Monday, June 30, 2008

Chasing Darkness: An Elvis Cole Novel by Robert Crais



Elvis Cole is Back--In a Desperate Fight to Clear his Name... And we have them signed!
It's fire season, and the hills of Los Angeles are burning. When police and fire department personnel rush door to door in a frenzied evacuation effort, they discover the week-old corpse of an apparent suicide. But the gunshot victim is less gruesome than what they find in his lap: a photo album of seven brutally murdered young women -- one per year, for seven years. And when the suicide victim is identified as a former suspect in one of the murders, the news turns Elvis Cole's world upside down.
Three years earlier Lionel Byrd was brought to trial for the murder of a female prostitute named Yvonne Bennett. A taped confession coerced by the police inspired a prominent defense attorney to take Byrd's case, and Elvis Cole was hired to investigate. It was Cole's eleventh-hour discovery of an exculpatory videotape that allowed Lionel Byrd to walk free. Elvis was hailed as a hero.
But the discovery of the death album in Byrd's lap now brands Elvis as an unwitting accomplice to murder. Captured in photographs that could only have been taken by the murderer, Yvonne Bennett was the fifth of the seven victims -- two more young women were murdered after Lionel Byrd walked free. So Elvis can't help but wonder -- did he, Elvis Cole, cost two more young women their lives?
Shut out of the investigation by a special LAPD task force determined to close the case, Elvis Cole and Joe Pike desperately fight to uncover the truth about Lionel Byrd and his nightmare album of death -- a truth hidden by lies, politics, and corruption in a world where nothing is what it seems to be.
Chasing Darkness is a blistering thriller from the bestselling author who sets the standard for intense, powerful crime writing.

Sunday, June 29, 2008

From Patrick


This week's pick from Patrick is Severance Package by Duane Swierczynski. (St Martins $14). "What would you do if you showed up for a special Saturday meeting at the office only to learn that the company you were working for was really a secret intelligence agency, that it was being dissolved, and that the entire staff, including yourself, was being exterminated? That's the fate that befalls seven staff members of a Philadelphia financial company. All exits to the high-rise office have been rigged with deadly sarin gas, all communication lines cut, cell phone signals dead. The panicked bloodbath that follows as they all scramble for survival is pure mayhem and Swierczynski pulls out all the stops. And don't miss the noir classic, The Wheelman ($13), a great summer read."
Click Here to Read More About Duane.

Saturday, June 28, 2008

Place your orders for the New Robicheaux


Swan Peak by James Lee Burke
Much beloved Louisiana lawman Dave Robicheaux is back again, this time in the brand new setting of the rugged Montana mountains.

CHAPTER 1


Clete Purcel had heard of people who sleep without dreaming, but either because of the era and neighborhood in which he had grown up, or the later experiences that had come to define his life, he could not think of sleep as anything other than an uncontrolled descent into a basement where the gargoyles turned somersaults like circus midgets.

Sometimes he dreamed of his father, the milkman who rose at three-fifteen a.m. and rumbled off to work in a truck that clinked with bottles and trailed a line of melting ice out the back doors. When his father reentered the house off magazine at midday, he occasionally carried a sack of Popsicles for clete and his two sisters. on other days, his face was already oily and distorted with early-morning booze, his victimhood and childlike cruelty searching for release on the most vulnerable members of his home.

Sometimes in his dreams clete saw a straw hooch with a mamasan in the doorway suddenly engulfed in an arc of liquid flame sprayed from a Zippo-track. He saw a seventeen-year-old door gunner go apeshit on a wedding party in a free-fire zone, the brass cartridges jacking from an m60 suspended from a bungee cord. He saw a navy corpsman with rubber spiders on his steel pot try to stuff the entrails of a marine back inside his abdomen with his bare hand. He saw himself inside a battalion aid station, his neck beaded with dirt rings, his body dehydrated from blood expander, his flak jacket glued to the wound in his chest.

He saw the city of New Orleans sink beneath the waves, just as Atlantis had. Except in the dream, New Orleans and the China Sea and perhaps a place in the Mideast, where he had never been, melded together and created images that were nonsensical. Blood washed backward off a sandy cusp of beach into a turquoise ocean. Soldiers who looked like people Clete had once known struggled silently uphill into machine guns that made no sound.

When he woke, he felt that his own life had been spent in the service of enterprises that today contained no learning value for anyone and would be replicated over and over again, regardless of the cost. A psychiatrist once told him he suffered from agitated depression and psychoneurotic anxiety. Clete asked the psychiatrist where he had been for the last fifty years.

His dreams clung to his skin like cobweb and followed him into the day. If he drank, his dreams went to a place where dreams go and waited two or three nights before they bloomed again, like specters beckoning from the edge of a dark wood. But on this particular morning Clete was determined to leave his past in the past and live in the sunlight from dawn until nightfall and then sleep the sleep of the dead.

It was cold when he unzipped his sleeping bag and crawled out of his polyethylene tent by a creek in western Montana. His restored maroon Caddy convertible with the starched-white top was parked in the trees, speckled with frost. In the distance the sun was just striking the fresh snow that had fallen on the mountain peaks during the night. The spring runoff had ended, and the stream by which he had made his camp was wide and dark and devoid of whitewater and running smoothly over gray boulders that had begun to form shadows on the pebble bed. He could hear the easy sweep of wind in the pine and fir trees, the muted clattering of rocks in the stream's current. For a moment he thought he heard a motorized vehicle grinding down the dirt road, but he paid no attention to it.

