Friday, October 30, 2009

New Signed Thurlo, Earthway $27


We have the new book from Aimee and David Thurlo, Earthway signed

Ella Clah has found her place on the Navajo Reservation, in her tribe, her clan, and her family. She has seen the Diné at their worst—and at their best—as they balance the modern era with the traditional Navajo way of life.

The Navajo are building a nuclear power plant on the Reservation. Though the tribe voted for the plant, there are those who believe that nuclear power is inherently dangerous—and particularly so for the Navajo, due to past uranium mining operations that contaminated land and water and sickened many Navajo workers and their families.

A group of activists is determined to do whatever is necessary to stop the plant—assault, sabotage, domestic terrorism. When a fellow Navajo Police officer is injured in an attack aimed at Ella’s boyfriend, Ella vows to do whatever it takes to find the terrorists and bring them to justice.

Thursday, October 29, 2009

New Books Just In

Cornwell, Patricia, The Scarpetta Factor ($28) Signed

scarpettsIt is the week before Christmas. A tanking economy has prompted Dr. Kay Scarpetta-despite her busy schedule and her continuing work as the senior forensic analyst for CNN-to offer her services pro bono to New York City's Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. In no time at all, her increased visibility seems to precipitate a string of unexpected and unsettling events. She is asked live on the air about the sensational case of Hannah Starr, who has vanished and is presumed dead. Moments later during the same telecast she receives a startling call-in from a former psychiatrist patient of Benton Wesley's. When she returns after the show to the apartment where she and Benton live, she finds
an ominous package-possibly a bomb-waiting for her at the front desk. Soon the apparent threat on Scarpetta's life finds her embroiled in a surreal plot that includes a famous actor accused of an unthinkable sex crime and the disappearance of a beautiful millionaires with whom Lucy seems to have shared a secret past...

Doss, James. The Widows Revenge a Charlie Moon Mystery
($27) Signed

Even with some of the toughest hombres and nastiest outlaws roaming the Southwest, bestselling author James D. Doss’s seven-foot-tall rancher and sometime tribal investigator Charlie Moon does a fair job on the side of the good guys. So it’s no surprise that he gets the call when the widow Loyola Montoya starts making a fuss about witches. Witches? She swears there’s a whole midnight brood lurking in the woods just off her property, mocking her with lewd songs and harassing her with the carcasses of dead animals. When no one takes her seriously—she has been known to cry wolf from time to time—she takes matters into her own hands, with disastrous results. By the time Charlie arrives, it’s too late to save her, and while he knows he can’t bring her back, that doesn’t mean he can’t help the widow get her revenge after all. Told in Doss’s whimsical style, The Widow’s Revenge is a wonderfully tall tale that requires wide-open spaces and larger-than-life heroes like Charlie Moon to saddle up and make sure that justice is served.

Hicks, Robert. A Separate Country ($26) Signed

hicksSet in New Orleans in the years after the Civil War, A Separate Country is based on the incredible life of John Bell Hood, arguably one of the most controversial generals of the Confederate Army--and one of its most tragic figures. Robert E. Lee promoted him to major general after the Battle of Antietam. But the Civil War would mark him forever. At Gettysburg, he lost the use of his left arm. At the Battle of Chickamauga, his right leg was amputated. Starting fresh after the war, he married Anna Marie Hennen and fathered 11 children with her, including three sets of twins. But fate had other plans. Crippled by his war wounds and defeat, ravaged by financial misfortune, Hood had one last foe to battle: Yellow Fever. A Separate Country is the heartrending story of a decent and good man who struggled with his inability to admit his failures-and the story of those who taught him to love, and to be loved, and transformed him.

Monday, October 26, 2009

New Books for Kids

Barry, Dave and Ridley Pearson. Peter and the Sword of Mercy ($19) to be signed Nov 4

peterThe year is 1901--it's been twenty-three years since Peter and the Lost Boys returned from Rundoon. Since then, nobody on the island has grown a day older, and the Lost Boys continue their friendship with the Mollusk tribe, and their rivalry with Captain Hook. Meanwhile in London, Molly has married George Darling and is raising three children: Wendy, Michael, and John. One night a visitor appears at her door; it's James, one of Peter's original Lost Boys. He is now working for Scotland Yard and suspects that the heir to England's throne, Prince Albert Edward, is under the influence of shadow creatures...

Cashore, Kristin. Fire ($18)

cashoreShe is the last of her kind... It is not a peaceful time in the Dells. In King City, the young King Nash is clinging to the throne, while rebel lords in the north and south build armies to unseat him. War is coming. And the mountains and forest are filled with spies and thieves. This is where Fire lives, a girl whose beauty is impossibly irresistible and who can control the minds of everyone around her.
Exquisitely romantic, this companion to the highly praised Graceling has an entirely new cast of characters, save for one person who plays a pivotal role in both books. You don't need to have read Graceling to love Fire. But if you haven't, you'll be dying to read it next.

Collins, Suzanne. Catching Fire ($18)

fireThis is the follow-up to one of the best books I have ever read, The Hunger Games and I was not disappointing

Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has won the annual Hunger Games with fellow district tribute Peeta Mellark. But it was a victory won by defiance of the Capitol and their harsh rules. Katniss and Peeta should be happy. After all, they have just won for themselves and their families a life of safety and plenty. But there are rumors of rebellion among the subjects, and Katniss and Peeta, to their horror, are the faces of that rebellion. The Capitol is angry. The Capitol wants revenge.

Delaney, Joseph. Clash of the Demons, The Last Apprentice book 6 ($18)

clash"You can't make alliances with witches and suchlike and hope to avoid being drawn toward the dark."
As the Spook's apprentice, Thomas Ward's first duty is to protect the County from ghosts, boggarts, and other dangerous creatures. But now his mother has come back from her homeland to seek his help. One of the most dangerous of the old witches, Ordeen, is about to return to earth, bringing with her suffering and devastation. Tom's mother has mustered a powerful army-including Tom's friend Alice, the Pendle witches, and the assassin Grimalkin-to confront Ordeen. If Tom joins them, the Spook will refuse to take Tom back as his apprentice. What sacrifices will be made in the battle against the dark?

Grabenstein, Chris. Hanging Hill ($17)

hillThe follow up to The Crossroads that won Chris a 2009 ANTHONY AWARD for best Children's/Young Adult Novel.

This second book featuring the intrepid Zack and his stepmother, Judy, is full of the same humorous and spine-tingling storytelling that has made Chris Grabenstein a fast favorite with young and old alike.

Stewart, Trenton Lee. The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey ($7)

leeThe Mysterious Benedict Society is back with a new mission, significantly closer to home. After reuniting for a celebratory scavenger hunt, Reynie, Kate, Sticky, and Constance are forced to go on an unexpected search--a search to find Mr. Benedict. It seems that while he was preparing the kids' adventure, he stepped right into a trap orchestrated by his evil twin Mr. Curtain.

