More New Signed First From The Poisoned Pen

Linda Barnes Lie Down With the Devil.
Bestseller and multiple award–winning author Linda Barnes returns with the most personal case to date for her popular Boston PI, Carlotta Carlyle. Carlotta, in unfamiliar territory working on her own behalf, finds herself in the middle of a complicated case that has as much to do with the people she loves as the backstreets of Boston, and beyond.

For starters, Carlotta wants to know what her on-again, off-again boyfriend Sam Gianelli did to earn himself a secret indictment for murder that’s keeping him out of the country. A man with plenty of secrets, he won’t tell her anything, much less let her help, and she isn’t having any more luck with her old friends at the Boston PD. Sam’s exile could be connected to the mob—he is in the family—but she’s not buying it. It couldn’t be that simple. Nothing involving Sam ever is.

Faced with nothing but dead ends, Carlotta goes back to basics and takes a case for a nervous bride-to-be who wants to make sure her fiancé is being faithful. Simple enough, but when her client turns up dead, Carlotta catches the kind of break she wished she hadn’t.

While nothing is as it seems in Lie Down with the Devil, one thing is clear: Readers know that when they’re reading Linda Barnes, they’re in the hands of a maestro.

James Scott Bell Try Darkness.
Ty Buchanan is living on the peaceful grounds of St. Monica's, far away from the glamorous life he led as a rising trial lawyer for a big L.A. firm. Recovering from the death of his fiancée and a false accusation of murder, Buchanan has found his previous ambitions unrewarding. Now he prefers offering legal services to the poor and the under-represented, from his "office" at local coffee bar The Freudian Sip. A mysterious woman with a six year old daughter comes to him for help. She's being illegally evicted from a downtown transient hotel, an interest represented by his old law firm and former best friend, Al Bradshaw. Buchanan won't back down. He's going to fight for the woman's rights.
But then she ends up dead, and the case moves from the courtroom to the streets. Determined to find the killer and protect the little girl, who has no last name and no other family, Buchanan finds he must depend on skills he never needed in the employ of a civil law firm.

Andrew Klavan Empire Of Lies
Sustained by a deep religious faith, Jason Harrow has built a stable family and become a pillar of principle and patriotism in the Midwest. Then the phone rings, and his past is on the other end of the line. A woman with whom he once shared a life of violence and desire claims her daughter is missing—and Jason is the one man who can find her.

Returning to New York City, Jason finds himself entangled in a murderous conspiracy only he can see and only he can stop—a plot that bizarrely links his private passions to the turmoil of a world at war. Hunted by terrorists and by the police, Jason has only hours to unravel an ex-lover’s lies and face the unbearable truth: In order to prevent a savage attack on his country, he’s going to have to risk his decency, his sanity, and his life.
To Read More Visit Andrew's Cool Website

Yea, we finally received our signed first edition Julia Spencer Flemings!

I Shall Not Want by Julia Spencer-Fleming is here.Call or visit The Poisoned Pen Bookstore. 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.

New First Edition Signed Books at The Poisoned Pen

Stephen L Carter Palace Council.
In the summer of 1952, twenty prominent men gather at a secret meeting on Martha’s Vineyard and devise a plot to manipulate the President of the United States. Soon after, the body of one of these men is found by Eddie Wesley, Harlem’s rising literary star. When Eddie’s younger sister mysteriously disappears, Eddie and the woman he loves, Aurelia Treene, are pulled into what becomes a twenty-year search for the truth. As Eddie and Aurelia uncover layer upon layer of intrigue, their odyssey takes them from the wealthy drawing rooms of New York through the shady corners of radical politics, all the way to the Oval Office.

Ellen Crosby Bordeaux Berayal Ellen Crosby's third tale of suspense set amid the vines of Virginia wine country involves a two-hundred-year-old bottle of Bordeaux that Thomas Jefferson may have purchased for George Washington and is turning out to be a wine to die for.

It has been a year since Lucie Montgomery took over running her family vineyard at the foothills of Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains. The Bordeaux Betrayal now sweeps her into a mystery that began more than two centuries ago in France and ends in murder not far from Montgomery Estate Vineyard.

When author and historian Valerie Beauvais turns up dead the night after a verbal brawl with a noted wine critic on the grounds of Mount Vernon, George Washington's home, Lucie is certain Valerie's death is related to something she knew concerning the authenticity of the priceless Washington Bordeaux.

As Lucie and her eccentric winemaker Quinn Santori bring in the last grapes of the season, Quinn's controversial past becomes intertwined with the murder and the rare wine, testing the bonds of their increasingly close relationship. New neighbors challenge Lucie for allowing a century-old hunting club to use her land for foxhunting; Mick Dunne, Lucie's ex-lover, comes back into her life; and her beloved French grandfather makes an unexpected visit that will rekindle painful memories some would prefer to forget.