He made a ring of rocks and placed twigs and pinecones inside it and started a fire that flared and twisted in the wind like a yellow handkerchief and blew sparks and smoke across a long riffle undulating down the middle of the streambed.

The place where he was cooking his breakfast in an iron skillet set on top of hot rocks was the perfect site for a camp and the perfect place to begin wading upstream through canyon country, false-casting a dry fly over his head, watching it float delicately toward him on the riffle. He had not chosen this place but had found it by accident, turning onto the dirt road after he had found a snow gate locked across the asphalt two-lane. The countryside was grand, the cliffs sheer, the tops of the buttes covered with ponderosa pine, the slopes already blooming with wildflowers. Along the edges of the stream, there were no prints in the soft gravel except those of deer and elk. The air smelled of the woods and wet fern and cold stone and humus that stayed in shade twenty-four hours and the iridescent spray drifting off the boulders in the stream. The air smelled as though it had never been stained by the chemical agencies of the industrial era. It smelled as the earth probably had on the first day of creation, Clete thought.

He pulled his hip waders out of the Caddy and put them on by the side of the stream, snapping the rubber straps tight on his belt, looping a net and a canvas creel around his neck. He waded deep into the water, down a ledge, his feet slipping on moss-covered surfaces, until the drop-off sent the water over the edge of his waders. He whipped a dry fly over his head twice, then three times, the line forming a figure eight, whistling with a dull wet sound past his ear. With the fourth cast, he stiffened his wrist and let the fly float gently down on the riffle.

That was when he heard the sound of the truck again, mounting the grade just beyond a cut between two pine-covered hills.

But he kept his eyes on the fly floating down the riffle toward him. He saw an elongated shape break from behind a boulder, rising quickly into the light, the dark green dorsal hump roiling the surface. There was a flick of water, like a tiny splash of quicksilver, then the rainbow took the fly and went straight down into the shadows with it.

Out of the corner of his eye, Clete saw a bright red pickup with an extended cab and a diesel-powered engine crunch down the slope onto a bed of white rocks. Once stopped, the driver did not cut his engine, nor did he get out of the vehicle. Inside the canyon walls, the engine clattered like a vibrating junkyard...

Friday, June 27, 2008

From Wendy


Until It's Over by Nicci French

Looking for a fast paced, interesting mystery - with a surprising ending? Nicci French's British Novel, Until It's Over, is just that. Astrid Bell is a bicycle messenger who keeps ending up around dead bodies. Astrid shares a home with seven other people - some friends, some just acquaintances. The dynamics of this group plays an important part in the mystery. The central question is why are three women murdered and why is Astrid the last person to see them alive? The first two thirds are of the book are written in Astrid's voice while the last third is written in the voice of the killer - but you don't know who that is. I really enjoyed the setting and the characters in this book - I also loved the last third of the book where I really didn't know who the killer was. The description of the murders wasn't over the top so there wasn't a lot of blood (a good thing for me) and I felt like I was riding the roller coaster of Astrid's life a long with her. The book reads quickly and is a great summer escape!

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Jeffery Deaver's Broken Window


Are you looking for a spooky read? Try Jeffery Deaver's Broken Window the latest Lincoln Rhyme novel and enter the world of identity fraud where a company with files on over four hundred million people can predict what a subject will do before the subject himself knows.

To read an interview click Here

Jeffery was also at Sunrise Mountain Library in Peoria. Lesa Holstine has posted a lovely account of the afternoon.

Or if you are looking for lighter fair we just got copies of Bones in the Belfry by Suzette A Hill. ($42UK $25US)
When Francis Oughterard, the contented vicar of Molehill, accidentally strangles a lady parishioner, a sleazy art dealer gives him an alibi. Of course he is called on to pay the price by storing stolen paintings in the church belfry. The intrigue mounts as hapless F.O. bumbles through confrontations. Maurice and Bouncer each contribute their version of events in this quirky read.

Or visit nineteenth-century Oxford inThe Ingenious Edgar Jones by Elizabeth Garner ($17). "A delightful read. Almost an elongated fairy tale. It could almost be prefaced by ‘Once upon a time, a long time ago…..’ The author gives us unusually gifted Edgar and his parents living in Oxford. His father is a strict and god fearing man trying to do his best for his son but not succeeding. Edgar, young, impulsive, and misunderstood gets embroiled with the creative use of decorative iron and other inventions. The Oxford University professor who uses his talents for his own ends also ultimately fails Edgar. Edgar is unfailingly resilient however much the odds are stacked against him. The ending is quirky and made me smile. Possibly leaving room for a sequel?
Garner has a flowing, heavily descriptive style. It keeps you engrossed. Delightful escapism in a modern novel and one to be recommended."

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Need a New Book?




Wow, We just got some great books in, signed first editions...
Carolyn Haines, Wishbones
The 8th Sarah Booth mystery. Southern gal Sarah Booth Delaney packs up her hound dog and her P.I. business and sets off for Hollywood to take a shot at stardom. No stranger to acting, she aces the screen test for a racy remake of the movie. Body Heat alongside leading man Graf Miliau. The chemistry between them is undeniable, and why not? Graf has already starred in one of Sarah’s previous affairs and is well on his way to landing a big part in the sequel.

