JA Jance throws caution to the wind

JA Jance was at the Poisoned Pen last night to a record breaking crowd. All was well until...

If you want a copy of her latest Fire and Ice (The second Beau and Brady novel) order one HERE. We have 20 signed, first edition copies (out of 250) left.

Fire and Ice, a Beaumont and Brady case Signed by JA Jance

Don't miss your first edition of Fire and Ice, a Beaumont and Brady case Signed by JA Jance

JP Beaumont is sucked into a case over east of Seattle where SHIT (Special Homicide Investigation Team) faces the murders of six young woman, bound, wrapped in blue tarps, their teeth pried out, and doused in gasoline before being set on fire.

Sheriff Joanna Brady works a Cochise County murder where the elderly caretaker of an ATV park has been run over by multiple vehicles and left to die.

The two investigations draw Beau and Brady into the same orbit. But to the satisfaction of the many Jance fans, the book is laced with the on-going lives of the two and the support cast for each. There's a real sense of family (two, actually) here, of laying to rest the past, and with humor.

"A gripping tale that's easily one of [Jance's] best." (Publishers Weekly (starred review) )

"Clever story...Fans of both characters will be pleased." (Booklist )

New Signed British Books From The Poisoned Pen

We just got these in from the UK! Quantity are limited so if you see a title you'd like please order now. 888 560 9919 0r 480 947 2974

Cain, Tom. Assassin ($32 Bantam)
When a people-trafficker bites the dust in Dubai, and a gangland money-launderer has a fatal car accident in San Francisco, both deaths bear the hallmarks of a Sam Carver 'accident'. But Carver is no longer supposed to be in the game. He'd sworn to leave that life behind. So his old contacts at MI6 want to know why Carver has gone off the reservation. Who is paying him? And who will be his next target? Someone is setting Carver up, framing him for crimes he didn't commit - a copycat killer, motivated by revenge. He wants to crush Carver, and then to beat him at his own game by hitting the world's most prominent target, the new President of the United States. Now Sam Carver will have to use all his cunning and tradecraft to track and stop this deadly opponent. Alone and on the run, he fights to clear his name. But first he must stop a fatal shot that will be heard around the world.

James, Peter. Dead Tomorrow ($45 MacMillan)
Lynn gripped the sides of the armchair, trying to put aside her own inner terror. 'I can't believe I'm thinking this, Ross. I'm not a violent person, even before Caitlin's influence, I never even liked killing flies in my kitchen. Now I'm sitting here actually willing some stranger to die'. The body of a teenager dredged from the seabed off the coast of Sussex is found to be missing its vital organs. Soon two more young bodies are found. Caitlin Beckett, a fifteen-year-old in Brighton, will die if she does not receive an urgent liver transplant. When the health system threatens to let her down, Lynn, her mother, turns in panic to the internet and discovers a broker who can provide her with a black-market organ - but at a price. As Superintendent Roy Grace investigates the recovered bodies, he unearths the trail of a gang of child traffickers operating from Eastern Europe. Soon Grace and his team will find themselves in a race against time to save the life of a young street kid, while a desperate mother will stop at nothing to save her daughter's life. 'One of the most fiendishly clever crime fiction plotters' - "Daily Mail".

Templeton, Aline. Dead in the Water ($45 Hodder)

‘When you lift a stone, dark creatures, safely hidden before, panic in the light of day . . . someone out there would become desperate to stop her finding the truth. She had to move fast.’

The young victim had been pregnant, her body washed up on the rocks. Twenty years on the murder remains unsolved; her father is now dead, and her mother refuses to talk about what went on all those years ago.

Detective Inspector Marjory Fleming is called in to reopen the case that her late father, a policeman, was unable to put to rest. As Fleming digs deeper it becomes clear that her father had struggled to keep secret some of the shameful details around the young girl's death.

Can she handle the truth she will unearth, not just about her father but about herself?

Upson, Nicola. Angel with Two Faces ($32 ff)

Inspector Archie Penrose has invited Josephine Tey to his family home in Cornwall, a struggling but beautiful country estate on a magnificent stretch of coastline. Still haunted by the dark events of the year before - depicted in An Expert in Murder - and disillusioned with the London stage, Josephine is ready to begin work on her second mystery novel and finds much to inspire her in the landscape and its legends - in particular, a lake on the estate which is said to claim a life every seven years, and the nearby Minack Theatre, an open-air auditorium which overlooks the sea. But death clouds the holiday from the outset: Josephine's arrival coincides with the funeral of a young estate worker, killed in a mysterious riding accident, and another local boy disappears shortly afterwards. When the Minack proves to be a stage for real-life tragedy and an audacious murder, Archie's loyalties are divided between his friends and his job, and he and Josephine must confront the violent reality which lies beneath a seemingly idyllic community - a community with one face turned towards the present, and another looking back to the crimes of the past.

New Paper Backs From The Poisoned Pen

Is your summer reading stack getting low? Here is a list of the newest paperbacks:

Ames, Delano. Murder Begins at Home ($15)
Rue Morgue Press has just published a lovely reissue of this 1949 mystery. This is the second installment ( following "She Shall Have Murder") of twelve in the long-forgotten Dagobert and Jane Brown series of mystery novels written by Delano Ames.

Buzzelli, Elizabeth Kane. Dead Dancing Women ($14)

Escaping the city, and her coed-chasing ex-husband, part-time journalist and full-time failed mystery writer Emily Kincaid has moved into a cozy cabin nestled in the woods of northern Michigan. Emily spends her days writing for the local newspaper and crafting her latest forgettable novel. Then one morning her quiet life turns grisly when a severed head tumbles out of her garbage can.