As Lucie investigates the shadowy history of the Washington wine, she uncovers a web of deceit and betrayal and a long-forgotten scandal that affects not only the international wine world but her own as well.
Read an Excerpt Here

J.A. Konrath Fuzzy Navel the fourth in serries featuring Jacqueline "Jack" Daniels, the Chicago cop who solves some of the city's most heinous crimes. Now Jack is back, and this time she's locked up in her mother's home, along with her fiancé, her mom, and one of the scariest psychos ever to escape from prison. They're being held hostage by a group of vigilantes on a murderous spree, who've gone from offing bad guys to wanting to take down a cop. The suspense is killing everyone... J.A. Konrath continues his terrific series with a great combination of knockout humor, edge–of–the–seat almost–misses, and a memorable, funny heroine.

Shona MacLean Redemption of Alexander Seaton
Is the young man merely drunk or does his tottering walk suggest something more sinister? When he collapses, vomiting, over the two whores who find him on that dark wet night, they guess rightly that he's been murdered by poisoning. So begins this gripping tale set in the town of Banff, Scotland in the 1620s. The body of the victim, the apothecary's nephew, is found in Alexander Seaton's school house. Seaton is a school master by default, and a persona non-grata in the town - a disgraced would-be minister whose love affair with a local aristocrat's daughter left him disgraced and deprived of his vocation. He has few friends, so when one of them is accused of the murder, he sets out to solve the crime, embarking on a journey that will uncover witchcraft, cruelty, prejudice and the darkness in men's souls.It is also a personal quest that leads Alexander to the rediscovery of his faith in God as well as his belief in himself. Among her many strengths, Shona MacLean is brilliant at evoking period and place. You feel you are in those cold, dark, northern rooms, eavesdropping on her characters. You are totally involved in the rich, convincing world she has re-created.

Karin Slaughter Fractured the second in the Atlanta series.
When Atlanta housewife Abigail Campano comes home unexpectedly one afternoon, she walks into a nightmare. A broken window, a bloody footprint on the stairs and, most devastating of all, the horrifying sight of her teenage daughter lying dead on the landing, a man standing over her with a bloody knife. The struggle which follows changes Abigail’s life forever.

When the local police make a misjudgement which not only threatens the investigation but places a young girl’s life in danger, the case is handed over to Special Agent Will Trent of the Criminal Apprehension Team –- teamed with detective Faith Mitchell, a woman who resents him from their first meeting.

But in the relentless heat of a Georgia summer, Will and Faith realise that they must work together to find the brutal killer who has targeted one of Atlanta’s wealthiest, most privileged communities -– before it’s too late…

"Slaughter brings the same raw energy and brutal violence...to this new series with chilling results... [Fractured] will leave fans clamoring for the next installment."
-Publisher's Weekly (starred review)

Saturn's Children by Charles Stross

Sometime in the twenty-third century, humanity went extinct—leaving only androids behind. Freya Nakamichi 47 is a femmebot, one of the last of her kind still functioning. With no humans left to pay for the pleasures she provides, she agrees to transport a mysterious package from Mercury to Mars. Unfortunately for Freya, she has just made herself a moving target for some very powerful, very determined humanoids who will stop at nothing to possess the contents of the package.
Charles Stross has been nominated for the Hugo Award every year for the past 5 years including the 2008 best novel for Halting State

You can meet British science fiction author, Charles Stross at The Poisoned Pen Bookstore Wednesday, July 30 at 7PM where he will speak and sign his new book Saturn's Children. Bring your cameras and your other books for Charles to sign. It's going to be fun!

Click Here to Read an Author Interview

Visit Charles's Homepage

Do you have the new signed Lawrence Block ?

Hit and Run by Lawrence Block is at the The Poisoned Pen signed.

Keller's a hit man. For years now he's had places to go and people to kill.

But enough is enough. He's got money in the bank and just one last job standing between him and retirement. So he carries it out with his usual professionalism, and he heads home, and guess what?

One more job. Paid in advance, so what's he going to do? Give the money back? In Des Moines, Keller stalks his designated target and waits for the client to give him the go-ahead. And one fine morning he's picking out stamps for his collection (Sweden 1-5, the official reprints) at a shop in Urbandale when somebody guns down the charismatic governor of Ohio.

Back at his motel, Keller's watching TV when they show the killer's face. And there's something all too familiar about that face. . . .

Keller calls his associate Dot in White Plains, but there is no answer. He's stranded halfway across the country, every cop in America's just seen his picture, his ID and credit cards are no longer good, and he just spent almost all of his cash on the stamps.

Now what?
PW Talks with Lawrence Block

Brunonia Barry,The Lacer Reader

Every gift has a price . . . Every piece of lace has a secret . . .

My name is Towner Whitney. No, That's not exactly true. My real first name is Sophya. Never believe me. I lie all the time . . .

Towner Whitney, the self-confessed unreliable narrator of The Lace Reader hails from a family of Salem women who can read the future in the patterns in lace, and who have guarded a history of secrets going back generations, but the disappearance of two women brings Towner home to Salem and the truth about the death of her twin sister to light. "The Lace Reader" is a mesmerizing tale that spirals into a world of secrets, confused identities, lies, and half-truths in which the reader quickly finds it's nearly impossible to separate fact from fiction, but as Towner Whitney points out early on in the novel, "There are no accidents."
Brunonia will be at The Poisoned Pen Bookstore to speak and sign on Saturday, September 20 at 6pm.
Hope to see you there!
Visit the website too read more

Have you heard of Edgar Award-nominated crime writer Michael Koryta?