With only one week to find a captured Mr. Benedict, the gifted foursome faces their greatest challenge of all--a challenge that will reinforce the reasons they were brought together in the first place and will require them to fight for the very namesake that united them.

Stocker, Bram. Dracula ($30)

Beware: Tdraculahis cool book is too scary for young readers.

In this lavish version of Bram Stoker's Gothic tale, contemporary language and illustrations, similar to those found in graphic novels, transport readers back to Transylvania's Carpathian Mountains, where young Jonathan Harker first meets the Count, then on to Victorian London where Dracula unleashes his reign of terror on Harker's fiancée, Mina. Brooding images and dramatic 3-D scenes rise from the pages as the evil Count Dracula works his sinister spells on a new generation. Reluctant readers, horror fans, and pop-up collectors will marvel as Dracula, the world's most popular and feared vampire, literally jumps off the page in search of victims. With multiple interactive elements on every page, readers will undoubtedly shriek as they watch a cemetery's mist inch toward them, and, just when they've caught their breath, try to keep in the sunlight as a stake is finally plunged into the heart of the villain. A superb example of paper engineering, this classic pop-up tale offers an interactive, blood-curdling experience while remaining true to the author's original version.

And for the young adventurer:
Young, Judy. The Hidden Bestiary of Marvelous, Mysterious, and (Maybe Even) Magical Creatures ($17)
judy
The Deepening: "Delightful, The Hidden Bestiary by Judy Young, is an adventure, an exploration, and a series of visual puzzles set to marvelous prose, all rolled into a wonderful, exquisitely produced volume guaranteed to enchant both young and old. I shared it with my "test" kids, ages four through thirteen, and "enthralled" is the word. They each couldn't wait to get to hold the book themselves and page through it, looking at all there was to see. And the discussion throughout between the kids was great...

Thursday, October 22, 2009

One More PHX Noir Post

Patrick introduces the cast of Phoenix Noir.

Joseph Kanon at The Pen

The Hidden Bestiary of Marvelous, Mysterious, and (Maybe Even) Magical Creatures ($17)

A cool new book for the young adventurer:
Young, Judy. The Hidden Bestiary of Marvelous, Mysterious, and (Maybe Even) Magical Creatures ($17)

The Deepening: "Delightful, The Hidden Bestiary by Judy Young, is an adventure, an exploration, and a series of visual puzzles set to marvelous prose, all rolled into a wonderful, exquisitely produced volume guaranteed to enchant both young and old. I shared it with my "test" kids, ages four through thirteen, and "enthralled" is the word. They each couldn't wait to get to hold the book themselves and page through it, looking at all there was to see. And the discussion throughout between the kids was great...

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Halloween Reading

Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan. Vampire Stories ($15)

The first collection of vampire stories from the creator of Sherlock Holmes! Who would suspect that the same mind that created the most famous literary detective of all time also took on the eternally popular genre of vampires? Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, a contemporary of Bram Stoker, gave us some fascinating works of vampire fiction. From the bloodsucking plant in “The American’s Tale” to the bloodsucking wife in “The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire,” he reveled in the horror created by creatures who survived on the blood of men and women.

As the bestselling Twilight series has dominated bookstores, it’s the perfect time to offer the first-ever compilation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s vampire tales. Get ready to sink your teeth into this heart-stopping anthology. Each of these twelve short stories has been pulled from obscurity and hand selected for this collection. Conan Doyle’s famous friendship with vampire king Bram Stoker is thought to have influenced these many blood-sucking tales, including “The Captain of the Pole Star,” about a medical student on an arctic voyage haunted by a heat-draining Eskimo vampire and “The Three Gables,” in which vampirism is cunningly used as a metaphor for capitalism.

Featuring an introduction by world-renowned vampire expert, Robert Eighteen-Bisang, this is a must-have anthology for all vampire lovers, and for any Arthur Conan Doyle enthusiast.

Fiffer, Sharon. Scary Stuff ($25) a new Jane Wheel Mystery

Antique picker Jane Wheel has always loved old stuff, from vintage salt and pepper shakers to other families’ old photos and orphaned Bakelite buttons, and she can’t really explain why. But she makes a living out of it, searching high and low at estate sales and antique shops and reselling her finds to other collectors. At least, it’s half a living---she makes the other half as an associate to a private detective, because she’s just as talented at digging up secrets as antiques.

While visiting her brother for the first time in years, Jane’s fascinated by a story of mistaken identity: On three occasions, someone has accused him of swindling them on eBay, only to realize he’s not the right guy. Even though he doesn’t see the point, she wants to look into it. Then back at home one of her parents’ friends is attacked, leading Jane to vow to get to the bottom of things.

Out of nowhere, Jane suddenly has two cases, both edging a little too close to her loved ones for comfort, because one thing’s for sure---whenever family gets wrapped up in your personal business, it’s bound to be some scary stuff.

Greenberg, Martin H and Kerrie Hughes. Zombie Raccoons and Killer Bunnies ($8)

From a farmer at war with Nature's creatures, to dangerous doings when the henhouse goes on-line, to the hazards of keeping company with a book wyrm, here are ingenious tales that will make readers laugh or cry-or double-check to make sure that their windows and doors are firmly locked against the things that prowl the night.

Harris, Charlaine. Sookie Stackhouse Series boxed set($64)

Sookie Stackhouse is the main character in The Southern Vampire My
steries, a series of eight books written by bestselling author Charlaine Harris.

Meyer, Stephenie. The Twilight Journals box set ($25)

The Twilight Journals set includes four gorgeous journals packaged in a collectible keepsake tin, inspired by Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn. Each journal features the beautiful and instantly-recognizable Twilight Saga cover art and is fully-designed throughout with images and decorative quotes from each of the books, as well as some
of the classic works of literature that inspired them.

Penzler, Otto. The Vampire Archives ($25)

The Vampire Archives is the biggest, hungriest, undeadliest collection of vampire stories, as well as the most comprehensive bibliography of vampire fiction ever assembled. Dark, stormy, and delicious, once it sinks its teeth into you there’s no escape.

Vampires! Whether imagined by Bram Stoker or Anne Rice, they are part of the human lexicon and as old as blood itself. They are your neighbors, your friends, and they are always lurking. Now Otto Penzler—editor of the bestselling Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps—has compiled the darkest, the scariest, and by far the most evil collection of vampire stories ever. With over eighty stories, including the works of Stephen King and D. H. Lawrence, alongside Lord Byron and Tanith Lee, not to mention Edgar Allan Poe and Harlan Ellison, The Vampire Archives will drive a stake through the heart of any other collection out there.
Other contributors include:
Arthur Conan Doyle • Ray Bradbury • Ambrose Bierce • H. P. Lovecraft • Harlan Ellison • Roger Zelazny • Robert Bloch • Clive Barker

Reese, James. The Dracula Dossier ($15)

While taking an evening stroll through one of London's most impoverished districts, author Bram Stoker spies a maddeningly familiar figure hurrying through the shadows. Little does he know that, only a few steps away, a vicious killer has claimed his first victim, a local prostitute. The crime spree of the century has begun—and the hapless writer is the prime suspect. Now, to clear his name, Stoker must enlist the aid of illustrious friends—including Walt Whitman, the wildly popular novelist Sir Thomas Henry Hall Caine, and Lady Jane Wilde, mother of the most notorious literary notable of the day—to hunt down the fiend who is taunting and terrorizing London and calling himself Jack the Ripper.