The victim belonged to the Women of the Moon, a group of old ladies who sing and dance around a bonfire in the woods late at night. The members claim it's just a harmless act in praise of mother earth, but certain townspeople don't see it that way. Now, one by one, the women are turning up dead.

Between hosting her ex and his female "assistant," reluctantly raising a rambunctious new puppy, and forming an uneasy alliance with the fractious Deputy Dolly, can Emily put an end to the killings — and somehow preserve her sanity?

Corbin, Julie. Tell Me No Secrets ($14)

A wonderful debut.
They say that everybody has a secret . Mine lies underground. Her name was Rose and she was nine years old when she died ...Grace lives in a quiet, Scottish fishing village -- the perfect place for bringing up her twin girls with her loving husband Paul. Life is good. Until a phone call from her old best-friend, a woman Grace hasn't seen since her teens -- and for good reason -- threatens to destroy everything. Caught up in a manipulative and spiteful game that turns into an obsession, Grace is about to realise that some secrets can't stay buried forever. For if Orla reveals what happened on that camping trip twenty-four years ago, she will take away all that Grace holds dear ...A tense psychological thriller with an instantly familiar domestic backdrop, this exciting debut will leave you with the chilling feeling that this could happen to you.

David, Evelyn. Murder off the Books ($13)

A retired Irish Cop and a fast-food loving Irish Wolfhound search for the campus murderer while dealing with a scooter-riding senior with dreams of trenchcoat adventures, a crazed exterminator looking for his ride, and a makeup artist whose mid-life crisis isn't any the less stressful because her clients never complain. A half-million dollars has vanished and a college comptroller is dead. Mackenzie Sullivan, recently retired DC cop and newly-minted private detective, really has no interest in the murder. Mac just needs to find the embezzled money for the university's insurance company. Finding the killer is a bonus that he's not sure he wants to earn.

Hallinan, Timothy. The Fourth Watcher ($14)
This title earned a starred review from PW

The author of the Looking for Trouble travel book series, Poke Rafferty is ready to settle down in Bangkok with his fiancÉe, Rose, and his newly adopted daughter, Miaow. But trouble isn't ready to let him go; it's back in Poke's life with a vengeance, in the guise of his long-estranged father, Frank, the last person he ever wanted to see again. And Frank hasn't come empty-handed, arriving with a box of rubies, a wad of fraudulent identity papers, and one of the most dangerous gangsters in China in hot pursuit. With a rogue American Secret Service agent targeting Rose for her unwitting part in a North Korean counterfeiting operation, Poke can see trouble descending from everywhere to attack those he loves—and it will take every skill he possesses to keep them, and himself, alive.

Harrod-Eagles, Cynthia. Orchestrated Death ($15)

PW called this a " masterful debut, a beleaguered British detective struggles to solve a series of murders that shake up the world of classical music."


Kane, Cornelius. The Unscratchables ($14)

This charming book received starred reviews from both PW and Booklist
CRUSHER McNASH is the police force's most fearless detective, a barrel-chested bull terrier with a biscuit-thin temper and a barbed-wire tongue.

CASSIUS LAP is the finest agent in the Feline Bureau of Investigation, an imperturbable Siamese with a mind as sharp as a can opener.

SAN BERNARDO is their territory, a seething metropolis where fat-cats prance in the exclusive island enclave of Kathattan while working dogs wallow in the stinking squalor of the Kennels.

When a couple of Rottweiler gangsters are brutally murdered, Crusher McNash tries to convince himself that it's nothing unusual -- just another underworld territorial dispute. But after the sniffer squad identifies a feral-cat killer, McNash is forced to do the unthinkable -- team up with a prissy Siamese from the FBI. The trail leads from junkyards to gambling dens, from cat prisons to baronial estates, in the process unraveling an awesome conspiracy involving domination techniques, population control, and the megalomaniacal ambitions of fox media magnate Phineas Reynard.

Both a hard-bitten crime story and a sharp-fanged satire, The Unscratchables is the genre-bending mystery of the year.


Morrell, David. The Brotherhood of the Rose ($18)

This is a reissue PW called “Tough, ingeniously plotted, and always gripping.”

They were orphans, Chris and Saul–raised in a Philadelphia school for boys, bonded by friendship, and devoted to a mysterious man called Eliot. He visited them and brought them candy. He treated them like sons. He trained them to be assassins. Now he is trying desperately to have them killed.

Spanning the globe and full of heart-stopping action, The Brotherhood of the Rose is an astonishing novel of fierce loyalty and violent betrayal, of murders planned and coolly executed, of revenge bitterly, urgently desired.


Tyler LC. The Herring-Seller's Apprentice ($15)

This title earned a starred review from Booklist.
Ethelred Tressider is a mystery writer with problems, not the least of which is his incurably nosy, chocolate-chomping agent, who couldn't give two toffees for mystery novels. She does, however, have a passion for real-life mysteries, and that passion gets stirred up when Ethelred's ex-wife goes missing and Ethelred -- none too tightly wound at the best of times -- starts behaving in an extremely peculiar fashion.


Welk, Mary. The Rune Stone Murders ($14)

"We are surrounded by death, and there is no way to stop it. No way at all." Caroline Rhodes is skeptical of the dire warning. But a Gypsy fortuneteller's words prove true when the discovery of a Viking rune stone on the campus of Bruck University leads to murder during the school's annual Festival of Knights. Blackmailed into investigating the crime by the despised university president, Caroline is dismayed to find her suspects are as plentiful as the flowers on Bruck Green. Questions come easily to the veteran ER nurse, but the answers are not so obvious. Did Andrew Littlewort's famous temper get the best of him, or is the eccentric professor as innocent as he claims? Is Sid Burke the proverbial "bad seed", or just a troubled student from a famous family? How did Emma Reiser amass a fortune on a government salary? And why does Bruck's gardener call his flowerbeds 'paths of gold'? Most troubling of all, what is Agatha Hagendorf really gazing at through her telescope at the Rhineburg Boarding House and Home for Gentle Women? Caroline teams up with septuagenarian Professor Carl Atwater to track a killer without a conscience in little Rhineburg, Illinois.

