From Patricia

Bartlett, L.L. Dead in Red ($26) June. Ex-insurance investigator Jeff Resnick has a sixth sense that helps solve crimes. But it puts him in harm's way often enough to make him want to muffle his talent. His elderly mentor Sophie challenges him to use his gift for good. Jeff's vision of a red high-heeled shoe after his favorite bartender is murdered starts him on a trail through Buffalo's underworld of foot fetishists and drag queens who have answers. The second Resnick after Murder on the Mind.

Holm, Tom. The Osage Rose ($16) June, pbo. Ex-cop J.D. Daugherty sets up as a p.i. to cash in on cases for Tulsa, Oklahoma's high society in 1921. Hired to find Rose, a young white woman who eloped with native American Tommy, an heir to Osage oil, J.D. and his Cherokee sideman Hoolie flounder through a swamp of lies, racial hatred and gunfights to reach the truth. Holm recreates the boomtown era made to order for a fixer like J.D. Insight into Osage culture and the Cherokee spirit world is a bonus. A professor of American Indian studies at the University of Arizona, Holm writes with authority. First novel.

Lewis, C.S. Prince Caspian ($22 and $8 for mass) May. Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy vanish at the railway station to reappear in Narnia 1300 years after their first visit although only one year has passed in England. Interviewing a fugitive dwarf in the ruins of their castle launches them on an adventure to restore the old Narnia now in thrall to invaders. Read the book and see the film now.

Martin, Kat. Season of Strangers ( $8) June, pbo. After two sisters disappear on a Malibu beach, one of them, Julie, suffers blinding headaches, and the other, Laura, becomes paranoid about alien abductions. When Julie's boss recovers from a heart attack like a different man, she starts assembling puzzle pieces to save Laura. Third paranormal romance after Scent of Roses and The Summit ($8).

Novak, Brenda. Trust Me ($7) June, pbo. Skye Kellerman's testimony put Oliver Burke, the man who knifed her, in prison. She started a victims support group with other survivors. Skye and Detective Willis of the Sacramento PD know Burke will target her when he is paroled in a week. They intend to prove Burke guilty of other murders to stop him. Det. Willis is obliged to play by the rules. Skye is not. First in victims support romantic suspense trilogy.

Spencer-Fleming, Julia. I Shall Not Want ($25) June. Hadley Knox and her two children take refuge with her grandfather, sexton at the Episcopal church where Rev. Clare Fergusson is shepherd-in-residence for the people of Millers Kill, upstate New York. Hadley endures the rigors of basic training and the eager Deputy Flynn's unwanted attentions when she joins the police force. Still staggering under the weight of the events that ended All Mortal Flesh, police chief Russ Van Alstyne needs Hadley's Spanish language skills when a nun driving a van of migrant workers (some legal) draws gunfire that might be related to the Mexican drug trade invading the area. Clare soldiers on, conducting liturgies, hiring one of the migrants and training with the National Guard despite the guilt she carries from the same events. Church calendar headings measure time passing until the bodies of men killed execution style are found during the town picnic. The action spikes like the peaks on a heart monitor while this many characters worthy of concern spend their talents to stop the violence. Russ and Clare's frustration matches the reader's when a crisis interrupts their private encounters time and again. Knockout blows land one after another until a reader must remember to breathe. As long as Spencer-Fleming writes this series, fans shall not want, except the next book. In the Bleak Midiwnter, A Fountain Filled with Blood, Out of the Deep I Cry, To Darkness and to Death, and All Mortal Flesh.

Celebrating the return of Indiana Jones…

Dietrich, William. Rosetta Key (Harper $28 in stock). A world without George MacDonald Fraser and his picaresque characters is a duller place. Fortunately Dietrich has picked up the mantle and created in a bumptious, somewhat bumbling young American, once a kind of apprentice to Benjamin Franklin, an heir to Flashman. First met in Napoleon's Pyramids ($7.99) which ended him fleeing the forces of evil in a hot-air balloon (a relatively new transport developed by France's Montgolfier brothers), Ethan Gage keeps losing—and finding—his feet in the 1799 Holy Land in pursuit of an ancient Egyptian scroll. With a healthy helping of sultry women of unusual powers, fuelled by self interest and an incredible sense of timing, Gage's incredible adventure climaxes at the epic siege of Acre. Dietrich is the author of an all-time favorite adventure novel in Ice Reich and has done Britannia in Hadrian's day.