Tuesday, October 20, 2009

New Signed Books from the Poisoned Pen Bookstore


Hilton, Matt. Judgement and Wrath. ($32 Hodder and Stoughton) Signed

'Some call me a vigilante. I think I've just got problems to fix.'

Joe Hunter doesn't like bullies. So his latest job - saving a young woman from her bully boyfriend - is a no-brainer. Hunter's only worry is that the man who hired him is looking for more than protection for his daughter. One thing Hunter has never been, and never will be, is a killer-for-hire.

As it turns out, the vengeful father isn't the only one who wants the boyfriend dead. Soon Hunter is face-to-face with a contract killer who takes his work very seriously.

Dantalion has a talent for killing and keeps a list of his victims in a book chained to his waist. Each victim is numbered. And the body count is about to start rising . . .

Kava, Alex. Black Friday ($25) Signed

On the busiest shopping day of the year, some idealistic college students believe they're about to carry out an elaborate media stunt at the largest mall in America. They think the jamming devices in their backpacks will disrupt stores' computer systems, causing delays and chaos. What they don't realize is that instead of jamming devices, their backpacks are stuffed with explosives, ready to be detonated by remote control and turning them into suicide bombers.

Caught up in a political nightmare, battling a new interim director and still mourning the death of her boss A. D. Cunningham, FBI profiler Maggie O'Dell must put her own troubles aside and fly to Minnesota to help figure out what's behind this terrorist attack—a massacre that is all the more frightening because no group has claimed responsibility.

The search becomes personal when a tip reveals that one of the college students involved is Patrick, Maggie's brother. Afraid and on the run, Patrick must decide if he can finally trust Maggie enough to help her unravel this horrifying nightmare.

Sifting through the debris for answers, Maggie is joined by Nick Morrelli, who has recently taken a job with a national security company that oversees security for the mall. Although Maggie and Nick have investigated several cases together in the past, they've never investigated a relationship with each other. Nick would like to change that.

When an informant confides in Maggie that there are other attacks on the secret agenda, she knows that she's running out of time. In less than twenty-four hours she'll need to figure out exactly when and where the second attack will take place, who to look for and how to keep her brother from becoming one of the casualties.


Kellerman, Jonathan. Evidence ($30) Signed

#1 New York Times bestselling author Jonathan Kellerman writes unforgettable tales of crime and detection that expose the shadowy side of glittering Los Angeles. And in Evidence, readers are once again in the dexterous grip of a master storyteller and stylist equally skilled at teasing your brain and taking your breath away.

In the half-built skeleton of a monstrously vulgar mansion in one of L.A.’s toniest neighborhoods, a watchman stumbles on the bodies of a young couple–murdered in flagrante and left in a gruesome postmortem embrace. Though he’s cracked some of the city’s worst slayings, veteran homicide cop Milo Sturgis is still shocked at the grisly sight: a twisted crime that only Milo’s killer instincts–and psychologist Alex Delaware’s keen insights–can hope to solve.

While the female victim’s identity remains a question mark, her companion is ID’d as eco-friendly architect Desmond Backer, who disdains the sort of grandiose superstructure he’s found dead in. And the late Mr. Backer, it’s revealed was also notorious for his power to seduce women.

The rare exception is his ex-boss, Helga Gemein, who’s as indifferent to Desmond’s death as she apparently was to his advances. Though Milo and Alex place her on their short list of suspects, the deeper they dig for clues the longer the list grows. An elusive prince who appears to harbor decidedly American appetites, an eccentric blueblood with an ax to grind, one of Desmond’s restless ex-lovers and her cuckolded husband–all are in the homicidal mix spiced with eco-terrorism, arson, blackmail, conspiracy, and a vendetta that runs deep. But when the investigation veers suddenly in a startling direction, it’s the investigators who may wind up on the wrong end of a cornered predator’s final fury.

Muller, Marcia. Locked In ($27) Signed

Shot in the head by an unknown assailant, San Francisco private eye Sharon McCone finds herself trapped by locked-in syndrome: almost total paralysis but an alert, conscious mind. Since the late-night attack occurred at her agency's offices, the natural conclusion was that it was connected to one of the firm's cases. As Sharon lies in her hospital bed, furiously trying to break out of her body's prison and discover her attacker's identity, all the members of her agency fan out to find the reason why she was assaulted. Meanwhile, Sharon becomes a locked-in detective, evaluating the clues from her staff's separate investigations and discovering unsettling truths that could put her life in jeopardy again. As the case draws to a surprising and even shocking conclusion, Sharon's husband, Hy, must decide whether or not to surrender to his own violent past and exact fatal vengeance when the person responsible is identified.

Kirkus, starred review, "Throughout her many McCone novels, Muller has displayed a knack both for keeping the series fresh and for allowing her character to grow. She accomplishes both goals this time by taking McCone out of the spotlight but giving her fans a chance to root for her to recover. After all these years, Muller's series remains a gold standard for female detective stories."

Library Journal, "Top-notch mystery and more from one of the genre's Grand Masters."

Sunday, October 18, 2009

New YouTube Clips

Technology moves at a strange pace, and we continue to chase the trends as they develop. I regret that we don't have a solid, single space for everything but, it seems the world of the web is developing in that sort of direction. So we will just keep after it.
This said, our newest videos which will typically range from short to maybe 10-15 minutes will be updated to www.youtube.com/authorevents each week. The longer, complete author interviews will still remain acessible in the video player here on the blog. Feel free to email me (will@poisonedpen.com) with any questions or comments.

One new clip features McCavity, Shamus and Edgar nominated author Reed Farrell Coleman(aka Tony Spinosa) talking about his latest book TOWER which he co-authored with Ken Bruen.

Born into a rough Brooklyn neighborhood, outsiders in their own families, Nick and Todd forge a lifelong bond that persists in the face of crushing loss, blood, and betrayal. Low-level wiseguys with little ambition and even less of a future, the friends become major players in the potential destruction of an international crime syndicate that stretches from the cargo area at Kennedy Airport to the streets of New York, Belfast, and Boston to the alleyways of Mexican border towns. Their paths are littered with the bodies of undercover cops, snitches, lovers, and stone-cold killers. In the tradition of The Long Goodbye, Mystic River, and The Departed, Tower is a powerful meditation on friendship, fate, and fatality. A twice-told tale done in the unique format of parallel narratives that intersect at deadly crossroads, Tower is like a beautifully crafted knife to the heart. Imagine a Brooklyn rabbi/poet -- Reed Farrel Coleman -- collaborating with a mad Celt from the West of Ireland -- Ken Bruen -- to produce a novel unlike anything you've ever encountered. A ferocious blast of gut-wrenching passion that blends the fierce granite of Galway and the streetwise rap of Brooklyn. Fasten your seat belts, this is an experience that is as incendiary as it is heart shriven.