Those of you who attended Ridley Pearson's signing will be happy to know that the author he so highly recommend, Edgar Award-nominated crime writer Michael Koryta will be one of the speakers at our August 18 tea. Space is limited so please sign up now.

Michael's new, stand-alone novel, Envy the Night "This diabolical mystery novel, laid out in simple but eloquent prose and pitch-perfect dialogue, heralds a changing of the guard. I have seen the future of 'The Best Mystery Writer in America' and it's name is Michael Koryta." (Quote from Ridley)

In this first stand-alone novel from the critically acclaimed Edgar Award-finalist, Michael Koryta fulfills his early promise with a dark and mature novel of a young man trying to escape his past.

It has been seven years since Frank Temple III joined the rest of the world in learning his father's bloody secret: The U.S. marshal maintained a covert career as a contract killer, a double-life that ended in suicide to avoid prosecution and prison.

The shocking revelation triggered years of anonymous drifting for Frank, time spent running from his legacy and struggling to believe that the father he’d loved so dearly was entirely in the wrong. After all, the victims hadn't been innocents. And Devin Matteson, the man who’d lured his father into the killing game only to later give him up to the FBI, is probably the darkest of the lot. Those are troubling thoughts, and Frank tries to stay away from them. But when an old family friend calls to say that Matteson is returning to the isolated Wisconsin lake that was once sacred ground for their families, it’s a homecoming Frank knows he can’t allow.

His arrival in town reveals a situation far from the expected, though.

While Matteson is nowhere to be found, his old cabin is indeed occupied---by a strange, beautiful woman and a nervous man with a gun. When a pair of assassins from Miami arrive on their heels, Frank knows Matteson can’t be far behind. And while the wise move would be to call in the police and get out of town fast, that just doesn't feel right. After all, contract killer or not, Frank’s father was at heart a teacher. And his son excelled at the lessons.

Family secrets, mob hitmen, and a father’s shadowy legacy combine to make this Koryta’s most compelling thriller yet.

And if you didn't make to Ridley's signing and need a signed first edition of his second Walt Fleming thriller, Killer View just call or visit our website because we have those, too!

Moscow Rules the new Daniel Silva

Don’t miss Moscow Rules the extraordinary new Gabriel Allon novel from Daniel Silva.
"Gabriel Allon-art restorer, master spy, and sanctioned assassin-returns in Silva's 11th thriller about terrorism in our violent world. After the murder of an informant in St. Peter's Basilica, Allon is sent to the newly wealthy but corrupt Moscow to stop arms dealer Ivan Kharkov from selling sophisticated weapons to al-Qaeda. Allon is caught and expelled after some nasty nights in a Russian prison. If the Russians won't play fair, then it's up to Allon and the rest of Israel's intelligence network to do the job. The key to Kharkov is his wife, Elena, who collects the works of a particular American artist, and Allon's art background enables him to get close to her. This results in an intricate dance that is a masterwork of technology and human foibles. Like all plans, however, Allon's go awry, and this leads to a tense and exciting conclusion. Some long-running series get tired; Silva's just improves with each new book."
You can meet Daniel Silva Saturday, July 26 at 6PM at The Poisoned Pen Bookstore. Join us for drinks and appetizers with author Daniel Silva as he speaks and signs.
For more crime fiction set in Russia try Boris Akuninn, Brent Ghelfi, Stuart Kaminsky, Michael Pearce and Martin Cruz Smith

Don't miss the new Pelecanos, The Turnaround.

From Patrick:
"After a two-year absence, Pelecanos returns in top form with another classic. The Turnaround. His themes are always epic and timeless, but, like a true artist, he never beats the reader over the head with his "message." The main player on his stage this time is DC restaurant owner Alex Pappas, who, back in 1972 rode into a black neighborhood with two other white teenagers. The resulting violent incident left one of Pappas's friends dead and his own face permanently scared. Thirty five years later, Pappas is living a quiet life when he is approached by several of the men who attacked him way back in the day. Is it a chance for closure and healing at last, or might it take him down the wrong road once again? Nobody writes this kind of book as well as Pelecanos..."

Looking for Something New in Hardboiled Paranormal?

Have you heard of Mike Carey? He got his start writing comic books then moved into writing novels.
In The Devil You Know Felix Castor is a freelance exorcist, and London is his stomping ground. At a time when the supernatural world is in upheaval and spilling over into the mundane reality of the living, his skills have never been more in demand. A good exorcist can charge what he likes - and enjoy a hell of a life-style - but there's a risk: sooner or later he's going to take on a spirit that's too strong for him. After a year spent in 'retirement' Castor is reluctantly drawn back to the life he rejected and accepts a seemingly simple exorcism case - just to pay the bills, you understand. Trouble is, the more he discovers about the ghost haunting the archive, the more things don't add up. What should have been a perfectly straightforward exorcism is rapidly turning into the Who Can Kill Castor First Show, with demons, were-beings and ghosts all keen to claim the big prize. But that's OK; Castor knows how to deal with the dead. It's the living who piss him off...
This summer Felix Castor is back in Vicious Circle. Once again the exorcist for hire is working in a London where the dead walk among the living. Doing some consulting for the local cops helps pay the bills, but Castor needs a big private job to really fill the hole in his bank account. What he gets is a seemingly insignificant "missing ghost" case that inexorably drags him and his loved ones into the middle of a horrific plot to raise one of hell's fiercest demons.

