Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Tony Hillerman in The Arizona Republic

Tony Hillerman


From The Arizona Republic:

When Tony Hillerman finished his first detective novel set on the Navajo Reservation, a literary agent told him it looked like a best-seller. All he had to do was "lose the Indian stuff."

And that's how wrong conventional wisdom can be.

"The Blessing Way," Hillerman's 1970 debut, launched a mystery franchise that made him a Southwestern icon and an unofficial cultural ambassador.

When he died last October at 83, thousands of fans across the country mourned the loss of the New Mexico author - and of fictional tribal-police officers Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee, who had entertained and educated them for decades.



Read the full article here:
Hillerman's insightful Navajo thrillers spawned literary genre

There is also a very nice guide to some Native American mystery authors as well.


Anne Hillerman, daughter of author Tony, will be coming to The Poisoned Pen
to sign her book titled Tony Hillerman's Landscape: On the Road with Chee and Leaphorn on Sunday, the 1st of November at 2pm.




If you would like to pre-order a copy of Anne Hillerman's novel click here.

Monday, September 28, 2009

New Signed Books at the Poisoned Pen Bookstore

Banville, John. The Infinities (Picador $35) Signed

john One long, languid midsummer's day, the Godleys gather at Arden to attend their father's bedside. Adam, the elder child, and Petra, only 19, find that relations with their mother and their dying father are as strained as ever. The gods, those mischievous spirits, watch silently. Unable to resist intervening in the mortals' lives, they spy, tease and seduce, all the while looking upon the mere mortals with mild bafflement and occasional envy, capable of interposing themselves in the action, and even changing time itself when it pleases them. What does it mean to be alive or dead, or to love? I'm getting A Midsummer's "Day" Dream vibe from the Booker Prize winner.

Benn, James. R. Evil for Evil A Billy Boyle World War II Mystery
(Soho $24 in stock but signed Oct. 19).

evilBilly Boyle's "uncle," Ike Eisenhower, sends him to recover fifty Browning automatic rifles stolen from a US army base in Northern Ireland, possibly intended for a German-sponsored IRA uprising. Joined by a beautiful Irish subaltern working for British Intelligence, Billy uncovers a plot to land German soldiers in Ireland. A rogue IRA activist foments murder plots. As bodies accumulate, the investigation challenges Billy's Boston-Irish upbringing and IRA sympathies

Cain, Chelsea. Evil at Heart ($27) Signed

evilChelsea Cain's novels featuring Portland detective Archie Sheridan and serial killer Gretchen Lowell have captivated fans through two nail-biting entries, Heartsick and Sweetheart, both of them multiweek bestsellers in The New York Times, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly.

Gretchen Lowell is still on the loose. These days, she's more of a cause célèbre than a feared killer, thanks to sensationalist news coverage that has made her a star. Her face graces magazine covers weekly and there have been sightings of her around the world. Most shocking of all, Portland Herald reporter Susan Ward has uncovered a bizarre kind of fan club, which celebrates the number of days she's been free.

Archie Sheridan hunted her for a decade, and after his last ploy to catch her went spectacularly wrong, remains hospitalized months later. When they last spoke, they entered a détente of sorts---Archie agreed not to kill himself if she agreed not to kill anyone else. But when a new body is found accompanied by Gretchen's trademark heart, all bets are off and Archie is forced back into action. Has the Beauty Killer returned to her gruesome ways, or has the cult surrounding her created a whole new evil?

Chelsea Cain continues to deliver heart-stopping thrills and chills in the latest entry in this dynamic bestselling series.

Davis, Lindsey. Rebels and Traitors (Century $43) Signed

rebelsSet against the terrible struggle of the English Civil War and the dark plots of the Commonwealth, "Rebels and Traitors" tells of soldiers, adventurers, aristocrats and kings, tradesmen, politicians, radicals and scavengers - and the hopes and dreams that carried them through one of the most turbulent eras of English history. Men who never imagined fighting a war gladly risk their lives; women strive to keep families and businesses together through years of deprivation; and, innocents are caught up in bloodshed and terror. After years of struggle Gideon Jukes and Juliana Lovell, on opposite sides of the Parliamentarian/Royalist divide, are brought together by fate on one of the significant dates of the struggles and its aftermath. After adversity and loss, their mutual attraction may one day bring the comfort and companionship for which they both have yearned through a disastrous war. But a dark shadow lurks over them and even in peace the past is not far behind. "Rebels and Traitors" is an absolute epic masterpiece, poignant and convincing characterisation and razor-sharp historical realism.

Dryden, Alex Red to Black ($28) Signed

redFinn is a veteran MI6 operative stationed in Moscow. In the guise of an amiable trade secretary, he has penetrated deep into the dangerous labyrinth that is Russia under Vladimir Putin to discover some of its darkest secrets, thanks to a high-level source deep within the Kremlin.
The youngest female colonel in the KGB, Anna is the ambitious daughter of one of the former Soviet Union's elite espionage families. Charged with helping to make Russia strong again under Putin, she is ordered to spy on Finn and discover the identity of his mole.
At the dawn of the new millennium, these adver-saries find themselves brought together by an unex-pected love that becomes the only truth they can trust. When Finn uncovers a shocking and ingenious plan-hatched in the depths of the Cold War-to control the European continent and shift the balance of world power, he and Anna are thrust into a deadly plot in which friend and foe wear the same face. With time running out, they will race across Europe and risk every-thing-career, reputation, and even their own lives-to expose the terrifying truth.

