THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 19 7 PM two debut sci-fi authors John Brown and Larry Correia 7 pm

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 19 7 PM two debut sci-fi authors John Brown and Larry Correia 7 pm




John Brown will be promoting his excellent fantasy debut, Servant of a Dark God (Tor Books; October 09).

"In Brown's engrossing debut, the first installment of the Dark Gods saga, one of the mysterious Divines, godlike rulers capable of harvesting a person's life force, has vanished. Young Talen's relatively idyllic life is turned upside down when his family is accused of being soul-eaters who worship a twisted god. Pursued by fearful clansmen and a nightmarish earthen monstrosity known only as Hunger, Talen begins to investigate his latent world-changing abilities. Soon he learns of his family's extensive role in the enigmatic Order, whose mission is to break the yoke of the Divines, and the nature of the dark power that hunts them. Brown's narrative takes a few hundred pages to get up to speed, but the latter parts are breakneck-paced and action-packed. Patient readers will be rewarded with a thoroughly enjoyable fantasy adventure." - PW

Larry Correia signs Monster Hunter International (Baen $7.99)

Five days after Owen Zastava Pitt pushed his insufferable boss out of a fourteenth story window, he woke up in the hospital with a scarred face, an unbelievable memory, and a job offer. It turns out that monsters are real. All the things from myth, legend, and B-movies are out there, waiting in the shadows. Officially secret, some of them are evil, and some are just hungry. On the other side are the people who kill monsters for a living. Monster Hunter International is the premier eradication company in the business. And now Owen is their newest recruit.
It's actually a pretty sweet gig, except for one little problem. An ancient entity known as the Cursed One has returned to settle a centuries old vendetta. Should the Cursed One succeed, it means the end of the world, and MHI is the only thing standing in his way. With the clock ticking towards Armageddon, Owen finds himself trapped between legions of undead minions, belligerent federal agents, a cryptic ghost who has taken up residence inside his head, and the cursed family of the woman he loves.

Business is good . . . Welcome to Monster Hunter International.

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17 Clive Cussler 7 pm

Clive Cussler signs The Wrecker (Putnam $28) and Barbara will talk to him about it first.

In The Chase ($10), Clive Cussler introduced an electrifying new hero, the tall, lean, no-nonsense detective Isaac Bell, who, driven by his sense of justice, travels early-twentieth-century America pursuing thieves and killers . . . and sometimes criminals much worse.


It is 1907, a year of financial panic and labor unrest. Train wrecks, fires, and explosions sabotage the Southern Pacific Railroad's Cascades express line and, desperate, the railroad hires the fabled Van Dorn Detective Agency. Van Dorn sends in his best man, and Bell quickly discovers that a mysterious saboteur haunts the hobo jungles of the West, a man known as the Wrecker, who recruits accomplices from the down-and-out to attack the railroad, and then kills them afterward. The Wrecker traverses the vast spaces of the American West as if he had wings, striking wherever he pleases, causing untold damage and loss of human life. Who is he? What does he want? Is he a striker? An anarchist? A revolutionary determined to displace the "privileged few"? A criminal mastermind engineering some as yet unexplained scheme?

Co-author Justin Scott writes me that he's put to good use his years of skiing to create a compelling opening and closing frame set in the 1930s to the Wrecker's story. And of course there is all the great stuff for train buffs and for lovers of the early 20th Century American West..

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 16 Brandon Sanderson 7 pm

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 16 at 7 pm Brandon Sanderson signs Gathering Storm (Tor $29.99),

Brandon Sanderson signs Gathering Storm (Tor $29.99), at the Scottsdale Library, 3839 N. Drinkwater. Free.

Brandon Sanderson, New York Times bestselling author of the Mistborn books, was chosen by Jordan's editor---his wife, Harriet McDougal---to complete the final book. The scope and size of the volume was such that it could not be contained in a single book, and so here is the first of three novels that will make up A Memory of Light. This short sequence will complete the struggle against the Shadow, bringing to a close a journey begun almost twenty years ago and marking the conclusion of the Wheel of Time, the preeminent fantasy epic of our era. Technically this volume is called #12 in the series.