New Signed Books from the Poisoned Pen

Harris, Robert. Lustrum ($43 Hutchinson) Signed

`Harris is the master. With Lustrum, [he] has surpassed himself. It is one of the most exciting thrillers I have ever read' --Evening Standard

`Harris communicates such a strong sense of imperial Rome - the book is awesomely well-informed about the minutiae of everyday life' --Guardian

`Thoroughly engaging ... The allure of power and the perils that attend it have seldom been so brilliantly anatomised in a thriller' --Sunday Times

`Harris never makes his comparisons between Rome and modern Britain explicit, but they are certainly there. And that's the principal charm of his ancient thrillers - their up-to-dateness' --Sunday Telegraph

`Magnificent ... Better than Robert Graves's Claudius novels' --Allan Massie, STANDPOINT

Maitland, Barry. Dark Mirror ($27) Signed

Newly promoted to Detective Inspector, Kathy Kolla of the Serious Crimes Unit is called in by the forensic pathologist regarding the recent sudden death of a London student from what he’s determined to be arsenic poisoning. Marion Summers had no reason to be in contact with arsenic and, though once common, arsenic is now very hard to get hold of. The more Kolla investigates, the more she discovers that certain other things about Summers are also unusual. She moved three octobers ago without leaving a forwarding address or informing her relatives. And her step-father has a disquieting past and, after attacking a constable in a pub, a not-so-savory present. With each turn in the investigation, it becomes increasingly clear that behind what really happened—and why—lies the most difficult-to-crack case the team has ever faced.

Marston, Edward. Fire and Sword ($45 Allison and Busby) Signed

Returning to camp from a dangerous solo mission behind enemy lines, career soldier Daniel Rawson finds himself stranded on foot, with French soldiers in fierce pursuit. A kindly farmer helps Daniel hide in his barn, then loans him a carthorse on which to escape. Later, when Daniel goes back to return the horse, he finds the farmhouse and barn have been set ablaze and the farmer approaching death, apparently at the hands of English soldiers. Back in England there is political unrest. Queen Anne's favour has shifted causing the Duke of Marlborough to resign as Commander-In-Chief. After several other farmhouses are burnt down in seemingly similar raids, Daniel enlists the help of his old friend Henry Welbeck to help investigate. All the while the treacherous and scheming French Commander, the Duc de Vendome, is becoming hell-bent on capturing Daniel, by any means at his disposal, including kidnapping the beautiful Amalia. Daniel has a chance of revenge when facing Vendome at the bloody battle of Oudenarde.

Vonnegut, Norb. Top Producer ($27) Signed

PW Starred Review, "Vonnegut's debut meets the gold standard for financial thrillers as it puts the frenzied, cutthroat world of Wall Street's best stockbrokers (aka the top producers) on brilliant display. Ripples from the bizarre murder of Charlie Kelemen, wealthy hedge fund operator, quickly reach his best friend, Grove O'Rourke. A top producer at the boutique investment bank Sachs, Kidder and Carnegie, O'Rourke tries to help Kelemen's widow sort out some financial questions. This process leads him deeper and deeper into a labyrinth of deceit. As fallout from Charlie's death and dealings start to taint O'Rourke, the sharks, inside and outside his own firm, smell blood and begin to circle. O'Rourke won't go down without a fight, and not all the blood in the water will be his. Vonnegut, himself a veteran fund manager, handles the arcane terminology and slang of Wall Street with aplomb, never letting it get in the way of the story."

Friday, October 16, 2009

Newly Published Spooky Reads


Peter Ackroyd's The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein ($27)

When two nineteenth-century Oxford students--Victor Frankenstein, a serious researcher, and the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley--form an unlikely friendship, the result is a tour de force that could only come from one of the world's most accomplished and prolific authors.

This haunting and atmospheric novel opens with a heated discussion, as Shelley challenges the conventionally religious Frankenstein to consider his atheistic notions of creation and life. Afterward, these concepts become an obsession for the young scientist. As Victor begins conducting anatomical experiments to reanimate the dead, he at first uses corpses supplied by the coroner. But these specimens prove imperfect for Victor's purposes. Moving his makeshift laboratory to a deserted pottery factory in Limehouse, he makes contact with the Doomsday men--the resurrectionists--whose grisly methods put Frankenstein in great danger as he works feverishly to bring life to the terrifying creature that will bear his name for eternity.

Filled with literary lights of the day such as Bysshe Shelley, Godwin, Lord Byron, and Mary Shelley herself, and penned in period-perfect prose, The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein is sure to become a classic of the twenty-first century.

Melissa De La Cruz's The Van Alen Legacy, a Blue Bloods novel ($17)

With the stunning revelation surrounding Bliss's true identity comes the growing threat of the sinister Silver Bloods. Once left to live the glamorous life in New York City, the Blue Bloods now find themselves in an epic battle for survival. Not to worry, love is still in the air for the young vampires of the Upper East Side. Or is it? Jack and Schuyler are over. Oliver's brokenhearted. And only the cunning Mimi seems to be happily engaged.
Young, fanged, and fabulous, Melissa de la Cruz's vampires unite in this highly anticipated fourth installment of the Blue Bloods series.

Dacre Stoker and Ian Holt's Dracula the Un-Dead ($27)

At last--the sequel to Bram Stoker's classic novel Dracula, written by his direct descendant and a Dracula historian

The great-grandnephew of Brams Stoker continues the tale...

Bram Stoker's Dracula is the prototypical horror novel, an inspiration for the world's seemingly limitless fascination with vampires. Though many have tried to replicate Stoker's horror classic- in books, television shows, and movies-only the 1931 Bela Lugosi film bore the Stoker family's support. Until now.

Dracula The Un-Dead is a bone-chilling sequel based on Bram Stoker's own handwritten notes for characters and plot threads excised from the original edition. Dracula The Un-Dead begins in 1912, twenty-five years after Dracula "crumbled into dust." Van Helsing's protégé, Dr. Jack Seward, is now a disgraced morphine addict obsessed with stamping out evil across Europe. Meanwhile, an unknowing Quincey Harker, the grown son of Jonathan and Mina, leaves law school for the London stage, only to stumble upon the troubled production of "Dracula," directed and produced by Bram Stoker himself.

The play plunges Quincey into the world of his parents' terrible secrets, but before he can confront them he experiences evil in a way he had never imagined. One by one, the band of heroes that defeated Dracula a quarter-century ago is being hunted down. Could it be that Dracula somehow survived their attack and is seeking revenge? Or is their another force at work whose relentless purpose is to destroy anything and anyone associated with Dracula?