Thrilled as Sarah is, her dream come true comes at a price. She has to leave behind her family’s ancestral home in Mississippi, her closest friends, and the possibility of settling down with her longtime love to film on location in Costa Rica. And it’s not long before rivalries flare, mysterious accidents occur, and this leading lady finds herself in some steamy tabloids without turning up in a single frame of film.

NM Kelby, Murder at the Bad Girl's Bar & Grill Is a mystery Publisher's Weekly is calling "Lyrical prose and Technicolor characters lift Kelby’s amusing, unconventional mystery set at a gated Florida beach community plagued by murder and mayhem... offers some unexpected wisdom."
Take a slasher-movie actress, a Scottish circus clown, an FBI school dropout, a blind heiress, a junk-food-loving millionaire developer, and a Buddha-quoting bluesman, add a couple of murders in a normally sedate retirement community in south Florida, and you get an irresistible tale that’s part Carl Hiaasen and part Gabriel García Márquez. It all goes down as easy as a Key lime pie martini, the signature drink of the Bad Girl’s Bar & Grill.


N. M. Kelby’s last three novels have received glowing reviews in the New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, People, and the Atlantic Monthly. Carl Hiaasen has called her “a natural-born writer,” and Kirkus praised her “black humor that sizzles.” Sit back, put up your feet, and get ready to lose yourself in a rollicking good story.

Phillip Margolin, Executive Privilege

New York Times bestselling author Phillip Margolin is back, this time with a powerful tale of murder that snakes its way through Washington, D.C.'s halls of power, leading straight to the White House and the most powerful office on earth.

When private detective Dana Cutler is hired by an attorney with powerful political connections, the assignment seems simple enough: follow a pretty college student named Charlotte Walsh and report on where she goes and whom she sees. But then the unexpected happens. One night, Cutler follows Walsh to a secret meeting with Christopher Farrington, the president of the United States. The following morning, Walsh's dead body shows up and Cutler has to run for her life.

In Oregon, Brad Miller, a junior associate in a huge law firm is working on the appeal of a convicted serial killer. Clarence Little, now on death row, claims he was framed for the murder of a teenager who, at the time of her death, worked for the then governor, Christopher Farrington. Suddenly, a small-time private eye and a fledgling lawyer find themselves in possession of evidence that suggests that someone in the White House is a murderer. Their only problem? Staying alive long enough to prove it.

Executive Privilege, with its nonstop action, unforgettable characters, and edge-of-your-seat suspense, proves once again that Phillip Margolin—whose work has been hailed as "frighteningly plausible" (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) and "twisted and brilliant" (Chicago Tribune)—belongs in the top echelon of thriller writers.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

One From Wendy



Church of The Dog by Kaya McLaren
I found myself wanting to highlight certain passages of Kaya McLaren's book, Church of the Dog. Don't let the title mislead you - there is a Church and there is a Dog but the book really isn't about either. The book is written in four voices. The main voice is that of Mara. Mara has just escaped a relationship and heads to a ranch in Oregon where she is "adopted" by an elderly couple.(Earl and Edith) Mara is an art teacher and is able to travel in dreams - sounds strange but in this book it works. Earl offers Mara a small cabin on the ranch and tells her to do whatever she wants with it. Mara begins her work on the cabin and Edith and Earl fall under Mara's spell. Edith finds herself doing things she never thought she would do at this stage of her life - dancing with Earl every night, making snow angels - naked, and laughing like all of the tragedy in her life is behind her. Earl also feels Mara's magic. Earl is ill and how he deals with is illness is an important part of this book. Earl and Edith have lost all of their children and desperately miss their beloved grandson, Daniel. Daniel returns to help with the ranch and he, too, is enchanted by Mara. What is Mara? A shaman? An angel? or just someone open and receptive to all of life? Daniel and Mara must each find their way - Mara knows no being passes through this life without making some impact - good or bad. Mara deals with Daniel and his messy emotions and wonders if she can make a difference. Mara and Daniel are brought together in a very unexpected way. Church of the Dog ends in a way that made me want more. I found the book to be one of those rare experiences where you really feel you know the characters and you want to know how they live the rest of their lives.

Monday, June 23, 2008

Doesn't Alaska sound nice?


When it's this hot I like to take a reprieve and read Alaska.
Sue Henry, an Anthony and Macavity Award-winning author who lives and writes in Anchorage, Alaska, has a new Jessie Arnold Mystery Degrees of Separation.

Champion musher Jessie Arnold has been out of racing for a number of years, ever since she incurred a devastating knee injury. Now she's ready to get back into shape for this year's Iditarod. While taking her team on a practice run down a local trail she takes a snowy bump that's never been there before. It turns out to be a snow-shrouded body.

Now, Jessie and her boyfriend, Alaska State Trooper Alex Jensen, are back chasing criminals. And the hunt is on for the killer of a supposed earthquake victim-whose death turns out to actually be a murder.

Or pick up a Dana Stabenow paperback A Deeper Sleep: A Kate Shugak Novel, and always good.

Sunday, June 22, 2008

You are Invited!



You are invited to Brent Ghelfi's national book launch for Volk's Shadow.
Wednesday July 2 from 6:30 pm (talk at 7:00)

This is a Preview Party for Phoenix author, Ghelfi and takes place in a private home in Paradise Valley: 5525 N. Camelback Canyon Drive, Phoenix

The party is free and open to all! So please come and join the party in celibration of this wonderful author.