Rollins, James.Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls (Ballantine $26 pubs May 22; Signed here June 24). Lucas, Spielberg, and Harrison Ford do the movie, Rollins does the official book. Naturally no one is giving the plot away in advance. But we can say that Rollins kicks off the national launch for The Last Oracle , (Morrow $27) here on June 24. A bid to genetically engineer the next great prophet results in a biological meltdown among the children in the experiment. SIGMA must intervene by solving a mystery that dates back to the Oracle at Delphi (where the priestesses were mostly stoned off the vapors). The Greek and Russian threads of this plot are outstanding and the drama of Chernobyl and what to do with the mess today (based, by the way, on the actual plan) makes for an astonishing climatic scene. Plus much of the action takes place on the Mall in Washington, DC. All in all, a knockout summer – or anytime – read.

McCoy, Max.Indiana Jones and the Hollow Earth (Bantam/Lucas $6.99). To set you up for the new movie, try a violent storm, a dying Arctic explorer, and a curious wooden box. Inside it: a slice of Icelandic stone with mythological powers and a journal hinting at a lost civilization. This mix only needs a handy, lovely Danish scientist and some Nazi explorers, no?

Andrei Cherny's inspiring book The Candy Bombers

I Was on Cnn and saw a story on The Candy Bombers. A fascination bit of history I had never heard of before.
So who were The Candy Bombers?
Well, they were a group of airmen during the Berlin Airlift who followed the lead of a young 27-year-old pilot and started dropping candy tied to little parachutes to the children of Berlin.

click here to see CNN Video.

"On the sixtieth anniversary of the Berlin Airlift, Andrei Cherny tells a remarkable story with profound implications for the world today. In the tradition of the best narrative storytellers, he brings together newly unclassified documents, unpublished letters and diaries, and fresh primary interviews to tell the story of the ill-assorted group of castoffs and second-stringers who not only saved millions of desperate people from a dire threat, but changed how the world viewed the United States, and set in motion the chain of events that would ultimately lead to the dismantling of the Berlin Wall and America’s victory in the Cold War."

Andrei Cherny signs The Candy Bombers Tuesday, June 17, 2008 at 07:00 pm
Don't miss the opportunity to meet this fascinating author!

Killing Rommel by Seven Pressfield

Steven Pressfield's new book ($27)
Killing Rommel is here and we have it signed.
It is a story set in WWII, in the North African campaign, a behind-the-lines raid conducted by two British special forces, the Long Range Desert Group and the SAS (Special Air Service). The Brits' target: the legendary German commander--Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, the Desert Fox. The book is fiction but based on fact.

Click here to Introduce yourself to Killing Rommel with these audio excerpts from the book.

Thomas Cook's Master of the Delta has just arrived

American crime-writer, Thomas H. Cook,has a new novel, Master of the Delta.

In 1954 Mississippi, Jack Branch returns to his father’s Delta estate, Great Oaks, to perform an act of noblesse oblige: teaching at the local high school. Conducting a class on historical evil, Jack is shocked to discover that his unassuming student Eddie is the son of the Coed Killer, a notorious local murderer. Jack feels compelled to mentor the boy, encouraging Eddie to examine his father’s crime and using his own good name to open the doors that Eddie’s lineage can’t. But when Eddie’s investigation leads him to Great Oaks and to Jack’s own father, Jack finds himself questioning Eddie’s motives—and his own.

As the deadly consequences of Jack’s actions fall inescapably into place, Thomas H. Cook masterfully reveals the darker truths that lurk in the recesses of small-town lives and in the hearts of even well-intentioned men.

