Sookie Stackhouse (Book 9) signed first edition by Charlaine Harris

We have Dead and Gone the new Sookie Stackhouse (Book 9) signed first edition by Charlaine Harris!

Except for Sookie Stackhouse, folks in Bon Temps, Louisiana, know little about vamps—and nothing about weres.

Until now. The weres and shifters have finally decided to reveal their existence to the ordinary world. At first all goes well. Then the mutilated body of a were-panther is found near the bar where Sookie works—and she feels compelled to discover who, human or otherwise, did it.

But there’s a far greater danger threatening Bon Temps. A race of unhuman beings—older, more powerful, and more secretive than vampires or werewolves—is preparing for war. And Sookie finds herself an all-too human pawn in their battle.

The Louisiana town of Bon Temps—along with the rest of the world—is about to be rocked with some big supernatural news: like the vampires before them, the Were people—humans with the ability to change into animals—are about to reveal themselves to humanity. Psychic barmaid Sookie Stackhouse is apprehensive about the revelation, given the way some people in the small town revile anyone with extraordinary powers, including Sookie herself. While the initial announcement seems to go over smoothly with most people, tragedy strikes when Sookie’s brother Jason’s estranged wife, a werepanther, is found murdered and nailed up on a cross. Jason is the prime suspect, but Sookie has even bigger problems to deal with when she learns that a vicious fairy prince is determined to kill her. Darker and more ominous than earlier entries in the series, Harris’ latest raises the stakes (pun intended) for lovable heroine Sookie and comes up a winner. With HBO’s True Blood, a series based on Sookie’s adventures, renewed for a second season, expect demand for this latest gripping installment. --Kristine Huntley - From Booklist

Dark Horse signed by Craig Johnson

What a ride is Dark Horse (Viking $25). I swear Johnson gets better every book. He writes me he's bought a new cowboy hat for his book tour. Go, Craig.

Walt Longmire, that often conflicted, frequently rueful, shrewd sheriff of Wyoming's Absaroka County, is a man I call a true hero for he's afraid-but he acts anyway. Then there's Walt's friend, Henry Standing Bear, as stalwart a backup as you'd like, and the new recruit, Dog (literally, a big beast).

And in this novel, a remarkable and missing horse called Wahoo Sue whose spirit breathes life into the nearly defeated Mary Barsad who is charged with murdering her husband. Her plight sends Walt undercover, posing as an insurance man, in CampbellCounty to see what the dickens is about to blow Powder River country sky high if Mary and the lid on the crime aren't kept locked down in Walt's jail....

OUR MAY BESTSELLERS

Hardcovers

Child, Lee. Gone Tomorrow (Bantam $27 Signed).
Sandford, John. Wicked Prey (Putnam $27.95 Signed).
Grant, Andrew. Even (St Martins $24.9 Signed).
Hall, Tarquin. Case of the Missing Servant (Simon Schuster $24).
King, Laurie R. Language of Bees (Bantam $25).
Pears, Iain. Stone's Fall (Spiegel & Grau $27.95 Signed).
Cantrell, Rebecca. Trace of Smoke (Forge $24.95 Signed).
Rotenberg, Robert.Old City Hall (Farrar $26 Signed).
Pelecanos, George P. Way Home (Little Brown $24.99 Signed).
Larsen, Reif. Selected Works of T S Spivet (Penguin $27.95).

Trade Paperbacks

Kozak, Harley Jane. Date You Cant Refuse (Broadway $11.95).
Caldwell, Joseph. Pig Did it (Dell $13.99).
Harwood, Seth. Jack Wakes Up (Three Rivers $13.95).
Shaffer, Mary Ann. Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society (Dial $14).
David, Evelyn. Murder Off the Books (Echelon $12.99).
Talton, Jon. Dry Heat (Poisoned Pen Press $14.95).
Talton, Jon. Concrete Desert (Poisoned Pen Press $14.95).
Snyder, Maria V. Storm Glass (Mira $13.95).
Ure, Louise. Fault Tree (St Martins $14.95)
David, Evelyn. Murder Takes the Cake (Echelon $14).