We will set it up as usual (with a sound system) and take plenty of copies of Volk's Shadow (Holt $25) to sell.

If you are looking for delightful evening entertainment this hot summer, here is one opportunity.
Volk's Game ($14 pbk or $20 hardcover) was our top selling debut of 2007.

Friday, June 20, 2008

Did you miss An Incomplete Revenge?



Jackie was back and she signed more first editions!

Beloved author, Jaqueline Winspear hosted an event last wednesday with Meg Gardiner, an author she made time to champion. While she was here, she signed the latest Maisie Dobbs Novel, An Incomplete Revenge. So if you didn't get one before we sold out, here is your chance.

From Publishers Weekly
In Edgar-finalist Winspear's enjoyable fifth installment in her Maisie Dobbs series (after 2006's Messenger of Truth), the psychologist/investigator digs deep into a village's long-buried secrets. Maisie's benefactor, tycoon James Compton, wants to buy an estate in the bucolic hamlet of Heronsdene, but is wary after a string of mysterious fires. Maisie soon proves Compton's suspicions correct when she encounters the shady current landowner and a vaguely menacing band of Gypsies in town for the seasonal harvest. The locals are also curiously tight-lipped about Heronsdene's wartime tragedy, when a zeppelin raid wiped out a family. Teasing out Heronsdene's secrets will take all the intrepid former nurse's psychological skills and test her ability to navigate between the Gypsy and gorja (non-Gypsy) worlds. Winspear vividly evokes England between the wars, when the old order crumbled and new horizons beckoned working women like her appealing heroine. Even if a few of the plot twists prove predictable, this jaunt back to a bygone era is as satisfying as a spin in Maisie's MG.

And who is this author Jackie is hooting about?
Stephen King Calls Meg "the next suspense superstar".

From Publishers Weekly on Dirty Secrets Club
An intelligent and stubborn heroine who's just emotionally vulnerable enough to be empathetic lifts this novel from Gardiner (China Lake), a Californian now living in London making her U.S. debut. Dr. Jo Beckett, a forensic psychiatrist (or deadshrinker), performs psychological autopsies to uncover the truths behind grisly crimes. Recruited to consult on the possible suicide of prosecutor Callie Harding, who drove her BMW off a San Francisco bridge and struck an airport minivan on the road below, Jo discovers this accident is the latest in a string of high profile murder-suicides. As Jo and the SFPD's Lt. Amy Tang dig deeper, they uncover the Dirty Secrets Club, a shadowy group of citizens whose members include a noted fashion designer and a football star, both of whom committed very public suicides. Still coming to terms with her doctor husband's recent death, Jo struggles to pinpoint the club's origins, realizing that a former member may be systematically driving the remaining members to their deaths. Gardiner should win new fans on this side of the Atlantic with this adrenaline-filled thriller.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

You are invited to join us for an exclusive book launch of Jackie Collins's new book




Meet author Jackie Collins and get a copy of her new book, Married Lovers!
Wednesday, July 16 at 6PM
Harrah's AK-Chin Casino Resort
event will be held in the Ballroom
Jackie's new book, Married Lovers will be available for purchase at the signing.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

The Gone-Away World is smart and funny



There’s a book coming out that everyone is going to be talking about, a book that has the 20-somethings inspired. This book is Nick Harkaway’s Gone Away World. Don't miss your chance to get a signed copy of this debut.

Who is this young Cornwall lad? He is the son of English writer John le Carré.
“There were whispers of nepotism when this debut novel by John le Carré's son was bought for a reputed £300,000 last year. But on reading this magnificent, sprawling, epic work, it's clear it was published on its own merits, and is probably worth considerably more than the amount Heinemann paid for it.
With the right wind behind it, The Gone-Away World could easily become a modern classic. Its scope and ambition are extraordinary, its execution is often breathtaking, and its style is by turns hilarious, outrageous, devastating, hip and profound”
Doug Johnstone, The Independent
“To the seasoned sci-fi fan, there are strong echoes of almost every great work, from Forbidden Planet (monsters from the Id) to Patrick Stewart's existentialist interpretation of the role of Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek. But it would be wrong to think that this is not an original book, since Harkaway takes all of these references and makes them his own.”
The Times review by Sarah Vine

A sprawling, highly gratifying read, exploring the fascinating historical episodes of the narrator with each chapter, delivering truths and real incite where most would be content to deliver one-liners and fluff. Not only this, the book provides sideways glances at society, literary flourishes, a catalogue of characterizations any author would be proud to call their own, and a finely structured story which necessitates the rather plump size of the title.

“It's the sort of book which I've no doubt, in university terms to come, will be pawed by awe-inspired English students. It has it's minor annoyances for me, but I'm pretty sure there'll be no greater début, or a more confidently ambitious book this year. 'More than anything, I wanted this book to be fun', says Harkaway on the book's website. Well I'd like to tell him, he's done that, and a fair bit more.”

A wildly entertaining debut novel, introducing a bold new voice that combines antic humor with a stunning futuristic vision to give us an electrifyingly original tale of love, friendship and the apocalypse.”

“Equal parts raucous adventure, comic odyssey, geek nirvana and ultracool epic, The Gone-Away World is a story of—among other things—pirates, war, mimes, greed and ninjas. But it is also the story of a world, not unlike our own, in desperate need of heroes—however unlikely they may seem.”

