Poisoned Fiction Review

MIA.

2011-10-10T12:03:00.000-07:00

Hi All! We've been MIA for a little while now, but don't worry we'll be back in top form soon. We've been working to consolidate all of our internet presence into one location. We do appreciate all your visits and hopefully we'll be at the finish line soon. In the meantime, I'm going to leave y'all with some recent photos from the store.

Clive Cussler, Thomas Perry and John Sandford!

John Sandford explains the difficulties of writing a modern
mystery given developments in technology. (Thomas Perry interviews)

A nice turnout for scones and tea with Stephanie Barron.

Justin Scott, Clive Cussler sign RACE for some lucky fans.

Debut author Brandi Lynn Ryder signs IN MALICE, QUITE CLOSE.

James Lee Burke signing Feast Day of Fools

2011-09-23T17:25:00.000-07:00

This was the scene at Fact and Fiction Bookstore several days ago. Now these books are in the back portion of the store waiting for a good home. If you would like to order a copy, click here.

Preparation for Stephanie Barron

2011-09-12T11:07:00.000-07:00

Walking the Backroads of Kent: Jane and the Canterbury Tale

Click image to order a signed
copy from The Poisoned Pen.

One of the particular pleasures of writing about Jane Austen is...the travel! Oh, the travel! After her father's retirement and death, Jane moved with depressing regularity in her twenties and thirties--several lodgings in Bath alone, followed by Southampton and eventually Chawton--and she made frequent side trips to visit relatives in Staffordshire (Edward Cooper and his family at Hamstall-Ridware), Kent (brother Edward at Godmersham), and Warwickshire (a flying visit with strange bedfellows to Stoneleigh Abbey). She often stayed with her brother Henry in his various London homes, and enjoyed summer visits to towns along the Channel Coast, such as Lyme Regis. Scholars dispute whether she ever got as far north as Derbyshire--she mentions the town of Bakewell in Pride & Prejudice--but I for one believe that she did.

And having elected, sometime in the closing years of the last century, to write about Jane myself--I had little choice but to follow where she led. I have traipsed around the English countryside in the grip of obsession, hunting for the obvious and the obscure among the Monuments to Jane. I've lost myself in hedgerows searching for Edward Cooper's parsonage, slept in a canopied bed in a Palladian villa outside of Bath, and traced the remnants of a Humphrey Repton garden; but some of my loveliest memories are of Godmersham Park, Edward Austen Knight's estate about eight miles outside Canterbury, in Kent. And I never even looked inside the house.

Godmersham in Jane and Edward's day

Edward, as most Janeites know, was considered the most fortunate of the six Austen sons, because he was adopted at the age of twelve by Thomas Knight, a childless but wealthy cousin. Edward inherited Godmersham in Kent, along with Chawton Great House in Hampshire and some other landholdings; he was occasionally plagued with lawsuits disputing his right to inherit Thomas Knight's property, and he was required to take the Knight name--but in general, he settled with apparent happiness and few regrets into the life of a country gentleman.

The Front Hall at Godmersham

His eleven children grew up in affluence, with public school educations and good hunting for the boys; the girls suffered a parade of governesses--Jane befriended some of these, like Anne Sharpe, and passed over others, like the Miss Clewes who figures in Canterbury Tale. The Austen-Knights entertained everybody, and were entertained in return, in their neighborhood in Kent: the Wildmans at Chilham Castle, the Finch-Hattons at Eastwell Park, and their various Bridges cousins. Godmersham was a large and handsome house, set into a fold of the hills, with the River Stour running between it and the road; from Jane's letters, written in October and November of 1813, it seems like a house constantly full of people. The local MP and Master of Hounds, Mr. Lushington, arrives to dine and spend the night; Young Edward's friends drop in and out of the guest bedrooms prior to his departure for Oxford; the Moores arrive for a week and install their son in the nursery. Jane herself spends two months at Godmersham that autumn, and is able to collect considerable material for the book she is thinking of writing--a book called Emma. She revels in the comfort and society of the place, the opportunity for stimulation, and her drives into the walled cathedral town of Canterbury. On one of those junkets, Edward--who is First Magistrate--takes her through the Canterbury Gaol at Westgate.

Years later, I walked through Canterbury myself, looking for the old gaol. I bought some Regency fashion plates--I collect them--at a small bookseller's in one of the town's winding streets, then caught a bus that dropped me without ceremony at the end of Godmersham Park's long drive.

Sheep on the Godmersham Downs

At the time, the house was a corporate headquarters. I was free to walk up the driveway, however, and traverse the grounds--all of which look remarkably as they must have done in Jane's day--because Godmersham sits on the ancient Pilgrim's Way, the footpath between London and Canterbury Cathedral. The Pilgrim's Way is open to hikers, as are all public footpaths in England, regardless of whose property they cross. For a while that sunny July morning I was able to pretend I was one of Chaucer's merry band of fellow-travellers, telling stories to pass the time. And I could imagine Jane, spinning tales of her own, as she walked the high hills of Edward's estate, dotted with specimen trees and sheep. I went on to set two books at Godmersham: Jane and the Genius of the Place, which occurs during the summer of 1805, known as the Great Terror, when Kent was braced for Napoleon's expected invasion; and now the eleventh Austen mystery, Jane and the Canterbury Tale. This story revisits the Austen-Knights eight years later, in 1813--when Elizabeth Austen is long since dead, her children growing up, and her husband Edward still mourning her. It is very much a family story, about love and loss, and the endurance of such things through time. It is also, by design, a story of fellow-travelers, and the adventurous tales they weave about the past, rather as Chaucer's Pilgrims did in that otherCanterbury Tale.

It is possible this is the last Jane Austen mystery I will write. I don't regret leaving my Jane here, where I first felt I truly found her--hurrying with her pen and small, handsewn book of paper toward the little temple set on a hill, to gaze out over Edward's paradise, and dream her particular dreams. I hope you find your own Jane Austen in this Canterbury Tale, too.

Fondly,

Stephanie

Visit Stephanie's website here. For more information on her event at The Poisoned Pen, head over to our website.

SANDRA PARSHALL-UNDER THE DOG STAR

2011-09-01T20:53:00.000-07:00

A SHADOW REVIEW

Order a signed first edition copy, here.

As with all series, it is best to start at the beginning. However one can usually jump in anywhere and the author often provides enough background in the course of the story so that the reader feels comfortable with the characters. This is certainly true with Michael Connelly, Lee Child, etc. In the case of Sandra Parshall I feel it is absolutely mandatory to read her first book of the series, "The Heat of the Moon". While one can enjoy "Under the Dog Star" on it's own(as I did) the reading experience was so much richer when I went back and read the series in order. Her first book is a wonderful amalgam of mystery, romance, psychological suspense, family drama, and a beautiful Hitchcockian style-noir. It won the Agatha award and truly deserved it. Her next two books deepened the story of Dr. Rachel Goddard and introduced her future love interest, Tom Bridger. She skillfully moves the action from Washington, D.C. to a small town in Virginia. The complexity of the characters, their issues due to ethnicity, and Rachel's attempts to come to terms with her past make for exciting and fast moving novels.

Author Sandra Parshall
www.sandraparshall.com

This book, the fourth in the series has dog-fighting, animal cruelty, family secrets, and murder most foul. A heady stew but Parshall handles it all with her usual skill. Rachel is now living with Tom Bridger, an investigator with the sheriff's department. Their relationship is only one part of a twisted family drama and often brutal story. It is to Parshall's credit that she not only weaves all these elements into an interesting and coherent pattern but brings her characters to life so dramatically. Any fans of Mary Higgins Clark will enjoy this series. The new book, "Under the Dog Star" will be published in September so you have plenty of time to start the series. Enjoy them all.

STEVE SHADOW SCHWARTZ

The death of books has been greatly exaggerated (via The Guardian)

2011-08-30T20:42:00.000-07:00

The death of books has been greatly exaggerated

Radical change is certainly producing some alarming symptoms – but much of the doomsayers' evidence is anecdotal, and it's possible to read a much happier story

Lloyd Shepherd
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 30 August 2011 11.37 BST
Article history

Not dead yet ... the London book fair. Photograph: David Levenson/Getty Images

This time last year, I was metaphorically invited to the only party I've ever wanted to be seen at. My first novel, The English Monster, was picked up by an agent, and then by a publisher, Simon and Schuster. It hits the streets in March 2012.

I've made it, I thought to myself as I clutched my invite to the most exclusive set of all. I'm going to be a published author.

So imagine my surprise - nay, dismay - to discover that publishing's streets were not paved with gold, but stalked by the anxious, the gloomy, the suicidal. "Publishing's dead!" shouted men in sackcloth on Bloomsbury street corners. I had arrived at the party, but the coats were being handed out, the drink had dried up and the hostess had collapsed.

So I asked myself (somewhat desperately, positively naively): are things really that bad? What is the actual state of book publishing in Britain? Can writers really only look forward to a life of penury? Or should I stick my head in the sand, if only to deaden the sound of commissioning editors weeping into their lattes?

We're doomed ...

If you don't believe that

read the full article here.

Chantelle Osman reviews Catriona McPherson's latest Dandy Gilver

2011-08-30T20:12:00.000-07:00

Dandelion Dahlia Leston Gilver—Dandy to her friends—is a mature Englishwoman who, after tasting some of the freedoms previously withheld from women while working as a volunteer nurse in the Great War, is not content to follow Victorian morals and sit at home in Scotland with her well-to-do husband. Instead, motivated by boredom, she sets herself up as a “society sleuth”, with her bachelor friend Alec Osborne frequently acting as her sidekick, and her beloved Dalmatian Bunty never far from her side. Her latest escapades are documented in Catriona McPherson’s Dandy Gilver and the Proper Treatment of Bloodstains, described by Publishers Weekly as “Agatha Christie meets Upstairs, Downstairs”.

Bloodstains takes place in 1926 Edinburgh, where we find Dandy living belowstairs as lady’s maid after receiving a letter from Mrs. Philip Belfour, begging Dandy to protect her from her husband, who has threatened to kill her. Unable to ignore the lady’s entreaty, Dandy infiltrates the house only to discover Mr. Belfour with his throat cut, and a bevy of terrorized servants. The logical (though unpredictable) twists and turns give the book a very classic feel, but Dandy can’t be pigeonholed in any particular genre. With its honest look at social status, Bloodstains is stronger fare than some similar series. However, the modernized (yet true to period) heroine is so likable and funny, in addition to being historically accurate, the book is also a delight to read.

Catriona will be signing August 31 at 7pm
Click here for details.

For those whose first meet Dandy in Bloodstains, this is the fifth book in the series (following 2008’s The Winter Ground) so there is some backstory you’re missing, but the book is so well-written, and the mystery is stand-alone, so you won’t feel out of the water for long. McPherson’s next Dandy story, Dandy Gilver and an Unsuitable Day for a Murder, already finished, is set in two warring department stores in 1927. McPherson is currently working on the seventh book, in which Dandy goes undercover once more, this time as an English mistress in a girls’ boarding school in 1928.