Ellroy, James. Blood's a Rover (Knopf $30) Signed

roverPatrick speaks for himself and for me: "The third in a historical cycle of novels following American Tabloid ($15) and The Cold Six Thousand ($16) chronicles the four of the most turbulent years in our country's history: 1968-1972. All of the main players are here: Tricky Dick Nixon, J Edgar Hoover, Howard Hughes, and Ellroy obsessively peels the skin off of the popular face of history to show us what really went down. This is a massive book, and as always, Ellroy doesn't slow down for the inattentive reader. I must confess that I find Ellroy's operatic portrayal of America, built upon violence and corruption to be a work of genius.

Kellerman, Faye. Blindman's Bluff ($28)

fayeLAPD homicide detective Peter Decker and his wife, Rina Lazarus, will be blindsided by a brutal multiple murder in this twisting tale of suspense from New York Times bestselling author Faye Kellerman.
"They say dead men don't talk, but if you listen, they do."

As a lieutenant in the LAPD, homicide detective Peter Decker doesn't get many calls at 3 a.m. unless a case is nasty, sensational-or both. Someone has broken into the exclusive Coyote Ranch compound of billionaire developer Guy Kaffey and viciously gunned him down, along with his wife and four employees...

A fast-paced tour through the urban landscape of L.A., Blindman's Bluff is a riveting mile-a-minute thrill ride from a formidable master of her craft.

Kerr, Philip. If the Dead Rise Not (Quercus $41) Signed

dead It's 1934. Cop Bernie Gunther, like other Berliners, is caught in the run up to the 1936 Olympics and in the changes like expelling Jews from sporting events instituted by the new Nazi regime. Forced to resign, Bernie becomes a house dick at the famous Adlon Hotel where the discovery of the body of a businessman of a Jewish boxer links him to Americans and to a racket designed to cash in on the sums the Nazis prepare to spend to showcase the new Germany to the world. The story ends 20 years later in Cuba where Bernie flees from Argentina at the end of A Quiet Flame ($16).

McDermid, Val. Fever of the Bone (Sphere $43) Signed

bone Meet Tony Hill's most twisted adversary: a killer with a shopping list of victims. The murder and mutilation of teenager Jennifer Maidment is horrific enough on its own. But Tony soon realizes the psycho has just begun a brutal and ruthless campaign targeting an apparently unconnected group of young people. Struggling with the newly-awakened ghosts of his own past and desperate for distraction in his work, Tony begins his hunt.

Porter, Henry. The Dying Light (Orion $31) Signed

lightAt his funeral the bells of the church were rung open rather than half-muffled, as is usual for the dead. Kate Lockhart has come with corporate leaders, ministers and intelligence chiefs to a beautiful town in the Welsh Marches to mourn her soul mate, David Eyam, the brightest government servant of his generation. All that remains of Eyam are the burnt fragments of a man killed far from home in a devastating explosion. But Eyam has left a devastating legacy and certain members of the congregation on that bitterly cold March day are desperate to suppress it. A group of locals come to feel the full weight of the state's determination. Kate Lockhart, now a Mergers and Acquisitions lawyer from Manhattan but a former SIS officer in Indonesia is equal to Eyam's legacy . She becomes the focus of the state's paranoiac power and leads the local resistance to it, with all the cunning of her former trade, directed from beyond the grave by Eyam. The state is no match for the genius of the dead.

Swain, James. The Night Monster ($28) Signed

nightThe shadowy side of the Sunshine State, where blood runs cold even in the tropical heat, is the tantalizing, terrifying territory few know better than James Swain. His razor-sharp tales of criminals, cops, and South Florida-style suspense bite like a hungry gator and never let go.

The past has come back to haunt P.I. Jack Carpenter, former head of the Broward County Missing Persons Unit. As a young cop he failed to stop the kidnapping of a college coed by a shockingly large assailant-and neither of them was ever seen again. The abduction has remained Carpenter's most chilling cold case, and even now the mystery of the missing girl lurks in his darkest dreams. But after eighteen years, it's about to become terrifying reality once more...

Vonnegut, Norb. Top Producer ($27) Signed

topIn a world that moves as fast as finance does, top producers have to think three steps ahead and make snap decisions. Theirs is a blurred version of reality, one that conceals moves as much as it rewards the bold ones. All too easily, scams can be disguised as success; plotting can be mistaken for killer instincts. And as Grove O'Rourke finds out, "Nothing obscures vulnerability like success. Nothing that is, except for friendships."

Friday, September 25, 2009

New Signed Books at the Poisoned Pen Bookstore

Chelsea Cain, Evil at Heart ($27) Signed

Chelsea Cain’s novels featuring Portland detective Archie Sheridan and serial killer Gretchen Lowell have captivated fans through two nail-biting entries, Heartsick and Sweetheart, both of them multiweek bestsellers in The New York Times, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly.