Cook is the author of the Edgar Award winning novel The Chatham School Affair. He received six Edgar nominations to date, most recently in 2006 for the novel Red Leaves, which was also shortlisted for the CWA Duncan Lawrie Dagger and the Anthony Award, and went on to win the Barry Award and The Martin Beck Award.

Thomas Cook will be signing at The Poisoned Pen Bookstore on Monday, July 7 at 7pm.
Don't miss your chance to meet this wonderful author!

Master of Crisis and Crime article - Publishers Weekly, 4/7/2008

Gordianus returns in THE TRIUMPH OF CAESAR

Fans of Steven Saylor will be happy to see that Gordianus returns in The new Roma Sub Rosa novel: The Triumph of Caesar
USA Today is calling Steven “A modern master of historical fiction.”

In March, Steven appeared with fellow ancient world novelist Steven Pressfield (Gates of Fire) at the Getty Villa in Malibu, California, one of the world’s great museums of the ancient world. You can watch their 84-minute videotaped conversation here at the Getty site.
Steven will be signing Wednesday, May 14, 2008 7 pm at The Poisoned Pen in Scottsdale. For a signed copy of The Triumph of Caesar please call 888 560 9919 or email sales@poisonedpen.com

Are you a Donna Leon fan? Then we have a treat for you...

A note to all of our Donna Leon fans, Grace Brophy has written a new Commissario Cenni Investigation,A Deadly Paradise . So if you are longing for a new Italian mystery, give Grace Brophy a try.
The critics love her and we think you will too…
Praise for Grace Brophy:: "It's not often that an author's first book wins the coveted Tip of the Ice Pick Award."-BookPage "Believable narrative twists combined with excellent characterization, rich dialogue and a finely depicted setting."-Publishers Weekly "A terrific Italian historical police procedural."-Midwest Book Review In the peaceful Umbrian village of Paradiso, the shocking murder and mutilation of an elderly German woman is barely credible. That is, until Inspector Alessandro Cenni of the State Police discovers that this retired cultural attach was not just a difficult tenant, but also a bisexual swinger with an African lover recently in residence, as well as a blackmailer. The dead woman grew up in occupied Venice, and some of her secrets may have been acquired that long ago, during World War II. And the bucolic village is not that innocent: It was the site of a famous, scandalous murder fifty years earlier. Cenni’s boss wants a scapegoat, and the young African lesbian is the obvious target, but Cenni cannot bring himself to close a case without solving the crime and bringing the actual perpetrator to justice. Grace Brophy , a native of New Jersey, lived in Umbria for many years. She now resides in Maine. The Last Enemy, her debut novel, featuring Inspector Cenni, was published to acclaim. PRAISE FOR "A DEADLY PARADISE"
"Brophy not only has found in Umbria a fresh setting for Italian crime fiction, but she has also created a character in Cenni who combines the beguiling personal flaws, slumbering sex appeal, and mysterious detachment of David Hewson’s Leo Falcone and Nic Costa. Readers bitten by the Italian crime bug are sure to succumb to Cenni’s charms." —Booklist
"Brophy has a fine budding series here, with winning characters and settings that include Venice and Murano as well as Umbria, and the ongoing Chiara subplot will have readers anticipating the next installment" —Library Journal
"The author feeds readers just enough information through the twists and turns of the plot to keep them on their toes. . . . delightful, action-packed whodunit with some Italian travel and culture thrown in for good measure." —School Library Journal
"In Cenni’s second appearance . . . Brophy adds new texture to her crisp narrative through the perspectives of several suspects alternating with the Inspector’s clear-eyed analysis." —Kirkus Reviews
"The Commissario follows the trail of the victim's visitors and lover to Venice, where his own past and demons get a good stirring-up too. The lives and secrets reveal in a smooth, compulsive and faultless fashion and later there's another visit to Venice, and cats prove crucial. I loved this book." —Fictionalcities.com
"The latest Cenni Italian police procedural . . . is an engaging case with an incredible setup. Cenni is at his best as he struggles with diplomatic immunity intruding on the crime scene . . . . fans will appreciate Grace Brophy’s entertaining whodunit." —The Mystery Gazette
Consistently intriguing and thoroughly appealing, Commissario Alessandro Cenni is an absolute winner among contemporary protagonists in police procedural mysteries. Compelling characterizations, carefully crafted plotting, and finely rendered Italian settings are the perfectly blended ingredients that make A Deadly Paradise a terrific mystery. Don't miss it! —Bookloons