If you like Catriona McPherson’s (http://www.dandygilver.co.uk/) Dandy Gilver series, you may also enjoy:
Carola Dunn (Daisy Dalrymple series)
Kerry Greenwood (Phryne Fisher series)
Amy Patricia Meade (Marjorie McClelland series)
Barbara Pym
Dorothy L. Sayers
Jacqueline Winspear (Maisie Dobbs series)

Gilbert, Sullivan, and…Sherlock Holmes?

2011-08-29T14:18:00.000-07:00

(Laurie R. King is thebestselling author of 21 crime novels, including a historical series featuring“The worlds greatest detective…and her husband, Sherlock Holmes.” MaryRussell and her slightly more famous husband feature in King’s upcoming novel Pirate King, set in 1924 London,Lisbon, and Morocco. Why Pirates? Haven’t you heard? Pirate is the new Vampire.)

Laurie ARrrgh!King will be signing, singing and speaking
at The Scottsdale Community College Sept. 10 at 5pm. (Details)

Iwrite a series that is basically whimsical: young Mary Russell meets oldSherlock Holmes, becomes his
apprentice, then partner, and eventuallywife. I mean, sure, my own husband was30 years my senior, but if you don’t think I was oblivious to the humor in thatsituation, you’ve never met me. Orindeed, him.

Earlyon, the thread of acknowledged ridiculousness was woven into the edges of allthe Russell stories, although I took care not to let it get in the way of theadventure, and to keep the silliness out of those parts that addressed moreserious matters. However, between onething and another, after ten books the Russell series was becoming more andmore solemn. The last pair of booksmight as well have been mainstream suspense novels.

Timeto hit the re-set button.

Timeto embrace my inner whimsy, to pull out the stops, to grab farce with both hands. And what better partner-in-silliness thanthat most English of clowns, dignified and colorful and with tongueoh-so-firmly in cheek, W. S. Gilbert?

Readersof the Mary Russell stories have seen Sherlock Holmes interact with Gilbert andSullivan before this, in MonstrousRegiment of Women:

…a massive woman whose full buststrained the bright yellow satin of her dress above the try she bore, aselection of glittering geegaws. Withthe ponderous dignity of the profoundly intoxicated, she took up a strategicposition across the street from the doors, and no sooner had they opened withthe first of the released crowd than she burst into full-throated song.

“‘I’m called LittleButtercup—dear Little Buttercup, tho’ I could never tell why,’” she warbled in anearly accurate contralto, the jet beads on her primrose bonnet quivering witheffort.

Thatis one of Sherlock Holmes’ more effective disguises. For an illustration ofButtercup, see below.

And it was precisely the effect I was aimingfor in the new novel. I had alreadydecided to set the story in Lisbon and Morocco, which offered me coloraplenty. But instead of the strictlynautical themes of H.M.S. Pinafore,I thought I might find more scope for a Russell and Holmes adventure in The Pirates of Penzance.

Thuswas born Pirate King.

Butnot just any Pirates of Penzance, ohno. This would be a Twenties version ofthe classic, a jazz-age updating, a moving picture version that not onlyembraced the Gilbert & Sullivan level of frenetic absurdity, but added menwith movie cameras and megaphone-wielding directors, chewing-gum snapping youngactresses and romantic leads of uncertain sexuality, actors who were piratesand pirates who were actors and pirate-actors who were something else entirely. And in the middle of this muddle would beMiss Mary Russell and that epitome of Victorian rectitude, Mr. Sherlock Holmes.

Asyou probably can tell, I had a whole lot of fun with this, and still am,especially online. The Laurie ARrrgh! King page tellsall about it, including a version of Penzance’sMajor-General’s song that I ravaged—er, rewrote for the purpose of the Pirate King book tour. It begins, “I am the very model of the modernmajor criminal…”

Prizes,pirates, and a singalong. A book signingshould be memorable, right?

Laurie’sweb site, with newsletter signup, is at www.LaurieRKing.com. To order a signedcopy of the upcoming Pirate King, gohere:

http://www.poisonedpen.com/products/hfiction/9780553807981/?searchterm=pirate%20king

LINKSused in post (where words are underlined):

LaurieARrrgh! King page: http://www.laurierking.com/events/ten-weeks-of-laurie-arrgh-king

Judith Starkston interviews Elizabeth Speller

2011-08-19T20:59:00.000-07:00

I recently reviewed The Return of Captain John Emmett. Elizabeth Speller turns out to be a delightful writer with whom I shared a number of things in common including an interest in the classical world. She agreed to do an interview with me.

The Return of Captain John Emmett is her first work of fiction. She also writes poetry and ancient history. She has three children and a Viszla dog. She writes her books in two delightful locations: a restored shepherd’s hut in an old apple orchard on the edge of a Cotswold valley and in a small cottage on the Ionian island of Paxos.

Here’s our interview:

Judith: You are a classicist and ancient historian. I’m curious what drew you to the period following World War I rather than some part of the ancient world? Do you see any common themes or mood between the post WWI period in England and the Roman Empire of Hadrian, which you analyzed in your book Following Hadrian?

Elizabeth: I think it was a similarly highly disciplined society – with similar simmering discontents – with a fine army and navy and used to the resources and power of an empire. Like Rome, Britain was shocked when it found it couldn’t resolve disputes quickly.

Judith: What ideas or themes were you most interested in developing through your characters? Did you find those ideas arose from your writing as it progressed or were they with you from the beginning?

Elizabeth Speller

Elizabeth: I was (obviously, I imagine!) expressing the terrible and lasting damage inflicted by war on soldiers and on communities, even when war is necessary. I was also interested in shellshock, but I think it was reading a letter from a woman whose officer brother had been shot at dawn which made me think of putting a military execution at the centre.
She wrote to the War Office:
‘My Mother is prostrated, my father is … old and very ill and we do not want him to know. Could you write again simply stating the place where my brother died … and can we hope it is kept from the world?’’

Judith: The idea that intrigued me most in your book was the way in which people who were broken emotionally and physically managed nonetheless to carry on, even if in starts and stops. We often refer to those who lived through WWI as the lost generation, but, of course, England and the rest of Europe did go on. Incorporating this theme into a mystery seems to be fraught with the possibility of becoming too sentimental and unrealistic, which you avoided. If I’m right that this was an important idea to you, talk about what it means to you and how you worked with it in your book.

Elizabeth: Most people did carry on. And most people did survive (though there were almost 1 million killed at a time when the UK had had a total population something around 45 million. Many more were disabled). When I was growing up there was some implicit critique for the stiff upper lip response; my own grandfather was a young officer decorated for bravery and he never spoke of the WWI. But recently studies of PTSD have suggested that for some individuals this strategy works. However, I do think there were a lot of hidden stresses: alcohol abuse, domestic violence, paralyzing anxiety and what we’d now call flashbacks, which the society of the time preferred not to see. Divorce was very rare, cruelty/violence, unless excessive, seen as a private matter.

Judith: I love your poetry. You bring a poet’s sensibility to your mystery writing in the care of your word choice and the precision of description and a number of other ways. Describe your writing process and does your prose process differ significantly from your poetry process?

Elizabeth: Thank you! I have to admit my own heart rather sinks when I pick up a novel by a poet! I tried not to be too lyrical, but to use the right word, or sometimes just slightly more formal phrasing than we use 90 years on, was integral to creating the spirit of the times and I have a love of landscape- rural and urban – which I indulge in my poetry and my non-fiction and novels.

Judith: Any really fun adventures while researching The Return of Captain John Emmett? It must be lovely to work in a period that had newspapers and so much other extant evidence after writing ancient history as you did with Following Hadrian.

Elizabeth: I was almost overwhelmed by material and had to hold myself back from writing ‘Everything I know about 1912-1921’. For my next book, The Strange Fate of Kitty Easton, which has the vast British Empire Exhibition at its heart, there was even jerky but wonderfully bizarre newsreel of its extraordinary crowds.
In The Return of Captain John Emmett there were some embedded teases: many of the buildings Laurence Bartram sees as something that’s left to represent the long history and continuing solidity of Britain, were, in fact, destroyed in the Blitz in WWII. Also his young nephew, a sign of hope in the book, is exactly the age to fight in 1939-45.

Judith: Is there a question you wish people would ask you about The Return of Captain John Emmett or a favorite story about the novel?

Elizabeth: I quite like being asked if any poem or book inspired me. I did read a lot of war poetry and early C20 novels, but also Philip Larkin’s much later poem MCMXIV recreated a slice of ordinary Britain in 1914. I also often listened to a short piece of music ‘By the Banks of Green Willow’ by George Butterworth, which summed up pre-war England to me. Butterworth was awarded the Military Cross for gallantry but was killed in the Battle of the Somme.

To read other reviews by Judith Starkston, visit her website at www.judithstarkston.com

THE RANGER BY ACE ATKINS

2011-08-18T17:02:00.000-07:00

A SHADOW REVIEW

"The Ranger" heralds a new series by best-selling author Ace Atkins. It takes place in contemporary Northern Mississippi, an area Ace lives in and therefore knows very well. The book is very much a classic "Western" in modern dress. Quinn Colson, an army ranger, fresh from six years in Afghanistan and Iraq, is coming home to Jericho. On leave between assignments he arrives home to find his uncle, the towns sheriff, dead in an apparent suicide. Not only that but the town seems to be in a downward spiral of meth use and development funny-business. With the often hesitant aid of an old girlfriend, now a deputy on the local police force, Quinn begins the dangerous task of getting to the bottom of his uncle's death and cleaning up the town.

Besides the compelling relationship between Quinn and Lillie Virgil, the deputy, the book is rife with colorful Southern characters. Atkins strength has always been his ability to bring his settings to life and deliver "pulse of place" to his readers. Tibbehah county comes alive under Atkins pen and is as much a character in the book as the humans are. The pace is quick, the action non-stop, and the western vibe shimmers above it all. I look forward to the next chapter in Quinn Colson's life.

Ace Atkins started on his road to fame as a star football player for Auburn University. His team won a national title and Ace was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Not many writers can lay that claim. Rather than try the NFL Ace became a newspaper reporter which led to his becoming a novelist. His first series, featuring Nick Travers, combined music, mystery, and the Deep South. Ace followed that up with four outstanding crime novels. These books covering Phenix City, Tampa, The Fatty Arbuckle trial, and Machine Kelly stand as unique and superb historical fiction. Each book is beautifully rendered with Ace's ability to evoke both character and setting in a way that makes the reader feel he is there. In particular I found "White Shadow", about organized crime in Tampa, Florida masterfully executed. In "Devil's Garden", the story of Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, we see the action through the eyes of Dashiell Hammett; a unique perspective indeed.

As a youngster Ace's literary hero was Robert Parker. Oddly Parker's nickname was "Ace". And in a final and fortuitous chain of events Ace has been chosen by the Parker family to continue the "Spenser" series. Look for the first new Atkin's penned "Spenser" later this year.

We wish Ace good luck with the new challenge and while he hopefully reaps monetary rewards, we his readers, now reap literary rewards by having two series to look forward to.