Rand al'Thor, the Dragon Reborn, struggles to unite a fractured network of kingdoms and alliances in preparation for the Last Battle. As he attempts to halt the Seanchan encroachment northward---wishing he could form at least a temporary truce with the invaders---his allies watch in terror the shadow that seems to be growing within the heart of the Dragon Reborn himself..

The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass. What was, what will be, and what is, may yet fall under the Shadow.

For a video interview between Jordan's editor and widow and Sanderson, go here

For a video iinterview with Sanderson (and links to other related materials), go here

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 14 Guys Night Out

join us at the Arizona Biltmore SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 14 for a Guys Night Out with authors John Sandford, Josh Bazell, Martin Limon. Thomas Perry, James Rollins, and Don Winslow. 6 pm at the Arizona Biltmore in the Mesa-Flagstaff Room.

Cash bar and food. Free parking (garage at the west of the property which is located by turning East off 24th Street onto Thunderbird Trail going north from Camelback Road).

We can rock on while the authors are up for it. Plenty of room to party. This event is free. We ask only that you thank the hotel for hosting by patronizing the refreshments and the authors for coming with applause and some book purchases.

We are not using numbers for the signing line but we will give you an unnumbered ticket with your purhcase. You can buy books early at the store or you can buy them at the event.

Mail order customers may order as usual. Since the authors will just be signing mail order at the hotel we may not be able to get books inscribed if there isn't enough time, so please be aware.

What's in the book room?

Bazell, Josh. Beat the Reaper ($15). An amazing debut with one of the true surprise endings. A First Mystery Pick from last winter in hardcover. We have acquired three hardcover firsts ($65 Signed0.

Limon, Martin. GI Bones (Soho $24), newest entry in his brilliant Slicky Boys series set in occupied South Korea. Limon, retired from the military and fascinated with Korean culture and the inevitable clash between it and the occupying forces, has written some of my all time favorite, raucous, unorthodox, yet deeply respectful and penetratingl serious novels. Plus who can result the two military cops, aka the Slicky Boys? While the setting may be a military base and the Korean ville that's grown up around it, and the Slicky Boys are subject to military procedure, they read just like Ed McBain's 87th Precinct Novels. They are at once unique in place and time, and yet universal and timeless. Jade Lady Burning; Slicky Boys; Buddha's Money; Door to Bitterness; Wandering Ghost ($14 each).

Praise for the Sueño and Bascom series:

"Limón's compelling stories of murder, greed, and abuse of power are set off by the Korean culture and 1970s atmosphere."-Library Journal, starred review

"Altogether engaging."-The Washington Post Book World

"Combining the grim routine of a modern police procedural with the cliff-hanging action of a thriller movie."-The Wall Street Journal

"It's great to have these two mavericks back."-The New York Times Book Review

"Easily the best military mysteries in print today."-Lee Child

"Martin Limón does what the best storytellers do: take you away to a brand new world."-Michael Connelly

Perry, Thomas. The Runner (Harcourt $26). A welcome surprise, the 6th Jane Whitefield novel, out last January. We have lots of Tom's backlist including his classic The Butcher's Boy ($14), winner of the 1983 Edgar Award for Best First Novel and featuring an unnamed hitman. One of my favorites is Death Benefits ($7.99) where Perry has fashioned a truly ingenious insurance scam. Lovely stuff.

Rollins, James. Doomsday Key (Morrow $28, probably 2nd prints). The latest thrller for Sigma Force. Turning towards Young Adult fiction go for Jake Ransom and the Skull King's Shadow ($17) and for readers 12 and up, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull ($26 or $7.99).