Claire M. Johnson’s signing on Sunday, May 18 has been canceled

I’m sorry to post that Claire M. Johnson’s signing on Sunday, May 18 has been canceled. We are going to ship to Claire so please call for a signed copy of her new mystery, Roux Morgue, featuring Pastry Chef, Mary Ryan.
Roux Morgue is the sequel to Beat Until Stiff for which Claire won the 1999 Malice Domestic Writers Grant.
And Roux Morgue has the critics raving again:

Publishers Weekly - 2/11/08
Roux Morgue
The growing rift between the “dinosaurs” and the “young brats” on the teaching staff at San Francisco's École d'Epicure fuels the highly amusing action in Johnson's superior second cozy to feature funky pastry chef Mary Ryan (after 2002's Beat Until Stiff ). This enjoyable romp should gain Johnson new fans .

Library Journal - 2/1/08
Girl Power! The chick-lit mystery subgenre has been reinventing itself for a while.
Claire Johnson uses a culinary school in Roux Morgue to illustrate how a young chef can be exceptional both at her profession and snooping around solving murders.

Kirkus - 2/1/2008
Sexual tension, cooking tips and a neatly packaged mystery. All in all, a tasty tale.

You can read more at Reviews for Roux Morgue

From Patricia

Barrett, Tracy. The 100-Year-Old Secret (Holt, $16) May. Florida teen Xena Holmes and her brother Xander, transplanted to London for their father's year as a visiting musician, discover their connection to Sherlock which entitles them to his unsolved casebook. Trained in The Game that wins them points for guessing a person's occupation by his appearance, the resourceful pair have as much fun as the reader will. First in The Sherlock Files series for ages 9-12.

Brightwell, Emily. Mrs. Jeffries Holds the Trump (Berkley, $7) June, pbo. The quiet, successful owner of a medical supply concern drowns face down off a Chelsea wharf. Inspector Witherspoon must learn who killed a man with no enemies. His housekeeper, the steadfast Mrs. Jeffries, with her team of domestic irregulars, proves the victim was solving a crime at the time of his death. The Metropolitan Police Force's secret weapon is just as comfortable in her role as she has been in the other 23 entries in this appealing Victorian series.

Lane, Vicki. In a Dark Season (Bantam, $7) May. After an old woman falls from her porch, a niece no one knows swiftly sorts Aunt Nola's belongings for sale. Widow Elizabeth Goodweather from the neighboring herb farm salvages Nola's quilts and a laptop from the clearout. This is either a concerned relative or a predator cashing in on the development threatening the Marshall County North Carolina way of life. What happened years ago in those hills leads to the answers.
Old Wounds ($7).

Olsen, Gregg., A Cold Dark Place (Pinnacle Kensington, $7) April, pbo. In the wake of a tornado in Washington state, single mom and cop Emily Kenyon suspects the teenage survivor of murdering his entire family on their farm. Emily's daughter disappears with him to support his claim of innocence. Similar crimes in other states may be her only leads. True crime writer/journalist Olsen pens his second convincing thriller following A Wicked Snow ($7).

Upson, Nicola. An Expert in Murder (Harper, $25) June. Loss of privacy is the price playwright Josephine Tey pays for success. When the young woman thrilled to meet her on the train trip from Scotland is murdered in Kings Cross station, Inspector Archie Penrose, well acquainted with Josephine, suspects the death is related to her play, Richard of Bordeaux.
Its pacifist sentiments in a world so scarred by the Great War have made it the surprise hit of the season. The ghosts from Penrose's hellish time in the trenches revisit him during the case. Blending fact and fiction, Upson launches a smart series with crime writer Tey as protagonist. Kudos for the turns of phrase and foreshadowing from the era of London in the 1930's that fix a reader's interest in the individually realized characters.