Visit the Official Website. Or you can visit Nick here.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Do you have your signed copy of the new Evanovich?


The #1 bestselling author of the Stephanie Plum novels,is back with Fearless Fourteen. A story of personal vendettas, hidden treasure, and a monkey named Carl that will send bounty hunter, Stephanie Plum, on her most explosive adventure yet.
Looking for a laugh? Well, this book is a hoot. "Thrills, chills, and incontinence may result." Click Here to read an excerpt.
Visit Janet's website to enter the Name Book Fifteen Contest.
EW says, "quick and quirky book Janet Evanovich fans have come to expect."

And if you like this one you might also try PI Izzy Spellman in The Spellman Files, the first novel in a fairly new series by Lisa Lutz.

Monday, June 16, 2008

Where Memories Lie the new book by Deborah Crombie


Where Memories Lie The new Deborah Crombie.
Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James find themselves drawn into a web of deceit and treachery that has its roots in the turmoil of 1939, as England and Germany hover on the brink of war. Gemma learns that her friend Erika Rosenthal lost a valuable brooch during her escape from Berlin, a piece made by her father, a noted Art Deco jeweler.

Now that heirloom has turned up for sale at a venerable London auction house, and Erika asks Gemma’s help in discovering its whereabouts for the last fifty years. But the past bleeds into the future when those connected with the brooch begin to die, and Gemma and Duncan learn that the long-ago unsolved murder of Erika’s husband has deadly repercussions in the present. Where Memories Lie is Crombie’s most suspenseful outing yet, and will keep you turning pages until its shocking end.

Read Chapter One
Meet Deborah at The Poisoned Pen Bookstore on Monday, June 30 at 7 PM.

Friday, June 13, 2008

Exciting New Signed Books


The Story of Edgar Sawtelle By David Wroblewski, is a hot new book that even author Stephen King is pushing. "A meaty family melodrama forthcoming from Ecco Press this fall. It's got that Thousand Acres/Jane Smiley vibe.
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle explores the deep and ancient alliance between humans and dogs, and the power of fate through one boy’s epic journey into the wild."

Born mute, speaking only in sign, Edgar Sawtelle leads an idyllic life with his parents on their farm in remote northern Wisconsin. For generations, the Sawtelles have raised and trained a fictional breed of dog whose thoughtful companionship is epitomized by Almondine, Edgar’s lifelong companion. But with the unexpected return of Claude, Edgar’s uncle, turmoil consumes the Sawtelle’s once-peaceful home. When Edgar’s father dies suddenly, Claude insinuates himself into the life of the farm–and into Edgar’s mother’s affections.
Grief-stricken and bewildered, Edgar tries to prove Claude played a role in his father’s death, but his plan backfires, spectacularly. Edgar flees into the vast wilderness lying beyond the farm. He comes of age in the wild, fighting for his survival and that of the three yearling dogs who follow him. But his need to face his father’s murderer, and his devotion to the Sawtelle dogs, turn Edgar ever homeward.

Wroblewski is a master storyteller, and his breathtaking scenes–the elemental north woods, the sweep of seasons, an iconic American barn, a ghost made of falling rain–create a family saga that is at once a brilliantly inventive retelling of Hamlet, an exploration of the limits of language, and a compulsively readable modern classic.



Deaver, Jeffrey. Broken Window(Simon & Schuster June). Identity theft powers the latest Lincoln Rhyme/Amelia Sachs thriller. The villain is really slick but he makes one big error—targeting Rhyme's cousin.

Deaver signs Broken Window at The Poisoned Pen Bookstore on Wednesday, June 25 at 7 PM.

The Dark Ferryman: The Elven Ways #2 (Elven Ways) (Hardcover)by Jenna Rhodes.
Jenna is a fantasy author, who writes also as Elizabeth Forrest and other pseudonyms will be at The Poisoned Pen Bookstore to sign this title on Wednesday, June 18th at 12:30 pm.
"As civil war begins, the high elven Vaelinar see their power bases being torn apart as the magical Ways they have created begin to disintegrate. In the midst of the conflict, Sevryn and Rivergrace are pulled from each other, forced to follow separate pathways as they fight against possession by goddess and demon alike. Accused of high treason by the warrior queen Lariel, Rivergrace’s only allies are her Dweller sister and the most mysterious of all Vaelinar Ways—the Dark Ferryman."

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Ever Attend a Book Signing?


With the economy plummeting and the cost of gas rising more and more people are looking for cheap fun. If you are a reader why not come meet your favorite authors? The events are cool, air-conditioned and FREE! Author events are a great date night.
If you've never been to a signing I urge you to give it a try. We move the shelves and set up chairs. The authors talk, answer question and you can bring your camera.
It's fun!
Here is a list of our June events:
June 12 John Connolly
signs a new Charlie Parker Thriller, The Reaper, and invites attendees out for a drink on him after the program/signing

June 13 Maggie Sefton
Signs her first hardcover in her Knitting Club series, Dyer Consequences

June 14 Douglas Preston
Signing The Monster of Florence at a 6 PM wine and cheese reception

June 16 Don Winslow
Signing Dawn Patrol and screening some scenes from the DVD of The Death and Life of Bobby Z with comments by author Winslow

June 18
Writers Workshop
Fantasy author Jenna Rhodes who writes under several pen names does a workshop we sponsor at Mesquite Public Library. Rhodes, who writes also as Elizabeth Forrest and other pseudonyms will cover writing hooks for queries and agents, as well as basic book plotting: leads, structure, character..."what I call my LOOK method." She'll also have the group do some light exercises.