The Defector by Daniel Silva

The Defector by Daniel Silva (Putnam $27) Signed

Grigori Bulganov, the defector and former spy who twice saved Gabriel's life in Moscow, has vanished without a trace from a busy street in London. CCTV shows his route and him stepping into a car. British intelligence is convinced Grigori was a double agent all along. Gabriel and the Office in Tel Aviv think Grigori was somehow abducted by disgraced but resurgent arms dealer Ivan Kharkov. Why? As vengeance-and a lure to hook Gabriel? It's a stark choice. He can return to Israel and go into deep hiding. Or he can try to keep a promise he made to Grigori to keep him from ending up in an unmarked grave...

In the #1 New York Times bestseller Moscow Rules, Gabriel Allon brought down the most dangerous man in the world. But he made one mistake. Leaving him alive

Over the course of a brilliant career, Daniel Silva has established himself as the “gold standard” of thriller writers (Dallas Morning News), a “master writer of espionage and intrigue” (The Cincinnati Enquirer), and the creator of “some of the most exciting spy fiction since Ian Fleming put down his martini and invented James Bond” (Rocky Mountain News). Now Silva takes that fiction—and his hero, the enigmatic art restorer and assassin Gabriel Allon—to a whole new level, delivering a riveting tale of vengeance that entertains as well as enlightens.

Six months after the dramatic conclusion of Moscow Rules, Gabriel has returned to the tan hills of Umbria to resume his honeymoon with his new wife, Chiara, and restore a seventeenth-century altarpiece for the Vatican. But his idyllic world is once again thrown into turmoil with shocking news from London. The defector and former Russian intelligence officer Grigori Bulganov, who saved Gabriel’s life in Moscow, has vanished without a trace. British intelligence is sure he was a double agent all along, but Gabriel knows better. He also knows he made a promise.

Do you know what we do with traitors, Gabriel? Many things have changed in Russia since the fall of Communism. But the punishment for betrayal remains the same. Promise me one thing, Gabriel. Promise me I won’t end up in an unmarked grave.

In the days to come, Gabriel and his team of operatives will find themselves in a deadly duel of nerve and wits with one of the world’s most ruthless men: the murderous Russian oligarch and arms dealer Ivan Kharkov. It will take him from a quiet mews in London, to the shores of Lake Como, to the glittering streets of Geneva and Zurich, and, finally, to a heart-stopping climax in the snowbound birch forests of Russia. Faced with the prospect of losing the one thing he holds most dear, Gabriel will be tested in ways he never imagined possible. And his life will never be the same.

Filled with breathtaking turns of plot and sophisticated prose, and populated by a remarkable cast of characters, The Defector is more than the most explosive thriller of the year. It is a searing tale of love, vengeance and courage created by the writer whom the critics call “the perfect guide to the dangerous forces shaping our world” (Orlando Sentinel). And it is Daniel Silva’s finest novel yet.

One more clip of Daniel Silva at The Poisoned Pen

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Daniel Silva's Entrance

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Daniel Silva stopped at The Poisoned Pen Bookstore to sign copies of his latest novel The Defector, and to speak to a large audience.

Greedy Bones new from Carolyn Haines

Greedy Bones new from Carolyn Haines Signed

Has a biblical plague struck Zinnia, Mississippi? It almost appears that way when Southern belle P.I. Sarah Booth Delaney comes home from Hollywood to find her good friend Tinkie’s husband near death—along with Deputy Gordon Walters and two female realtors. No one, not even the Center for Disease Control, knows what happened to the victims, and the only thing that links them is that they all went to visit the abandoned Carlisle Estate. The clock is ticking as Sarah Booth digs into the tortured past of the Carlisle plantation and the family whose name the land bears. She’ll soon find there’s a bunch of greedy bones knocking around Sunflower County…complicating the plot of Carolyn Haines’ 9th Mississippi Delta mystery.

Missing Mark by Julie Kramer Signed

From Karen:

Kramer, Julie. Missing Mark.

It might be hard to believe that spirited investigative reporter, Riley Spartz, can multi-task on stories involving a missing bride groom combined with an obscure disorder, the Minnesota fishing culture, a meth cartel connected to a perpetual garage sale, while maintaining her sense of humor and equilibrium -- OK, the last part is shaky from time to time, but works, in the end. This second outing of Riley, first introduced in Stalking Susan, is presented without nasty language or graphic scenes. It's funny, fast paced, intelligent, and leaks some insight into the media frenzy that keep us glued to the latest national/international drama.

Don't miss the visit on June 28th, at the Poisoned Pen, with this smart, witty, intelligent author, who knows her stuff and presents it with an irresistible charm.

New Signed Books From The Poisoned Pen

Alleyn, Susanne. The Cavalier of the Apocalypse ($27)

In the icy winter of 1786, hunger, cold, and seething frustration with the iron grip of France’s absolute monarchy drive poor and rich alike to outright defiance. Slums, fashionable cafés, and even aristocratic mansions echo with discontent and the first warning signals of the approaching turmoil of 1789.