Dracula The Un-Dead is deeply researched, rich in character, thrills and scares, and lovingly crafted as both an extension and celebration of one of the most classic popular novels in literature.

"Energetically paced and packed with outrageously entertaining action, this supernatural thriller is a well-needed shot of fresh blood for the Dracula mythos."
--Publisher's Weekly

"The authors (Stoker is a descendant of Bram, and Holt is a noted Dracula historian) skillfully explore the nature of evil while weaving together several complex plotlines throughout this mesmerizing story. Readers who enjoy dark fantasy with fast-paced action will plow through this book, not wanting to stop."
--Library Journal

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Reed Farrel Coleman and Ken Bruen Interview

Reed Farrel Coleman was here to sign his book The Tower (co written with Ken Bruen)

**Brian clears throat and gets ready for Ed Gorman impersonation**

Brian here: Keith Rawson has been doing a fine job covering the recent events held at The Poisoned Pen. He attended Tuesday’s event (10/13/09) and has delivered again with a fine interview with Reed Farrel Coleman. While there he also interviewed Michael Connelly, whose interview will run here at BSC in the near future.

Coleman was out in support of his new novel, Tower, which was co-written as a collaborative effort with Ken Bruen. Keith also went the extra mile and conducted an interview with Bruen via email. This is a return performance at BSC for Bruen, as he was interviewed here back in 2006. Enjoy the 22-minute video interview with Reed Farrel Coleman, then continue below with the Ken Bruen interview.

http://www.bscreview.com/2009/10/reed-farrel-coleman-and-ken-bruen-interviewed/

New Signed Books from the Poisoned Pen Bookstore

13 1/2, Nevada Barr ($26 Signed)

In 1971, the state of Minnesota was rocked by the “Butcher Boy” incident, as coverage of a family brutally murdered by one of their own swept across newspapers and television screens nationwide.

Now, in present-day New Orleans, Polly Deschamps finds herself at yet another lonely crossroads in her life. No stranger to tragedy, Polly was a runaway at the age of fifteen, escaping a nightmarish Mississippi childhood.

Lonely, that is, until she encounters architect Marshall Marchand. Polly is immediately smitten. She finds him attractive, charming, and intelligent. Marshall, a lifelong bachelor, spends most of his time with his brother Danny. When Polly’s two young daughters from her previous marriage are likewise taken with Marshall, she marries him. However, as Polly begins to settle into her new life, she becomes uneasy about her husband’s increasing dark moods, fearing that Danny may be influencing Marshall in ways she cannot understand.

But what of the ominous prediction by a New Orleans tarot card reader, who proclaims that Polly will murder her husband? What, if any, is the Marchands’ connection to the infamous “Butcher Boy” multiple homicide? And could Marshall and his eccentric brother be keeping a dark secret from Polly, one that will shatter the happiness she has forever prayed for?

Necessary as Blood, Deborah Crombie ($25 Signed)

In this dazzling addition to Deborah Crombie's acclaimed mystery series, a disappearance, a murder, and a child in danger lead Scotland Yard detectives Gemma James and Duncan Kincaid into London's legendary East End—a neighborhood where the rich and the poor, the ambitious and the dangerous, collide—to solve one of the most challenging and disturbing cases they've ever faced. . . .

Necessary as Blood

Once the haunt of Jack the Ripper, London's East End is a vibrant mix of history and the avantgarde, a place where elegant Georgian town houses exist side by side with colorful street markets and the hippest clubs. But here races and cultures still clash, and the trendy galleries and glamorous nightlife of Whitechapel disguise a violent and seedy underside, where unthinkable crimes bring terror to the innocent.

On a beautiful Sunday afternoon in mid May, a young mother, Sandra Gilles, leaves her daughter with a friend at the Columbia Road Flower Market and disappears. Shortly thereafter, her husband, a Pakistani lawyer, is killed. Scotland Yard detective Gemma James happens upon the scene in time to witness the investigator making a mistake.

When Duncan and his trusted sergeant, Doug Cullen, see Gemma's name in the report, they decide to take the case. Working together again, Gemma, Duncan, Doug, and Melody Talbot must solve it before the murderer can get his hands on the real prize, Naz and Sandra's daughter.

But just as the case grows more dangerous, a personal issue threatens to throw Gemma and Duncan off the trail. In the end, it is up to them to stop a vicious killer and protect the child whose fate hangs in the balance.

Red to Black, Alex Dryden ($28 Signed)

Finn 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.

Crush, Alan Jacobson ($26 Signed)

Fresh off the most challenging case of her career, The 7th Victim heroine and renowned FBI profiler Karen Vail returns in an explosive thriller set against the backdrop of California’s wine country.

Hoping to find solace from the demons that haunt her, Vail makes her first trip to the Napa Valley. But shortly after arriving, a victim is found in the deepest reaches of an exclusive wine cave, the work of an extraordinarily unpredictable serial killer. From the outset, Vail is frustrated by her inability to profile the offender—until she realizes why: the Behavioral Analysis Unit has not previously encountered a killer like him.

As Vail and the task force work around the clock to identify and locate him, they’re caught in a web knotted with secretive organizations, a decades-long feud between prominent wine families, and widespread corruption that leads Vail to wonder whom, if anyone, she can trust. Meanwhile, as the victim count rises, Vail can't shake the gnawing sense that something isn't right.

With the killer’s actions threatening the Napa Valley’s multi-billion dollar industry, the stakes have never been greater, and the race to find the killer never more urgent.

And through it all, a surprise lurks…one that Karen Vail never sees coming.

Meticulously researched during years of work with the FBI profiling unit and extensive interviews with wine industry professionals, bestselling author Alan Jacobson delivers a high-velocity thriller featuring the kind of edge-of-your-seat ending that inspired Nelson DeMille to call him "a hell of a writer."

Stardust, Joseph Kanon ($28 Signed)

Starred Reviewfrom PW "James Ellroy fans will find a lot to like in this gritty look at post-WWII Hollywood from Edgar-winner Kanon (Los Alamos). Ben Collier, recently returned to the U.S. from service in the Signal Corps in Europe, travels to California after his sister-in-law, Liesl, informs him that his director brother, Danny, has suffered a serious fall from a hotel window. Was it an accident or a suicide attempt? Ben arrives in time to witness his brother briefly emerge from a coma, but soon afterward Danny dies. While Liesl believes the suicide theory, Ben suspects someone pushed Danny out the window and turns amateur detective to identify the culprit. In a noirish twist, the widowed Liesl comes on to Ben. The stakes rise after Ben learns Danny was playing a part in an anticommunist crusade a congressman is launching against the film industry. Kanon perfectly balances action and introspection, while smoothly integrating such real-life figures as actress Paulette Goddard into the plot."