June 17 Andrei Cherny
Signs The Candy Bombers (Putnam $29.95), a history of the Berlin Airlift

June 18 Jackie Winspear, Meg Gardiner
Winspear signs An Incomplete Revenge, and hosts Gardiner signing The Dirty Secrets Club

June 19 Karen Essex
Signing Stealing Athena, a novel about the Elgin Marbles

June 24 James Rollins
Signs Last Oracle

June 25 Jeffery Deaver
Deaver signs Broken Window

June 30 Deborah Crombie
Signing Where Memories Lie

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

New and British


Here are a few new signed British edition we have in stock:
The Behaviour of Moths ($32)by Poppy Adams
"Beautifully written and superbly constructed, Poppy Adams has created a gripping novel, a treat to read. The central character, Ginny, slowly unravels her life story as she perceives it. Her life's work has been to study moths, how they are unable to consciously change anything about their behaviour - the parallels are strong between this and her own behaviour. Will nurture play a greater part in her life than nature? Can she consciously change what is preconditioned within her? A totally absorbing read - a must read."


Mutiny on the Bounty ($36) by John Boyne
December 23, 1787, Portsmouth: A 14-year-old boy, John Jacob Turnstile, has got into trouble with the police on one too many occasions and is on his way to prison when an offer is put to him - a ship has been refitted over the last few months and is about to set sail with an important mission. The boy who was expected to serve as the captain's personal valet has been injured and a replacement must be found immediately. The deal is struck and he finds himself onboard, meeting the captain, just as the ship sets sail.The ship is HMS Bounty, the captain is William Bligh, and their destination is Tahiti. "Mutiny on the Bounty" is the first novel to explore all the events relating to the Bounty's voyage, from their long journey across the ocean to their adventures on the island of Tahiti and the subsequent 48 day expedition towards Timor. A vivid recreation of the famous mutiny, the story is packed with humour, violence and historical detail, while presenting a very different portrait of Captain Bligh and Mr Christian than has ever been shown before.


Michaelmas Tribute ($43) Cara Harrison
Mara, Brehon of the Burren returns in another wonderful historical tale of murder and intrigue. The Michaelmas Fair is a time for the people of the Burren to gather together, buy and sell their wares, and give tribute to the lord of their clans. This year there's an undercurrent of anger - the new lord of the MacNamara clan has raised the tribute and his greedy steward Ragnall MacNamara, is not making himself a popular man. When his body is found in the churchyard, Mara has is called to investigate. Was it revenge, greed or something more sinister? Then another body is discovered, apparently a suicide. But Mara is not convinced and it's up to her, as the judge and lawgiver, to uncover who the killer is before they strike again...


Kingdom beyond the Waves ($42) Stephen Hunt
From the author of The Court of the Air, a hugely engaging, Victorian-style adventure, filled with perilous quests, dastardly deeds and deadly intrigue - perfect for all fans of Philip Pullman and Susanna Clarke Professor Amelia Harsh is obsessed with finding the lost civilisation of Camlantis, a legendary city from pre-history that is said to have conquered hunger, war and disease -- tempering the race of man's baser instincts by the creation of the perfect pacifist society. It is an obsession that is to cost her dearly. She returns home to Jackals from her latest archaeological misadventure to discover that the university council has finally stripped her of her position in retaliation for her heretical research. Without official funding, Amelia has no choice but to accept the offer of patronage from the man she blames for her father's bankruptcy and suicide, the fiercely intelligent and incredibly wealthy Abraham Quest. He has an ancient crystal-book that suggests the Camlantean ruins are buried under one of the sea-like lakes that dot the murderous jungles of Liongeli.Amelia undertakes an expedition deep into the dark heart of the jungle, blackmailing her old friend Commodore Black into ferrying her along the huge river of the Shedarkshe on his ancient u-boat.

With an untrustworthy crew of freed convicts, Quest's force of female mercenaries on board and a lunatic steamman safari hunter acting as their guide, Amelia's luck can hardly get any worse. But she's as yet unaware that her quest for the perfect society is about to bring her own world to the brink of destruction!


Bleeding Heart Square ($41) Andrew Taylor
'If Philippa Penhow hadn't gone to Bleeding Heart Square on that January day, you and perhaps everyone else might have lived happily ever after...' It's 1934, and the decaying London cul-de-sac of Bleeding Heart Square is an unlikely place of refuge for aristocratic Lydia Langstone. But as she flees her abusive marriage there is only one person she can turn to - the genteelly derelict Captain Ingleby-Lewis, currently lodging at no 7. However, unknown to Lydia, a dark mystery haunts 7 Bleeding Heart Square. What happened to Miss Penhow, the middle-aged spinster who owns the house and who vanished four years earlier? Why is a seedy plain-clothes policeman obsessively watching the square? What is making struggling journalist Rory Wentwood so desperate to contact Miss Penhow? And why are parcels of rotting hearts being sent to Joseph Serridge, the last person to see Miss Penhow alive...? Legend has it the Devil once danced in Bleeding Heart Square - but is there now a new and sinister presence lurking in its shadows?