Gretchen Lowell is still on the loose. These days, she’s more of a cause célèbre than a feared killer, thanks to sensationalist news coverage that has made her a star. Her face graces magazine covers weekly and there have been sightings of her around the world. Most shocking of all, Portland Herald reporter Susan Ward has uncovered a bizarre kind of fan club, which celebrates the number of days she’s been free.

Archie Sheridan hunted her for a decade, and after his last ploy to catch her went spectacularly wrong, remains hospitalized months later. When they last spoke, they entered a détente of sorts---Archie agreed not to kill himself if she agreed not to kill anyone else. But when a new body is found accompanied by Gretchen’s trademark heart, all bets are off and Archie is forced back into action. Has the Beauty Killer returned to her gruesome ways, or has the cult surrounding her created a whole new evil?

Chelsea Cain continues to deliver heart-stopping thrills and chills in the latest entry in this dynamic bestselling series.

James Swain, The Night Monster ($28) Signed

The shadowy side of the Sunshine State, where blood runs cold even in the tropical heat, is the tantalizing, terrifying territory few know better than James Swain. His razor-sharp tales of criminals, cops, and South Florida—style suspense bite like a hungry gator and never let go.

The past has come back to haunt P.I. Jack Carpenter, former head of the Broward County Missing Persons Unit. As a young cop he failed to stop the kidnapping of a college coed by a shockingly large assailant–and neither of them was ever seen again. The abduction has remained Carpenter’s most chilling cold case, and even now the mystery of the missing girl lurks in his darkest dreams. But after eighteen years, it’s about to become terrifying reality once more.

When his daughter, Jessie, asks him to bird-dog a camera-toting creep who’s been shadowing her college basketball team, Carpenter’s hot pursuit of the video voyeur leads him smack into another run-in with his old hulking nemesis, who abducts one of Jessie’s teammates. While the Broward County cops are determined to pin the rap on a convenient suspect, Carpenter isn’t about to let grim history repeat itself–especially when he discovers a pattern of unsolved kidnappings involving the same massive perp.

With the eager assistance of the kidnap victim’s high-powered tycoon father, the uneasy cooperation of his old unit’s new commander, and precious little time before the trail goes cold, Jack and his trusty dog, Buster, hit the ground running. And they’ll need all the help they can get–including backup from an FBI man with a personal stake in the hunt–as they follow a twisted trail from the ruins of a shuttered mental asylum with an infamous past to the streets of a sinister small town with a ghastly secret.

With smooth-talking, uncompromising hero Jack Carpenter as guide, The Night Monster is an exhilarating journey into the heart of the American underworld. Bestselling author James Swain’s fiendish plotting and energetic pacing will keep you electrified straight through till morning.

A night with Diana

We had an amazing night with Diana the Arizona Biltmore. If you were able to attend then you know how lovely she was. A Piper in Jacobean dress piped Diana to the podium were she read from Echo in the Bone, the new book in the Outlander series featuring Jamie and Claire.

Diana Gabaldon's brilliant storytelling has captivated millions of readers in her bestselling and award-winning Outlander saga. Now, in An Echo in the Bone, the enormously anticipated seventh volume, Gabaldon continues the extraordinary story of the eighteenth-century Scotsman Jamie Fraser and his twentieth-century time-traveling wife, Claire Randall.

Jamie Fraser, former Jacobite and reluctant rebel, is already certain of three things about the American rebellion: The Americans will win, fighting on the side of victory is no guarantee of survival, and he'd rather die than have to face his illegitimate son-a young lieutenant in the British army-across the barrel of a gun.

Claire Randall knows that the Americans will win, too, but not what the ultimate price may be. That price won't include Jamie's life or his happiness, though-not if she has anything to say about it.

Meanw
hile, in the relative safet
y of the twentieth century, Jamie and Claire's daughter, Brianna, and her husband, Roger MacKenzie, have resettled in a historic Scottish home where, across a chasm of two centuries, the unfolding drama of Brianna's parents' story comes to life through Claire's letters. The fragile pages reveal Claire's love for battle-scarred Jamie Fraser and their flight from North Carolina to the high seas, where they encounter privateers and ocean battles-as Brianna and Roger search for clues not only to Claire's fate but to their own. Because the future of the MacKenzie family in the Highlands is mysteriously, irrevocably, and intimately entwined with life and death in Colonial America and war looms.

Diana's fans came from across the country and many have since written or called to say what a lovely evening was had. Here
is one of those emails.

"
What a wonderful time we had - such a special way to celebrate our 41st wedding anniversary, especially for book-a-phobes.

Having worked holidays (that stretched into a year and half) for friends and former colleagues (technical writing and editing at Los Alamos National Laboratory) at our bookstore (Otowi Station) in Los Alamos , I know how much work goes into a book signing - let alone an extravaganza at the Biltmore!

Thank you, Barbara, and your staff for all that went into this effort.

Though I feel I have "known" Diana for years through her books, I was impressed by her graciousness to everyone, and to us specifically.

I had hoped for a more initimate group and perhaps some Q and A's, but I like to think the crowd indicates best-seller sales and additional plaudits for an unique author.

Warm regards and much appreciation,
Judy and Roger Goldie

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Spartan Gold Double Signed

We have signed copies of Spartan Gold (Putnam $27) the new book by Clive Cussler! Our copies are Double signed with signatures from Clive Cussler and Grant Blackwood.

