We have limited edition signed copies of The Hilliker Curse ($150). We will also be getting signed copies for (27.00 dollars)
The year was 1958. Jean Hilliker had divorced her fast-buck hustler husband and resurrected her maiden name. Her son, James, was ten years old. He hated and lusted after his mother and “summoned her dead.” She was murdered three months later. The Hilliker Curse is a predator’s confession, a treatise on guilt and on the power of malediction, and above all, a cri de cœur.JamesEllroy unsparingly describes his shattered childhood, his delinquent teens, his writing life, his love affairs and marriages, his nervous breakdown, and the beginning of a relationship with an extraordinary woman who may just be the long-sought Her.
A layered narrative of time and place, emotion and insight, sexuality and spiritual quest, The Hilliker Curse is a brilliant, soul-baring revelation of self. It is unlike any memoir you have ever read.
"William Kent Krueger's mystery series featuring Cork O'Connor just keeps getting better with each installment. In the latest, Cork is asked to investigate a disappearance and what he uncovers leads to cold cases on the Ojibwe reservation as well as forgotten things from Cork's own past. Wonderful characters, twists and turns, and enough action to keep you going."
—Sue Richardson, Maine Coast Book Shop, Inc., Damariscotta, Maine
A Note From Kent!
And I Say to Myself, It’s A Wonderful World
I’d like to share with you the good news: Vermilion Drift just hit the New York Times bestseller list. It’s the first of my novels to reach that milepost. For any author, figuring out how to get your work into the hands of readers is, after writing the book, the most difficult challenge you’ll face. I’ve tried over the dozen years since I first broke into this business to understand what easy route there might be. The answer is that there is none. Like all good things, recognition comes with effort and patient consistency and an unadulterated love of the journey itself. Fame and fortune are, for the most part, beyond our control. The only control we have is to write the best books we can and do everything possible to make readers aware of them. Sometimes our publishers help in this effort; more often they do not.
I’ve been fortunate. I have an editor whom I love and a publisher who is in my corner. Atria Books has helped underwrite my promotional tours. They’ve done store co-op and, recently, begun to mount special campaigns. But even all this is no guarantee of an author’s success. I have a friend in this business who believes that it’s like a cosmic crap game and sometimes your number comes up and when it does, it’s just sheer luck. Maybe so. And if so, I can’t help thinking that with Vermilion Drift, I’ve finally rolled a seven.
I hope you read the book. I hope you like it. And I would love to hear from you.
—Kent
Since I've been at The Pen, Kent has come to see us three times and we are very happy to see him getting the attention he well deserves. Please come down and see him on the 23 of this month, 7pm, or order a copy of Vermilion Drift, http://www.poisonedpen.com/products/hfiction/9781439153840
Number one bestselling author Janet Evanovich has created a brand-new heroine in Elizabeth Tucker: Marblehead resident, bakery worker, unlucky in love.and descendant of witches. Life has had a pleasant predictability to it for Lizzy. That is until a tall, black-haired, dark eyed man shows up in a black sports car, touches her hand and leaves a burn mark. His name is Gerwulf Grimoire, also known as Wulf. And he wants what Lizzy has: knowledge. Almost simultaneously comes another man, a different man, but this one just as dangerous in his own way. His name is Diesel. And he wants several things Lizzy has, only one of them being knowledge. Unbeknownst to Lizzy, she has the ability to find "empowered objects." Turns out, a collection of stones that represent the seven deadly sins have made their way to Marblehead. Nothing bad can happen if the stones are all separated. But if they are grouped together, they have the power to unleash hell on earth. Wulf wants them. Diesel wants to stop him. And Lizzy is the key to all of it. Can Lizzy stay one step ahead of two men who both want her.both body and soul? Can she juggle her job at Dazzle's bakery and still get the muffins out in time every morning? Can she stop the end of the world from occuring? For Elizabeth Tucker, cupcakes, 4 a.m. alarm clock settings, and Armageddon are all in a day's work.
America’s most-read, most-watched, and most beloved serial killer—Dexter Morgan—is back. After selling more thanone million copies and inspiring the wildly popular #1 Showtime series and top-rated crime drama on pay-cable television, New York Times bestselling author Jeff Lindsay returns with his most hilarious, macabre, and purely entertaining novel yet.