Mass Markets

Bommersbach, Jana. Bones in the Desert ($6.99).
Box, C J. Blood Trail ($7.99).
Spencer-fleming, Julia. I Shall Not Want ($7.99).
Haddam, Jane. Cheating at Solitaire ($7.99).
Smith, Tom Rob. Child 44 ($7.99).
Barr, Nevada. Winter Study ($9.99).
Page, Katherine Hall. Body in the Gallery ($7.99).
George, Elizabeth. Careless in Red ($7.99).
Lippman, Laura. What the Dead Know ($7.99).
Hewson, David. Season for the Dead ($6.99)

New Signed Books From the Poisoned Pen

The House of Special Purpose by John Boyne (Doubleday $35 signed)

In Russia during the year 1915, at the age of 16, Georgy Jachmenev steps in front of an assassin's bullet intended for the heart of a senior member of the Russian Imperial Family. He is instantly proclaimed a hero. Before the week is out, his life as the son of a peasant farmer is changed forever when he is escorted to St Petersburg to take up his new position - as bodyguard to Alexei Romanov, the only son of Tsar Nicholas II. Sixty five years later, visiting his wife Zoya as she lies dying in a London hospital, memories of the life they have lived together flood his mind. Their marriage, while tender, has been marked by tragedy, the loss of loved ones, and experiences of exile that neither can forget. "The House of Special Purpose" is a novel about a young man ripped from a loving home and thrust into the heart of a dying empire. Privy to the secrets of Nicholas and Alexandra, the machinations of Rasputin and the events which led to the final collapse of the autocracy, Georgy is a witness and participant in a drama which will echo down the century. His is also a story of a marriage in which a husband finds it impossible to live in the present and a wife unable to reconcile herself with the past. Part love story, part historical epic, part tragedy, the novel moves from revolutionary St Petersburg to Paris after the First World War, and from London during the Blitz to the eastern coast of Finland during the 1980s, before returning to a quiet hospital bed where Georgy and Zoya's story must finally be resolved.


The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe (Voice $28 Signed)

"A fresh present-day story infused with an original take on popular history. Forget broomsticks and pointy hats; here are witches that could well be walking among us today. This debut novel flows with poetic charm and eloquence that achieves high literary merit while concocting a gripping supernatural puzzler. Katherine Howe's talent is spellbinding."
--Matthew Pearl, author of The Poe Shadow and The Dante Club

A spellbinding, beautifully written novel that moves between contemporary times and one of the most fascinating and disturbing periods in American history-the Salem witch trials.

Harvard graduate student Connie Goodwin needs to spend her summer doing research for her doctoral dissertation. But when her mother asks her to handle the sale of Connie's grandmother's abandoned home near Salem, she can't refuse. As she is drawn deeper into the mysteries of the family house, Connie discovers an ancient key within a seventeenth-century Bible. The key contains a yellowing fragment of parchment with a name written upon it: Deliverance Dane. This discovery launches Connie on a quest--to find out who this woman was and to unearth a rare artifact of singular power: a physick book, its pages a secret repository for lost knowledge.

As the pieces of Deliverance's harrowing story begin to fall into place, Connie is haunted by visions of the long-ago witch trials, and she begins to fear that she is more tied to Salem's dark past then she could have ever imagined.

Written with astonishing conviction and grace, The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane travels seamlessly between the witch trials of the 1690s and a modern woman's story of mystery, intrigue, and revelation.


The Warning Bell by Tom Macaulay (Orion $35)

For Iain Madoc it all began when he was eight years old and his father took him out on a boat trip. Something George Madoc saw or heard out on the water that day seemed to change him, and after that it was as if Iain didn't have a real father at all. Only later did Iain come to understand that it had all started long before, when George Madoc had commanded an RAF Air-Sea Rescue boat ferrying SOE agents between the south coast and occupied France. One night in April 1944 an operation to bring back a French agent went terribly wrong, and when George finally made it home two months later, he was unable to speak about what had happened. Now, as his mother lies dying, Iain is finally given a clue to unlocking the mystery of what so traumatised his father that he turned away from his own son. The wreck of High Speed Launch 2548 - his father's boat - has been found near the Breton village of St Cyriac, and with it, perhaps, the key to unlocking George Madoc's memories. Desperate to understand, Iain goes to St Cyriac determined to discover the truth. But St Cyriac will not give up its secrets easily. For some people the past is still dangerously alive, and Iain soon finds that his own family may have to pay the price of uncovering it.