A fortune lost for ages . . . a millionaire pursuing his destiny . . . Sam and Remi Fargo are about to encounter both.

When it comes to explosive, adrenaline-charged adventure, Clive Cussler is hailed as “the master of building suspense and tension” (Richmond Times-Dispatch).

Now Cussler unveils his newest heroes, a husband-and-wife team who hunt treasure for a living—even at the risk of dying. . . .

Thousands of years ago, two superpowers of the ancient world went to war, and a treasure of immeasurable value was lost to the shadows of history.

In 1800, while crossing the Pennine Alps with his Grand Reserve Army, Napoleon Bonaparte stumbled across a startling discovery. Unable to transport it, he created an enigmatic map on the labels of twelve bottles of rare wine. When Napoleon died, the bottles disappeared—and the treasure was lost again.

Until now.

Treasure-hunting husband-and-wife team Sam and Remi Fargo are exploring the Great Pocomoke Swamp in Maryland when they are shocked to discover a World War II German U-boat. Inside, they find a bottle taken from Napoleon’s famous “Lost Cellar,” and fascinated, they set out to find the rest of the collection. But another connoisseur of sorts is hunting his own prize, and the Lost Cellar is his key to finding it.
That man is Hadeon Bondaruk, a half-Russian, half-Persian millionaire, and the treasure will be his, no matter what.


Filled with the high-stakes suspense and boundless invention that are unique to Cussler, Spartan Gold is a dazzling thriller from the grand master of adventure fiction.

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Tuesday, Sept 22 Diana Gabaldon at the AZ Biltmore 6 pm

Echo in the Bone, the new book in Diana's Outlander series featuring Jamie and Claire.

Diana Gabaldon's brilliant storytelling has captivated millions of readers in her bestselling and award-winning Outlander saga. Now, in An Echo in the Bone, the enormously anticipated seventh volume, Gabaldon continues the extraordinary story of the eighteenth-century Scotsman Jamie Fraser and his twentieth-century time-traveling wife, Claire Randall.

Jamie Fraser, former Jacobite and reluctant rebel, is already certain of three things about the American rebellion: The Americans will win, fighting on the side of victory is no guarantee of survival, and he'd rather die than have to face his illegitimate son-a young lieutenant in the British army-across the barrel of a gun.

Claire Randall knows that the Americans will win, too, but not what the ultimate price may be. That price won't include Jamie's life or his happiness, though-not if she has anything to say about it.

Meanw
hile, in the relative safety of the twentieth century, Jamie and Claire's daughter, Brianna, and her husband, Roger MacKenzie, have resettled in a historic Scottish home where, across a chasm of two centuries, the unfolding drama of Brianna's parents' story comes to life through Claire's letters. The fragile pages reveal Claire's love for battle-scarred Jamie Fraser and their flight from North Carolina to the high seas, where they encounter privateers and ocean battles-as Brianna and Roger search for clues not only to Claire's fate but to their own. Because the future of the MacKenzie family in the Highlands is mysteriously, irrevocably, and intimately entwined with life and death in Colonial America and war looms.

Join us Tuesday, Sept 22 for the National Launch Party for Echo in the Bone, at the Arizona Biltmore, located by turning right at the second light north of the intersection of Camelback Road and 24th Street. Free parking.

There will be a cash snacks/dessert bar with cold and hot drinks. Do patronize the yummies as a thank you to the Biltmore for hosting the party.

All books to be signed must be purchased for the event from The Poisoned Pen. You can reserve now. Books will be brought to the hotel for you to pick up at the party or for purchase there.

You will be able to follow your ears to the Grand Ballroom at the Arizona Biltmore Resort by listening for the Piper in Jacobean dress who will pipe Diana to the podium for her program.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

New Frist Edition Signed Titles From The Poisoned Pen

Brian Azzarello's new graphic novel, Filthy Rich ($20)

Richard "JUNK" Junkin has always lived on the edge of trouble. A former professional football star who's career was cut short by injury (and gambling problems), he now finds himself selling cars in New Jersey, dreaming of what-might-have-been and lusting after his boss's unbelievably spoiled, unbelievably sexy and unbelievably rich daughter, Victoria.So when the boss asks him to be her personal bodyguard as she tears up the New York City club scene, he leaps at the chance. But before long Junk becomes more of a lapdog than a chaperone, doing all of Victoria's dirty work...up to, and including, murder.This is the story of FILTHY RICH--the story of a disgraced man with a chip on his shoulder whose best years are behind him, dropped in the middle of a group of over-privileged rich girls ruthlessly competing with each other. For the love of a filthy rich girl (that he knows in his heart won't redeem him), he'll do whatever it takes because he just can't resist the hell of a ride she takes him on...in the fast lane. Without any brakes.

M.E. Harrigan's 9800 Savage Road ($25)

In Dec., 2000, in a tiny office in the basement of the NSA, a handful of analysts work on a project so secret its existence is known to fewer than 100 people. The team is intercepting satellite phone calls from Osama bin Laden. Suddenly the conversations stop. Then a Senior Executive is murdered inside the NSA complex, just one of a spiraling series of disasters inflicted from both inside and outside the carefully concealed agency. Analyst Alexandra is pitted against the escalating crises. "A truly intriguing and thought-provoking look behind the scenes in the war on terror." —Nelson DeMille.
Now retired to Tucson, Harrigan has distilled her 27 years with the NSA into a debut that could only have been written by an agency insider.