Dexter Morgan has always lived a happy homicidal life. He keeps his dark urges in check by adhering to one stead fast rule . . . he only kills very bad people.But now Dexter is experiencing some major life changes—don’t we all?—and they’re mostly wrapped up in the eight-pound curiosity that is his newborn daughter. Family bliss is cut short, however, when Dexter is summoned to investigate the disappearance of a seventeen-year-old girl who has been running with a bizarre group of goths who fancy themselves to be vampires. As Dexter gets closer to the truth of what happened to the missing girl, he realizes they are not really vampires so much as cannibals. And, most disturbing . . . these people have decided they would really like to eat Dexter.
Jeff Lindsay’s bestselling, dark, ironic, and oftentimes laugh-out-loud hilarious novels about the lovable serial killer with no soul (but a redeeming desire to kill only people who deserve it) have gained a legion of fans and assumed a place in our culture.
Six fantasy novels featuring Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever appeared between 1977 and 1983, but Donaldson shows that his epic series still has the power to surprise in this richly imagined start of a final quartet. Covenant died at the end of White Gold Wielder (1983), and at this novel's outset so does his lover, Linden Avery, in a violent confrontation with Joan and Roger Covenant as they kidnap her son, Jeremiah. Linden awakens once again in the Land, where she finds Lord Foul scheming to escape the Arch of Time with the help of Joan and Roger while using Jeremiah as a pawn. The 10 years since Linden 's last visit have been centuries by Land time, and in that interval Anele, with whom she teams, has lost the Staff of Law, plunging the world into chaos. Linden's only hope for saving the Land and reclaiming Jeremiah is to gather a crew from the Land's numerous races and surf a caesure, or time rift, to retrieve the Staff. Nevertheless, she can't shake her fear that all this has been plotted by Foul as part of his malignant design. Donaldson's saga has transformed tremendously since initial volumes offered startlingly original antiheroic fantasy resonating with echoes of both Tolkien and Philip K. Dick, but the engaging humanity of his characters still compels attention. A new generation of readers may find this episode's midstream plunge into the saga bracing, while fans of Covenant's past chronicles will welcome a return to the Land.
The Runes of the Earth returns readers to the Land-and opens with the reunion of Linden Avery and Thomas Covenant! Linden Avery, who loved Thomas Covenant and watched him die, has returned to the Land in search of her kidnapped son, Jeremiah. As Fatal Revenant begins, Linden watches from the battlements of Revelstone when the impossible happens-riding ahead of the hordes attacking Revelstone are Jeremiah and Covenant himself, apparently very much alive. Here in the Land, Jeremiah is healed of the mental condition that had kept him mute and unresponsive for so many years. He is full of life, and devoted to Covenant. But Covenant is strangely changed. Sarcastic and bragging, he no longer seems like the man whom Linden adored. And yet he says he has a plan: he will take her and Jeremiah to a place where they can find a pure source of Earthpower and, after he has achieved his own purposes, Linden will be free to use that great power to go home, to take Jeremiah home, or to do anything else she sees fit. Even though she distrusts the seemingly different man he has now become, how can she make any choice except to follow him? Their journey will cover unimaginable distances through the Land-even through time itself-and will test Linden's courage again and again. In the end, fulfilling her destiny will call for a terrible leap of faith: Can she give up everything she thought had been restored to her, for the sake of the Land?