The Price of Malice, Archer Mayor ($27 Signed)

Wayne Castine was found brutally murdered and the murderer remains at large. Castine, a suspected child predator, was killed in Brattleboro where he was involved with a tangled network of an extended family living in a local trailer park. Any member of the clan would have had the opportunity to kill him, and, as he was involved with both the mother and her 12 year old daughter, reason to commit the murder. At the same time, Joe Gunther has learned that his girlfriend Lyn Silva’s fisherman father and brother, believed lost at sea off the coast of Maine, might have actually been murdered. Without enough solid information to warrant law enforce ment involvement, Lyn returns to Maine to try and investigate Gunther’s findings. Gunther periodically puts his on-going murder investigation on hold—irritating his colleagues and angering his bosses —to go and help Lyn in Maine. It appears increasingly possible that her father and brother weren’t the good guys that Lyn always believed them to be and that they might have been involved with vicious smugglers who murdered them—and might do the same to Lyn if she keeps pushing. Torn between his conscience and his heart, a murder invest - igation and a personal search for the truth, Gunther finds that betrayal and loyalty are often a matter of viewpoint.

The Professional, Robert B Parker ($30 Signed)

A knock on Spenser's office door can only mean one thing: a new case. This time the visitor is a local lawyer with an interesting story. Elizabeth Shaw specializes in wills and trusts at the Boston law firm of Shaw & Cartwright, and over the years she's developed a friendship with wives of very wealthy men. However, these rich wives have a mutual secret: they've all had an affair with a man named Gary Eisenhower- and now he's blackmailing them for money. Shaw hires Spenser to make Eisenhower "cease and desist," so to speak, but when women start turning up dead, Spenser's assignment goes from blackmail to murder.

As matters become more complicated, Spenser's longtime love, Susan, begins offering some input by analyzing Eisenhower's behavior patterns in hopes of opening up a new avenue of investigation. It seems that not all of Gary's women are rich. So if he's not using them for blackmail, then what is his purpose? Spenser switches tactics to focus on the husbands, only to find that innocence and guilt may be two sides of the same coin.

With its eloquently spare prose and some of the best supporting characters to grace the printed page, The Professional is further proof that "[t]here's hardly an author in the crime novel business like Parker" -Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Boulevard, Stephen Jay Schwartz ($25 Signed)

Hayden Glass never had it easy. After losing his father at a young age, he fought hard for everything he got, haunted by a shame that he could never define or conquer. Now a Los Angeles Police Robbery and Homicide detective, Glass is still haunted by the scars that formed in his childhood and left a permanent void in his soul. He deals with it in a very defeating way . . . . he strolls Sunset Boulevard, picking up prostitutes. Hayden Glass is a sex addict.
Called to investigate a heinous crime scene involving the daughter of prominent LA politician, Glass is quickly overwhelmed by the spotlight. When new murders arise, Glass sees a link where no one else does--this is the work of a vicious, sadistic sexual predator. Forced to use the support rooms that keep him from acting out as an investigative tool, Glass finds himself alienated by everyone he needs: his ex-wife, his sponsor, even his fellow detectives. Glass must call on the services of ex-FBI profiler, turned private investigator Kennedy Reynard, who is as tempting as she is helpful. But the tide turns quickly when Glass discovers that his quarry has his sights set on an ultimate target---Glass himself.

Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 - The Big Read 2009


"It was a pleasure to burn. It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed. "
-Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451


Join us in the fight against illiteracy as we participate in the Big Read.
Did you know that just 1 in 4 adults now reads? The Big Read inspires people all across the country to read a good book! This year's book is Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451

The parallels to Fahrenheit 451 are everywhere.

First off, I did not know that Michael Moore used the title Fahrenheit 9/11 as a simple rip off to which Ray Bradbury has expressed his displeasure.

The man himself though, Mr. Bradbury is a great character. How many dust-jacket biographies read like this?

"Libraries raised me. I don’t believe in colleges and universities. I believe in libraries because most students don’t have any money. When I graduated from high school, it was during the Depression and we had no money. I couldn’t go to college, so I went to the library three days a week for 10 years."

That is not to say he dislikes universities or colleges, but he had no use for them.

I was recently talking to a couple, one of which dropped out of college. I told them that my degree was a waste of time and money. I sincerely wish I had not returned to ASU, and even though I graduated with a 3.5 I feel minute satisfaction for what I learned. The value of a bachelor’s degree is waning as well. Even the master’s programs don’t guarantee a person a job.

Recently I traveled to Slovakia where I talked with several people that attended school there.

First off, higher education is free for those who can pass the entrance tests. Second, if you choose a profession, you go to work in that profession for the two years you are studying it. So when you get out, there is a distinct job which you are trained for and the education backs it up.

Most kids I’ve met in college, and this is not all of them, go there with some esoteric idea about what they want to do and see little, if any, connection to the professional world.

It’s difficult walking out into the workplace and stating you have no real professional experience, no clout that makes you desirable. A huge part of landing any job is the confidence in knowing you will be able to do it.

Bradbury talks a lot about being social, as we are social creatures. He talks about our need to communicate and turn things over in our minds. I’ve found it downright difficult, anywhere I go to enter into a conversation that each party feels capable of speaking on that doesn’t involve TV. People are uncomfortable speaking with each other. The students all have their headphones on before, after and in between class.

This was Bradbury’s nightmare, and I think there is a lot of value to the following quote from an interview with him.

“The whole problem of TV and movies today is summed up for me by the film Moulin Rouge. It came out a few years ago and won a lot of awards. It has 4,560 half-second clips in it. The camera never stops and holds still. So it clicks off your thinking: you can’t think when you have things bombarding you like that. The average TV commercial of sixty seconds has one hundred and twenty half-second clips in it, or one-third of a second. We bombard people with sensation. That substitutes for thinking.”

I think Bradbury is right, and yet I don’t see a solution to what seems to be a problem. Have you been to the theatre where the sound is so damn loud you feel like you are about to die? From Fahrenheit 451:

"If the drama is bad, if the film says nothing, if the play is hollow, sting me with the theremin, loudly. I’ll think I'm responding to the play, when it's only a tactile reaction to vibration. But I don't care. I just like solid entertainment."

I really want to believe in the virtue of my generation. We must have evolved in some way that is revolutionary. Commerce moves faster, we care less about our neighbors, we eat processed food, what about this speaks to a raised life style? Not much.

Author Italo Calvino has a similar opinion in his book on writing titled Six Memos for the Next Millennium. His book is a treatise on writing, and he believes much of what created the stories, or archetypes, spring forth from people's subconscious. This story is based on personal experiences of life. In the following excerpt he expresses concern for the multiplicity of images that 'litter' the modern mind.

The possibility of giving form to personal myths arose from the way in which thre fragments of this memory came together in unexpected and evocative combinations. We are bombarded today by such a quantity of images that we can no longer distinguish direct experience from what we have seen for a few seconds on television. The memory is littered with bits and pieces of images, like a rubbish dump, and it is more and more unlikely that any on form among so many will succeed in standing out.

This novel astounded me for a couple reasons. It doesn’t pretend people don’t talk, it out right describes it. It’s not just me feeling awkward in a bus full of people. It everyone!