Sue Monk Kidd and Ann Kidd Taylor together in Traveling with Pomegranates A Mother-Daughter Story ($26)

Sue Monk Kidd has touched millions of readers with her novels The Secret Life of Bees and The Mermaid Chair and with her acclaimed nonfiction. In this intimate dual memoir, she and her daughter, Ann, offer distinct perspectives as a fifty-something and a twenty-something, each on a quest to redefine herself and to rediscover each other.Between 1998 and 2000, Sue and Ann travel throughout Greece and France. Sue, coming to grips with aging, caught in a creative vacuum, longing to reconnect with her grown daughter, struggles to enlarge a vision of swarming bees into a novel. Ann, just graduated from college, heartbroken and benumbed by the classic question about what to do with her life, grapples with a painful depression. As this modern-day Demeter and Persephone chronicle the richly symbolic and personal meaning of an array of inspiring figures and sites, they also each give voice to that most protean of connections: the bond of mother and daughter.A wise and involving book about feminine thresholds, spiritual growth, and renewal, Traveling with Pomegranates is both a revealing self-portrait by a beloved author and her daughter, a writer in the making, and a momentous story that will resonate with women everywhere.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

New Signed Books at the Poisoned Pen Bookstore

Suzanne Arruda. Treasure of the Golden Cheetah ($25) Signed and stamped

Jade del Cameron, guarded by her cheetah called Biscuit and Jelani, a young Kikuyu, heads up Mount Kilimanjaro on a film company’s trek. The move plot: to discover the ancient grave of King Menelik (Solomon), buried with his gold and slaves and concubines atop the mountain which will empower a modern Menelik. The novel’s plot begins with the murder of the movie’s producer outside Nairobi’s Muthaiga Club by a native who then commits suicide. As Jade and Harry guide the safari, Jade’s American suitor Sam attacks the investigation from the Nairobi end…. Bonus: the special landscape of the sacred mountain and the clash of cultures: African, European, and American (OK, Hollywood).

David Ellis. The Hidden Man ($26) Signed

This wonderful mystery earned a starred review from pw, "Edgar-winner Ellis (Line of Vision) is off to an exhilarating start with this first in a series set in an unnamed Midwestern city featuring grief-stricken attorney Jason Kolarich, who blames himself for his wife and child's death in a car accident. Jason is shaken out of his emotional coma when a stranger called Mr. Smith hires him to defend an old friend, Sammy Cutler. About 26 years earlier, Sammy's two-year-old sister was kidnapped from her bedroom during the night. Suspicion centered on Griffin Perlini, a convicted sex offender who lived a few blocks away, but police could never prove that he took the child. Now Sammy is accused of killing Griffin, who he believes murdered his sister. Mr. Smith demands Jason get an acquittal for Sammy, conveniently supplying witnesses and a scapegoat for the case. Ellis avoids clichés in a multilayered legal thriller that depends on precise character studies, an original plot and a surprising but logical twist at the end.

Diana Evans. The Wonder ($32 Chatto & Windus) Signed

As a child Lucas assumed that all children who'd lost their parents lived on water. Now a restless young man, and still sharing the West London narrowboat with his down-to-earth sister Denise, he secretly investigates the contents of an old wardrobe, in which he finds relics from the Midnight Ballet, an influential dance company of the 1960s founded by his Jamaican father, the charismatic Antoney Matheus. In his search to unravel the legacy of the Midnight Ballet, Lucas comes into contact with people who were drawn towards Antoney's bright and dangerous star. He hears of hothouse rehearsals in an abandoned Notting Hill church, of artistic battles and personal betrayals, and a whirlwind European tour. Most importantly, Lucas learns about Antoney's passionate and tumultuous relationship with Carla, Lucas' mother, and the events that led to his father's final disappearance. Vividly conjuring the world of 1950s Kingston, Jamaica, the Blues parties and early carnivals of Ladbroke Grove, the flower stalls and vinyl riflers of modern-day Portobello Road, and the famous leap and fall of Russian dancer Vaslav Nijinsky, Diana Evans creates a haunting and visceral family mystery about absence and inheritance, the battle between love and creativity, and what drives a young man to take flight.

Aaron Elkins. Skull Duggery ($25) Signed

Julie Oliver is spending some vacation with expatriate family, helping to run their guest ranch near the charming village of Teotitlán. The grumpy cook Dorotea is legendary, so Gideon agrees to some R&R. They are barely settled at the inn when the local police chief appears with a problem. Joy, it's a mummy—not a skeleton, but close enough. Gideon, enchanted, examines the body and finds an unusual cause of death. Now, what about the body that was found a year earlier? Surprise, it's not a girl but a young woman (a fabulous clue here!). How likely is it that two unidentified bodies would turn up near such a tiny village? No wait… there's yet a third.