STEVE SHADOW SCHWARTZ

Browse available Ace Atkins titles at poisonedpen.com (click here)
Find out more about Ace at http://aceatkins.com/

Great news for April Smith

2011-08-18T16:56:00.001-07:00

EXCITING NEWS

TNT TO PRODUCE GOOD MORNING, KILLER

FILMING STARTS SEPT.7 IN VANCOUVER, B.C.

CLICK IMAGE TO PURCHASE

It's a dream come true for FBI Special Agent Ana Grey fans - and the author!

TNT is about to film a two-hour television movie of the second Ana Grey novel, Good Morning, Killer. April wrote the script and is executive producer, along with her friend and colleague, the great Frank Von Zernek. She's heading up to Vancouver for four weeks of prep and eighteen days of shooting.

Catherine Bell has just been signed to star as Ana.

She is currently appearing on Army Wives, and is

famous for her role on JAG.

The movie will air this fall as part of TNT's new series, "Tuesday Night Mysteries," which will include adaptations of books by Scott Turow, Mary Higgins Clark, Richard North Paterson, and Sandra Brown. April is thrilled to be part of this distinguished line-up.

Good Morning, Killer puts Ana Grey on the trail of a serial sexual predator who has abducted a young woman from the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica. At the same time, Ana is involved in an intense relationship with a detective assigned to the case, Andrew Berringer. Worlds collide when she becomes too involved with the psyche of the victim - as well as her volatile lover's mind. Good Morning, Killer is currently available as an e-book and will be re-issued by Vintage Crime/Black Lizard in conjunction with the movie this fall.

"The social event of the season-nay, the year" -Laurie R King

2011-08-17T19:56:00.001-07:00

Garden Party TwInvitation

August 17, 2011 By Laurie King Leave a Comment

You say your Royal Wedding invite got lost in the mail? The White House staff seems to be ignoring you this summer? Well, fret no longer, your invitation to the social event of the season–nay, the year, is here. If you’re feeling social, drop in and chat with Mary Russell and friends (Will that husband of hers make it this year?) If you think you’ll be too shy, we’re leaving a virtual gap in the fence for you to watch through.

When and where is this happening? This Sunday afternoon, on the terrace of Russell & Holmes’ house in Sussex–or, on a computer screen near you. And now, from the virtual engraved envelope, your invitation to join us for the Twitter Garrrrden Party:

Explanation and links are here. Come and have a great time, although I’d watch out for the honey wine, if I were you. Holmes makes it powerful.

Woohoo!

2011-08-16T15:14:00.000-07:00

BARRY GRAHAM - THE WRONG THING

2011-08-16T14:32:00.000-07:00

A SHADOW REVURB...

Barry Graham's THE WRONG THING is available,
signed from The Poisoned Pen. (PM Press $14.95)

Barry Graham, a local writer by way of Scotland, has just had a new novel published by PM Press under the Switchblade imprint. PM Press is a group of publishers and media people using every means possible to encourage new and challenging ideas. Check out the web site. Switchblade is the arm that puts forth the hardest of the hard-boiled works of fiction. They publish what I call "heart-break noir", stories that take us to the edge of human longing and it's often disastrous results.

Graham, a well known journalist and novelist, takes us to these far shores where societies castaways dwell unseen and uncared for. In "The Wrong Thing" we get the American nightmare rather the the American dream. The main character in the book is known only as the Kid, his story bracketed by prologue and elegy. He comes to us a fully realized human being who never gets a break. Unloved and unwanted he must try and find a path through a world he is ill prepared to face. Uneducated but bright, talented but directionless, unaware and unguided he tries his best to adapt.

The novel is set in Santa Fe and Phoenix and shows a side of these cities we are barely aware of. The barrio of the hispanic underclass is presented by Graham as a place of richness and kindness. It can also be a trap and a road to a life of pain and grief. The Kid's journey through this minefield is riveting and tragic. His story is short, compact, and powerful. The writing is deceptively simple and straight forward. Graham's subtle style weaves a spell-binding web that left me mesmerized. The violence and sex are graphic and presented without judgement. This is strong material wrapped in the cloth of truth. Obviously Graham knows this world well and it shows.

Barry Graham will speak at The Poisoned Pen Saturday,
August 20th at 5pm. Click for details.

Barry Graham also happens to be a Zen monk and Abbot of the Sitting Frog Zen Center in Phoenix. His story in the "Phoenix Noir" anthology was an early version of what became the new novel. His early work has recently been made available on Amazon for download. I recommend his novel "The Book of Man" and "Scumbo: a Novella and Stories".

- STEVE SHADOW SCHWARTZ

For further reading try last years Switchblade release "Pike" by Benjamin Whitmer. It is a hard-boiled neo-noir knockout of a book.

In Preparation for James Sallis

2011-08-09T15:50:00.000-07:00

I thought I would post the new trailer for DRIVE, which won Best Director at this year's Cannes Film Festival. This has been a great adventure for James as well as The Poisoned Pen Press. The novel originally publishing with them in 2005. On August 19th at 7pm Mr. Sallis will be signing his latest novel
The Killer is Dying($24 Signed) at the store.

He will also be performing with his band Three-Legged Dog. (That's him on the right)

To find out more about the event, head over to the event page at www.poisonedpen.com

Paper Pushers Turn to Tablets

2011-08-09T14:57:00.000-07:00

Newspaper giant Tribune Co. developing tablet device

By Mark Milian, CNN

August 9, 2011 10:26 a.m. EDT | Filed under: Gaming & Gadgets

The Los Angeles Times' app is available for download in the Android market, seen here on the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Media giant Tribune is developing an Android tablet device, said people familiar with the matter
Tribune hopes to offer the tablet for free or at subsidized price to subscribers, these people said
Another newspaper publisher, the Philadelphia Media Network, has a similar initiative

(CNN) -- Hoping to take a small slice from Apple's big pie, newspaper publishers are developing tablet computers of their own.

The Tribune Co., one of the largest U.S. news enterprises, is working on a touchscreen tablet that it plans to offer to newspaper subscribers, according to people briefed on the plans.

The Chicago company owns a handful of major daily newspapers, including the Chicago Tribune and The Baltimore Sun, along with 23 television stations. Tribune also owns the Los Angeles Times, which is my former employer.

The tablet is expected to run a modified version of Google's Android operating system and prominently feature software for the owner's hometown newspaper, according to interviews with more than half a dozen current and former Tribune employees. They requested anonymity for fear of losing their jobs or of souring relations with a former employer.

Tribune aims to offer the tablet for free, or at a highly subsidized price, to people who agree to sign up for extended subscriptions to one of its papers and possibly a wireless-data plan with a partner cellular carrier, said five people briefed on the project.

Read the article in its entirety online, here.

ART & OBSESSION - Guest Post from author Brandi Lynn Ryder

2011-08-08T19:22:00.000-07:00

Brandi Lynn Ryder signs her debut novel,
In Malice, Quite Close, at The Poisoned Pen
on August 9th at 7pm. (details here...)

I suppose the obsession with art is really an obsession with illusion, with things that are not what they seem. Learning to read was, for me, magic. New worlds knit before my eyes. There was, all at once, not merely the door I could see and move through, but infinite doors in my mind… leading to infinite rooms, in which anything at all might take place.

People are sometimes surprised when I describe myself as a “visual writer” – since writing is of course not a visual but a conceptual art. And yet I see and hear what is happening as clearly as if I were in a theater and struggle to type fast enough to take it all down. We are visual creatures; even in unconsciousness we dream, and I think it’s the attempt to make sense of this enigma of seeing and being that leads us, always, to art.

Like my character Tristan Mourault, I was mesmerized by beauty— and by all the landmines that lay beneath that powerful word-- almost from infancy, yet my mania for the visual arts and painting, in particular, came in college. An inspired Art History course became something I was anxious to consume at 8:30 in the morning. (Combined with a commute that had me rising before dawn, those who know me well realize what a miracle this is…) But there I sat transfixed, reveling in it. I’d lived in books all my life, and here were pictures to accompany the story: a great saga of magic tricks and illusion, a visual history of human pathos and imagination.

Édouard Manet: A Bar at the Folies Bergère

I was particularly taken with the work of Édouard Manet, one of the first nineteenth-century painters to approach modern subjects. He not only engages one’s perception, he questions it. This is commonplace now— in a world of special effects and internet tricks and clever advertising—but in his time, it was audacious genius. In A Bar at the Folies Bergère, we have what appears at first glance to be a typical Parisian bar scene. Only, wait… the barmaid’s reflection in the mirror behind her is in the wrong place, and the man who stands before her in this trick mirror does not exist at all. Similarly, in his ingenuity, The Railway, where exactly is the railway? We see only a great puff of smoke beyond the bars of a gate that lie behind the woman and her child, yet cast their shadow upon the child’s dress. The woman’s gaze engages us directly and asks if we too see the illusion? If we, perhaps, are part of it? In Luncheon in the Grass, we have a pastoral picnic scene. A traditional, even derivative grouping of figures, yet the sole woman is inexplicably nude alongside two fully, formally dressed men. Her unflinching gaze meets ours and we cannot look away. Manet makes voyeurs of us all.

The MET in NYC (www.metmuseum.org)

If I am made giddy by Manet— admittedly, a very unwriterly state of being!— my first trip to the Met in New York City was much the same. I haunt museums and art galleries wherever I go, but this was an art lover’s nirvana. It was winter and New York was covered in snow; the cabdriver that foolhardily agreed to make the trip fishtailed all the way. After wandering room after room, like cells of the mind or a maze in a dream, I paused to gaze out the long wall of windows that gave onto Central Park. Huge flakes of snow fell impossibly slow upon urbanites donned in cross-country skies, tracing patterns in the snow as lovers etched their names in the snow-buried cars. I stood for a long moment, mesmerized by this peculiar performance art—a lovely reminder that life itself is art unfolding and even the greatest artists merely take a stab at the infinite riddle of which we all are a part.

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On Brandi Lynn Ryder's In Malice, Quite Close:

A haunting and sophisticated debut in which priceless art and unspeakable desires converge.
French ex-pat Tristan Mourault is the wealthy, urbane heir to a world- renowned collection of art-and an insatiable voyeur enamored with Karen Miller, a fifteen-year-old girl from a working-class family in San Francisco. Deciding he must "rescue" Karen from her unhappy circumstances, Tristan kidnaps her and stages her death to mask his true crime.
Years later, Karen is now "Gisele" and the pair lead an opulent life in idyllic and rarefied Devon, Washington. But when Nicola, Gisele's young daughter, stumbles upon a secret cache of paintings-all nudes of Gisele-Tristan's carefully constructed world begins to crumble. As Nicola grapples with the tragedy that follows, she crosses paths with Amanda Miller, who comes to Devon to investigate the portraits' uncanny resemblance to her long-lost sister.
Set against a byzantine backdrop of greed, artifice, and dangerous manipulations, In Malice, Quite Close is an intoxicating debut that keeps its darkest secrets until the very last page.