Bradbury also describes the visceral experience of nature in a way I’d never before thought of it, but definitely experienced it.

“The land rushed at him, a tidal wave. He was crushed by darkness and the look of the country and the million odors on a wind that iced his body. He fell back under the breaking curve of darkness and sound and smell, his ears roaring. He whirled. The stars poured over his sight like flaming meteors. He wanted to plunge in the river again and let it idle him safely on down somewhere. This dark land rising was like that day in his childhood, swimming, when from nowhere the largest wave in the history of remembering slammed him down in salt mud and green darkness, water burning mouth and nose, retching his stomach, screaming! Too much water!

Too much land.”

Hiking the desert and canyons of Arizona can be similar in how it stuns you into an almost fear-like state.

The reason I wrote this article was mainly due to the fact that this book is part of the 'Big Read'. The Big Read is a national program funded by The National Endowment for the Arts. I am ultimately impressed that a country would self-knowingly bring books to light, which make people question their entire mode of thought. I really was just flabbergasted that America, would sponsor such things. After a little research, I found out Carted started the "Endowment' (Carter holding the reputation as the worst president of all time) and that it has been almost dismantled by many presidents to follow him, namely, Reagan.
Either way, as a young guy, I'm impressed that a government allows for itself to promote literature that flips modern lifestyle on its head.

Please head on down to our event with local authors James Sallis and Brent Ghelfi to support this program. If you haven't read the book, you have two options: 1) Read it in three days, as I did or, 2) Come to the event, and then read it in three days.

The event is Saturday, October 18 at 2 pm at The Poisoned Pen. Please come on down and show your support for the arts and local authors.

Monday, October 12, 2009

Juliet Naked the new book from Nick Hornby signed ($26)

From the beloved New York Times- bestselling author, a quintessential Nick Hornby tale of music, superfandom, and the truths and lies we tell ourselves about life and love, Juliet Naked.

Annie loves Duncan-or thinks she does. Duncan loves Annie, but then, all of a sudden, he doesn't. Duncan really loves Tucker Crowe, a reclusive Dylanish singer-songwriter who stopped making music ten years ago. Annie stops loving Duncan, and starts getting her own life.

In doing so, she initiates an e-mail correspondence with Tucker, and a connection is forged between two lonely people who are looking for more out of what they've got. Tucker's been languishing (and he's unnervingly aware of it), living in rural Pennsylvania with what he sees as his one hope for redemption amid a life of emotional and artistic ruin-his young son, Jackson. But then there's also the new material he's about to release to the world: an acoustic, stripped-down version of his greatest album, Juliet-entitled, Juliet, Naked.

What happens when a washed-up musician looks for another chance? And miles away, a restless, childless woman looks for a change? Juliet, Naked is a powerfully engrossing, humblingly humorous novel about music, love, loneliness, and the struggle to live up to one's promise.

Friday, October 9, 2009

News From The Pen


Phoenix Noir Event
by John Talton
...It's gratifying to see Phoenix added to the list with this book edited by historic district homie Patrick Millikin. The authors for Phoenix Noir include...
Rogue Columnist - http://roguecolumnist.typepad.com/rogue_columnist/

BSC Interview – James Sallis
By Keith Rawson
... Pen Press and Harvest books), for which he is best known. I was fortunate enough to sit down with Jim Sallis before his recent appearance at the Poisoned Pen bookstore in Scottsdale, Arizona, to discuss his critically lauded career. ...
BSCreview - http://www.bscreview.com/


Lesa's Book Critiques: Alan Jacobson at The Poisoned Pen
By Lesa
Alan Jacobson is on his book tour for Crush, and the Poisoned Pen Bookstore in Scottsdale was one of his stops. Since he and I had exchanged emails about the Mets, and we're both fans, I went to meet this "original Mets fan." ...
Lesa's Book Critiques - http://lesasbookcritiques.blogspot.com/

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Spooky Halloween Reads


Our reading the holidays series wouldn't be complete without including some ghost, goblins and of course vampires for Halloween.

Looking for a
ghostly tale or two? Glen Hirshberg's The Two Sams ($23 Signed) is filled with them.
In the title story of this unique collection, a husband struggles with the grief and confusion of losing two children, and forms an odd bond with the infant spectrals that visit him in the night. "Dancing Men" depicts one of the creepiest rites of passage in recent memory, when a boy visits his deranged grandfather in the New Mexico desert. In "Mr. Dark's Carnival," a college professor confronts his own dark places in the form of a mysterious haunted house steeped in the folklore of grisly badlands justice. "Struwwelpeter" introduces us to a brilliant, treacherous adolescent whose violent tendencies and reckless mischief reach a sinister pinnacle as Halloween descends on a rundown, Pacific Northwest fishing village. Tormented by his guilty conscience, a young man plumbs the depths of atonement as he and his favorite cousin commune with the almighty Hawaiian surf in "Shipwreck Beach."

We have signed books from spooky writers:

Alexandra Sokoloff: The Unseen (St Martins $25 Signed)
Sokoloff presents a new supernatural thriller.
Two Duke University psychology professors, Laurel MacDonald and Brendan Cody, stumble on suppr
essed findings of an inquiry into poltergeist activity conducted under the auspices of Duke's Rhine parapsychology lab nearly half a century earlier. All the participants appear to have died, disappeared or, in the case of Laurel's enfeebled uncle, gone mad. Laurel and Brendan corral two students and camp out at spooky Folger House....also The Price ($7) and The Harrowing ($7)

Sarah Langan: Audrey's Door (Harper $8
Signed)

Built on the Upper West Side, the elegant Breviary claims a regal history. But despite 14B's astonishingly low rental price, the recent tragedy within its walls has frightened away all potential tenants . . . except for Audrey Lucas.
No stranger to tragedy at thirty-two-a survivor of a fatherless childhood and a mothe
r's hopeless dementia- Audrey is obsessively determined to make her own way in a city that often strangles the weak. But is it something otherworldly or Audrey's own increasing instability that's to blame for the dark visions that haunt her . . . and for the voice that demands that she build a door? A door it would be true madness to open . . . also the Keeper ($7) and The Missing ($7)

Rhodi Hawk: A Twisted Ladder ($15 Signed) This is a debut Southern gothic thriller, introducing Dr. Madeleine LeBlanc, a staff psychologist at New Orleans's Tulane University with a special interest in cognitive schizophrenia. Maddy's father, "Daddy Blank," suffers from the disease, as does her brother, Marc, whose suicide leads Maddy, who fears she may also be schizophrenic after psychic visits from a "devil-child," to probe her family's past. Tulane neurologist Ethan Manderleigh provides support as terrible secrets surface about the family sugarcane plantation.