This is a delightful book, amusing, ultimately tragic, and laced with fabulous food—plus you meet the delightful Mayan cop from Curses, Marmolejo, now a Colonel in Oaxaca

Friday, September 11, 2009

We have the new John Twelve Hawks, The Golden City Signed

We have the new John Twelve Hawks, The Golden City Signed

A world that exists in the shadow of our own
. . . the thrilling conclusion to John Twelve Hawks's Fourth Realm trilogy, The Golden City is packed with the knife-edge tension, intriguing characters, and startling plot twists that made The Traveler and The Dark River international hits.


John Twelve Hawks's previous novels about the mystical Travelers and the Brethren, their ruthless enemies, generated an extraordinary following around the world. The Washington Post wrote that The Traveler “portrays a Big Brother with powers far beyond anything Orwell could imagine . . .” and Publishers Weekly hailed the series as “a saga that's part A Wrinkle in Time, part The Matrix and part Kurosawa epic.” Internet chat rooms and blogs have overflowed with speculation about the final destiny of the richly imagined characters fighting an epic battle beneath the surface of our modern world.

In The Golden City, Twelve Hawks delivers the climax to his spellbinding epic. Struggling to protect the legacy of his Traveler father, Gabriel faces troubling new questions and relentless threats. His brother Michael, now firmly allied with the enemy, pursues his ambition to wrest power from Nathan Boone, the calculating leader of the Brethren. And Maya, the Harlequin warrior pledged to protect Gabriel at all costs, is forced to make a choice that will change her life forever.

A riveting blend of high-tech thriller and fast-paced adventure, The Golden City will delight Twelve Hawks's many fans and attract a new audience to the entire trilogy.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

New UK Signed!

We received a UK shipment this morning. If you would like one of these titles please order now as the quantities are limited. 888 560 9919 or email sales@poisonedpen.com

Aw, Tash. Map of the Invisible World ($39 4th Estate)

From the author of the internationally acclaimed, Costa Award-winning The Harmony Silk Factory comes an enthralling new novel that evokes an exotic yet turbulent and often frightening world. 16-year-old Adam is an orphan three times over. He and his older brother, Johan, were abandoned by their mother as children; he watched as Johan was adopted and taken away by a wealthy couple; and he had to hide when Karl, the Dutch man who raised him, was arrested by soldiers during Sukarno's drive to purge 1960s Indonesia of its colonial past. Adam sets out on a quest to find Karl, but all he has to guide him are some old photos and letters, which send him to the colourful, dangerous capital, Jakarta. Johan, meanwhile, is living a seemingly carefree, privileged life in Malaysia, but is careening out of control, unable to forget the long-ago betrayal of his helpless, trusting brother. Map of the Invisible World is a masterful novel, and confirms Tash Aw as one of the most exciting young writers at work today.

Boyd, William. Ordinary Thunderstorms ($43 Bloomsbury)

What is the devastating effect on your life when, through no fault of your own, you lose everything - home, family, friends, job, reputation, passport, money, credit cards, mobile phone - and you can never get them back? This is what happens to a young man called Adam Kindred, one May evening in Chelsea, London, when a freakish series of malign accidents and a split-second decision turns his life upside down for ever. The police are searching for him. There is a reward for his capture. A hired killer is stalking him. He is alone and anonymous in the huge, pitiless modern city. Adam has nowhere to go but down - underground. He decides to join that vast army of the disappeared and the missing that throng the lowest level of London's population as he tries to figure out what to do with his life and struggles to understand the forces that have made it unravel so spectacularly. His quest will take him all along the River Thames, from affluent Chelsea to the sink estates of the East End, and on the way he encounters all manner of London's denizens - aristocrats, prostitutes, priests and policewomen amongst them - and version after new version of himself. William Boyd's electric follow-up to Costa Novel of the Year Restless is a heart-in-mouth conspiracy novel about the fragility of social identity, the scandal of big business, and the secrets that lie hidden in the filthy underbelly of every city.

Faulks, Sebastian. A Week in December ($43 Hutchingson)

London, the week before Christmas, 2007. Over seven days, we follow the lives of seven major characters: a hedge fund manager trying to bring off the biggest trade of his career; a professional footballer recently arrived from Poland; a young lawyer with little work and too much time to speculate; a student who has been led astray by Islamist theory; a hack book-reviewer; a schoolboy hooked on skunk and reality TV; and, a Tube train driver whose Circle Line train joins these and countless other lives together in a daily loop. With daring skill, the novel pieces together the complex patterns and crossings of modern urban life. Greed, the dehumanising effects of the electronic age and the fragmentation of society are some of the themes dealt with in this savagely humorous book. The writing on the wall appears in letters ten feet high, but the characters refuse to see it - and party on as though tomorrow is a dream. Sebastian Faulks probes not only the self-deceptions of this intensely realised group of people, but their hopes and loves as well. As the novel moves to its gripping climax, they are forced, one by one, to confront the true nature of the world they inhabit.