Paris’s cemeteries are foul and disease-ridden during the last decades of the eighteenth century, but no one, including penniless writer Aristide Ravel, expects to find a man with his throat cut lying dead in a churchyard, surrounded by strange Masonic symbols. Already suspected of stirring up the people’s anger by writing against the royal court, Ravel must now evade the ever-present police and clear his name of murder. His search for answers amid the city’s literary and intellectual demimonde--with the aid of friends who, he quickly learns, may not be all that they seem--leads him into a bewildering tangle of conspiracy, secret societies, royal scandal, and imminent revolution, which grows only more complex when the corpse disappears . . .

From the author of Game of Patience and A Treasury of Regrets comes the third Aristide Ravel historical mystery, a prequel steeped in the atmosphere of the brilliant, perilous world of Paris in the final years before the French Revolution.

Cook, Robin. Intervention. ($25.95)

New York Times–bestselling author Robin Cook returns with another ripped-from-the-headlines medical thriller, where DNA science, biotechnology, and religion collide.

It’s been more than thirty years since New York City medical examiner Jack Stapleton’s college graduation and almost as long since he’d been in touch with former classmates Shawn Doherty and Kevin Murray. Once a highly regarded ophthalmologist, Jack’s career took a dramatic turn after a tragic accident that destroyed his family. But that, too, is very much in the past: Jack has remarried—to longtime colleague and fellow medical examiner Laurie Montgomery—and is the father of a young child. But his renegade, activist personality can’t rest, and after performing a postmortem on a young college student who had recently been treated by a chiropractor, Jack decides to explore alternative medicine. What makes some people step outside the medical establishment to seek care from practitioners of Eastern philosophies and even faith healers?

Jack’s classmate Shawn Doherty is now a renowned archeologist and biblical scholar at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, whose taste for good wine and generally deteriorating health are taking a toll on his career. He has recently obtained permission for a final dig beneath Saint Peter’s, and despite his long-standing grudge against the Catholic Church, begins his research—which eventually takes him to Jerusalem and Venice —only to make a startling discovery with ecclesiastical and medical implications. And when Kevin Murray, now Bishop of the Archdiocese of New York, gets wind of Shawn’s findings, he’s desperate to keep them from the public. Kevin has strong political ambitions within the Church, but his association with Shawn threatens to undermine them. Kevin turns to his old friend Jack to help protect an explosive secret—one with the power to change lives forever.

Hockensmith, Steve. Crack in the Lens, A "Holmes on the Range" Mystery($27)

This titled earned starred reviews from PW and Booklist!

In 1893, Otto “Big Red” Amlingmeyer and his brother Gustav, “Old Red” find themselves in a situation that they never expected. They have a bit of money and time to do something other than scramble. It’s enough to confound even that most unconfoundable of men, their mutual inspiration, Sherlock Holmes. So Old Red decides that it’s time for the for the two of them to head off to the Texas hill country, to San Marcos, and deal with the greatest tragedy of Old Red’s life. Five years ago, when Old Red was a cowpoke in San Marcos, he had a sweetheart—a fallen woman at the local house of ill repute. They had made plans but before they made their big move, his fiancée was murdered and the case swept under the rug by the local authorities. Now, Old Red is determined to find out what really happened and to finally find a measure of justice for his beloved. But Big Red and Old Red find themselves facing a wall of silence and in some of the worst situations of their lives: ensnared in a riot at the local cathouse, on the wrong end of a lynching party and perhaps worst of all—having to do the one thing you never want to do in the state of Texas: steal horses.

Locke, Attica. Black Water Rising ($28)

This title earned a starred review from Booklist.

Writing in the tradition of Dennis Lehane and Greg Iles, Attica Locke, a powerful new voice in American fiction, delivers a brilliant debut thriller that readers will not soon forget.

Jay Porter is hardly the lawyer he set out to be. His most promising client is a low-rent call girl and he runs his fledgling law practice out of a dingy strip mall. But he's long since made peace with not living the American Dream and carefully tucked away his darkest sins: the guns, the FBI file, the trial that nearly destroyed him.

Houston, Texas, 1981. It is here that Jay believes he can make a fresh start. That is, until the night in a boat out on the bayou when he impulsively saves a woman from drowning—and opens a Pandora's box. Her secrets put Jay in danger, ensnaring him in a murder investigation that could cost him his practice, his family, and even his life. But before he can get to the bottom of a tangled mystery that reaches into the upper echelons of Houston's corporate power brokers, Jay must confront the demons of his past.

With pacing that captures the reader from the first scene through an exhilarating climax, Black Water Rising marks the arrival of an electrifying new talent.

Jericho's Fall signed by Stephen L Carter

Jericho's Fall signed by Stephen L Carter

Stephen L. Carter’s brilliant debut, The Emperor of Ocean Park, spent eleven week son the New York Times best-seller list. Now, in Jericho’s Fall, Carter turns his formidable talents to the shadowy world of spies, official secrecy, and financial fraud in a thriller that rivets the reader’s attention until the very last page.

In an imposing house in the Colorado Rockies, Jericho Ainsley, former head of the Central Intelligence Agency and a Wall Street titan, lies dying. He summons to his beside Beck DeForde, the younger woman for whom he threw away his career years ago, miring them both in scandal. Beck believes she is visiting to say farewell. Instead, she is drawn into a battle over an explosive secret that foreign governments and powerful corporations alike want to wrest from Jericho before he dies.

An intricate and timely thriller that plumbs the emotional depths of a failed love affair and a family torn apart by mistrust, Jericho’s Fall takes us on a fast-moving journey through the secretive world of intelligence operations and the meltdown of the financial markets. And it creates, in Beck DeForde, an unforgettable heroine for our turbulent age.