For more than three decades, New York Times bestselling author Terry Brooks has ruled the epic fantasy realm with his legendary Shannara series. With each new novel the mythos has deepened, ever more fascinating characters have arisen, and increasingly breathtaking vistas of magical adventure have emerged. Now the evolution of one of imaginative fiction’s most beloved worlds continues in the first book of the new series Legends of Shannara: Bearers of the Black Staff. Five hundred years have passed since the devastating demon-led war that tore apart the United States, leaving nothing but scorched and poisoned ruins, and nearly exterminating humankind. Those who escaped the carnage and blight were led to sanctuary by the boy savior known as the Hawk—the gypsy morph. In an idyllic valley, its borders warded by powerful magic against the horrors beyond, humans, elves, and mutants alike found a place they believed would be their home forever. But after five centuries, the unimaginable has come to pass: The cocoon of protective magic surrounding the valley has vanished. When Sider Ament, the only surviving descendant of the Knights of the Word, detects unknown predators stalking the valley, he fears the worst. And when Panterra Qu and Prue Liss, expert Trackers from the human village of Glensk Wood, find two of their own gruesomely killed, there can be no doubt: The once safe haven of generations has been laid bare and made vulnerable to whatever still lurks in the wasteland of the outside world. Together, Ament, the two young Trackers, and a daring Elf princess race to spread word of the encroaching danger—and spearhead plans to defend their ancestral home. But suspicion and hostility among their countrymen threaten to doom their efforts from within—while beyond the breached borders, a ruthless Troll army masses for invasion. And in the thick of it all, the last wielder of the black staff and its awesome magic must find a successor to carry on the fight against the cresting new wave of evil.
The Kollin brothers introduced their future world, and central character Justin Cord, in The Unincorporated Man. Justin created a revolution in that book, and is now exiled from Earth to the outer planets, where he is an heroic figure.
The corporate society which is headquartered on Earth and rules Venus, Mars, and the Orbital colonies, wants to destroy Justin and reclaim hegemony over the rebellious outer planets. The first interplanetary civil war begins as the military fleet of Earth attacks. Filled with battles, betrayals, and triumphs, The Unincorporated War is a full-scale space opera that catapults the focus of the earlier novel up and out into the solar system. Justin remains both a logical and passionate fighter for the principles that motivate him, and remains the most dangerous man alive.
In 1946, an alien virus that rewrites human DNA was accidentally unleashed in the skies over New York City. It killed ninety percent of those it infected. Nine percent survived to mutate into tragically deformed creatures. And one percent gained superpowers. The Wild Cards shared-universe series, created and edited since 1987 by New York Times #1 bestseller George R. R. Martin ("The American Tolkien" --Time magazine) along with Melinda Snodgrass, is the tale of the history of the world since then—and of the heroes among the one percent.
Now a new generation of heroes has taken its place on the world stage, its members crucial players in international events. At the United Nations, veteran ace John Fortune has assembled a team of young aces known as the Committee, to assist at trouble spots around the world–including a genocidal war in the Niger Delta, an invasion of zombies in
hurricane ravaged New Orleans, and a freak nuclear explosion in a small Texas town.
Every now and then the dedicated reader is rewarded with a story that is whimsical, touching and hilarious. Such is the case with “The Tower, The Zoo and The Tortoise” by Julia Stuart. The cover art is compelling in its distinctive style and the casual observer is drawn to it as displayed on the counter at PP.
Balthazar and Hebe Jones live in the Tower of London with their 181 year old tortoise, Mrs. Cook. Balthazar is a Beefeater, retired from a lifetime of service to the Queen. Balthazar and Hebe had a son, Milo; Balthazar now collects rain in perfume bottles. Hebe works in London’s Underground Lost Property Office attempting to reunite lost items with their owners. All manner of trifles are left behind on the London train system and it is Hebe’s job to locate the heir-apparent.
The Queen has been receiving exotic animals from dignitaries all over the world and has decided to move the menagerie to the Tower of London. Balthazar becomes overseer to the creatures. The caged characters bring their own brand of hilarity to the story, with complications abounding.
Additional cast bring their own special charm to this entertaining tale. The Reverend Septimus Drew is the Tower chaplain who writes erotic fiction on the side. Valerie Jennings is Hebe’s eccentric colleague who “falls for someone of limited height” and the Ravenmaster who is, well, in charge of the ravens, carries a dark secret which guides his erratic behavior.
The fortress is full of intrigue and the characters in this quirky tale will live on long after the last page is regretfully turned. “The Tower, The Zoo and the Tortoise” is an affecting, endearing and memorable story with characters I hope to meet again in my literary travels. By far one of the most enjoyable books I’ve read this year.
-Diane McCarthy
For those interested, we have both editions (US and UK) available at the store, though there is a significantly lower quantity of the UK (2) and the price of it is significantly higher $75. The American edition is $25.