"...sexy, artistic...a page-turner." - Publishers Weekly

"A modern gothic that emits a creepy glow..." - Kirkus Reviews

To find out more about author Brandi Lynn Ryder visit her website www.brandilynnryder.com

Frederick Ramsay - ROGUE

2011-08-08T17:54:00.000-07:00

A SHADOW REVURB

As Arizona swelters through another monsoon season I can think of nothing cooler and more enjoyable than dipping into the latest Fred Ramsay novel. In this sixth outing for sheriff Ike Schwartz(no relation), we find the usual Ramseyan collection of small town characters that inhabit Picketsville, Virginia at their pithy best. For those of you who have followed Ike from "Artscape", the first in the series, this latest chapter includes all the strengths of the past five books. Ramsay is a master of bringing Southern idioms and outlooks to life. For those of you new to the series Ike Schwartz is an ex-CIA agent whose wife was killed in a botched operation. To heal himself he returns to his small Virginia hometown and is elected sheriff where nothing much happens for three years. After a robbery at the local college he must marshal all his dormant skills to solve a crime while, at the same time, getting involved with the school president, Ruth Harris.

Fred will sign at
The Poisoned Pen tonight,
August 8th, at 7pm.

In the newly released "Rogue", Ruth Harris, now Ike's fiancee, is involved in a terrible car crash and is in a coma and near death. Suspecting that this was no accident Ike places himself on leave(despite being in the middle of a re-election campaign) and goes outside his jurisdiction to find the people responsible.

To tell anymore would ruin the unique chain of events that lead to a very satisfying conclusion. Fred Ramsay has the knack for combining serious crime, folksy dialog, and extremely likable characters. Give the series a try and you will want to spend more time in Picketsville.

STEVE SHADOW SCHWARTZ

To see all Frederick Ramsay titles available from The Poisoned Pen Press, click here.

Also stop by The Poisoned Pen Press' very nice new website and take a look around. (Click image)

The Familiar Face of Evil

2011-08-05T17:04:00.000-07:00

a Review of Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child's Cold Vengeance
by Chantelle Aimée Osman

With his tall, gaunt frame, aloof, eccentric nature and unparalleled brilliance FBI Special Agent Aloysius Pendergast may bring to mind a more modern (and slightly otherworldly) version of Sherlock Holmes. I’m by no means the first to make this comparison — the man has a brother named Diogenes, after all — and perhaps that’s why he’s become one of the most popular and best known characters in years. I first became a fan when he was introduced as a supporting character in Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child’s 1995 work The Relic. With each subsequent book, we learned a little more about, and yearned a little more for, the elusive Agent Pendergast until he became the protagonist of the series in 2002’s Cabinet of Curiosities. Since then, Pendergast has appeared in eight books, three more stand-alones, followed by the Diogenes trilogy, and the Helen trilogy, of which Cold Vengeance is book two.

All too often, the middle book in a trilogy can be a disappointment, the weakest link where the author is more concerned with connecting threads and building the arc between the first and last books than a strong story. Cold Vengeance does not suffer from middle child syndrome. Readers have known for some time that Pendergast’s wife Helen was killed by a lion on safari some years before. In the previous book, Fever Dream we delved deeper into his history, learning more about the days leading up to Helen’s demise — and that her death was far from accidental. Now, Pendergast is trying to further unravel that mystery, and pursues his revenge at a fevered pace through Scotland, New York and the Louisiana bayous with the help (and hindrance) of familiar characters Lt. D’Agosta, Corrie Swanson and Constance Green. So much happens in this book that it’s difficult to provide any details about the story without giving something major away. Suffice it to say that Helen may not have been who Pendergast believed, and he must come to terms with the possibility that she had a hand in the conspiracy surrounding her demise. Each resolution leads to a new, far more frightening, question and the quasi-supernatural undertones which run through much of the series are given a very human, very evil, face in Cold Vengeance.

Douglas Preston will be speaking at The Arizona Biltmore
Saturday, August 6th at 6pm. Lincoln will join us virtually
via a video chat. Details here.

For those who have yet to make the acquaintance of Agent Pendergast, this book is not really the best place to begin. Although there are morsels of what has gone previously, the fast-pace and constant action of Cold Vengeance doesn’t allow much time to remind readers of the details. If you hesitate to go back to the beginning of the series, don’t despair, the previous book, Fever Dream, can fill in a lot of the details...but I’m certain once you get a taste of Agent Pendergast’s world, your bookshelf will grow considerably.

SILENT ENEMY - THOMAS W. YOUNG AND THE AFGHAN WAR

2011-08-03T20:08:00.000-07:00

A SHADOW REVURB

Since the draft was abolished fewer and fewer Americans have any exposure to the military and what it means to serve one's country. No matter what branch of service, the experience is unique and everlasting. There is an inherent power in the training itself and a sense of loyalty to one's comrade-in-arms not present in civilian life. And for those who are deployed ,and find themselves in combat situations, life is never the same.

Thomas Young signs at The Poisoned Pen
August 8th at 7:00pm. Click here to find out more.

Young, a survivor of multiple postings with the Air National Guard, knows of what he speaks. His first two books are about the Afghan war and regale us with myriad telling details and an authentic voice. His first book, "The Mullah"s Storm", tells of a C-130 Hercules transport plane that gets shot down in a blizzard in the Hindu-Kush range of Afghanistan. The flight navigator, Major Michael Parson, is thrust into a life and death drama trying to hold onto a Taliban Mullah and his American translator, Sgt. Sophia Gold. The pace of the book is breathtaking as one crisis after another befall Parson and Gold.

His new book, "Silent Enemy", due out in August, 2011, takes place four years after the action in "The Mullah's Storm". Parson, now a pilot of a C5 Galaxy transport, is charged with flying a group of seriously wounded U.S. and Afghan personnel (victims of a suicide bomber) to a German military hospital. Sgt. Gold, now a language teacher, ends up on the plane as an interpreter for the Afghans who were hurt in the blast. Once they are airborn they recieve word that bombs have been placed on a number of U.S. aircraft and that they cannot land because the devices may be triggered by a loss of altitude. Once again fast-paced and absorbing action scenes ensue.

Where Young's talent shines in these books is in the details of the military mind set and in the authentic attention to the minutiae of all the lingo and equipment. The human element of the two main characters is thoughtfully contrasted with their single-minded devotion to their mission and the responsibilities contained therein. These are dilemmas civilians rarely face but are always present in the military.

These two books are wonderful adventures but it is in their presentation of a soldier's viewpoint that they truly shine. Despite more than ten years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan the story of what our service members endure is not well told. Young takes us into the heart of the war and makes it all too real.

These are terrific reads with insight into a war and the people who are fighting it we know little about. Enjoy them.

Dana Stabenow reps for used books

2011-08-01T15:43:00.000-07:00

Why I Love Used Books

JULY 27, 2011 by Dana

I found this copy of Ernie Pyle’s Here is Your War in — wait for it — the local Salvation Army thrift shop.

I opened it to find that the endpapers were a montage of still photographs fromThe Story of GI Joe, the 1945 film made from the book, with Burgess Meredith playing Pyle and Robert Mitchum playing the character based on Captain Waskow, from Pyle’s most famous story.

I paged through and it is wonderfully illustrated by Carol Johnson.

It was a foregone conclusion that I was going to buy this book, which I did, for the princely sum of fifty cents, and I took it home and started reading it. At page 107 (Chapter 9. Sherman Had a Word for It), this fell out.

Here’s the other side.

First, “Rambo” is an actual name? I thought Hollywood made it up.

Second, there is a whole story in that little two-and-a-half by four-inch piece of paper. Who was Norman? What was he doing in Nome? Was he stationed there during the war? It had been over for four months, why was he still there? How long had he been there? Did he really only get to Chapter 9? Maybe he finished Chapter 8 and he got his orders to go home and he was in such a rush to pack he left the book behind.

I got nothing for how the book got from Nome to Homer.

Did Norman head straight on down to the Board of Trade the evening of December 18th, 1945? I’d like to think that in accordance with pass rule number 2 (see above) that he did not do anything in public to disgrace himself or the Army.

But I wouldn’t bet on it.

When I eventually do get that iPad, there won’t be anything that interesting falling out from between its pages.

HOW I CAME TO WRITE THIS BOOK by Pascal Marco

2011-07-28T20:04:00.000-07:00

Signed copies available from www.poisonedpen.com

As of lastmonth, my debut thriller novel, IDENTITY:LOST has been available in Hardcover and Kindle versions. To say I'm excited is an understatement. This journey has been one remarkableserendipitous event after another.

I've hadfun quoting Oprah's "There's no such thing as a coincidence"mantra and I will tell you I have fully embraced this belief with Lady O. She has been the world's #1 proponent (besides my own personal life coach andwife, Karen) of the belief of intention. I believed that imagination was bestleft to children and seldom harnessed in adulthood.

Then itall changed about five years ago.

Things startedto happen that felt coincidental but had a distinctly stronger message for methan just mere happenstance occurrences. The first was when Iattended Game 5 of the 2005 ALCS Championship when the Chicago White Sox (amajor theme in IDENTITY: LOST) visitedthe Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. If the White Sox won this game thenthey would be playing in their first World Series in 46 years. Chance got meand a friend not only into a game when we were told no tickets were availablebut had us sitting in the opposition owner's box seats with his family.

The White Soxwon and that event spurred me on to write a story about it. That story turnedinto half-a-dozen more I wrote over the next year on a White Sox fan web site.By this time my desire to write had been rekindled and I began to think aboutthis story I had locked away, figuratively and literally, for overtwenty-five-years. Back in the '70s when I was a young father, a boy hadwitnessed a murder and decided to come forward as a witness. But,tragically, his desire to do good turned into a life-changing situation;one not so good for him and his family.

Pascal signs at The Poisoned Pen on August 8th, at 7pm

At the time ofmy “light bulb moment,” I had recently sold my business, which provided me witha very modest profit, not enough to retire on but enough to possibly giveme a brief amount of time to not have to work full-time, at least for a year,maybe two. I took that time to find my notes I had kept along with newspaperclippings about that story only to find that after moving a few times overthose 25 years I had misplaced the documents. The power of the Internetand the help from a friend's daughter who attended a Chicago university,allowed me access to the Chicago Tribune's historical archives.

I plungedheadlong into finding the details of that crime that had beencommitted along the shores of Lake Michigan in Burnham Park. Along theway, I discovered this rich, long forgotten history of the area where the crimewas committed. That took me down another road and re-ignited my love ofhistory, especially local Chicago and American history. I was completelyhooked and spent every moment I could researching and writing and reading.

It was at aboutthis same time I stumbled upon a brochure (yes, a printed brochure) inviting would-be writers to jointhe Scottsdale Writers Group, which held its meeting every other Tuesday.I was now back to work, keeping afloat a fledgling Internet business I hadstarted on the side and this was taking up the majority of my time. But I wastoo deep into my pledge to myself to not quit on this dream of writing this story.So, with some trepidation, I walked into the group one day and announced I'dlike to join. I was welcomed with warm smiles but more so by such anunselfish group of people who were willing to help me (as well as themselves)develop their writing skills and story ideas.

After two yearsof bringing in a new chapter every other week, I was done, and my novel (withthe working title "The Murder of Manny Fleischman--Last of the BlackSox") was complete. How naive I was because from that point forwardthe real work had only just begun.