Try Fear signed by James Scott Bell

Try Fear by James Scott Bell ($24) Signed

For Ty Buchanan, defending a suspected drunk driver named Carl Richess seems routine enough. But when his client ends up dead, an apparent suicide, there's nothing routine about it. Because the cops suspect it's murder, and arrest Eric Richess, Carl's brother, for the crime. Now Ty, at the desperate urging of Eric's mother, agrees to defend him. But it won't be easy. Because there's DNA on the gun that matches Eric's, and a history of conflict between the brothers.

Then Ty, assisted by Sister Mary Veritas, begins to uncover tentacles of corruption that reach into the citadels of city power. But he's being watched. Because somewhere in the dark labyrinth of LA is someone who will do anything to keep from being found out, someone who believes that when warnings don't work, try fear.

Sworn To Silence Signed by Linda Castillo

Sworn To Silence by Linda Castillo

A killer is preying on sacred ground....

In the sleepy rural town of Painters Mill, Ohio, the Amish and English residents have lived side by side for two centuries. But sixteen years ago, a series of brutal murders shattered the peaceful farming community. In the aftermath of the violence, the town was left with a sense of fragility, a loss of innocence. Kate Burkholder, a young Amish girl, survived the terror of the Slaughterhouse Killer but came away from its brutality with the realization that she no longer belonged with the Amish.

Now, a wealth of experience later, Kate has been asked to return to Painters Mill as Chief of Police. Her Amish roots and big city law enforcement background make her the perfect candidate. She's certain she's come to terms with her past until the first body is discovered in a snowy field. Kate vows to stop the killer before he strikes again. But to do so, she must betray both her family and her Amish past and expose a dark secret that could destroy her.

*Starred Review* Ohio’s Amish country serves as the bucolic backdrop for romance novelist Castillo’s consistently chilling mystery debut. Kate Burkholder grew up in idyllic Painters Mill, where many residents drive buggies, shun electricity, and distance themselves from the complications of modern life. The presence of a serial killer shatters the stillness of the town, leaving its citizenry terrified and on guard. During this time, young Kate’s life takes a fateful turn when she is sexually assaulted by an Amish man named Daniel Lapp. She shoots Lapp in self-defense and, seeing blood splattered across the floor, is certain he’s dead. (Her father drags away the body, and the family banishes the incident from their memories, never reporting it to police.) With Lapp’s demise, the area murders cease. Rattled residents rest easily once again. Fast-forward 16 years. Kate, now chief of police in Painters Mill, is faced with a series of brutal crimes in which the female victims are tortured and raped. Could Daniel Lapp still be alive? Kate battles her inner demons as she tracks down a killer who shows no sign of letting up. Can she come clean about her past without losing her job?
Deeply flawed characters in a distinctive setting make this a crackling good series opener, recommended for fans of T. Jefferson Parker and Robert Ellis, whose books take place in very un-Amish settings but who generate the same kind of chills and suspense. --Allison Block Booklist

Memory Collector signed by Meg Gardiner

The Memory Collector by Meg Gardiner ($28)

The second pulse-pounding thriller in Meg Gardiner’s Jo Beckett series, whose “thrilling,”1 “crackerjack,”2 “adrenaline-filled”3 debut was an Independent Mystery Booksellers Association bestseller.

Forensic psychiatrist Jo Beckett’s specialty is the psychological autopsy— an investigation into a person’s life to determine whether a death was natural, accidental, suicide, or homicide. She calls herself a deadshrinker instead of a head-shrinker: The silence of her “patients” is a key part of the job’s attraction. When Jo is asked to do a psychological autopsy on a living person—one with a suspect memory who can’t be trusted to participate in his own medical care—she knows all her skills will be put to the test.

Jo is called to the scene of an aircraft inbound from London to help deal with a passenger who is behaving erratically. She figures out that he’s got anterograde amnesia, and can’t form new memories. Jo finds herself racing to save a patient who can walk and talk and yet can’t help Jo figure out just what happened to him. For every cryptic clue he is able to drag up from his memory, Jo has to sift through a dozen nonsensical statements. Suddenly a string of clues arises, something to do with a superdeadly biological agent code-named “Slick,” a missing wife and son, and a secret partnership gone horribly wrong. Jo realizes her patient’s addled mind may hold the key to preventing something terrible from happening in her beloved San Francisco. In order to prevent it, she will have to get deeper into the life of a patient than she ever has before, hoping the truth emerges from the fog of his mind in time to save her city—and herself.

*Starred Review* Pursuit of a sinister drug that short-circuits short-term memory drives Gardiner’s second taut thriller starring San Francisco forensic psychiatrist Jo Beckett (after The Dirty Secrets Club, in 2008). The doctor, who is accustomed to conducting investigations on the dead, has a live one this time: an airline passenger named Ian Kanan who became unhinged during a seemingly routine landing at San Francisco Airport. (He thrust open the emergency doors in a panic before two fellow passengers wrestled him away.) Turns out Kanan, an ex–Special Forces agent now working as a consultant, was sent to South Africa to intercept a rogue employee bent on stealing a cutting-edge drug called Slick. Designed as a “bomb-killer,” Slick’s untamed technology does more damage than good, prompting further explosions and rewiring the brains of those who come in contact with it. At some point, Kanan’s brain became infected; it now resets every five minutes, leaving him incapable of forming new memories. It’s up to Dr. Beckett to piece together Kanan’s past before Slick slithers its way into her beloved city. Bad guys, betrayal, and a beastly technology propel Edgar finalist Gardiner’s heart-stopping plot. Mystery fans are sure to embrace this whip-smart novelist, who gets better with every book. --Allison Block , Booklist

New Signed Books From the Poisoned Pen

Calvo, Javier. Wonderful World (27.99) Signed

Rating a *Starred Review* from Booklist and PW
In Wonderful World, Javier Calvo brings together a huge cast of unforgettable characters in a haunting, masterful tale filled with scandalous behavior and dangerous crimes. A dazzling novel in which reality and fantasy entwine, it hails the arrival of a powerful and original voice.