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Are you are last minute shopper?


Well, I have the book for you! Plague Ship first editon signed by both Clive Cussler and Jack Du Brul.
Plague Ship is a high-stakes, high-seas journey that proves once again that Cussler is "just about the best storyteller in the business" -- New York Post
For four novels, Clive Cussler has charted the exploits of the Oregon, a covert ship completely dilapidated on the outside but, on the inside, packed with sophisticated weaponry and intelligence-gathering equipment. Captained by the rakish, one-legged Juan Cabrillo and manned by a crew of former military and spy personnel, it is a private enterprise, available for any government agency that can afford it— and now Cussler sends the Oregon on its most extraordinary mission yet.

Monday, June 9, 2008

Don't miss Don Winslow's new book The Dawn Patrol


The author of The Winter of Frankie Machine is back with a razor-sharp novel as cool as its characters, The Dawn Patrol. "Harrowing and funny, righteous and outrageous.
Boone Daniels lives to surf. Every morning he’s out in the break off Pacific Beach with the other members of The Dawn Patrol: four men and one woman as single-minded about surfing as he is. Or nearly. They have “real j-o-b-s”; Boone works as a PI just enough to keep himself in fish tacos and wet suits—and in the water whenever the waves are "epic macking crunchy."
But Boone is also obsessed with the unsolved case of a young girl named Rain who was abducted back when he was on the San Diego police force. He blames himself—just as almost everyone in the department does—for not being able to save her. Now, when he can’t say no to a gorgeous, bossy lawyer who wants his help investigating an insurance scam, he’s unexpectedly staring at a chance to make some amends—and take some revenge—for Rain’s disappearance. It might mean missing the most colossal waves he’s liable to encounter (not to mention putting The Dawn Patrol in serious harm’s way as he tangles with the local thuggery), but this investigation is about to give him a wilder ride than any he’s ever imagined."

Here is a fantastic LA Times article

Click Here to read an interview with Don Winslow.

On Monday, June 16 at 7pm Don Winslow will be at The Poisoned Pen in Scottsdale to sign The Dawn Patrol.. Don't miss this great opportunity.

Sunday, June 8, 2008

David Sedaris has a new book out and we have it signed. When You Are Engulfed in Flames

"David Sedaris's ability to transform the mortification of everyday life into wildly entertaining art," (The Christian Science Monitor)

"a writer worth treasuring" (Seattle Times).


"Older, wiser, smarter and meaner, Sedaris...defies the odds once again by delivering an intelligent take on the banalities of an absurd life." --Kirkus Reviews

This latest collection proves that not only does Sedaris still have it, but he's also getting better....Sedaris's best stuff will still--after all this time--move, surprise, and entertain." --Booklist


Click Here to read an excerpt.

To order a signed first edition of David Sedaris's new book When You Are Engulfed in Flames please email sales@poisonedpen.com or call 888 560 9919

Friday, June 6, 2008

Wow, what a night!



Last night we hosted the LKH event with The Friends of the Library.
It was a lovely evening. Laurell K Hamilton signed, Blood Noir, The 16th Anita Blake novel.

There were treats, books to buy and Makeup Artist Brooke Love, a graduate of the Joe Blasco School of special effects makeup in Hollywood on hand to vamp it up. It was a wonderful evening!



Readers can’t get enough of the #1 New York Times bestselling author.

A favor for Jason, vampire hunter Anita Blake’s werewolf lover, puts her in the center of a fullblown scandal that threatens master-vampire Jean- Claude’s reign—and makes her a pawn in an ancient vampire queen’s new rise to power.
We have signed copies of Blood Noir. Please write sales@poisonedpen.com or call
888 560 9919

Thursday, June 5, 2008

Don't Forget Father's Day is June 15



Need a gift for Dad? Would you like to treat him to new mystery every month for the rest of the year? Then we have the perfect gift for you, a gift that lasts the year though.

MYSTERY-OF-THE-MONTH CLUB

With this club there is no single selection. Instead we collect a member profile and match it. The monthly selection can be tailored to any taste and budget. It can be a paperback or a hardcover. Can be monthly or bimonthly. In fact there are few limitations. Selections can be from the ranks of the traditional mystery or any other genre the recipient would prefer.

This club makes a terrific gift idea: once a month a book and shipping is charged to the giver’s card and the selection is then mailed to the recipient. While most often membership is a gift, some people enroll themselves into this premier club to get a regular, hand-picked, surprise treat!

Contact pat@poisonedpen.com or phone (888 560 9919) or (480 947-2974)

Or good book makes a great gift and Andrei Cherny had the forsight to drop by and sign his book, The Candy Bombers, early so we could offer it for father’s day. It’s the perfect book for Dad. Indeed I’m getting mine a copy.

So who were The Candy Bombers?
Well, they were a group of airmen during the Berlin Airlift who followed the lead of a young 27-year-old pilot and started dropping candy tied to little parachutes to the children of Berlin.

"On the sixtieth anniversary of the Berlin Airlift, Andrei Cherny tells a remarkable story with profound implications for the world today. In the tradition of the best narrative storytellers, he brings together newly unclassified documents, unpublished letters and diaries, and fresh primary interviews to tell the story of the ill-assorted group of castoffs and second-stringers who not only saved millions of desperate people from a dire threat, but changed how the world viewed the United States, and set in motion the chain of events that would ultimately lead to the dismantling of the Berlin Wall and America’s victory in the Cold War."