That was inMarch, 2008 and about two months later I had another serendipitous event occurthat would change my life forever. I was summering in Lake Geneva, Wisconsinand one day saw another small little poster at the local Fontana, WisconsinPublic Library announcing that NewYork Times best-selling author Brad Thor would be signing hislatest book. I had never heard of Brad Thor but I knew I had to go tothis event. When would you ever expect to meet a NY Times best-selling author in Fontana,Wisconsin? So with my wife and brother-in-law in tow, we went to meetMssr. Thor.

It was a verysmall book-signing for his latest book, THEFIRST COMMANDMENT, but that fact gave me an opportunity tospeak with Brad. I told him I had never heard of him but that as abudding writer I felt compelled to meet a real author, let alone a best-selling one. The words gracious and warm don't dojustice to describing Brad's demeanor with me that day and when he found out Ihad a completed manuscript he immediately recommended I attendThrillerFest in NYC. He promised me if I attended to "look him up"and he'd be happy to help me in any way he could.

Pascal with fellow author Douglas Preston.

"IDENTITY: LOST by Pascal Marco is a grand slam of a novel, swift and sure and true to life, with spot-on characters, an evocative setting, and a relentless plot swirling around the brutal killing of the last surviving member of the Chicago Black Sox team. Imbued with a deep love and understanding of the South Side of Chicago, homicide cops, and the history of baseball, this novel is as true as it is gripping. Don't miss it!"-- Douglas Preston, co-author of The Monster of Florence and Fever Dream

When I got tomy computer and investigated this event, I was blown away at the cost. Of course,it was less than two weeks away and putting a last minute trip to NYC for anevent of this magnitude added to the financial challenge. Wewere stretching dollars (squeezing a more appropriate word) at this pointand as far as I was concerned, if there was a definition of a trip wecould not afford, this one was it. But my partner and best friend, mywife Karen, scoffed at me, dismissing the idea of not going. "Heinvited you, didn't he?" she reminded me. "If you really wantto get this manuscript publish you have to go."
Well, that wasjust the beginning.

I went toThrillerFest in July 2008. I paid the last minute airfare, booked the mid-townManhattan hotel, sent in my non-member attendee fee, landed at La Guardia, andhailed a cab. And here I am now, getting to see my novel on bookstore shelvesacross the country.

There are nocoincidences anywhere in this tale. It is just a story of a naive guy who grewup on the southeast side of Chicago who always kept believing even someone likehim could make his intentions come true.

TO FIND OUT MORE VISIT

www.pascalmarco.com

YA Reviews from Lorri!

2011-07-28T19:50:00.000-07:00

The Reapers Are the Angels ($15) by Alden Bell

This post-apocalyptic zombie novel by Alden Bell is powerful! Through the eyes of Temple we witness the horrific extinction of the human race, yet still find quiet moments to marvel at the awe-inspiring beauty of the natural world that can only be reflections of God Himself. Brilliantly depict, this story is as beautiful as it is sad.

White Cat by Holly Black (Curse Workers, Book 1)

17 yr old Cassel is the youngest of a magic-worker family. Having no power himself, he is at the mercy of his old brothers, or so he thinks...I loved this darkly imagined world! If you find you also enjoyed this story then you should try Holly Black's Modern Tales of Fairie (Tithe,Valiant and Ironside.)

Hunger ($8.99) by Jackie Morse Kessler. (Riders of the Apocalypse Book 1)

This series deals with teens and teen issues and the awkwardness of discovering that you have become one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Begin with Hunger the story of seventeen-year-old Lisabeth who suffers from anorexia and is victim of an inner Thin Voice that holds her to both a strict eating regime and a exhaustive exercise regiment. When death shows up with a set of scales and a midnight steed, Lisabeth relives that her obsession is out of control and that she may lose her life if not conquered. Don't miss Rage the story of Missy a cutter.

Cate Tiernan's Sweep is a lovely witchy teen series that is as addictive as is is delightful. 16 year old Morgan Rowlands thinks she's average until she meets Cal, the new boy at school who is not only captivatingly handsome but a coven leader. With his guidance Morgan soon discovers that she is a bloodwitch with a disturbing history and a nautal power that is beyond both of their control.

Among Others by Jo Walton In this magical Welsh coming-of-age tale we meet 15-year-old Morwenna, bright, crippled and somewhat geeky she endearingly relates to the world through the applied works of a host of science-fiction masters which isn't such a bad thing since she is magical and has to thwart the attacks of her evil witch mother...

or for a lovely sampling pick up a copy of Teeth: Vampire Tales edited by Ellen Datlow
In this YA anthology, Ellen Datlow has assembled 19 fresh and clever stories, some from my favorite YA authors, to create a collection of young and hip vampire tales. Featuring stories from Garth Nix, Melissa Marr, Cassandra Clare, Holly Black, Lucius Shepard,Emma Bull and Tanith Lee.

To order any of these titles from The Poisoned Pen please drop an email to sales@poisonedpen.com.

A Westing Game for Adults, Dominance Will Change the Way You Read

2011-07-26T19:22:00.000-07:00

A review of Will Lavender's Dominance by Chantelle Aimee Osman

“What if youcould read a book and treat it as a competition between you and its author?”

This is the question at the heart of Will Lavender’s second novel, Dominance. Like in his debut, Obedience, which was a 2008 New York TimesBestseller, we once again find ourselves on a college campus.

Will Lavender signs Dominance, at
The Poisoned Pen 7/26 at 7:00pm. Click
here for details. To order a signed copy.

It is 1994,and Vermont’s small Jasper College has decided to offer an experimental nightclass, “Unraveling a Literary Mystery”, to only nine handpicked students. Theclass is shrouded in controversy as the professor, famed literary scholarRichard Aldiss, will be teaching via video feed from prison, where he has beenserving a life sentence since 1982 for the murder of two female graduatestudents. The victims killed with an axe and their bodies’ decorated with theworks of reclusive author Paul Fallows. It is Fallows around whom the nightclass revolves. His two novels, TheCoil and The Golden Silence, are believed by scholars to beriddled with clues. The goal of the class? For the students to follow the cluesand learn Fallow’s true identity.

Aldissinducts the students into the Procedure, a game played by Fallow scholars wherethe players reenact scenes from the novels - but the game becomes dangerous,and lines begin to blur when students realize they have been playing far longerthan they knew. Alex Shipley quickly emerges as the student fated to completethe task set by the professor, and follows the twisted path to solve the riddleof Fallow’s identity - acquitting Richard Aldiss of the murders in the process.

In thepresent day, a student from the night class is found murdered - the bodyarranged in the same way the graduate students’ had been years before. Alex,now a professor at Harvard, returns to Jasper at the request of the police toinvestigate Aldiss and her former classmates, who have all been broughttogether for the funeral. Had she been wrong fifteen years ago, has theProcedure begun again, and how many of the nine will survive?

Lavendercreated a fabulously diverse cast of characters for the night class. Callingthem together to stay in a mansion inhabited by an eccentric, makeup-wearingdean makes the modern story line reminiscent of one of Christie’s manor housemysteries. Dominanceis truly a feat ofpsychological suspense (though Lavender prefers to call his genre “puzzlethrillers”) - you think you know what happened fifteen years before, but asLavender unveils each clue, the faster the finger of guilt changes direction. Dominance keeps you guessing to the end . .. or is it just the beginning?

If you liked Dominance, consider:

Obedience by Will Lavender

TheMagus by John Fowles

39Clues by RickRiordan (Y.A.)

TheWesting Game byEllen Raskin (Y.A.)

TheGame (1997 film,which some believe was loosely based on TheMagus)

For the hard-boiled fan...

2011-07-26T15:45:00.000-07:00

A huge event featuring four authors was 'one of the best events' a long-time customer had ever been to. Though not available online, you can get a sense of it from the video. Keith Rawson, hard-boiled writer and media guru, conducted a brief interview with Duane Swierczynski from the humble shipping room at The Poisoned Pen. Other authors in attendance were Harry Dolan, Michael Wiley and Thomas Kaufman. Click here to see which signed titles of Duane's we have on hand. (Many of the trade-paperbacks were signed, but that is not indicated on the website. If you want to check on one, give us a call. 888-560-9919

2011-07-21T18:18:00.001-07:00

News

Poisoned Pen and Bards Books Owners React to Borders' Official Closure

By Bryan Scott Dugan Mon., Jul. 18 2011 at 4:40 PM

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Categories: Literary, News

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The Ewan via flickr

RIP

Today, Borders Books sent out the inevitable announcement: "We're-closing-up-shop." After filing for bankruptcy in February, those in the book-publishing world followed news of the company through its rough patch, and ultimately to its death.

"I wasn't a bit surprised," says Barbara Peters, owner of Poisoned Pen, located at 4014 Goldwater Blvd in Scottsdale. "I've been saying for the past five years that the chain store model is over."

Peters places most of the blame of Borders' closure on growing technology, saying that the Internet and Amazon's Kindle have made book selling more economical.

Stocking shelves is a thing of the past, she says, and bringing authors to their audiences (a typical occurrence at Poisoned Pen) is the future.

See complete article here...

KEN MERCER DELIVERS DOUBLE THRILLS

2011-07-20T16:25:00.000-07:00

A SHADOW REVIEW

Ken Mercer recently visited the Poisoned Pen (his second trip) for what became a wide ranging and free-wheeling discussion/interview about his new book. He proved to be one of the most open and engaging novelists to ever brighten the store. On his first trip here in 2010, he and Barbara Peters, the owner, partook in an exchange on the ins and outs of editing and publishing. It was an exciting and very interesting presentation. Coming to see both your favorite and new authors often leads to insights into their works. Come to a signing and see for yourself.

Mercer's first book, "Slow Fire", came out last year. It tells the story of Will Magowan, an ex-undercover Los Angeles narcotics detective whose life is left in ruins after a series of horrific events. As a last chance at redemption he accepts an offer to become a police chief in a tiny town in northern California. He arrives in Haydenville to find an Edenic paradise in the midst of a meth nightmare. With only an inexperienced deputy for help and a mayor who has him on a short leash, he attempts to figure out what is going on and to stop it. His main nemesis and suspect is an ex-con, and now famous writer, named Frank Carver. Carver is an amalgam of William Burroughs, Norman Mailer, and Jack Abbott. Mercer does a brilliant job in not only creating this all too vivid character but, through him, channeling all the rampant paranoia that encircled and permeated the 1960's. Having lived through and been heavily involved in the era's turbulence I found his evocation of these times to be extremely well done. The author, too young to have been around then, somehow manages to capture the feelings of those years in a very profound and meaningful way.

As the past effects and illuminates the present Will struggles to find answers to the drug scourge. The story chugs along at the pace of a page-turning tornado and runs headlong into a thrilling and unexpected conclusion. This was one of the best debuts of 2010.

Will Magowan is an often self-destructive, extremely flawed and obsessed man. This is his curse and his salvation. In his new book, "East On Sunset", Mercer continues Will's story and returns him to Los Angeles. This sequel came as a surprise to me as I did not see the character as part of a series. However Mercer uses all of Will's present and past problems as a springboard for a fast paced and very exciting novel.

Will, now back with his wife, is at loose ends after leaving Haydenville. He finds a job as a security guard for the L.A. Dodgers but a visit from an ex-con drug dealer he busted years ago sets off a chain of events that take him back into the life he so desperately fought to escape.