Sandford, John. Rough Country (Putnam $27). A new case for Virgil Flowers who is, as I've said, so much fun: he's a Lucas Davenport as a younger, single, swinger guy. The Minnesota resort setting and the odd foray to the city is engrossing and colorful, the premise of the book both fun and poignant and certainly unusual. Plus the insights into what it takes to become a star (country-western or other) make you think.... If you've missed reading Virgil, is earlier cases are Dark of the Moon and Heat Lightning ($10 each). Flowers works for Davenport in the Minnesota BCA so Lucas is in and out of the stories.

Sandford is making a special trip to Phoenix because his fans here are so enthusiastic and supportive!

Winslow, Don. The Dawn Patrol ($14 and a few firsts at $24). And the sequel, The Gentlemen's Hour ($26 UK trade pbk). Why a UK pbk you ask? come and find out. We've nearly sold out but we rush ordered more. Love these books for the San Diego and surfing culture, the humor and the genuine pain, the surfer culture and words new to me (see Arsenault above, what words in Winslow's vocabulary for these stories belongs in an official dictionary?). It's hard to resist Boone Daniels, that laid-back private eye, and his Pacific Beach buddies...plus the murkier side of surfing.

THURSDAY NOVEMBER 12 Emily Arsenault 7 PM

Emily Arsenault signs The Broken Teaglass (Delacorte $25)).

The author signs this literary debut for those who love words here on Nov. 12. We sold out but secured some additional first printings!

The dusty files of a venerable dictionary publisher . . . a hidden cache of coded clues . . . a story written by a phantom author . . . an unsolved murder in a gritty urban park-all collide memorably in Emily Arsenault's magnificent debut, at once a teasing literary puzzle, an ingenious suspense novel, and an exploration of definitions: of words, of who we are, and of the stories we choose to define us. I think of this as a literary rather than a mystery novel but in fact, it is both.

The New York Times - Marilyn Stasio
"...[an] oddly endearing coming-of-age story about a recent college graduate who lands a job as an apprentice lexicographer and discovers clues to an unsolved murder embedded in the citation files."

Publishers Weekly

"In Arsenault's quirky, arresting debut, two young lexicographers find clues to an old murder case hidden in the files at their dictionary company. Billy, the narrator, is a "strapping" recent grad with a football player's physique, a penchant for philosophy and a painful chapter in his past that he hasn't quite closed. Mona is a girls' college grad with an ambivalent relationship to her stepfather's wealth and a habit of falling for older, wiser men. The two are drawn together by tantalizing clues left-they assume by a former employee-in the company's citation files. As Billy and Mona spend more and more time hunched over the mysterious "cits" from a book called The Broken Teaglass, they realize the murder may involve colleagues and acquaintances who are still roaming around the office, and Billy struggles to overcome the challenges of entering the adult world and leaving his old life behind. The result is an absorbing, offbeat mystery-meets-coming-of-age novel that's as sweet as it is suspenseful."

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 8 Jeri Westerson and Pete Goodman

Join us SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 8 For Two Smoking Guns: Unusual Private Eye Novels 2:00 pm

AuthorsJeri Westerson and Pete Goodman will be discussing their new books

These two authors present two unusual private eyes working unexpected beats: Westerson's the mean streets of medieval London, Goodman's a Mayan setting with a sacred cenote and a killer dressed up as a Mayan war chief.

Jeri Westerson signs Serpent in the Thorns (St Martins $25)

Convicted of treason, Crispin Guest was stripped of his title, his land, his money and his friends. Now with only his considerable wits to sustain him, Guest works the mean streets of 14th century London, building a small reputation for his skill.

In 1383, a simple-minded tavern girl comes to his door-a body was found where she works and she's the only person who could have killed him. Except for the fact that the man was killed in place by a precisely aimed crossbow bolt. Making matters worse, the murdered man was one of three couriers from the French king, transporting a relic intended to smooth the troubled relations between France and England. Events quickly spin out of control and Guest now finds himself the prime suspect in the murder, one with terrible diplomatic implications. As the drumbeat of war between the two countries grow, Guest must unravel the con spiracy behind the murder to save not only his country, but himself as well when a real surprise is unveiled. I like the time of John of Gaunt a lot and will be interested in debating my view of him with that presented by Westerson.