ROBERT K TANENBAUM signing at the Poisoned Pen,Tuesday May 13

Don't miss author, ROBERT K TANENBAUM, signing at the Poisoned Pen,Tuesday May 13 at 7:00 pm. He will be signing his new thriller, Escape.

Tanenbaum is a Brooklyn boy who served a term as mayor of Beverly Hills, all background along with his career as a DA for the Butch Karp/Marlene Ciampi novels. In Escape, the 20^th in series, newly re-elected, NY DA Karp battles the “insanity of the insanity defense,” as he tries to make Jessica Campbell, a rabble-rousing political science professor at NYU, pay for the murder of her three children. Karp disbelieves her claim that God told her to send them to Him and seeks to prove a motive for this modern Medea. Meanwhile the Sheik and his homegrown jihadists plot a spectacular assault on the city. The Karp daughter Lucy has gone underground, and a motley crew of crimebusters proves their mettle.

No Lesser Plea; Depraved Indifference; Immoral Certainty; Reversible Error; Material Witness; Justice Denied; Corruption of Blood; Falsely Accused; Irresistible Impulse; Reckless Endangerment; Act of Revenge; True Justice; Enemy Within; Absolute Rage; Resolved; Hoax; Fury ($7.99 each); Counterplay; Malice ($10 each).

Antiques to Die For

join us on Thursday, May 8 for a special event with author Jane K. Cleland . Jane will be signing her new mystery Antiques to Die For. The Discussion will be followed by Afternoon Tea at Casa del Encanto ,6939 E First Avenue, 480 970-1355 (two doors west of the bookstore).

“With great dialogue and description, a strong but insecure heroine, and enough inside info about Josie’s business to satisfy an Antiques Roadshow fan—what’s not to like?” —Mystery News
Click here to read an excerpt of Jane's new Josie Prescott Antiques Mystery.
Jane has a trailer for her new book

WOW! To celebrate the publication of ANTIQUES TO DIE FOR, four lucky raffle winners will receive a Josie Prescott personalized martini glass filled with jellybeans .
Come join the fun!

From Les

The Gift of Rain is set in 1930s Penang, Malaya. While his family is taking an extended trip to England, sixteen year old Philip Hutton meets a Japanese diplomat named Hayato Endo who offers to teach him aikido. As such, Philip and Endo enter into a student and sensei relationship. But in 1941 when Japan enters the war by attacking Malaya and Pearl Harbor, Philip is left to question his loyalties: to his sensei or to his country. The Gift Of Rain is the debut novel by Malaysian author, Tan Twan Eng. It was long-listed for the 2007 Man Booker Prize. This lavish literary novel is rich with exotic history and full of twists and turns. Highly recommended for literary history fans!

From Barbara

Murray, Yxta Maya. King's Gold (Harper $15 Signed). "When a stranger approaches Lola Sanchez, a Long Beach, Calif., bookshop owner and the daughter of legendary archeologist and old-fashioned pulp hero Tomas de la Rosa, with a centuries-old letter offering clues to the location of Montezuma's lost gold, she can't resist the lure—especially when told that her father died while searching for the treasure. Assisted by her half-sister, fiancé, mother and stepfather, Lola follows the clues in a suicidal treasure hunt that leads across Italy and to some of history's most iconic sites. The characters are unique and memorable, the action fast-

paced, the plot serpentine and the riddles challenging in this entertaining adventure. In heroine Sanchez, Murray has created a perfect counterweight to the traditi

onal macho hero," says PW.

Adding, "Law professor Murray continues her Red Lion series begun in Queen Jade ($14 June) with a death-defying treasure hunt that transforms her sedentary, word-mad bibliophile heroine into a genuine biblio-adventurer."
Conquest ($13), a Modern First 2002 Pick, features Sara Gonzales, a

rare-book restorer at the Getty.

