deepening) relationship with his neighbor Mia Hall, Evan isn’t interested in taking on a new mission. But one finds him anyway.

Aragon Urrea is a kingpin of a major drug-dealing operation in South Texas. He’s also the patron of the local area–supplying employment in legitimate operations, providing help to the helpless, rough justice to the downtrodden, and a future to a people normally with little hope. He’s complicated–a not completely good man, who does bad things for often good reasons. However, for all his money and power, he is helpless when one of the most vicious cartels kidnaps his innocent eighteen year old daughter, spiriting her away into the armored complex that is their headquarters in Mexico. With no other way to rescue his daughter, he turns to The Nowhere Man.

Now not only must Evan figure out how to get into the impregnable fortress of a heavily armed, deeply paranoid cartel leader, but he must decide if he should help a very bad man–no matter how just the cause.

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GREGG HURWITZ is the New York Times bestselling author of more than a dozen novels, including the #1 international bestseller Orphan X, the first in a series of thrillers featuring Evan Smoak. He has also written young adult novels: The Rains and its sequel, The Last Chance. Hurwitz’s books have been shortlisted for numerous literary awards, graced top ten lists, and have been translated into twenty-eight languages.

Hurwitz is also a New York Times bestselling comic book writer, having penned stories for Marvel (Wolverine, The Punisher) and DC (Batman). Additionally, he has written screenplays for many major studios and written, developed, and produced television for various networks.

Hurwitz resides in Los Angeles with two Rhodesian ridgebacks.

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Here’s the conversation (and a toast) with Gregg Hurwitz.

Charles Todd recently appeared to discuss the twenty-fourth Inspector Ian Rutledge mystery, A Game of Fear. But, fans might really want to watch the virtual event because there are photos of Caroline Todd, and Charles joined in to talk about his mother with Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen.

Charles Todd signed copies of A Game of Fear, and they are available through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/34AQAq6

Here’s the summary of A Game of Fear.

In this newest installment of the acclaimed New York Times bestselling series, Scotland Yard’s Ian Rutledge is faced with his most perplexing case yet: a murder with no body, and a killer who can only be a ghost.

Spring, 1921. Scotland Yard sends Inspector Ian Rutledge to the sea-battered village of Walmer on the coast of Essex, where amongst the salt flats and a military airfield lies Benton Abbey, a grand manor with a storied past. The lady of the house may prove his most bewildering witness yet. She claims she saw a violent murder—but there is no body, no blood. She also insists she recognized the killer: Captain Nelson. Only it could not have been Nelson because he died during the war.

Everyone in the village believes that Lady Benton’s losses have turned her mind—she is, after all, a grieving widow and mother—but the woman Rutledge interviews is rational and self-possessed. And then there is Captain Nelson: what really happened to him in the war? The more Rutledge delves into this baffling case, the more suspicious tragedies he uncovers. The Abbey and the airfield hold their secrets tightly. Until Rutledge arrives, and a new trail of death follows… 

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Charles Todd is the New York Times bestselling author of the Inspector Ian Rutledge mysteries, the Bess Crawford mysteries, and two stand-alone novels. A mother-and-son writing team, Caroline passed away in August 2021 and Charles lives in Florida.

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If you’re a fan, you’ll appreciate this video.

John Charles from The Poisoned Pen welcomed Jillian Cantor and Heather Gudenkauf for a recent virtual event. Gudenkauf was guest host for Cantor, who talked about Beautiful Little Fools, a reimagining of The Great Gatsby. You can order copies of Beautiful Little Fools through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/34Cc0D4

Here’s the description of Beautiful Little Fools.

USA Today bestselling author Jillian Cantor reimagines and expands on the literary classic The Great Gatsby in this atmospheric historical novel with echoes of Big Little Lies, told in three women’s alternating voices.

On a sultry August day in 1922, Jay Gatsby is shot dead in his West Egg swimming pool. To the police, it appears to be an open-and-shut case of murder/suicide when the body of George Wilson, a local mechanic, is found in the woods nearby.

Then a diamond hairpin is discovered in the bushes by the pool, and three women fall under suspicion. Each holds a key that can unlock the truth to the mysterious life and death of this enigmatic millionaire. 

Daisy Buchanan once thought she might marry Gatsby—before her family was torn apart by an unspeakable tragedy that sent her into the arms of the philandering Tom Buchanan.