Dolan, Harry. Bad Things Happen ($27) Signed

Rating a *Starred Review* from Booklist and PW
The man who calls himself David Loogan is leading a quiet, anonymous life in the college town of Ann Arbor, Michigan. He's hoping to escape a violent past he would rather forget. But his solitude is broken when he finds himself drawn into a friendship with Tom Kristoll, the publisher of the mystery magazine Gray Streets-and into an affair with Laura, Tom's sleek blond wife. What Loogan doesn't realize is that the stories in Gray Streets tend to follow a simple formula: Plans go wrong. Bad things happen. People die.

Fesperman, Dan. The Arms Maker of Berlin ($42 Hodder) Signed

When Nat Turnbull, a history professor who specializes in the German resistance, gets the news that his estranged mentor, Gordon Wolfe, has been arrested for possession of stolen World War II archives, he's hardly surprised that, even at the age of eighty-four, Gordon has gotten himself in trouble. But what's in the archives is staggering: a spymaster's trove missing since the end of the war, one that Gordon has always claimed is full of "secrets you can't find anywhere else . . . live ammunition."

Yet key documents are still missing, and Nat believes Gordon has hidden them. The FBI agrees, and when Gordon is found dead in jail, the Bureau dispatches Nat to track down the material, which has also piqued the interest of several dangerous competitors. As he follows a trail of cryptic clues left behind by Gordon, assisted by an attractive academic with questionable motives, Nat's quest takes him to Bern and Berlin, where his path soon crosses that of Kurt Bauer, an aging German arms merchant still hoarding his own wartime secrets. As their stories-and Gordon's-intersect across half a century, long-buried exploits of deceit, devotion, and doomed resistance begin working their way to the surface. And as the stakes rise, so do the risks . . .

Klein, Zoe. Drawing in the Dust ($27) Signed

Powerful and suspenseful, Zoë Klein's unforgettable debut novel is a richly evocative and boundless love story that reverberates from biblical times to the modern world.

As poignant and thought-provoking as the beloved bestsellers The Red Tent and People of the Book, Zoë Klein's historically rich debut novel is a lyrical and unexpected journey that will stay with readers forever.


Levien, David. Where the Dead Lay ($27) Signed

Introduced in City of the Sun, Frank Behr instantly attracted critical attention and a devoted fan base, and Where the Dead Lay places Behr on a broader, edgier stage. This extraordinary crime novel stands with the best of Michael Connelly and Lee Child, featuring a brilliantly drawn, ruthless criminal family whom readers will not soon forget, and showcasing the immense talents of David Levien.

James Lee Burke's new book Rain Gods ($28) Signed

You can order a signed, first-edition copy from The Poisoned Pen
here.

When Hackberry Holland became sheriff of a tiny Texas town near the Mexican border, he'd hoped to leave certain things behind: his checkered reputation, his haunted dreams, and his obsessive memories of the good life with his late wife, Rie. But the discovery of the bodies of nine illegal aliens, machine-gunned to death and buried in a shallow grave behind a church, soon makes it clear that he won't escape so easily.

As Hack and Deputy Sheriff Pam Tibbs attempt to untangle the threads of this complex and grisly case, a damaged young Iraq veteran, Pete Flores, and his girlfriend, Vikki Gaddis, are running for their lives, hoping to outwit the bloodthirsty criminals who want to kill Pete for his involvement in the murders. The only trouble is, Pete doesn't know who he's running from: drunk and terrified, he fled the scene of the crime when the shooting began. And there's a long list of people who want Pete and Vikki dead: crime boss Hugo Cistranos, who hired Pete for the operation; Nick Dolan, a strip club owner and small-time gangster with revenge on his mind; and a mysterious God-fearing serial-killer-for-hire known as Preacher Jack Collins, with enigmatic motives of his own.

With the FBI, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and a host of cold-blooded killers on Pete and Vikki's trail, it's up to Sheriff Holland to find them first and figure out who's behind the mass murder before anyone else ends up dead. In this thrilling and intricate work, James Lee Burke has once again proven himself a master storyteller and a perceptive chronicler of the darkest corners of the human heart.

Tim Myers as Chris Cavender first in a new series A Slice of Murder

A Slice of Murder ($22 Kensington) is the first in a new series from author Tim Myers as Chris Cavender, aka Elizabeth Bright of the Card-Making Mysteries and Melissa Glazer of the Clay and Crime mysteries. If you haven’t discovered these then you are in for a treat!

Not too much happens in the sleepy little town of Timber Ridge, North Carolina - which is fine with pizza-purveyor extraordinaire Eleanor Swift. The spunky owner of A Slice of Delight is trying to mend her broken heart and could use a little quiet time. But when a late night delivery customer turns up dead, she's in for just the opposite in this delicious mystery series debut, featuring pizza as the prima character...Eleanor figures somebody must have been really mad at Richard Olsen to bury that kitchen knife in his chest. But when Kevin Hurley - her ex-boyfriend and Timber Ridge's police chief - starts eyeing her as a prime suspect, Eleanor knows she better get to the bottom of things before the gossipy townspeople decide to stop ordering her specialty pies. With her sassy and occasionally married sister Maddy by her side, Eleanor finds the list of suspects begins to outnumber the ingredients on the Slice's famed Smorgasbord Special pizza. Like Richard's eccentric sister, who appears out of nowhere to learn she's the heir to $100 grand...in what looks like dirty money. Richard worked for a shredding business - and it seems he read before he shred, and very well could've been a blackmailer. What about Richard's boss, who now stands to lose his shredding company? And then there's that steamy scented letter from none other than the mayor's wife. But when someone takes a shot at Eleanor on a late-night delivery run, she and Maddy know time is running out. To find the killer - and keep the pizzas rolling out of A Slice of Delight's ovens - she'll need to put it all one the line and hope that her search for the truth doesn't end in an unmarked grave...