Need a Good Book to Read?

2008 AGATHA AWARDS

The Agatha Awards are literary awards for mystery and crime writers who write mystery novels in the traditional method exemplified by Agatha Christie. At an annual convention in Washington, D.C., the Agatha Awards are handed out by Malice Domestic Ltd, in five categories: Best Novel; Best First Mystery; Best Short Story; Best Non-Fiction; Best Children's/Young Adult Mystery.

Malice Domestic Ltd was established in 1989, and was incorporated as a corporation in 1992. It is governed by a volunteer board of directors.

According to them the genre for an Agatha novel is loosely defined as mysteries which contain no explicit sex or excessive gore or violence. It usually features an amateur detective, journalist, or an ordinary citizen, in a confined setting, with characters who know one another.

This years winners are:

BEST NOVEL
Louise Penny, Fatal Grace (St Martins $6.99).

BEST FIRST NOVEL
Hank Phillippi Ryan, Prime Time (Harlequin out of stock).

BEST NONFICTION
Jon Lellenberg, Daniel Stashower and Charles Foley, Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters (The Penguin Press $37.95).

BEST SHORT STORY
Donna Andrews, "A Rat's Tale," in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, (Sept/Oct 2007)

BEST JUVENILE
Sarah Masters Buckley, A Light in the Cellar (American Girl)

2008 EDGAR ALLAN POE AWARDS

The Edgar Allan Poe Awards (popularly called the Edgars), named after Edgar Allan Poe, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America. They honor the best in mystery fiction, non-fiction, television, film and theatre published or produced in the past year.

Wow, these awards underline how well our First Mystery Club succeeds in bringing members the best in mystery.

BEST NOVEL
John Hart, Down River (St Martins $24.95). Hart's King of Lies ($6.99) was a 2006 FMC Pick.

BEST FIRST NOVEL BY AN AMERICAN AUTHOR
Tana French, In the Woods ($14 Aug.). This was a 2007 FMC Pick. She comes to sign Likeness (Viking $24.95) on Aug. 1.

BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL
Megan Abbott, Queenpin (Simon & Schuster $13). Abbott's Die a Little ($23) was a 2005 FMC Pick and Edgar nominee.

BEST FACT CRIME
Vincent Bugliosi, Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy (W.W. Norton and Company $49.95).

BEST CRITICAL/BIOGRAPHICAL
Jon Lellenberg, Daniel Stashower and Charles Foley, Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters (The Penguin Press $37.95).

BEST SHORT STORY
Susan Straight, "The Golden Gopher ' – Los Angeles Noir (Akashic $15), ed. by Denise Hamilton.

New For Kids

Crime Lab: Trap the Spy by Hunter S. Fulghum ($20). A dangerous crime has been committed! Spies have infiltrated a top-secret lab, a double agent is loose, and someone has stolen some important plans. Tracking down spies is tricky, and young readers can learn whether or not they’re up to the task with this book and crime lab. Using the tools included, they test theories and narrow down suspects. Will they succeed and become super sleuths, or end up scratching their heads?


Steel Trapp: The Challenge ($17) is the first book in a new YA series by bestselling author Ridley Pearson. Steven “Steel” Trapp is a science geek extraordinaire, with a photographic memory. Once he’s seen something, he can remember it in vivid detail. He has a memory like a steel trap, which is where he gets his nickname. Set at a Washington D. C. Science Fair this fast paced story will keep you guessing right to the end.

Tree Shepherd's Daughter ($10) by Gillian Summers the first in The Faire Folk Trilogy a new YA series. When her mother dies, 15 year old Keelie Heartwood is forced to leave California to live with her nomadic father at a Renaissance festival. Payacting the Dark Ages is an LA girl's worst nightmare, and she plans to ditch this medieval geekland ASAP. But then Keelie begins to see the fairies and discovers her connection to a community of elves...