Click Here to read an author interview.

A Ghost Story

The CrossRoad by Chris Grabenstein
ZACK, HIS DAD, and new stepmother have just moved back to his father’s hometown, not knowing that their new house has a dark history. Fifty years ago, a crazed killer caused an accident at the nearby crossroads that took 40 innocent lives. He died when his car hit a tree in a fiery crash, and his malevolent spirit has inhabited the tree ever since. During a huge storm, lightning hits the tree, releasing the spirit, who decides his evil spree isn’t over . . . and Zack is directly in his sights.

Award-winning thriller author Chris Grabenstein fills his first book for younger readers with the same humorous and spine-tingling storytelling that has made him a fast favorite with adults. Chris is signing at The Poisoned Pen Bookstore on Thursday, August 21 at 7 pm. He will be speaking and will sign Crossroads and his new mystery Hell Hole the 4th case for John Ceepak of the Jersey Shore series.

You can read the first 2 chapters here

Hear Poisoned Pen Press Authors Internet Voices Radio

Tonight begins a run of Poisoned Pen Press authors on Vicki Delany's Radio program, Internet Voices Radio. Beverle Graves Myers is on tonight, so please listen in if you get a chance. The show can be heard at www.internetvoicesradio.com . It starts at 8:35 and goes until 9:05.
Vicki Delany is the author of In the Shadow of the Glacier
Trouble is brewing in the small, bucolic mountain town of Trafalgar, British Columbia. An American who came to Trafalgar as a Vietnam War draft dodger has left land and money to the town but there’s a catch: the money must be used to build a garden to honor draft dodgers. This bequest has torn the close-knit, peaceful town apart. Then the body of a leading opponent is found in an alley, dead from a single blow to the head.


Constable Molly Smith is assigned to assist veteran Detective Sergeant John Winters in the investigation. But Winters doesn’t want the help of the enthusiastic rookie, and suspects that he’s been assigned Smith for political reasons – her mother, a life-long activist, is the leader of the group arguing for the park.

Egged on by a muck-raking TV personality, outside agitators from both sides are soon streaming into Trafalgar, while Smith and Winters search through small-town secrets for a killer.

Beverle Graves Myers is the author of The Iron Tongue of Midnight

In September 1740, singer Tito Amato receives a curious invitation. The German composer Karl Johann Weber is rehearsing a new opera at an isolated villa on the Venetian mainland. Would Tito accept the lead role? Puzzled by the air of secrecy that enshrouds the production, but attracted by a generous fee, Tito agrees. Artist Gussie Rumbolt, Tito's friend and brother-in-law, has also been summoned to paint scenes of the estate.

The two men find the countryside awash with the golden hues of autumn, but the bucolic mood turns menacing when a notorious figure from Tito's past shows up at the villa. That night, at the stroke of twelve, a soprano stumbles over a stranger who has been beaten to death with a pendulum ripped from the long-case clock.

With the local constable away on a boar hunt, the midnight murderer continues to strike with impunity, raising terror in the villa to a fevered crescendo. Ever faithful to the ideals of truth and justice, Tito pursues his own quest for answers--a quest that leads him into the painful secrets of his heart and beyond.


All the interviews are available in the archives for listening and downloading.

From Patrick

Victor Gischler. Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse
"That damn Gischler has really outdone himself this time. How can you not read a book with this title? Fellow admirers of Cormac McCarthy's The Road will get a decidedly lighter take on the inevitable ruin that we've created in this hilarious satire of post-apocalyptic life. Join Mortimer Tate as he emerges from nine years of self-imposed exile in a remote Tennessee cave to discover that various global catastrophes have all but wiped out civilization. The local survivors hang out at Joey Armageddon's Sassy A-Go-Go strip club, where the well-endowed dancers are protected by heavily armed bouncers. Irresistible fun and who knows, this may be more accurate than we realize."
You can read more here. or you can Read an Except Here.

Julie Kramer and Tana French

Inside the desperate world of TV ratings, an investigative reporter discovers that a serial killer is targeting women named Susan and killing one on the same day each year.

Television reporter Riley Spartz is recovering from a heart-breaking, headline-making catastrophe of her own when a longtime police source drops two old homicide files in her lap in the back of a dark movie theater. Both cold cases involve women named Susan strangled on the same day, one year apart. Last seen alive in one of Minneapolis's poorest neighborhoods, their bodies are each dumped in one of the city's wealthiest areas. Riley senses a pattern between those murders and others pulled from a computer database of old death records. Now the deadly anniversary is approaching.

But not just lives are at stake—so are careers.