I really enjoyed spunky Eleanor and her gutsy, smart-mouthed sister Maddy. They filled the pages with snappy dialog in this fun, lively paced mystery. If you are a fan of Diane Mott Davidson, Joanne Fluke or Laura Childs then this story is sure to please.

And you can meet this author at The Poisoned Pen Bookstore on Wednesday, July 29 at 7 pm where we are hosting his book launch for A Slice of Murder. Don’t miss this fun event with pizza, prizes and fun!

New Signed Books From the Poisoned Pen

Block, Lawrence. Step by Step A Pedestrian Memoir ($27) Signed

This is the story through the lens of his adventures while walking-in twenty-four-hour races, on a pilgrimage through Spain, and just about everywhere you can imagine-Lawrence Block shares his heartwarming personal story about life's trials and tribulations, discomforts and successes, which truly lets readers walk a mile in the master of mystery's shoes.





Hitchcock, Jane Stanton. Mortal Friends ($28) Signed

During the course of the investigation, the social world will unravel, an old friendship will be put to the test, scandalous secrets will be unleashed, and Reven will discover that nothing old or new, in high culture or low life, is what it appears. A riveting tale of murder, money, and high society, set in the glamorous, politics-fueled world of the nation's capital, Mortal Friends delivers another "killer read" People.



Hoffman, Julliane. Plea of Insanity ($25.95 Signed

The prosecutor-Julia Valenciano. Young and ambitious, and facing a case that could launch her career. The defendant-David Marquette. A successful Miami surgeon and devoted family man. The victims-Marquette's own wife and three small children. The plea-Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity. The perfect father and model husband, David Marquette seemingly just snapped. His experienced defense team claims paranoid delusions caused by schizophrenia drove him to slaughter his entire family.

But the state suspects Marquette's insanity defense is being fabricated to disguise murders that were cold blooded and calculated. Worse, Julia believes Marquette could be responsible for a string of unsolved, brutal homicides. Could he be one of the most prolific and elusive serial killers in the country's history? To bring him to justice, Julia must embark on a terrifying personal journey back into her own past-something she has struggled to forget for fifteen years. And this will lead her to confront a future so chilling, she's not sure she will ever be able to face it...

Kellerman, Faye and Aliza. Prism ($16.99) Signed

Prism takes us to a slightly alternate universe in which medicine and health care do not exist, and in which sick people are allowed to die without any care. Set in New Mexico and California, the novel features three teens who fall through a cave at Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico while on a field trip. They are plunged into a frightening parallel universe-seven weeks in the past, in which their "normal" worlds of family and high school remain the same...except for the fact that no medicine exists and when people die in the street they are picked up and disposed of.


Pearson, Ridley. Killer Summer ($24.95) Signed

Sun Valley, Idaho-playground of the wealthy and politically connected-is home to an annual wine auction that attracts high rollers from across the country, and Blaine County Sheriff Walt Fleming is the one who must ensure it goes off without a hitch. The world's most elite wine connoisseurs have descended on Sun Valley to taste and bid on the world's best wines, including three bottles claimed to have been a gift from Thomas Jefferson to John Adams. With sky-high prices all but guaranteed for these historic items, it's no wonder a group of thieves is out to steal them. Walt is responsible for all aspects of the glitzy event, from security of the dignitaries to the physical safety of the auction site to the transportation and safeguard of the wines themselves.

Walt is enjoying a rare afternoon of freedom, fly-fishing with his nephew, Kevin, when a passing truck catches his eye- his suspicions throwing him headlong into the discovery of a complicated plan to steal the rare wine. When a bomb detonates just as the auction revs up, the investigation explodes as well, pulling Walt in a dozen different directions. It seems Walt is caught in the middle of a heist of epic proportions-and not the heist he had prepared for-all orchestrated by the ingenious mind of Christopher Cantell, a man who appears to have covered everything, including the way Walt's own sheriff's office will react.

Stone, Eric. Shanghaied ($24.95) Signed

What really happened to the world's largest fireworks display? Corrupt bankers, vicious American veterans, a dumpling accident, a subway chase, and the reason the Dalai Lama eats meat. Ray Sharp is on his deadliest adventure yet, accompanied by his colleague and friend, the diminutive and foul-mouthed - in four languages - Wen Lei Yue.

"The outcome of this gritty crime novel will shock readers." - Library Journal.

AS IF BY MAGIC by Dolores Gordon-Smith

AS IF BY MAGIC by Dolores Gordon-Smith

George Lassiter is destitute, ill and desperate. Desperate enough to break into the kitchen of a stranger's house seeking shelter. And there, on that bitterly cold night, he witnesses what seems to be the murder of a beautiful girl. But when the police search the house, the body's disappeared - as if by magic.

It has to be nothing but a nightmare, thinks George and so does his friend and rescuer, Jack Haldean. However, the consequences of the nightmare will plunge George into a a tangle of theft, lies and obsession... and will set Jack off on the hunt for a ruthless killer.