Jordan Baker, Daisy’s best friend, guards a secret that derailed her promising golf career and threatens to ruin her friendship with Daisy as well.

Catherine McCoy, a suffragette, fights for women’s freedom and independence, and especially for her sister, Myrtle Wilson, who’s trapped in a terrible marriage.

Their stories unfold in the years leading up to that fateful summer of 1922, when all three of their lives are on the brink of unraveling. Each woman is pulled deeper into Jay Gatsby’s romantic obsession, with devastating consequences for all of them.

Jillian Cantor revisits the glittering Jazz Age world of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, retelling this timeless American classic from the women’s perspective. Beautiful Little Fools is a quintessential tale of money and power, marriage and friendship, love and desire, and ultimately the murder of a man tormented by the past and driven by a destructive longing that can never be fulfilled. 

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Jillian Cantor is the author of award-winning and bestselling novels for adults and teens, including In Another Time, The Hours Count, Margot, and The Lost Letter, which was a USA Today bestseller. She has a BA in English from Penn State University and an MFA from the University of Arizona. Cantor lives in Arizona with her husband and two sons.

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Enjoy the conversation with Jillian Cantor.

Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, confessed to Jonathan Kellerman that she never saw the ending coming for his latest Alex Delaware novel, City of the Dead. If Barbara didn’t see it coming, you might want to order a signed copy of your own through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/34NCbq7

Here’s the description of City of the Dead.

The past comes back to haunt psychologist Alex Delaware and Detective Milo Sturgis when they investigate a grisly double homicide and uncover an even more unspeakable motive in this riveting thriller from the #1 New York Times bestselling master of suspense.

Los Angeles is a city of sunlight, celebrity, and possibility. The L.A. often experienced by Homicide Lt. Detective Milo Sturgis and psychologist Alex Delaware, is a city of the dead.

Early one morning, the two of them find themselves in a neighborhood of pretty houses, pretty cars, and pretty people. The scene they encounter is anything but. A naked young man lies dead in the street, the apparent victim of a collision with a moving van hurtling through suburbia in the darkness. But any thoughts of accidental death vanish when a blood trail leads to a nearby home.

Inside, a young woman lies butchered. The identity of the male victim and his role in the horror remain elusive, but that of the woman creates additional questions. And adding to the shock, Alex has met her while working a convoluted child custody case. Cordelia Gannett was a self-styled internet influencer who’d gotten into legal troubles by palming herself off as a psychologist. Even after promising to desist, she’s found a loophole and has continued her online career, aiming to amass clicks and ads by cyber-coaching and cyber-counseling people plagued with relationship issues.

But upon closer examination, Alex and Milo discover that her own relationships are troublesome, including a tortured family history and a dubious personal past. Has that come back to haunt her in the worst way? Is the mystery man out in the street collateral damage or will he turn out to be the key to solving a grisly double homicide? As the psychologist and the detective explore L.A.’s meanest streets, they peel back layer after layer of secrets and encounter a savage, psychologically twisted, almost unthinkable motive for violence and bloodshed.

This is classic Delaware: Alex, a man Milo has come to see as irreplaceable, at his most insightful and brilliant.

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Jonathan Kellerman is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of more than forty crime novels, including the Alex Delaware series, The Butcher’s Theater, Billy Straight, The Conspiracy Club, Twisted, True Detectives, and The Murderer’s Daughter. With his wife, bestselling novelist Faye Kellerman, he co-authored Double Homicide and Capital Crimes. With his son, bestselling novelist Jesse Kellerman, he co-authored Half Moon Bay, A Measure of Darkness, Crime Scene, The Golem of Hollywood, and The Golem of Paris. He is the author of two children’s books and numerous nonfiction works, including Savage Spawn: Reflections on Violent Children and With Strings Attached: The Art and Beauty of Vintage Guitars. He has won the Goldwyn, Edgar, and Anthony awards and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Psychological Association, and has been nominated for a Shamus Award. Jonathan and Faye Kellerman live in California and New Mexico.

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Enjoy the conversation between Jonathan Kellerman and Barbara Peters.

Stephanie Barron recently appeared for The Poisoned Pen to discuss her fourteenth Jane Austen mystery, Jane and the Year Without a Summer. She talks about Jane Austen, and what was going on in her life and the world at the time, and talked about the series and book. You can order a signed copy through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/34jJM05

Here’s the description of Jane and the Year Without a Summer.