Westerson's debut novel Veil of Lies ($15), a History Club Pick, was a 2009 Shamus Award nominee for Best First Private Eye Novel

Pete Goodman, Pete signs Smoking Frog Lives ($15).

The scene is Yaxnax, a minor Maya city, abandoned for over a thousand years. In the opening scene we see someone dressed as Smoking Frog, a great war chief of the pre-classic period, decapitating a bound captive in a Maya ritual slaying. But the time is today.

Switch to Nick Michaels, a private investigator with a bad history and split from his girl, who signs on to a dig in an attempt at a career change. He is trained in archaeology. When he arrives at the Yaxnax site, he quickly learns that his fellows are of course pursuing different agendas, while Nick ends up pursuing the elusive killer "Smoking Frog." Nick's eventual strategy is to set up a lengthy con--will Smoking Frog go for it?

This is an excellent book for fans of Elizabeth Peters' Vicky Bliss series--The Night of Four Hundred Rabbits ($6.99) for instance -- and for those of the late Lyn Hamilton although antiques do not figure into the story. I like author Goddman's evocation of place. And of course we've seen such rivalrous academics in Tony Hillerman's Edgar-winning The Thief of Time ($10).

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 7 Collectors Crash Course 2 pm

Jon us SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 7 for a Collectors Crash Course at 2 pm

We will webcast this for those of you who cannot join us Just click http://www.poisonedpenblog.com/

To celebrate Independent Bookstore Day, we offer a course in book collecting.

It's not that a book must be collectible to be enjoyed. But if you are going to buy a new book in hardcover, you might as well buy the copy with the best value.

As trade paperbacks begin to dominate the original form for publication and as we move into a digital age, let's not forget the book as an art form either.

Arizona State University's Pyracantha Press (see history below) and Professor John Risseeuw will begin our workshop with a discussion of early printing and and provide examples of metal types, printing, book binding, and various projects combining art and print including books in editions ranging from a single copy to 200 copies as produced at Pyracantha.

Moving on to the collector of modern fiction, topics will include:
What should I collect?
What's the difference between a first edition and a first printing?
Internet bookselling and the potential for fraud (example: fraudulent signatures).
How to care for your books.
Sourcing collectible fiction.
Participants are asked to bring a gem from their collection (if they have one) and tell us why it's special and what's its history.

Barbara Peters and Patrick Millkin of The Poisoned Pen will conduct the workshop

The Pyracantha Press was established at Arizona State University in 1982 as the production and research imprint of the ASU Herberger College School of Art's book arts program. The press undertakes book arts projects that have particular merit in literary content, result in visual or technical research or provide for significant collaboration between writers and artists or between artists. Publications of the press are not done as class projects, but are produced with professional care and quality by the director, the staff printer and graduate research assistants.

Professor John Risseeuw, who came to ASU in 1980 to establish a book arts program within the printmaking area of the School of Art, directs the press. In addition to being a printer/typographer, he is a printmaker and papermaker. Dan Mayer, full-time book arts printer, manages the shop and may also speak at our workshop

Pyracantha Press editions may be purchased from Vamp & Tramp Booksellers LLC

http://www.vampandtramp.com/finepress/p/pyracantha.html

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 4 Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 4 Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson

Barry and Pearson sign Peter and the Sword of Mercy (Disney $19)

they are not just hilarious to listen to speaking about their work, they often throw out prizes to the crowd. Kids can sit down front on the floor or bring a sit-upon.

The year is 1901--it's been twenty-three years since Peter and the Lost Boys returned from Rundoon. Since then, nobody on the island has grown a day older, and the Lost Boys continue their friendship with the Mollusk tribe, and their rivalry with Captain Hook. Meanwhile in London, Molly has married George Darling and is raising three children: Wendy, Michael, and John. One night a visitor appears at her door; it's James, one of Peter's original Lost Boys. He is now working for Scotland Yard and suspects that the heir to England's throne, Prince Albert Edward, is under the influence of shadow creatures. These shadow creatures are determined to find a secret cache of startstuff which fell to London many centuries ago. The starstuff is hidden in an underground vault which has only one key: the Sword of Mercy, a legendary weapon kept with the Crown Jewels. Molly is determined to help, but when she suddenly goes missing, it is up to her eleven-year-old daughter, Wendy, to keep the starstuff out of the Others' clutches. She has heard her mother's stories of a flying boy named Peter Pan, and he may be her only hope in saving the world from a shadowy doom...