To Read More About this Author Click Here

New Signed Books From The Poisoned Pen

Hurwitz, Gregg. Trust No One (St Martins $27 Signed)

To add to Barbara's rave, here's one from David Baldacci:

"Hurwitz deservedly takes his place at the forefront of suspense writers. His action scenes are juggernauts, his language fluid and original, the twists not only plentiful but plausible, which, to borrow from Twain, is the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning. And Hurwitz's succinct dialogue still jabs with the speed of an MP5 on full auto. I guarantee that once you read the first page of this terrific novel, your hands will keep ripping pages until there are none left, leaving your nerves jangled and your brain cells melted from trying to figure it all out."

Iles, Greg. The Devil's Punchbowl (Scribner $27 Signed here July 13)

Penn Cage, who once as a Houston prosecutor sent killers to Death Row, appeared earlier in two Iles' novels: The Quiet Game and Turning Angel ($7.99 each). Penn returned home to Natchez and, as mayor, was urged by old friends to try to give the fading jewel of the Old South a renaissance. Penn rode into office on a tide of support for change. The quest for new jobs and fresh money spelled casinos, and now, and now five fantastical steamboats float on the river beside the old slave market at Natchez like props from Gone With the Wind. One, the Magnolia Queen, is rumored to have tapped into a Michael Vick scenario-blood sport-to pull in the celebrity athletes, rap stars, and Vegas high rollers to this Mississippi backwater on sleek private jets that slip in and out of town like whispers in the night. Penn realizes that he's helped create a monster...with monsters. What now?

New Signed Books From the Poisoned Pen

Stanley, Michael. The Second Death of Goodluck Timubu ($28)

Rating a *Starred Review* from Booklist

"Deceptively dangerous Assistant Superintendent Kubu stars in a brilliant sequel to last year's Carrion Death. When two guests turn up dead at tourist camp, Kubu crosses Botswana to investigate. The case seems likely to link back to the Zimbabwe civil war, as fingerprint records show the dead man on the casualty lists of a 1980 farm raid. Stanley (the pseudonym for the writing team of Michael Sears and Stanley Trollop) is not content with a single plot line, effectively juggling the murders with cross-border drug smuggling and the circumstances surrounding an upcoming African Union meeting. Kubu, a dedicated gourmand, is just one of many fully fleshed and charmingly realistic characters. From slightly annoying sister-in-law Peasant to Kubu's intense and acerbic boss Mabuku to Scottish pathologist MacGregor, each character is memorable and adds depth to this tense and involving police procedural. Suggest to fans of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, who will appreciate Kubu's laid-back style and happy home life, and to Henning Mankell fans, who will respond to the complex plots and palpable sense of place." --Jessica Moyer , Booklist. Start with A Carrion Death ($15)

Tremayne, Peter. The Dove of Death ($45 Headline) Signed

The gripping new novel in the internationally renowned Sister Fidelma crime series by Peter Tremayne.

AD 670. An Irish merchant ship is attacked by a pirate vessel off the coast of the Breton peninsular. Murchad, the captain, and a prince from the kingdom of Muman, are killed in cold blood after they have surrendered. Among the other passengers who manage to escape the slaughter are Sister Fidelma of Cashel and her faithful companion, Brother Eadulf. The prince was Fidelma's cousin and she is determined to bring the killers to justice...

Killer Summer with Ridley Pearson

Wednesday July 1 at 7 pm Ridley shows views of Shanghai where he and his family have just lived for a year. Pearson is bringing us a power point show of the city AND a nifty prize from Shanghai to give away in store..And a mail order customer prize as well for those purchasing Killer Summer (Putnam $24.95) before July 1.

Ridley writes to us, "Every year the Sun Valley Center for the Arts and Humanities (Sun Valley, Idaho) throws a fund-raising wine auction that attracts the well-heeled from around the world to bid up wine bottles into the stratosphere, all for a good cause. As patrons grow more and more 'cheerful' with the free wine at the dinner, the prices soar, as do the egos of those bidding. It's a sight to behold."I've always wanted to write about the event. That backdrop ran headlong into some research I stumbled upon. I'm a Google freak, and when I discovered that some bottles from Thomas Jefferson's wine collection had sold for over $600,000. I knew I'd landed on my next thriller:, the third for Sheriff Walt Fleming who exists in part thanks to the real sheriff who takes all this in good part."Even the savviest readers will be fooled as Pearson drags poor Walt and friends through a series of clever twists and turns in this fast-paced nail-biter."-- Publishers Weekly

And I thought you'd enjoy this comment from, all of things, the Romantic Times:"Fleming is up against a criminal mastermind trying to settle a score. As always, Pearson's taut plotting ensures plenty of twists and heart-pounding action."Read Walt's earlier cases in Killer Weekend; Killer View ($10 each).

Click Here to View the trailer of Killer Summer

We willl also draw for three lucky people to head to the wine bar with Ridley and Barbara to sample a wine flight or two in the spirit of Jefferson. And further, we will have a special prize for a drawing for all those ordering Killer Summer who live outside the Phoenix Metro area.Finally, a word to Ridley's fans about Boldt:"Boldt's Broken Angel" is a long short story appearing in Thriller 2 (Mira $25 Signed already by Cussler and Deaver) that catches the reader up on developments in Boldt's career, his continued attraction to Daphne Matthews, and pits him against an unusual killer. This story is meant as an interlude to the next Boldt novel which Ridley hopes to write in the coming year! A short preview: As Boldt is demoted to sergeant, he picks up a case involving a woman going missing from a Seattle office building.Too soon, there's another woman missing, and this one hits much closer to home. Boldt's deepening affection for co-worker, Daphne Matthews, can no longer be denied. Through the terror of this case, Boldt finds a way to finally speak the truth...Or so says Ridley, who signs the story while he's here.