The ex-con, Erick Crandell, wants money for the drugs he thinks Will and his partner, Ray Miller, stole from him when he was arrested. This leads to a cat and mouse tale of police corruption, political payoffs, and non-stop action. Crandell is a delusional body-builder and a very twisted individual. As Will's stubborn personality butts heads with Crandell's single-minded desire to get what he believes is his, a perfectly executed and violent dance ensues. Will's wife, now pregnant, becomes a pawn in the battle.

Both Will and Erick have an appeal that makes them sympathetic in a very strange way. This speaks to the narrative skills of the author.

Signed copies are still available from
The Poisoned Pen. Click here.

The novel is written in a compelling style that grabs the reader and makes it very hard to put down.. The final scenes of the book are truly riveting as this neatly twisted tale corkscrews to a breathless finale. In these two novels Ken Mercer has g iven the master page-turner, Michael Connolly, a run for his money. Both books mark an auspicious start of what I hope will be a long career.

For further reading I suggest Dave Zeltserman and his Ex-con trilogy. These three books, "Small Crimes", "Pariah", and "Killer", are modern masterpieces of neo-noir writing. (Click to order) They may serve as a primer on the ongoing power and possibilities inherent in the genre.

- STEVE SHADOW SCHWARTZ

An Amish-Country Mystery

2011-07-18T20:17:00.000-07:00

Harmless as Doves
An Amish-Country Mystery

By P. L. Gaus

In Harmless as Doves, P. L. Gaus’s seventh Amish-Country Mystery, a murder investigation originates in the chilly autumn of Holmes County, Amish country. As the mystery of Glenn Spiegle’s death unfolds, the search for answers veers south, to the sunshine and white sands of Florida, where clues are sought near an established Amish community. Before long, a tense search explodes into spectacular action in the turquoise waters of Sarasota Bay.

As always, Gaus—who has been called the “Tony Hillerman of the Amish”—balances the crime narrative with insights into Amish culture. In Harmless as Doves, the subjects of depression, remorse, and sexism are issues the characters struggle to come to terms with as the story progresses.

The Poisoned Pen will be carrying signed copies of the 7th in PL Gaus' series. If you missed him at the store last time, fret not, we shot some video.

A Shadow Revurb (think...review+blurb = revurb)

2011-07-13T14:45:00.000-07:00

MEGAN ABBOTT'S 'THE END OF EVERYTHING'

Click to order a signed copy($23.99)
from The Poisoned Pen

Megan Abbott's new book is quite a departure from her previous four novels. Her first three novels, "Die a Little", "The Song is You", and "Queenpin" were much praisedstories told in the Hollywood 40's and 50's noir tradition. They stand out from the genre in their detailed depiction of the lead characters, their sense of time and place, and in the way she uses the language of the day. The fact that they are told from a woman's point of view only enhances their unique voice. In her fourth novel, "Bury Me Deep", Abbott fictionalizes the famous Winnie Ruth Judd case and in so doing retrieves the feel of Phoenix in the 1930's in an enthralling and compelling manner. All four of these beautifully realized books are available and are must reading for any fan of Chandler, Cain, or classic film noir.

In her new book (Due on July 7, 2011), Abbott moves to a contemporary setting. The novels action takes place in a midwestern suburb but carries us to the farthest shores of the human heart. Megan Abbott's brilliant control over her material is breath-taking. This is writing of the highest order: Not a word out of place, not a word unnecessary. In this book she goes way beyond her neo-noir roots and brings forth an American masterpiece. Her thirteen year old protagonist, Lizzie Hood, speaks to us with a voice so authentic its precociousness and vulnerability shine like a beacon. When Lizzie's best friend, Evie Verver, goes missing she takes it upon herself to solve the mystery. The events that ensue take us into the molten core of the American nuclear family in the 21st century.

Megan Abbott visits The Poisoned Pen
July 19th at 7pm. See event here.

As with all great writing the levels of sub-text reveal themselves slowly. As a mystery the book is a tight, fast moving grabber; It will not let go and it is hard to put down. However this is but a framework upon which Abbott explores, in the most subtle of fashions, the yearning to belong and to be loved. She shows us how fine the line is between proper parental love, sibling rivalry, and our deepest desires and the consequences when these emotions boil out of control.

With each new book Megan Abbott's skill and talent have grown. In "The End of Everything", she takes herself to the top of modern American literature.This is as close to a perfect book as I have read this year. Poisoned Pen will have signed copies when it comes out. Buy it.

For another view of a similar subject told in a vastly different but very effective way, I suggest Laura Lippman's "Every Secret Thing".

STEVE SHADOW SCHWARTZ

Tess Gerritsen at The Pen

2011-07-11T15:15:00.000-07:00

A sellout crowd came to The Poisoned Pen to meet Tess Gerritsen as well as have their books signed. She discussed a number of things, one of which, how the TNT hit show Rizzoli and Iles matches up to her books. There were several "Team Jane" or "Team Maura" T-Shirts she gave away.

An interview below gives more in depth info about Tess and Rizzoli and Iles. To watch the full event from last night click the webcast tab.

Click to order a signed, first edition copy
of The Silent Girl.

A handful of Tess' latest book, The Silent Girl, of which Barbara said could be the 'book of a lifetime' are still available. To order a signed copy click here.

To see more upcoming events at The Poisoned Pen Bookstore, click here.

Music Video for Meg Gardiner's The Liar's Lullaby

2011-07-07T17:25:00.000-07:00

A nice little video. Meg will be signing at the store July 24 at 2pm. For those that attend there will be CD's given out which include this video, as well as several more songs.

To order a signed first edition copy email sales@poisonedpen.com.

Caleb's Crossing - A Review by Judith Starkston

2011-07-07T17:21:00.000-07:00

The Caleb of the title of Geraldine Brook’s latest novel is the first Native American to graduate from Harvard College, a feat he accomplished in 1665. In a mind-boggling transformation he left behind life among his people, adopted the English style of clothes and cut hair, language, foods and manners, abandoned the training he was undergoing to become a spiritual and political leader of his tribe, and instead studied Latin, Greek and Hebrew amidst the earliest Colonial scholars. To be inside that mind as he “crosses” from one culture to another seems too great a leap, and indeed Brooks cleverly narrates the novel through another’s eyes—a young Colonial woman, Bethia Mayfield. In the creation of this narrative voice, Brooks has outdone herself, and given the brilliance of the narrative voices of March (which won a Pulitzer) and Year of Wonders, that is saying a great deal.

So, while the title and the blurbs suggest that Caleb is the focus of the novel—and he certainly plays a pivotal role—I find the book to be about Bethia, and that doesn’t bother me at all. Brooks has an extraordinary facility for creating language that sounds and feels like the way people spoke and thought in that distant period. I know she is a careful researcher, so perhaps she picks up the rhythms and vocabulary from the works of that period she has read, but it is certainly more than that—an innate talent for language. Too often writers sound hokey and ridiculous when they attempt to create an older sounding language and ideas, but Brooks submerged me so seamlessly and believably that when her young narrator blames herself for accidents and tragedies that we moderns (or most of us anyway) would never chalk up to punishment for our sins against God, I could not abandon poor Bethia to the foolishness of her Calvinistic beliefs. Instead I stayed within her framework, vivid and painful as that is at times and lived her life with her. I’ve taught Colonial American literature and history at various times in my career, but I found a new depth of understanding in Caleb’s Crossing.

Along with the difficulties and pain in the story, Caleb’s Crossing is full of the beauty of Martha’s Vineyard. This portrayal of setting is as masterly and loving as her development of Bethia. It is almost as though the natural beauty of Martha’s Vineyard becomes a character in the novel, and the vile stench and unhealthy damp of Cambridge a contrasting villain. Given the harm life in Cambridge does some of the characters, place as villain does not seem an exaggeration.

Some people have objected to the sweeping conclusion of Year of Wonders in which Brooks lifted her character Anna into a new place and life that seemed to solve all her problems while ignoring a range of issues. In Caleb’s Crossing there is no deus ex machina setting switch, but Brooks does wrap up Bethia’s life in quick fashion. This provides satisfaction with no loose threads at the end, but it does change the pace and rhythm of the book. I think it provided a good closing to the novel. I’ll be interested to see if other reviewers agree.

For Brook’s ability to allow us to live within a young Puritan woman’s mind and peer into the complex issues arising from the clash of Native American and Colonial world views, Caleb’s Crossing is definitely worth reading. Once again, a masterful work of historical fiction by one of America’s best contemporary writers.

The Poisoned Pen has a few signed first edition copies of Caleb's Crossing left, if you are interested email sales@poisonedpen.com. For more reviews by Judith visit her site www.judithstarkston.com

Review: PLUGGED by Eoin Colfer

2011-06-29T10:59:00.000-07:00

By Kris Neri

You gotta love a noir that signals its tone through the tough, succinct title of — PLUGGED. PLUGGED is the first mystery by Irish writer Eoin Colfer, author of the bestselling young adult Artemis Fowl fantasy series, which Colfer himself describes as “DIE HARD with fairies,” showing he’s no stranger to a hardboiled world, even if he is new to the mystery genre.

PLUGGED features Daniel McEvoy, a damaged Irish bouncer working for a sleazy New Jersey club. When Daniel’s sometime lover, bar hostess Connie, is found dead, and his best friend, unlicensed Israeli physician Zeb Kronski, goes missing and is presumed dead, he’s drawn into a darker world than any he’s encountered in either his former army career or at the door of this Jersey town’s scummiest club.

I like my tough guys like my chocolate, with soft centers, and Daniel doesn’t disappoint. Despite his barely-managed PTSD, he doesn’t hesitate to leap to Connie’s defense when a bar patron refuses to accept her boundaries. As the story moves forward, it gives us glimpses into the past that shaped him, a nasty childhood with a drunken father and some brutal war experiences. Daniel genuinely cares about the people in his world, understanding that their bad choices are often the result of the poor cards they’ve been dealt, and if he can, he wants to make things better for them.

Actually, I like my chocolate with nuts — I simply couldn’t resist the perfection of the soft-center line. But the nuts-connection works, too. There are lots of wackos in this novel, from the mostly harmless, like his delusional landlady, who thinks he’s her late husband, to a tough female detective, whose feelings toward Dan change as fast as schizophrenic mood swings on steroids, to some seriously twisted bad guys.

Daniel himself borders on the quirky, maintaining an ongoing dialogue with his missing doctor friend, whom he calls Ghost Zeb, and sometimes sliding from thought to speech without having any awareness of having done so, until he suffers the consequence of uttering the wrong thought aloud. Though his former army shrink insists the voice of Ghost Zeb is really Daniel’s own internal guidance, we’re never really sure he isn’t really channeling his maybe-departed shifty friend.

Initially, the plot wanders into familiar hardboiled territory…a bent attorney, crooked cop, mobsters and missing drug money. But it takes enough twists, some surprisingly off-the-wall, to keep most mystery readers guessing.