November is television sweeps month, and every rating point counts. Riley must go up against a news director who cares more about dead dogs than dead women, a politician who fears negative stories about serial killers will hurt the city's convention business, and the very real possibility that her source knows more about the murders than he is letting on.

When Riley suspects the killer has moved personal items from one victim to the next as part of an elaborate ritual, she stages a bold on-air stunt to draw him out and uncovers a motive that will leave readers breathless.
Stalking Susan by Julie Kramer





The Likeness by Tana French. The Likeness is Tana's second book She won an Edgar for In the Woods.(The first in the Rob Ryan and Cassie Maddox series)

Six months after the events of In the Woods, Detective Cassie Maddox is still trying to recover. She's transferred out of the murder squad and started a relationship with Detective Sam O'Neill, but she's too badly shaken to make a commitment to him or to her career. Then Sam calls her to the scene of his new case: a young woman found stabbed to death in a small town outside Dublin. The dead girl's ID says her name is Lexie Madison - the identity Cassie used years ago as an undercover detective - and she looks exactly like Cassie.

With no leads, no suspects, and no clue to Lexie's real identity, Cassie's old undercover boss, Frank Mackey, spots the opportunity of a lifetime. They can say that the stab wound wasn't fatal and send Cassie undercover in her place to find out information that the police never would and to tempt the killer out of hiding. At first Cassie thinks the idea is crazy, but she is seduced by the prospect of working on a murder investigation again and by the idea of assuming the victim's identity as a graduate student with a cozy group of friends.

As she is drawn into Lexie's world, Cassie realizes that the girl's secrets run deeper than anyone imagined. Her friends are becoming suspicious, Sam has discovered a generations-old feud involving the old house the students live in, and Frank is starting to suspect that Cassie's growing emotional involvement could put the whole investigation at risk. Another gripping psychological thriller featuring the headstrong protagonist we've come to love, from an author who has proven that she can deliver.
You can meet Irish author Tana French at The Poisoned Pen Bookstore on August 1st at 7 pm where she will speak and sign.
The American edition is the first this time.
Need a Reading Guide?

Need a Summer Read?

Check out the thriller Rules of Deception by Christoper Reich
Dr. Jonathan Ransom, world-class mountaineer and surgeon for Doctors Without Borders, is climbing in the Swiss Alps with his beautiful wife, Emma, when a blizzard sets in. In their bid to escape the storm, Emma is killed when she falls into a hidden crevasse.
Twenty-four hours later, Jonathan receives an envelope addressed to his wife containing two baggage-claim tickets. Puzzled, he journeys to a remote railway station only to find himself in a life-and-death struggle for his wife’s possessions. In the aftermath of the assault, he discovers that his attackers --- one dead, the other mortally wounded --- were, in fact, Swiss police officers. More frightening still is evidence of an extraordinary act of betrayal that leaves Jonathan stunned.

Suddenly the subject of an international manhunt and the target of a master assassin, Jonathan is forced on the run. His only chance at survival lies in uncovering the devastating truth behind the secret his wife kept from him and in stopping the terrifying conspiracy that threatens to bring the world to the brink of annihilation. Step by step, he is drawn deeper into a world of spies, high-tech weaponry, and global terrorism --- a world where no one is whom they appear to be and where the end always justifies the means.

RULES OF DECEPTION is a brilliantly conceived, twisting tale of intrigue and deceit written by the master of the espionage thriller for the twenty-first century.

Or try City of Thieves

A writer visits his retired grandparents in Florida to document their experience during the infamous siege of Leningrad. His grandmother won’t talk about it, but his grandfather reluctantly consents. The result is the captivating odyssey of two young men trying to survive against desperate odds.

Lev Beniov considers himself 'built for deprivation.' He’s small, smart, and insecure, a Jewish virgin too young for the army, who spends his nights working as a volunteer firefighter with friends from his building. When a dead German paratrooper lands in his street, Lev is caught looting the body and dragged to jail, fearing for his life. He shares his cell with the charismatic and grandiose Kolya, a handsome young soldier arrested on desertion charges. Instead of the standard bullet in the back of the head, Lev and Kolya are given a shot at saving their own lives by complying with an outrageous directive: secure a dozen eggs for a powerful colonel to use in his daughter’s wedding cake. In a city cut off from all supplies and suffering unbelievable deprivation, Lev and Kolya embark on a hunt to find the impossible. A search that takes them through the dire lawlessness of Leningrad and the devastated surrounding countryside creates an unlikely bond between this earnest, lust-filled teenager and an endearing lothario with the gifts of a conman. Set within the monumental events of history, City of Thieves is an intimate coming-of-age tale with an utterly contemporary feel for how boys become men.


Garden of Last Days
One early September night in Florida, a stripper brings her daughter to work. April's usual babysitter is in the hospital, so she decides it's best to have her three-year-old daughter close by, watching children's videos in the office, while she works.

Except that April works at the Puma Club for Men. And tonight she has an unusual client, a foreigner both remote and too personal, and free with his money. Lots of it, all cash. His name is Bassam. Meanwhile, another man, AJ, has been thrown out of the club for holding hands with his favorite stripper, and he's drunk and angry and lonely.