“If you have a Jane Austen-would-have-been-my-best-friend complex, look no further . . . [Barron] has painstakingly sifted through the famed author’s letters and writings, as well as extensive biographical information, to create a finely detailed portrait of Austen’s life—with a dash of fictional murder . . . Some of the most enjoyable, well-written fanfic ever created.”—O Magazine

May 1816: Jane Austen is feeling unwell, with an uneasy stomach, constant fatigue, rashes, fevers and aches. She attributes her poor condition to the stress of family burdens, which even the drafting of her latest manuscript—about a baronet’s daughter nursing a broken heart for a daring naval captain—cannot alleviate. Her apothecary recommends a trial of the curative waters at Cheltenham Spa, in Gloucestershire. Jane decides to use some of the profits earned from her last novel, Emma, and treat herself to a period of rest and reflection at the spa, in the company of her sister, Cassandra.

Cheltenham Spa hardly turns out to be the relaxing sojourn Jane and Cassandra envisaged, however. It is immediately obvious that other boarders at the guest house where the Misses Austen are staying have come to Cheltenham with stresses of their own—some of them deadly. But perhaps with Jane’s interference a terrible crime might be prevented. Set during the Year without a Summer, when the eruption of Mount Tambora in the South Pacific caused a volcanic winter that shrouded the entire planet for sixteen months, this fourteenth installment in Stephanie Barron’s critically acclaimed series brings a forgotten moment of Regency history to life.

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Stephanie Barron was born in Binghamton, New York, the last of six girls. She attended Princeton and Stanford Universities, where she studied history, before going on to work as an intelligence analyst at the CIA. She wrote her first book in 1992 and left the Agency a year later. Since then, she has written twenty-nine books, including the critically acclaimed Merry Folger series, which she writes under the name Francine Mathews. She lives and works in Denver, Colorado.

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There’s a great deal of history and background provided in this fascinating event. Enjoy!

May Cobb recently was guest host for The Poisoned Pen, as Eliza Jane Brazier discussed Good Rich People. Cobb calls it “delicious and dark”. Brazier signed copies, and they’re available through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/3rVWLwt

Here’s the summary of Good Rich People.

A Good Morning America ‘January Book That Can Get Us Through Anything’

A Most Anticipated Novel of 2022 by The New York Times, Good Housekeeping, Harper’s Bazaar, Entertainment Weekly, New York Post, PopSugar, Shondaland, Yahoo!, and Crime Reads

A destitute woman deceives her way into the guesthouse of a Hollywood Hills mansion and inadvertently becomes a target in the twisted game of the wealthy family upstairs in the next intoxicating novel from Eliza Jane Brazier.

Lyla has always believed that life is a game she is destined to win, but her husband, Graham, takes the game to dangerous levels. The wealthy couple invites self-made success stories to live in their guesthouse and then conspires to ruin their lives. After all, there is nothing worse than a bootstrapper. 
 
Demi has always felt like the odds were stacked against her. At the end of her rope, she seizes a risky opportunity to take over another person’s life and unwittingly becomes the subject of the upstairs couple’s wicked entertainment. But Demi has been struggling forever, and she’s not about to go down without a fight.  
 
In a twist that neither woman sees coming, the game quickly devolves into chaos and rockets toward an explosive conclusion.
 
Because every good rich person knows: in money and in life, it’s winner take all. Even if you have to leave a few bodies behind.

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Eliza Jane Brazier is an author, screenwriter, and journalist. She currently lives in California, where she is developing her books for television.

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Enjoy Eliza Jane Brazier’s conversation with May Cobb.

Cloudy with a Chance of Murder is Gerald Elias’ seventh mystery featuring violin teacher Daniel Jacobus. As Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, points out, Elias is a violinist, a concert master, and a conductor. If you love classical music, you might want to check out his series. You can order Elias’ books through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/3o9iIau

Here’s the description of Cloudy with a Chance of Murder.

A freak summer storm severs an island music festival in the middle of Utah’s Great Salt Lake from the mainland. When one festival administrator, and then a second, is found dead, can curmudgeonly Daniel Jacobus solve the murders before his protégée, violinist Yumi Shinagawa, becomes the third victim?

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Enjoy the conversation about books, venues, and music.