It’s not just the plot that takes turns, either. The tone offers up just as many surprises. One moment it’s wickedly funny, with some of the best banter in print, sometimes offering hilarious observations about American life, while in the next, it veers into painful observations that’ll hit you where you hurt.

I usually develop some quibbles in the course of reading a book, though I mostly didn’t here. When I thought things might come together too easily for Daniel, they didn’t, sometimes taking unexpected turns that actually made things harder. But I do dislike present tense voice, which Colfer has used, though I get over it if the mystery is good enough. I did get over it, yet I still wish he’d told it in past tense. That’s just my bias, however.

While the different aspects of the mystery are wrapped-up effectively, not all the threads are neatly tied off, though they are dealt with well enough…for now. We get the sense that some of the choices Daniel had to make may come back someday to bite him on the butt, and the stalemates he established with some characters, may shift in future adventures. We can only hope there will be more Daniel McEvoy capers.

Bottom line: the story is fresh, the characters walk off the page and the voice is wonderfully engaging, despite being told in present tense. So…do yourself a favor. Get PLUGGED. You won’t be sorry.

Visit www.poisonedpen.com to order a signed, first edition copy of PLUGGED. To find out more about Eoin check out his website (click here)

Many thanks to our latest reviewer, Kris Neri, author as well as co-owner of The Well Red Coyote Bookstore in Sedona, Arizona. She has graciously agreed to write reviews for the blog.To find out more about her check out the PFR Bloggers tab or visit her website.

Turkey Travelogue from Barbara

2011-06-21T13:58:00.001-07:00

BONUS: if you go to Rob's photo website he has at last put up the photos of his African photo safari from last summer which he made with our younger daughter Susan. Susan will be working the conference this weekend with us and has printed up many of her excellent photos to sell to finance her further studies in photography. She also has sent me her photos of our trip to

Egypt

and

Jordan

taken last December about which I still plan to write to you.

On to Turkey… departing May 13.

Rob and I took a vow when driving a rental car in Japan a couple of years back that we'd hire a car and driver for countries where we had no language skills at all. We'd also had daunting reports of roads in Turkey. But I can now tell you that driving there is very easy, the bad roads are in the Eastern Turkey area in case you are wanting to see say Van or Erzurum or Mt. Ararat. To drive from Istanbul to Safranbolu, Amasra, Amasya, and via Huttusa down to Cappadocia is in fact easy on excellent roads, peppered not only with excellent service stations for fuel but each of them has wonderful restaurants. One of the best lunches I ever ate was in such a rest center between Safranbolu and Amasya where they actually grilled their own kebap recipe to order in a clever contraption I strolled over to inspect. This allowed me to watch some kind of police or park ranger operation moving down towards the river as men fanned out but I have no clue what they were actually doing. They were armed but friendly, as indeed was everyone. The Turks are among the friendliest hosts we have met.

Rob booked the car service on line. If you are interested he can tell you it's internet address. We were very pleased: the driver had a fancy new Renault, he was a real professional with adequate English but not a tour guide although his skills were especially useful (see below); and given the high cost of internal air flights in Turkey, the week with Taner was hardly more than our return flights from Kayseri (ancient Caesarea) to Istanbul (Taner drove back from Goreme as we stayed on for two days on a tour the hotel organized).

So if you decide on broadening a trip beyond Istanbul and you don't do group travel, we can recommend our experience.

So, Taner met us at Ataturk Airport the morning of our arrival, a Saturday. Turkey has the same weekends we do even if the Muslin holy day is Friday, having been organized in 1923 by Mustafa Kemal, later styled Ataturk (hero of Gallipoli for the Turks, so their George Washington), as a secular state. The just re-elected president and his party veer to Islamic but there is a lot of resistance and in fact the party lost its majority in Parliament.

Taner drove us to the Ciragan Palace Kempinski. It's sited on the Bosporous (or Bosphorous) and has been restored after a disastrous fire. If you stay in the adjacent hotel you can visit the palace and you can dine in its restaurant which is a gorgeous experience by moonlight. If you go, plan not to use the hotel as a tour base but to enjoy all the amenities of the hotel, the whole experience. It has a negative edge pool that makes you feel like you are swimming with the ships. AmEx upgraded us to a suite with a spa credit so I had a pedicure which was amazing: the girl wore a mask and gloves and actually sanded my feet as I dozed on a very comfortable cushioned table. It was a full moon so we enjoyed drinks in a very cool nargileh bar with a view of the beautiful bridge that turns into a light display each evening (see Rob's photos) –and all this for the price of a small car so it was a one time experience but a nice start. I mention the price as a warning for the unwary. Prices otherwise in Istanbul for hotels and restaurants are comparable to most European cities. Except for The Four Seasons housed in the old prison and almost adjacent to the Blue Mosque which is even higher priced than Ciragan.

Taner picked us up Sunday morning and we spent an hour finding our hotel for week two, located over in Sultanahmet or the ancient quarter where the winding roads and dead ends make it a challenge. We dropped off our cruse suitcases and headed out.. He got to practice his (little bit of) English and he turned out to be really useful since he's a mountaineer for fun and he was thus able to spy out routes while climbing into ruins and actually help me climb into the ruins to view the ancient churches in the Ilhara Valley to the southwest of Cappadocia. But that was later.

Our first stop was Safranbolu, a UNESCO world heritage site, an ancient town, once rich and then too poor for urban renovation, and so fascinating to visit. We spent one evening in the hamman, built circa 1650, where I gave the lady who scoured and soaped me a decent tip that put her into tears, a sad comment on other customers. These baths are especially treasured by the Turks from the days of the Silk Roads when Safranbolu was a major stop. Nearby is the restored caravanserai, a combination inn and mini-mall for the camel caravans, which was interesting but nothing as cool as the Hotel Gul Evi (Gul's House, she being the architect/owner's wife) where Rob booked the top floor of the ancient Ottoman wooden house. To view more, click here http://www.booking.com/hotel/tr/gulevi-safranbolu.en.html

They did breakfast out in the gardens and a very nice retired Turkey Navy captain arrived in a golf cart on day two and bumped us all over town for a long tour. There used to be lots of tanneries down by the river, and rice fields, but now it's a retirement center. You can view many photos of the traditional Ottoman houses with their overhanging floors, their shutters and exterior paintings, the window where the homeowner would look to check out any visitors before opening the door. One photo shows the date for a house in Arabic, from we were told the 17^th century or earlier.

The first thing we did on arrival was walk down to the town center, visit the mosque (always travel with a hoodie or scarf, long paints or skirt, and covered shoulders in Turkey or suffer disappointment), and then hit the hammam. It's one of the great experiences, akin to an ancient Roman bath, where you strip down to a plaid wrap they give you (ladies, wear bikini panties, best if nylon), stretch you out on a hot heated marble table, then flood you with cool water, cover you in clouds of suds and loufah you within an inch of your life (like the Romans did with oils and stirgils), flood you again, massage you vigorously, more water, wash your hair. You emerge beyond clean and invigorated. To view the Cinci Hamami (Hamami is plural, meaning usually there is a men's and a women's hammam in one structure), click here. You can't read it but the photos are good http://wowturkey.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=43357

The next day, Taner drove us up to the Black Sea to the fishing port of Amasra where we had the most amazing lunch ever. Rob photographed the salad and the various fish courses. After lunch we hiked out past the fishing fleet to the wall guarding the small harbor for stunning sea views despite the fog. It's a bit like Sausalito when the fog blows in under the Golden Gate into San Francisco Bay.

And we had an exciting ride back when Taner decided to go with the GPS rather than the map. GPS units send you on short routes, not always main routes. So there we were bumping up in to the mountains on tiny back roads, through farm communities and along small rivers. At one point we met water buffalo lolling in pools. And a farmer standing on a hay rick who gazed down at us in amazement. Eventually from nowhere a bus appeared which turns out was on its ordinary run back to Safranbolu. Hilarious. So we followed it back across the big river to the main road.

On to Amasya, an ancient Ottoman provincial capital which functions as some kind of military center today judging by all the brass in uniforms we encountered (maybe an academy?). Amasya lies in a narrow valley on a river with wonderful tombs up in the rocks, a bit like Petra. The tombs proved disappointing when we climbed up, mostly impressive in their huge cut doors. At night when they are lit up they are spectacular when viewed from the city's river walk which functions like La Rambla in Barcelona, all the world is out partying along it.

It was campaign time, a run up to the June 12 elections. So the place was crawling with vans, like ambulances, but covered in campaign posters and playing Turkish rock and roll to attract attention. Apparently it's the Turkish version of a campaign trail. We discovered also that the mysterious 2023 posted on the posters stands for goals set by the current (and re-elected) president for the country, which is a pretty sneaky way of getting people to vote to keep him in power to meet them, I thought.

And then to Cappadocia which is in a huge volcanic plateau and just as weird and fascinating as billed. It is located between two ancient volcanoes which spewed out enough ash and such to leave a landscape that wind and weather can carve. We drove there over mountains traversing one of Turkey's main ski resort destinations where some meeting was going on that entailed endless security and car caravans, but it was gorgeous. Unfortunately it wiped out our plans to detour over to the ancient Hittite capital which is in ruins but well worth the trouble. When Ramses the Great made a treaty with the Hittite king to settle a sort of Vietnam stalemate sort of war, he sent a giant Egyptian stele or some monument to the city which I wanted to see. So, next time.

Our guide on the first day took us on a 5 KM hike through tiny valleys and water courses, a true challenge, as you will see from the photos, and the second day we climbed into the fairy chimneys and various structures, which in fact like visiting New Mexico and its hoodoos (New Mexico too has a giant caldera west of Santa Fe in the Jemez Mountains but the excellent hoodoos are in the Bisti Badlands should you wish to hike in and view them as we have done). But in Cappadocia, they are better. Inevitably we ended up in a carpet school, and better, a ceramic workshop where Rob as he does on trips bought an amazing piece of local art, a large ceramic (seramik) vase (free shipping....).

And with Taner one day we drove about 100 KM, stopping at an underground city (seriously, and they took the animals in too when under threat; check the photos for the giant circular rock wheel they rolled across the entry to safeguard the community) and climbed down many levels. Then we scaled some serious peaks to ancient churches. And we had lunch on a balcony right on the river where they baked our choices in clay pots landed them on the table sizzling hot. Excellent beer called Efes (Rob) and a lot of wine (me) everywhere. Our favorite restaurant in the village of Goreme where we stayed is called Local Restaurant. And in one called Alaturka, we had a veal and apricot dish I hope Rob will try to duplicate.

Our hotel was called Anatolian Houses – click here for more http://www.anatolianhouses.com.tr/en/index.html -- and is built right into some of the natural caves and hoodoos, you can see various photos of Goreme, one of the towns where you can stay and which we liked the best after we visited several others. So, recommended.

Turkish Air is very good, a fine flight in a big airbus from Keyseri to Istanbul. And we love the hotel here where we have a huge room overlooking Gulhane Park next to Topkapi Palace and turning the other way, all the way to the water so we can see the cruise ships park daily.