From these explosive elements comes a relentless, raw, searing, passionate, page-turning narrative, a big-hearted and painful novel about sex and parenthood and honor and masculinity. Set in the seamy underside of American life at the moment before the world changed, it juxtaposes lust for domination with hunger for connection, sexual violence with family love. It seizes the reader by the throat with the same psychological tension, depth, and realism that characterized Andre Dubus's #1 bestseller, House of Sand and Fog—and an even greater sense of the dark and anguished places in the human heart.

Get your signed copy of Brad Thor's Last Patriot

We have the new thriller by bestselling author Brad Thor, Last Patriot signed first edition.

Publishers Weekly:
In bestseller's Thor's intriguing seventh Scot Horvath novel, Scot, a former navy SEAL who's recently quit working for Homeland Security, pursues a mystery involving a recently discovered ancient Koran. Differing from the original, this Koran suggests a secret exists that, if revealed, will change the entire nature of the warlike extremist versions of Islam. Furthermore, it has links to Thomas Jefferson and his war on Muslim pirates (think: "to the shores of Tripoli" in the Marine Corps hymn), handwritten notes in Jefferson's first-edition copy of Don Quixote and other clues hidden in Jefferson's Monticello home. First, Scot has to make up with his boss, President Jack Rutledge, who used him badly in his previous outing, The First Commandment, but once that's done, Scot finds himself in the thick of a furious battle. Fortunately, Scot's romance with girlfriend Tracy Hastings remains offstage. A stunning revelation on the last page will surprise even the most savvy thriller readers. 10-city author tour.(July)
Click Here to Read an Excerpt

We had a wonderful Afternoon Event with Rhys Bowen

This afternoon Rhys Bowen was at The Poisoned Pen for a lovely event where she signed Royal Pain her new mystery featuring penniless aristocrat Lady Georgie.
A character Jacqueline Winspear calls "a feisty new heroine to delight a legion of Anglophile readers”

Rhys recommended a debut by G.M. Malliet Death of a Cozy Writer. She said "The traditional British cozy is alive and well. Delicious. I was hooked from the first paragraph."

From deep in the heart of his eighteenth century English manor, millionaire Sir Adrian Beauclerk-Fisk writes mystery novels and torments his four spoiled children with threats of disinheritance. Tiring of this device, the portly patriarch decides to weave a malicious twist into his well-worn plot. Gathering them all together for a family dinner, he announces his latest blow – a secret elopement with the beautiful Violet... who was once suspected of murdering her husband.

Within hours, eldest son and appointed heir Ruthven is found cleaved to death by a medieval mace. Since Ruthven is generally hated, no one seems too surprised or upset – least of all his cold-blooded wife Lillian. When Detective Chief Inspector St. Just is brought in to investigate, he meets with a deadly calm that goes beyond the usual English reserve. And soon Sir Adrian himself is found slumped over his writing desk – an ornate knife thrust into his heart. Trapped amid leering gargoyles and stone walls, every member of the family is a likely suspect. Using a little Cornish brusqueness and brawn, can St. Just find the killer before the next-in-line to the family fortune ends up dead?

We have Captian America signed by David Morrell

New York Times best-selling author and creator of Rambo David Morrell has written the stand-alone comic series that follows Captain America’s involvement with a war-tired U.S. marine unit in Afghanistan.

"As the creator of Rambo, Morrell is known for heroes who've been trained to handle action and danger. He is a master of weaving action into a thought-provoking plot with more than a few twists, and I am eager to see the thrills he has in store for the newest installments of Captain America," said Joe Quesada, Editor-in-Chief of Marvel Comics.

"I want the characters to feel real," says David Morrell. "In particular I want the reader to believe in Captain America. Also, I want to explore the major theme of what it means to be a hero in this troubled modern world. I hope the story is deeply moving as well as exciting."
Captain America the Chosen by David Morrell


Here is a great article on Rambo Creator Reinvents Captian America

Stella is back! Dont miss her new book, Illegal Action

Dame Stella Rimington was formerly Director General of the Security Service (MI5), the first woman to take the post and the first person to be publicly named while in office.

"When Dame Judi Dench plays super-cool spy chief "M" in the James Bond movies, she's tough as nails and has a woman's intuition.

When Dame Stella Rimington took over Britain's super-secret MI5 security service, she was the first woman ever to hold the top spy post -- and a tough, cool player herself. Dench's model, we're told, for "M."

Now Stella Rimington is out of the spy game, but still very much in the world, writing thrillers that catch the new tang of Russian oligarchs and post-Cold War skullduggery."

Meet Dame Stella Rimington Friday, July 18 at 7 pm at The Poisoned Pen Bookstore where she will talk and sign her new book Illegal Action the new installment in Stella Rimington’s series of “frighteningly authentic” espionage thrillers (Chicago Tribune) featuring the fiercely intelligent, ambitious MI5 officer Liz Carlyle.

Liz has been transferred to counter-espionage—the hub of MI5 operations during the Cold War, which has been scaled back as anti-terrorism has gained priority. But there’s plenty for her to do: there are more spies operating in London in the twenty-first century than there were during the height of East-West hostilities. Even the Russians still have a large contingent, although now they spy on the international financial community and on the wealthy ex-pat oligarchs who make England their domain.