Jones, Sadie. Small Wars ($32 Chatto & Windus)

Hal Treherne is a young and dedicated soldier on the brink of a brilliant career. Impatient to see action, his other deep commitment is to Clara, his beautiful 'red, white and blue girl', who sustains him as he rises through the ranks. When Hal is transferred to the Mediterranean, Clara, now his wife, and their baby daughters join him. But Cyprus is no 'sunshine posting', and the island is in the heat of the Emergency: the British are defending the colony against Cypriots - schoolboys and armed guerrillas alike - battling for enosis, union with Greece. The skirmishes are far from glorious and operations often rough and bloody. Still, in serving his country and leading his men, Hal has a taste of triumph. Clara shares his sense of duty. She must settle down, make no fuss, smile. But action changes Hal, and Clara becomes fearful - of the lethal tit-for-tat beyond the army base, and her increasingly distant husband. The atrocities Hal is drawn into take him further from Clara; a betrayal that is only part of the shocking personal crisis to come. The prizewinning and bestselling author of "The Outcast" returns with an emotionally powerful portrait of a marriage in extremis and a world-view in question. Sadie Jones has produced a passionate, gut-wrenching and brilliantly researched depiction of a 'small war' with devastating consequences; and in doing so, raises important questions that resonate profoundly today.

Rankin, Ian. The Complaints ($45 Orion)

'Mustn't complain' - but people always do... Nobody likes The Complaints - they're the cops who investigate other cops. Complaints and Conduct Department, to give them their full title, but known colloquially as 'The Dark Side', or simply 'The Complaints'. It's where Malcolm Fox works. He's just had a result, and should be feeling good about himself. But he's a man with problems of his own. He has an increasingly frail father in a care home and a sister who persists in an abusive relationship - something which Malcolm cannot seem to do anything about. But, in the midst of an aggressive Edinburgh winter, the reluctant Fox is given a new task. There's a cop called Jamie Breck, and he's dirty. The problem is, no one can prove it. But as Fox takes on the job, he learns that there's more to Breck than anyone thinks. This knowledge will prove dangerous, especially when a vicious murder intervenes far too close to home for Fox's liking.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Reserve your copy of Clive Cussler's new book Spartan Gold

Reserve your copy of Spartan Gold (Putnam $27) the new book by Clive Cussler!

A fortune lost for ages . . . a millionaire pursuing his destiny . . . Sam and Remi Fargo are about to encounter both.

When it comes to explosive, adrenaline-charged adventure, Clive Cussler is hailed as “the master of building suspense and tension” (Richmond Times-Dispatch).

Now Cussler unveils his newest heroes, a husband-and-wife team who hunt treasure for a living—even at the risk of dying. . . .

Thousands of years ago, two superpowers of the ancient world went to war, and a treasure of immeasurable value was lost to the shadows of history.

In 1800, while crossing the Pennine Alps with his Grand Reserve Army, Napoleon Bonaparte stumbled across a startling discovery. Unable to transport it, he created an enigmatic map on the labels of twelve bottles of rare wine. When Napoleon died, the bottles disappeared—and the treasure was lost again.

Until now.

Treasure-hunting husband-and-wife team Sam and Remi Fargo are exploring the Great Pocomoke Swamp in Maryland when they are shocked to discover a World War II German U-boat. Inside, they find a bottle taken from Napoleon’s famous “Lost Cellar,” and fascinated, they set out to find the rest of the collection. But another connoisseur of sorts is hunting his own prize, and the Lost Cellar is his key to finding it.
That man is Hadeon Bondaruk, a half-Russian, half-Persian millionaire, and the treasure will be his, no matter what.


Filled with the high-stakes suspense and boundless invention that are unique to Cussler, Spartan Gold is a dazzling thriller from the grand master of adventure fiction.

Friday, September 4, 2009

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 5 Gerald Elias 6:00 pm A book event with music

From concert violinist, Gerald Elias, comes Devil's Trill (St Martins $25), a debut set in the classical music world about the theft of a priceless violin. The Tucson musician performs with Boston Symphony and is the concert master for the Utah Symphony.

He combines his book program with a concert: the last movement of the Tartini 'Devil's Trill' Sonata, and depending on the time, the Sarabanda from the Bach D Minor Partita, and 'Sicilienne' by Paradis, (none of which require accompaniment). They're all an integral part of the book, A wine and cheese reception follows.

Dexter by Design, by Jeff Lindsay ($27) Signed

The macabre, witty New York Times bestselling series (and inspiration for the #1 Showtime series, Dexter) continues as our darkly lovable killer matches wits with a sadistic artiste--who is creating bizarre murder tableaux of his own all over Miami.

After his surprisingly glorious honeymoon in Paris, life is almost normal for Dexter Morgan. Married life seems to agree with him: he’s devoted to his bride, his stomach is full, and his homicidal hobbies are nicely under control. But old habits die hard--and Dexter’s work as a blood spatter analyst never fails to offer new temptations that appeal to his offbeat sense of justice...and his Dark Passenger still waits to hunt with him in the moonlight.

The discovery of a corpse (artfully displayed as a sunbather relaxing on a Miami beach chair) naturally piques Dexter’s curiosity and Miami’s finest realize they’ve got a terrifying new serial killer on the loose. And Dexter, of course, is back in business.

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

New Signed UK Books From the Poisoned Pen

We just got another shipment from the UK. Hurry, if you would like one please place your order now as quantity is limited. 480 947 2974 or 888 560 9919.

