New Signed Books at the Poisoned Pen Bookstore

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dryden, Alex Red to Black ($28) Signed

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Vonnegut, Norb. Top Producer ($27) Signed

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