In her new assignment, Liz quickly uncovers a plot to silence one of these Russians: Nikita Brunovsky, an increasingly vocal opponent of Vladimir Putin. The Foreign Office is adamant about forestalling a crime that could become a full-blown international incident, but there’s not a single clue as to how the assassination will be carried out—and Liz is solely responsible for averting disaster. So she goes undercover, attaching herself to Brunovsky’s retinue: racing against the clock to determine who betrayed him and suddenly facing a wholly unexpected second task—unmasking a Russian operative working undercover alongside her.
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A Royal Pain by Rhys Bowen

Award-winning author Bowen returns with the second in her funny series of books about a minor royal in 1930s England, A Royal Pain. Part zany comedy, part social commentary on the British class system, and part bloody good mystery!Another hilarious mystery featuring penniless aristocrat Lady Georgie, “a feisty new heroine to delight a legion of Anglophile readers” (Jacqueline Winspear).

The Queen of England has concocted a plan in which Georgie is to entertain a Bavarian princess— and conveniently place her in the playboy Prince’s path, in the hopes that he might finally marry.But queens never take money into account. Georgie has very little, which is why she moonlights as a maid-in-disguise. She must draw up plans: clean house to make it look like a palace; have Granddad and her neighbor pretend to be the domestic staff; un-teach Princess Hanni the English she’s culled from American gangster movies; cure said Princess of her embarrassing shoplifting habit; and keep an eye on her at parties. Then there’s the worrying matter of the body in the bookshop and Hanni’s unwitting involvement with the Communist Party. It’s enough to drive a girl crazy...

Meet the author Saturday, July 12 at 5pm. Show your royal flair by coming dressed in your best hat (we are having a contest!) and enjoy a glass of cold champagne and some strawberries. It will be A Royal Affair.

"This smashing new series set in 1930s London stars smart and spunky Lady Georgiana, who is thirty-fourth in line to the throne. She has a lot on her plate but very little in her cupboards. In fact she's flat broke. So when the queen asks her to entertain a visiting German princess, she's in a real pickle. The queen doesn't know she has no servants and is moonlighting as a maid. And the princess is not going to be easy: she's learned her English from American gangster movies, she shoplifts and she's throwing herself at Darcy O'Mara, the love of Georgie's life. And what about the body in the communist bookshop. Will Georgie be singlehandedly responsible for starting WWII?"

Summer Adventures

Raven Rise (Pendragon Series #9) by D. J. MacHale
This is where it begins. The showdown for Halla. At stake is nothing less than all that ever was and all that will be.
There's only one thing missing--Bobby Pendragon.
While Bobby remains trapped on Ibara, the battle moves to his home territory: Second Earth. Mark Dimond and Courtney Chetwynde are left on their own to defend Second Earth against the forces of Saint Dane. They must face off against a charismatic cult leader who has risen to power by revealing a shattering truth to the people of Earth: They are not alone.
The Convergence has broken down the walls. The territories are on a collision course. The final phase of Saint Dane's quest to rule Halla is under way.
And Bobby Pendragon is nowhere to be found.

Artemis Fowl: The Time Paradox by Eoin Colfer
Artemis's mother has contracted a deadly disease -- and the only cure lies in the brain fluid of African lemurs. Unfortunately, Artemis himself was responsible for making the lemurs extinct five years ago. Now he must enlist the aid of his fairy friends to travel back in time and save them. Not only that, but he must face his deadliest foe yet...his younger self.

The Fire Eternal by Chris D'Lacey
Five years have passed since David Rain, now a bestselling author, disappeared mysteriously in the Artic. Slowly the ice is changing; bears are starving; dragons are rising; and the spirit Gaia, goddess of the Earth, is restless, wanting to act upon these changes. But all living things may suffer if she does. As the weather grows wilder and the ice caps melt, all eyes turn from the north to David's daughter, Alexa. She is the key to stopping it. . . . Can one girl save the world from the forces of evil before she disappears like her father?

IMPERIAL CHINA

Cotterell, Arthur. Imperial Capitals of China (Overlook $28). As early as the 3rd Century, Chinese emperors tried to engage the Immortals with cosmologically pleasing urban planning, their capitals displaying religious preoccupations (ley lines) and building designs. The British scholar's resulting dynastic history of the Celestial Empire, "the oldest continuous civilization in existence today," is filled with charming illustrations and site maps, wonderful for browsing.

Menzies, Gavin. 1434: The Year a Magnificent Chinese Fleet Sailed to Italy and Ignited the Renaissance (Morrow $27). Menzies reexamines history with all the excitement of an adventure novel. Read with 1421: The Year China Discovered America ($16).

Pan, Philip P. Out of Mao's Shadow (Simon Schuster $28). "The struggle for the soul of a New China." Will the Party leaders remain autocrats?

See, Lisa. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan; Peony in Love ($14 each). Two novels drawing on stories of women in Imperial China and dealing with such issues as secret language, bound feet, arranged marriages, anorexia, and definitions of family and friendship.