The first three Peter prequels are: Peter and the Starcatchers; Peter and the Shadow Thieves; Peter and the Secret of Rundoon ($9 each).

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 1 Steven Havill, Margaret Coel, Robert Greer, Anne Hillerman, Don Strehl

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 1 Steven Havill, Margaret Coel, Robert Greer, Anne Hillerman and Don Strehl

Join us for a New Mexico Fling with Havill and Hillerman features a chile lunch (red or green?) cooked by Rob, plus posole.

Steven Havill, signs Red, Green, or Murder(Poisoned Pen $25) a Posadas County Mystery, and a standalone historical Race for the Dying (St Martins $26).

And we have a special prize from Santa Fe.

Margaret Coel is going to talk with Robert about his new book Spoon before she signs Silent Spirit (Berkley $25) a return to Wind River with a brand new mystery featuring Vicky Holden and Father John O'Malley.

In 1923, Arapahos from the Wind River Reservation were recruited to appear as extras in the silent film The Covered Wagon. But Charlie Wallowingbull never returned home, leaving people to believe he abandoned his wife and unborn son.

Kiki Wallowingbull, Charlie's great-grandson, went to Hollywood determined to uncover the truth behind his great-grandfather's disappearance. But Kiki has been murdered-his frozen body discovered by Father John, and his supposed killer confessing to Vicky that it was self-defense. Together, they must find the connection between two deaths separated by nearly a century.

Robert Greer signs Spoon.($25)

"Vividly presents the realities of life on a cattle ranch. Larry Watson's Montana 1948 comes to mind as a readalike." -Library Journal

Anne Hillerman and Don Strehl sign Tony Hillerman's Landscape (Harper $40) a lovely photo essay and tribute to the late author by his daughter and her (photographer) husband. Power point images show and our chance to hold a memorial for his beloved author who did several events with The Poisoned Pen and was always a top seller.

FRIDAY OCTOBER 30 Rachel Brady 7:00 pm

Join us FRIDAY OCTOBER 30 for an evening with author Rachel Brady at 7:00 pm

Rachel Brady signs her debut mystery Final Approach (Poisoned Pen $25),

Enjoy nail biting suspense and learn about sky diving as our heroine, a grieving widow and mother, works undercover near Houston at a sky diving school.

Sometimes clues just fall from the sky. Four years ago, Emily Locke's life was shattered when her infant daughter and husband were lost in an inexplicable accident. She has nearly rebuilt her fragile mental health when a disgraced former police detective, now working as a P.I., resurfaces to ask for help-reconnaissance at a Texas skydiving establishment over a thousand miles away. Emily knows better than to work with Richard Cole again, but can't refuse when she learns it's about a missing boy.

WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 28 John Connolly 7:00 pm

Join us for a wonderful evening with author John Connolly on WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 28 at 7:00 pm

John Connolly signs The Gates (Atria $24).

It's TGIW - the Irish author invites attendees for drinks at the Ho after his program.

Written for anyone over the age of ten, here is the story of a brave and precocious boy who discovers that his neighbors are trying to open the gates of hell, is one of the most wonderful things I've read in recent years. It's quirky and funny and scary and mischievous and the characters pop right off the page. Reading it reminded me of so many books I loved growing up-like Edward Eager's Half Magic, Roald Dahl's novels, Lloyd Alexander's trilogy, The Chronicles of Narnia-as well as contemporary novels like Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard and Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl series.

Connolly is a genius at writing about storytelling and magic whether hardboiled like his Parkers or soft like his brilliant Book of Lost Things ($15). The UK edition is the true first for this.