If you’d like to meet Andrei Cherny he signs The Candy Bombers , Tuesday, June 17, 2008 at 07:00 pm

Alan Furst's.The Spies of Warsaw (Random). Shifting his focus to 1937 Poland, and envisioning 20 spies at work in Warsaw, Furst continues his epic evocation of a Europe hurtling towards war, confused loyalties, self-interest at war with idealism, minor and major sins, wrenching love stories. Starred from Publishers Weekly
Furst (/The Foreign Correspondent/) solidifies his status as a master of historical spy fiction with this compelling thriller set in 1937 Poland. Col. Jean-François Mercier, a military attaché at the French embassy in Warsaw who runs a network of spies, plays a deadly game of cat-and-mouse with his German adversaries. When one of Mercier’s main agents, Edvard Uhl, an engineer at a large Düsseldorf arms manufacturer who’s been a valuable source on the Nazis’ new weapons, becomes concerned that the Gestapo is on to him, Mercier initially dismisses Uhl’s fears. Mercier soon realizes that the risk to his spy is genuine, and he’s forced to scramble to save Uhl’s life. The colonel himself later takes to the field when he hears reports that the German army is conducting maneuvers in forested terrain. Even readers familiar with the Germans’ attack through the Ardennes in 1940 will find the plot suspenseful. As ever, Furst excels at creating plausible characters and in conveying the mostly tedious routines of real espionage.

Or If Dad is a fan of the open range give him a copy of Craig Johnson’s new mystery, Another Man's Moccasins


When the body of a young Vietnamese woman is found alongside the interstate in Absaroka County, Wyoming, Sheriff Walt Longmire is determined to discover the identity of the victim and is forced to confront the horrible similarities of this murder to that of his first homicide investigation as a marine in Vietnam. To complicate matters, Virgil White Buffalo, a homeless Crow Indian, is found living in a nearby culvert and in possession of the young woman's purse.

There are only two problems with what appears to be an open-and-shut case. One, the sheriff doesn't think Virgil White Buffalo—a Vietnam vet with a troubling past—is a murderer. And two, the photo that is found in the woman's purse looks hauntingly familiar to Walt.

I really enjoyed this fresh mystery.

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Three Supernatural Stories


Natasha Mostert’s SEASON OF THE WITCH is an excellently written spellbinding tale of magic. Gabriel Blackstone is a thief hired to find information when a client's son goes missing. The son's last known companions are two beautiful sisters…

Don't miss this eerie book which earned a starred Review from Publishers Weekly
"Starred Review. This and seduction from Mostert (Windwalker) shows that the unfettered pursuit of arcane enlightenment can sometimes come at too high a price. William Whittington, a terminally ill London investment banker, hires Gabriel Blackstone, a rakish "information broker," to find Robert, his missing 21-year-old son. Whittington's wife, who happens to be Blackstone's ex-girlfriend, knows Blackstone once belonged to an organization, Eyestorm, that used psychic methods to find missing objects and persons. When Blackstone draws on his remote viewing powers ("slamming the ride"), he discovers that Robert was murdered by one of two sisters—raven-haired Morrighan or flame-haired Minnaloushe Monk, direct descendants of Elizabethan occultist John Dee, who dabble in alchemy and the "Art of Memory." As Blackstone woos the suspects to discover which one is guilty, he falls desperately in love. Mostert, a South African writer now living in London, has produced a feverish tale that's goth SF at its finest. "

Or check out PERSONAL DEMON, Kelley Armstrong’s latest entry in her Women of the Otherworld series. This is one of Kelly's stronger ones as she takes on the voice of Hope Adams, tabloid reporter /part chaos demon. In Personal Demaon the Cortez Cabal is once again at risk. Armstrong’s fans should be sure not to miss this one.
“A page-turning thriller. Fans of the paranormal will delight in the eighth Women of the Underworld yarn, with its ass-kicking, Bollywoodbeautiful, former-socialite heroine and full complement of sorcerers, witches, werewolves, and other paranormal beings.”—Booklist

Or try Thomas E. Sniegoski, novelist, comic book writer and pop culture journalist's first novel. A KISS BEFORE THE APOCALYPSE. Boston private eye Remy Chandler is an angel turned private eye, living among humans on earth. Remy’s beloved wife is dying in a nursing home, but she can’t achieve her natural end because The Angel of Death has gone missing.

From the book:
"Boston P.I. Remy Chandler has many talents. He can will himself invisible, he can speak and understand any foreign language (including the language of animals), and if he listens carefully, he can hear thoughts.
Unusual, to say the least—for an ordinary man. But Remy is no ordinary man—he’s an angel. Generations ago, he chose to renounce heaven and live on Earth. He’s found a place among us ordinary humans; friendship, a job he’s good at—and love.
Now he is being drawn into a case with strong ties to his angelic past. The Angel of Death has gone missing—and Remy’s former colleagues have come to him for help. But what at first seems to be about tracing a missing person turns out to involve much more—a conspiracy that has as its goal the destruction of the human race.
And only Remy Chandler, formerly known as the angel Remiel can stop it."

“A hard-boiled noir fantasy by turns funny, unsettling, and heartbreaking. This is the story Sniegoski was born to write, and a character I can’t wait to see again.”
—Christopher Golden, bestselling author of The Boys Are Back in Town