The Information Officer by Mark Mills (HarperCollins $45)

The much-anticipated new historical crime thriller from the award-winning author of the No 1 bestseller 'The Savage Garden' "You want to know who I am? I'm the last living soul you'll ever set eyes on" Summer, 1942. For the people of Malta, suffering daily bombing raids, the British are the last line of defence against the Nazis. And it is Max Chadwick's job as the information officer to ensure the news the islanders receive maintains morale. So when Max is given proof suggesting a British officer is murdering local women, he knows the consequences of discovery are dire. With the violence on the war-ravaged island escalating daily, he embarks on a private investigation, hidden from the eyes of superiors, friends and the woman he loves. But Max finds himself torn between patriotic duty and personal honour in his efforts to track down the killer! an elusive figure always one step ahead of his hunter.

Scandinavian Mysteries for the Long Hot Summer

From Pat King - The summer in Phoenix always starts early and ends much later than any of us would actually like. One hundred days or more of 100 degree temperatures and blazing sunshine can make anyone feel depressed. There are times when any Phoenician would gladly trade in his or her home, in what many feel is paradise, and live someplace where the sun does not break through the overcast skies, where sweaters are required rather than a fashion statement, and fireplaces are something that you actually use. Yes, in the next two weeks we would gladly eat herring on a stick and play chess with Death rather than suffer through the agony and horror of the summer season that ends right around Thanksgiving. Perhaps this is why so many of our local customers have discovered the beauty of Scandinavian Mysteries- a perfect escape from the long, long, long summer. Here are a few of my personal favorites.

The Laughing Policeman by Maj Sjöwal and Per Wahlöö

Sjowal’s and Wahloo’s strong and gritty prose is at their finest within this novel. On a cold, rainy winter night, nine bus riders are gunned down in cold blood. Superintendent Martin Beck is called in to investigate the crime and determine who the gunner is and if the action was in cold blood or a deadly assassination attempt. The writers capture the sense of Stockholm perfectly; the setting and the story will freeze the reader to their very bones.

The Preacher by Camilla Lackberg

A young police investigator by the name of Patrik Hedstrom is called in to investigate a case where two hiker’s bodies have been found after a 22 year disappearance. Lackberg’s novel shines with the development of a complex mystery; however, what I really love is her great character development and realistic dialogue (kudos to the Translator). Within Lackberg’s novel, a foreigner like myself feels at home in this Scandinavian thriller.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
This is my favorite book of the year. I’m a little late writing about it but so many books have paled in comparison to this novel over the past few months. This novel is about a journalist who has been accused of slander and defamation of character by the head of a corporation of whom he had been writing about. Faced with a jail sentence and a hefty fine. Why would such a careful journalist place his livelihood at risk? Rich writing, strong plot and spectacular action makes this author my current favorite.

John Connolly's new book, The Lovers signed

John Connolly's new book, The Lovers signed ($27)

Parker is working in a bar in Portland, having been deprived of his P.I.'s license. He uses his enforced retirement to begin a different kind of investigation: an examination of his own past and an inquiry into the death of his father, who took his own life after apparently shooting dead two unarmed teenagers, a search that will eventually lead to revelations about Parker's own parentage.

Meanwhile, a troubled young woman is running from an unseen threat, one that already seems to have taken the life of her boyfriend, and a journalist-turned-writer named Mickey Wallace is conducting an investigation of his own into Charlie Parker in the hope of writing a non-fiction book about his exploits.

And haunting the shadows, as they have done throughout Parker's life, are two figures: a man and a woman, the lovers of the title, who appear to have only one purpose, and that is to bring an end to his existence . . .