The Sirkeci Konak Hotel – click here to view http://www.sirkecikonak.com/en/contact -- is located a block from a main tram stop and thus one stop from the main local train station and two from Eminönü which is the main ferry center, has a killer seafood restaurant hard to resist, plus we were so tired from tramping around we didn't want to go out and we could first swim in the gorgeous pool in the basement and enjoy the sauna and hammam. Butt one night we went to Olive nearby which is on a high roof with a direct view of Aya Sofia (during sunset) and two other nights to Hamdi, a venerable spot for the locals famous for its kebabs, and justly so. It is also on a roof which overlooks Suleiyman Mosque and the Golden Horn. The second night we scored a table on the small balcony outside for spectacular views of the lighted bridge up the Bosporous and also north up the Golden Horn, which it fronts.

The food everywhere is wonderful: real tomatoes, eggplant, lamb, veal, chicken, lots of fish, olives, and breads. I am crazy about simits which are the Turkish version of big pretzels but with sesame seeds. Only once did we give in to baklava: chocolate hazelnut, and the other, apricot almond. But we're doing just two meals a day and walking everywhere where the public transportation doesn't go. So far that means ferries, trams, funiculars, the Tunel which is the first funicular and carries passengers from the terminus on the European side of the Galata Bridge up to fashionable promenade Istiklal Cadessi (at its top is Taksim Square, a huge hub, and a gorgeous Greek Orthodox Cathedral: Aya Sofia is today a museum, not a church nor a mosque), the pneumatic elevator at the Pera Palace Hotel (second oldest in world, the elevator that is, with a special operator in uniform), and the local train out to Yedulke and the old city walls built by Theodosius to guard the city's back. Very cheap and efficient. No taxis for us until Sunday when we have to get us and luggage to the ship.

One full day we rode the ferry a couple of hours to the Princes Islands, now summer homes and resorts, but once a place of exile to rebellious sons of the Sultan – read about them in Jason Goodwin's latest novel about 19^th Century Istanbul and the Sultan's detective Yashim in An Evil Eye (Farrar $25 Signed). We had lunch right harborside at a fish restaurant priced like Ciragan Palace we learned (too late, but the blue fish grilled was spectacular and the bathrooms also, which is a big consideration in a country where many restaurants are ceramic-trays-in the-ground only into which you must run the nearby hose to flush), so….

Our last full day we took the new ferry service all the way up the Golden Horn to Eyup, the most sacred mosque as it the burial place of a close friend (or relative, not sure which) of the Prophet. Note in the photos a couple of tomb sites, one of a Valide Sultan (the Sultan's mom, and ruler of the harem) in Eminönü and one at Eyup). There a professor (or so he claimed) gave us an interesting lecture on Islam observances and two sets of beads (think rosaries) for a tip. The little boys in their dressy white costumes are celebrating their circumcision days, clearly with no actual idea of how that goes. In Rob's photos of Topkapi there is one of the circumcision room in the palace: it isn't clear but you can see the alcove where the water runs for hygiene).

We then took the famous funicular up Pierre Loti Hill where this 19^th Century literary figure built a little café which has an extraordinary range of terraces. It's right a the top of the Golden Horn which superb views all the way back down it. Then we hopped the ferry back to the Rahmi M. Koch Museum, a private collection, very cool, featuring a magnificent display of music boxes and lots of stuff like the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. One in fact was a small version of La Fenice, Venice's opera house, complete with stage sets and arias from La Traviata, a ten-minute show. It also has an impressive collections of trains, airplanes, and fabulous cars so we took a folder of photos for Clive Cussler. And yet another superb restaurant right on the water: they brought us wool shawls to wear as it was cool and rainy.

The museum is dedicated to the history of Transport. Visit it by clicking here http://www.rmk-museum.org.tr/english/index.html

The Calligraphy Museum is closed for renovation but parts of it moved to another museum in the old Hippodrome site. Which also had a huge carpet exhibit. There are a bunch of photos of the gorgeous books, some the Koran, and some of the kilims of Anatolia.

That's about it. Sunday we boarded the ship and then made a visit for lunch at the Istanbul Modern Museum, an excellent restaurant and collection we had enjoyed on our last visit. Last year when I emailed Joe Kanon about his new book he emailed me back from the very outdoor terrace at Istanbul Modern so we exchanged views in real time about it and the city.

Rob has enjoyed all the markets today: fish on the Asian side, Spice Market, and the Grand Bazaar which is like a city. He's been bargaining like a pro for everything. Every day it's a new ATM. You can see some photos of the markets including one on the Asian side, plus the Spice Bazaar.

Barbara

Preston and Child in disputation!

2011-06-16T15:24:00.000-07:00

Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child have put together a nice page on their website to promote the Poisoned Pen's launch of COLD VENGEANCE at The Arizona Biltmore, the latest Pendergast novel. Drop by the site and check it out! (Click here)

You are cordially invited...
Saturday, August 6
Arizona Biltmore, Grand Ballroom
Phoenix

PRESTON & CHILD in disputation together
Discussing their latest Pendergast novel
COLD VENGEANCE

Doors Open 5:00 p.m.
Cash bar and buffet
Program at 6:00 p.m. with Douglas Preston live, Lincoln Child via Skype
Q&A, booksigning, and cocktails with Doug

The Grand Ballroom

Pre order your double-signed copy of Cold Vengeance HERE. If you would like it inscribed email your order to sales@poisonedpen.com or call the store 888-560-9919.

BAD THINGS HAPPEN BY HARRY DOLAN - A REVIEW

2011-06-13T20:09:00.000-07:00

Harry Dolan's first book, Bad Things Happen, is a terrific fun read. While not exactly a John Dickson Carr "locked room" style-book, it does echo Agatha Christie and Rex Stout from the golden age of mystery.On one level the book is a serious crime story with fully fleshed out characters and on another level its a juicy skewering of crime writers and their pretensions. The plot is as twisty as a backroad on a Greek isle and as slick as a tube of Brylcreem.

David Loogan, escaping a troubled past, finds himself in Ann Arbor, Michigan working as an editor for Gray Streets magazine. This mystery mag is owned by the elusive Tom Kristoll, and Loogan, in short order, finds himself
knee-deep in an affair with Kristoll's alluring wife and bound up in murder and mayhem. The foul deeds pile up and seem to repeat scenarios from stories he is editing in the magazine.

The local homicide detective, Elizabeth Waishkey, is on the scene and her cat and mouse game with Loogan gets murkier by the minute. Is he a murderer or an ally in solving the puzzling murders? Reading this clever, densly plotted book was a real treat. Any readers looking for a good summer vacation read will enjoy this neo-drawing room mystery.

Harry Dolan will be at The Poisoned Pen on July 13th with his new book. (Very Bad Men $26 Signed) Look for a review in an upcoming blog. For further reading in this vein I suggest a return to the afore-mentioned masters, Christie, Stout, and Carr.

- STEVE SHADOW SCHWARTZ

Qiu Xiaolong in the not-so-local news...

2011-06-07T19:19:00.000-07:00

Life

Modern mystery meets present history

By Zhang Kun (China Daily)
Updated: 2011-05-27 08:01

US-based mystery writer Qiu Xiaolong often visits his hometown, Shanghai, whose rapid development is a theme of his works. Provided to China Daily

A detective writer strives to show the changing social realities of the times in his whodunit storylines. Zhang Kun reports.

Qiu Xiaolong sat down to write a poem about the country's rapid transformation and ended up authoring a mystery novel set in contemporary Shanghai.

The poet and translator, who lives in the United States, found great success with his first attempt at fiction, a genre into which he dove in the 1990s.

His 2001 English-language Death of a Red Heroine won the best novel category of the Anthony Award, a prestigious prize for mystery writers. The exploits of the protagonist, Inspector Chen Cao, have gone on to span six books.

The 58-year-old lives with his wife and daughter in Missouri but visits his hometown, Shanghai, once or twice a year.

He appears as the archetypical Shanghainese man, speaking in a low voice and smiling broadly.

Qiu took a break from Inspector Chen's adventures for a while to tell other stories about Shanghai.

The product of this sabbatical is Years of Red Dust: Stories of Shanghai (2010), a collection of interrelated short stories set in downtown Shanghai's Red Dust Lane.

It took Qiu some time to convince his publishers to risk publishing a book without a mystery to solve. He says it was even tougher to sell them on a short story collection. But the book, first published in French and German, has already sold a quarter million copies.

Qiu did a documentary for a German TV station after the book's publication. He brought a production team to Red Dust Lane, which was close to his childhood home and was where he would hang out after school as a youth.

The article in its entirety at China Daily, the official Chinese English newspaper.

Titles available by Qiu at The Poisoned Pen:

Mao Case

by Xiaolong, Qiu ($13.99)

Loyal Character Dancer

by Xiaolong, Qiu ($14.00)

Red Mandarin Dress

by Xiaolong, Qiu ($13.95)

Case of Two Cities

by Xiaolong, Qiu ($14.99)

Years of Red Dust

by Xiaolong, Qiu ($24.99)

When Red is Black

by Xiaolong, Qiu ($13.00)

Dont Cry Tai Lake

by Xiaolong, Qiu ($24.99)

Death of a Red Heroine

Poisoned Fiction Review

MIA.

James Lee Burke signing Feast Day of Fools

Preparation for Stephanie Barron

Walking the Backroads of Kent: Jane and the Canterbury Tale

SANDRA PARSHALL-UNDER THE DOG STAR

The death of books has been greatly exaggerated (via The Guardian)

The death of books has been greatly exaggerated

We're doomed ...

Chantelle Osman reviews Catriona McPherson's latest Dandy Gilver

Gilbert, Sullivan, and…Sherlock Holmes?

Judith Starkston interviews Elizabeth Speller

THE RANGER BY ACE ATKINS

Great news for April Smith

"The social event of the season-nay, the year" -Laurie R King

Garden Party TwInvitation

Woohoo!

BARRY GRAHAM - THE WRONG THING

In Preparation for James Sallis

Paper Pushers Turn to Tablets

Newspaper giant Tribune Co. developing tablet device

ART & OBSESSION - Guest Post from author Brandi Lynn Ryder

Frederick Ramsay - ROGUE

The Familiar Face of Evil

SILENT ENEMY - THOMAS W. YOUNG AND THE AFGHAN WAR

Dana Stabenow reps for used books

Why I Love Used Books

HOW I CAME TO WRITE THIS BOOK by Pascal Marco

YA Reviews from Lorri!

A Westing Game for Adults, Dominance Will Change the Way You Read

For the hard-boiled fan...

Poisoned Pen and Bards Books Owners React to Borders' Official Closure

KEN MERCER DELIVERS DOUBLE THRILLS

An Amish-Country Mystery

A Shadow Revurb (think...review+blurb = revurb)

Tess Gerritsen at The Pen

Music Video for Meg Gardiner's The Liar's Lullaby

Caleb's Crossing - A Review by Judith Starkston

Review: PLUGGED by Eoin Colfer

Turkey Travelogue from Barbara

Preston and Child in disputation!

BAD THINGS HAPPEN BY HARRY DOLAN - A REVIEW

Qiu Xiaolong in the not-so-local news...

Life

Modern mystery meets present history

By Zhang Kun (China Daily)Updated: 2011-05-27 08:01

By Zhang Kun (China Daily)
Updated: 2011-05-27 08:01