Sarah Pinborough: Torchwood: Into The Silence ($12
Signed)
The body in the church hall is very definitely dead. It has been sliced open with surgical precision, its organs exposed, and its vocal cords are gone. It is as if they were never there or they've been dissolved! With the Welsh amateur Operatic Contest getting under way, music is filling the churches and concert halls of Cardiff. The competition has attracted the finest Welsh talent to the city, but it has also drawn something else - there are stories of a metallic creature hiding in the shadows. Torchwood is on its tail, but it's moving too fast for them to track it down! This new threat requires a new tactic, so Ianto Jones is joining a male voice choir... Featuring Captain Jack Harkness as played by John Barrowman, with Gwen Cooper and Ianto Jones as played by Eve Myles and Gareth David-Lloyd, in the hit series created by Russell T. Davies for BBC Television.

Feeding Ground (Leisure $7.99 Signed) is Pinborough's sequel to her 2007 British Fantasy Award-nominated novel Breeding Ground. Set in post-apocalyptic London, Feeding Ground combines chilling science fiction narrative with visceral horror in a way that is simultaneously unflinching yet emotionally satisfying. Publishers Weekly has compared Pinborough to Bentley Little and Dean Koontz.

"This is one of those rare horror novels that hits the ground running on page one and doesn't break stride once all the way through.... Breeding Ground is a wonderfully entertaining and shriek-inspiring novel be
autifully wrought by an author with an unflinching eye and a steady hand." ---Creature Feature
Or if you'd like a mystery:


Jennie Bentley's Spackled and Spooked
($7)

A mystery surfaces behind the walls in the new Do-It-Yourself series.

Avery Baker and her boyfriend, Derek Ellis, are flipping a seriously stigmatized house rumored to have ghosts. Soon they'll have even bigger problems-and this renovation project might haunt them forever.

Laura Childs' Tragic Magic ($25)

Carmela, owner
of Memory Mine scrapbook shop, and her best friend, owner of Juju Voodoo, have a big project. Melody Mayfeldt is converting an old mansion in the Faubourg-Marigny district into an unforgettable haunted house for those who flock to New Orleans for a creepy fix. She needs Carmela's crafty touch to make the Medusa Manor come to life in time for the upcoming horror convention.

But Melody takes her house haunting too
seriously-especially when her flaming body comes crashing through a tower window to 'welcome' them to the job. Sure there's been an increased trend in murder lately, but someone specifically wanted Carmela's client very dead. Carmela's in some deep gumbo again and needs to crop out a killer from the throngs of people flocking to New Orleans. Then maybe it won't be so hard living in the Big Easy.


John Connolly's The Gates ($24 Signed)
Young Samuel Johnson and his dachshund, Boswell, are trying to show initiative by trick-or-treating a full three days before Halloween, which is how they come to witness strange goings-on at 666 Crowley Road. The Abernathys don't mean any harm by their flirtation with the underworld, but when they unknowingly call forth Satan himself, they create a gap in the universe, a gap through which a pair of enormous gates is visible. The gates to Hell. And there are some pretty terrifying beings just itching to get out....

Can one small boy defeat evil? Can he harness the power of science, faith, and love to save the world as we know it?

Bursting with imagination and impossible to put down, The Gates is about the pull between good and evil, physics and fantasy. It is about a quirky and eccentric boy, who is impossible not to love, and the unlikely cast of characters who give him the strength to stand up to a demonic power.

In this wonderfully strange and brilliant novel, John Connolly manages to re-create the magical and scary world of childhood that we've all left behind but so love to visit. And for those of you who thought you knew everything you could about particle physics and the universe, think again. This novel makes anything seem possible.

Isis Crawford's Catered Halloween ($7)

A fun well-plotted fifth culinary cozy to feature Bernadette and Libby Simmons (after 2007's A Catered Valentine's Day), the sisters cater a fundraiser for the Longely, N.Y., volunteer firemen that includes a high-tech haunted
house, formerly the Peabody School. In a room evoking the setting of Poe's The Pit and the Pendulum, the severed head that rolls down some stairs and lands at Libby's feet proves to be real. The victim, Amethyst Applegate, had been a student years earlier at the Peabody School, where another student at the time, Bessie Osgood, died under suspicious circumstances. Is Bessie's ghost still haunting the place? Aided by their father, Sean, the town's retired police chief, Bernie and Libby discover that Amethyst, a notorious home wrecker, had no lack of enemies. A selection of delectable seasonal recipes rounds out the volume.

Kerry greenwood's Trick or Treat ($15)

When a cut-price franchise bakery opens its doors just down the street from Earthly Delights and crowds flock to purchase the bread, Corinna Chapman is understandably nervous. Meanwhile, the gorgeous Daniel's old friend Georgiana Hope has temporarily set up residence in his house, and it doesn't take Corinna long to work out that she's tall, blonde, gorgeous and up to something. Daniel is making excuses and Corinna is worried about his absences and also the strange outbreak of madness which seems to be centered on Lonsdale Street.


Carolyn Hart's new series Ghost at Work ($8)

First in a new series.
Bailey Ruth Raeburn has always been great at solving mysteries. Why should a little thing like her death change anything? In fact, being dead gives her more of an opportunity to be on top of events. Bailey Ruth is delighted that her unique position as a ghost makes it possible for her to lend a helping hand, sometimes seen and sometimes not. And if anybody needs a little help, it's Kathleen, the pastor's wife. There's a dead man on her porch, and once the body is discovered, the pastor is sure to become a suspect.

Uncharitable people might call it meddling, but Bailey Ruth knows Kathleen needs her help! As a member of Heaven's Department of Good Intentions, Bailey R
uth goes back to earth to extricate Kathleen from a dire situation. If Bailey Ruth has to bend a few rules to help Kathleen save her family, Wiggins, her fussbudget supervisor, will make sure it all turns out right in the end. Don't miss Merry, Merry Ghost ($16 signed on Nov 5)

Leslie Meier's Trick or Treat Murder ($7)

Haunted-house parties and ghostly galas...grinning pumpkins, mayhem and murder. It's going to be one heck of a Halloween for Lucy Stone and Tinker's Cove...It's October in Maine, and everyone in Tinker's Cove is preparing for the annual Halloween festival. While Lucy Stone is whipping up orange-frosted cupcakes, recycling tutus for her daughters' Halloween costumes, helping her son with his pre-teen rebellion, and breast-feeding her brand-new baby, an arsonist is loose in Tinker's Cove. When the latest fire claims the life of the owner of the town's oldest house, arson turns into murder...While the townsfolk work to transform a dilapidated mansion into a haunted house for the All-Ghouls festival, the hunt for the culprit heats up. Trick-or-treat turns deadly as a little digging in all the wrong places puts Lucy too close to a shocking discovery that could send all her best-laid plans up in smoke...

Terri Thayer's
Inked Up ($7)

Halloween is scarier than ever in Aldenville, Pennsylvania, when professional rubber stamper April Buchert discovers a dead body in a "haunted" corn maze. The police suspect the victim's husband murdered her, but April knew the couple, and she and the Stamping Sisters are determined to find the real killer before he catches another in his murderous motif.

So curl up with a spooky read this evening and enjoy!