Peace, David. Occupied City ($45) Faber and Faber

'We all know what this could be: we know it could be dysentery, we know it could be typhoid. In the "Occupied City", we all know what this could mean -' Tokyo, January 26th, 1948. As the third year of the US Occupation of Japan begins, a man enters a downtown bank. He speaks of an outbreak of dysentery and says he is a doctor, sent by the Occupation authorities, to treat anyone who might have been exposed. Clear liquid is poured into sixteen teacups. Sixteen employees of the bank drink this liquid according to strict instructions. Within minutes twelve of them are dead, the other four unconscious. The man disappears along with some, but not all, of the bank's money. And so begins the biggest manhunt in Japanese history. In "Occupied City", David Peace dramatises and explores the rumours of complicity, conspiracy and cover-up that surround the chilling case of the Teikoku Bank Massacre: of the man who was convicted of the crime, of the legacy of biological warfare programmes, and of the victims and survivors themselves. The second part of his acclaimed "Tokyo Trilogy" - and an extraordinary picture of a city in mourning - "Occupied City" is further evidence of a singular and formidable novelist.

Porter, Henry. Dying Light ($36) Orion

At his funeral the bells of the church were rung open rather than half-muffled, as is usual for the dead. Kate Lockhart has come with corporate leaders, ministers and intelligence chiefs to a beautiful town in the Welsh Marches to mourn her soul mate, David Eyam, the brightest government servant of his generation. All that remains of Eyam are the burnt fragments of a man killed far from home in a devastating explosion. But Eyam has left a devastating legacy and certain members of the congregation on that bitterly cold March day are desperate to suppress it. A group of locals come to feel the full weight of the state's determination. Kate Lockhart, now a Mergers and Acquisitions lawyer from Manhattan but a former SIS officer in Indonesia is equal to Eyam's legacy . She becomes the focus of the state's paranoiac power and leads the local resistance to it, with all the cunning of her former trade, directed from beyond the grave by Eyam. The state is no match for the genius of the dead.

Russell, Craig. Lennox ($45) Quercus

Shady private investigator Lennox is a hard man in a hard city at a hard time: Glasgow, 1953, where the war may be over but the battle for the streets is just beginning. It's a place where only the toughest and most ruthless survive. The McGahern twins were on the way up until Tam, the brains of the outfit, opened his door to find two hitmen pointing shotguns at him. The Three Kings, the crime lords who run Glasgow's underworld, all deny ordering the hit, so Tam's brother Frankie turns to Lennox to find out who killed his twin. Lennox refuses. Later that night, Frankie's body is discovered on the road, his head mashed to pulp, and Lennox finds himself in the frame for murder. The only way of proving his innocence is to solve the crime - but he'll have to dodge men more deadly than Glasgow's crime bosses before he gets any answers. Craig Russell combines atmosphere, action and a pitch-black sense of humour with an intelligent and complex character who is a product of the recent war he lived through. The first in a unique and memorable crime series, Lennox is gritty, compelling, and unashamedly neo-Noir.

Russell, Craig. The Valkyrie Song ($43) Hutchinson

'The heavens are stained with the blood of men, As the Valkyries sing their song.' Njal's Saga Jan Fabel is a troubled man. His relationships with the women in his life are becoming increasingly complicated: his partner, Susanne, is looking for a deeper commitment. His daughter is considering joining the police and his ex-wife holds him responsible. If that weren't enough, after a gap of ten years, a female serial killer - the Angel of St Pauli - again makes the headlines when an English pop star is found in Hamburg's red-light district, dying of the most savage knife wounds. Links emerge with a series of apparently unrelated events. A journalist murdered in Norway. The death of a Serbian gangster. And a long-forgotten project by East Germany's Stasi conceived at the height of the Cold War, involving a highly-trained group of female assassins, known by the codename Valkyrie. Fabel's hunt for the truth will bring him up against the most terrifyingly efficient professional killer. The ultimate avenging angel. Fabel soon realizes the real danger he faces in hunting the Valkyrie ...That he might just catch up with her.

Thompson, Brian. The Captain's Table ($32) Chatto & Windus

London, 1875. At Lady Cornford's famous soiree (sugared almonds and tittle-tattle) everyone is gossiping about Henry Ellis Margam's latest hit, "The Widow's Secret". Only a few people know that one of Lady C's guests, the enigmatic Bella Wallis, is in fact the bestselling novelist. Bella punishes evil-doers by exposing them as thinly-disguised characters in the books she writes under her male pseudonym. Armed with her pen, the handsome Miss Wallis surrounds herself with useful men: the dashing Philip Westland, possibly a government spy; Captain Quigley, Bella's fixer, and his shady assistant, Murch, who can always crack a bone or two when someone needs persuading. Westland comes to Bella with a problem: his best friend Kennett is smitten by the heiress Miss Mary Skillane. But Mary's father, Sir William is 'an old fraud with a beautiful daughter' and she has been promised to Robert Judd, a vulgar treasure seeker. Mary is due to inherit the Skillane pearls, currently residing in a red lacquer box in a Cornish bank vault. But the pearls it seems were ill-gotten, and as Bella and her band uncover more of the strange business, a new Henry Ellis Margam novel looks set to be written, if Bella can first side-step her own affairs of the heart, and evade a brutal threat to her life.