Van Gulik, Robert. Chinese Maze Murder ($13) and many other titles in the remarkable Judge Dee series set in the Tang Dynasty but written in an elegant 18th century narrative structure. And good mysteries, besides.

Wood, Frances. China's First Emperor (St Martins $25). By unifying, or eliminating, six states (258-210 BC), he created imperial China. He stressed the rule of law but suppressed all opposition, burning books and burying scholars alive. His military achievements are reflected in the astonishing terracotta soldiers, the army that guards his tomb (still unopened). His Great Wall still fascinates the world. When he died, his body was carted about on ice as it was rightly feared chaos would follow.

THE TUDORS

Gardner, Laurien. Plain Jane ($14 reissue). A novel of Lady Jane Seymour, third wife to Henry VIII, mother of his son, sister to ambitious brothers, and died too young.

Kyle, Barbara. Queen's Lady ($15). In 1527, Honor Larke, choosing to serve Catherine of Aragon rather than to marry, agrees to carry letters to the queen's allies and thus tangles with a reckless gentleman….

Lofts, Norah. The Concubine ($15 reissue). Norah Lofts brings to life the danger, romance, and intrigue of Anne Boleyn's era.



Ronald, Susan. Pirate Queen ($16). A look at Elizabeth I and building empire as she worked her network of daring merchants, brazen adventurers, astronomer philosophers, and her stalwart Privy Council to anchor her throne.

Don't Miss These Magical Titles

Just because you're grown up doesn't mean your life can't be filled with fantasy and magic. Remember the first time you traveled to Narnia? Rediscover the joy of fantasy with these June 2008 tiles:

The Secrets of Peaches by Jodi Lynn Anderson
Filled with sultry orchard nights that are sure to have readers clamoring for more, this sequel to the bestselling "Peaches" reunites three Georgia girls who had spent one magical summer together.

How to Be Popular by Meg Cabot

From the national bestselling author of the Princess Diaries series. Steph Landry may just be the most unpopular girl in her high school until she discovers the book that will change her life--"How to Be Popular." It turns out the book works--until she breaks the book's cardinal rule of keeping old friends.


Dingo by Charles de Lint
High school senior Miguelas life is turned upside down when he meets new girl Lainey, whose family has just moved from Australia. With her tumbled red-gold hair, her instant understanding of who he is, and her unusual dogaa real Australian dingoasheas unforgettable. And, as he quickly learns, she is on the run from an ancient bargain made by her ancestors. Thereas no question that Miguel will do whatever he can to help herabut what price will each of them have to pay? "Dingo" is quintessential Charles de Lint, set close to his beloved, invented city of Newfordaa mixture of darkness and hope, humor and mystery, and the friendship within love.



Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr
In a world unseen by mortals, the forces of Summer and Winter are at war. Two Faery Courts have been seeking the Summer Queen for more than nine centuries--one to restore the power of Summer and the other to banish it--in this gritty, modern fairy tale. Marrcontinues her tales of Faery in a dark, ravishing story of temptation and consequences, and of heroism when least expected. The Ink Exchange.

Un Lun Dun by China Mieville
What is Un Lun Dun?
It is London through the looking glass, an urban Wonderland of strange delights where all the lost and broken things of London end up . . . and some of its lost and broken people, too-including Brokkenbroll, boss of the broken umbrellas; Obaday Fing, a tailor whose head is an enormous pin-cushion, and an empty milk carton called Curdle. Un Lun Dun is a place where words are alive, a jungle lurks behind the door of an ordinary house, carnivorous giraffes stalk the streets, and a dark cloud dreams of burning the world. It is a city awaiting its hero, whose coming was prophesied long ago, set down for all time in the pages of a talking book.
When twelve-year-old Zanna and her friend Deeba find a secret entrance leading out of London and into this strange city, it seems that the ancient prophecy is coming true at last. But then things begin to go shockingly wrong.
Time is running out as war between the Olympians and the evil Titan lord Kronos draws



Lonely Werewolf Girl by Martin Millar
Complex family and social conflicts clutter the pages of this scattershot romp from World Fantasy Award–winner Millar (The Good Fairies of New York). Kalix MacRinnalch, a poorly socialized, laudanum-addicted teenage werewolf, has violently assaulted her father, thereby adding outcast to her list of defining traits. Suddenly and inexplicably supported by two preternaturally patient new friends, Daniel and Moonglow, the young werewolf skulks around London and struggles with anxiety and eating disorders while scores of subplots merrily explode around her. As Kalix's relatives bicker and backstab to establish a new leader, a cast of thousands shoehorns its way into the narrative, stealing story space for a sorcerous fashion designer with spy problems, werewolf twins with a terrible punk band that can't get a gig and a romantically mercenary transvestite. Overly reliant on luck and coincidence and populated by unsympathetic characters with unconvincing motives, Millar's urban fantasy epic swiftly dissolves into a tragedy of contrived errors.
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The Battle of the Labyrinth The Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan, Camp Half-Blood grows more vulnerable as Kronos's army prepares to invade. To stop them, Percy and his demigod friends set out on a quest through the Labyrinth.