John Connolly was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1968 and has, at various points in his life, worked as a journalist, a bartender, a local government official, a waiter and at Harrods department store in London. He studied English in Trinity College, Dublin and journalism at Dublin City University, subsequently spending five years working as a freelance journalist for The Irish Times newspaper, to which he continues to contribute occasionally. The Gates is his first novel for young adult readers. John Connolly is based in Dublin but divides his time between his native city and Portland, Maine, where a number of his novels have been set.

And I can tell you he's a fine tour guide to Ireland!

TUESDAY OCTOBER 27 Libby Fischer Hellmann 7:00 pm

Visit us TUESDAY OCTOBER 27 for an evening with author Libby Fischer Hellmann

Libby Fischer Hellmann signs Doubleback (Big Earth $25)

PI Georgia Davis reunites video producer, Ellie Foreman in Doubleback when Little Molly Messenger is kidnapped on a sunny June morning. Three days later she's returned, apparently unharmed. Molly's mother, Chris, is so grateful to have her daughter back that she is willing to overlook the odd circumstances.

A few days later, the brakes go out on Chris's car.

An accident? Maybe. Except that it turns out that Chris, the IT manager at a large Chicago bank, may have misappropriated three million dollars. Not convinced that his daughter is safe, Molly's father hires PI Georgia Davis to follow the money and investigate Chris's death.

Doubleback, the sequel to the acclaimed Easy Innocence, reunites PI Georgia Davis with video producer Ellie Foreman (An Eye For Murder, A Picture Of Guilt, An Image Of Death, A Shot To Die For).

The two women track leads from Northern Wisconsin to an Arizona border town, where illegal immigrants, smuggled drugs, and an independent contractor called Delton Security come into play. Georgia and Ellie go to great lengths to find the truth, and Georgia discovers that you can cross a line, but sometimes you have to double back.

Friday October 23 at 7 pm Kris Neri

Friday October 23 at 7 pm Kris Neri will be signing her new mystery, High Crimes on the Magical Plane (Red Coyote Press $15) begining a quirky new mystery series by Agatha and Derringer.

Award winner Neri, who with husband Joe, owns Sedona's Well Red Coyote bookstore. It features fake psychic Samantha Brennan and Celtic goddess/FBI Agent Annabelle Haggerty and "takes the supernatural-mystery trend into brand new territory-beyond vampires and werewolves-to creatures that are both wacky and wonderful."

Diana Gabaldon finds it "...delicious; a funny, pell-mell romp of an adventure rife with psychics, FBI agents and clowns."

Tuesday October 20 Sophie Hannah 7 pm.

Join us Tuesday October 20 for and evening with author Sophie Hannah 7 pm.

Sophie Hannah signs The Wrong Mother and talks about "How to Get a Mystery Published." So if you've been working on a manuscript this could be a wonderful night for you.

To make it more fun, Barbara will be giving away a video of classic Christies featuring 3 new Poirot productions and 4 for Miss Jane Marple. You can't win the drawing if you are not in!

Sally Thorning is watching the news with her husband when she hears "Mark Bretherick." It's a name she shouldn't know, but last year Sally treated herself to a secret vacation, a break from her hectic family, and met a man. After their brief affair, the two parted, never to meet again. But now, Mark's wife and daughter are dead-and when Sally looks at a photo of Mark in the newspaper, she doesn't recognize the man. Aha, this sets us up for a huge twist in the end, a specialty of Hannah's.

"What makes this book quite so gripping is Sophie Hannah's utter fearlessness as a writer. In her expert hands, all the little annoyances and worries and complications of everyday life are transformed, gradually and inexorably, into the raw material of pure terror. It's like watching a nightmare come to life." -Tana French.

For readers of Kate Atkinson, Jodi Picoult, and Ruth Rendell, Hannah is a writer of upscale suspense. I am crazy about Little Face ($14); The Other Half Lives (Hodder $32 Signed) follows 2008 British Crime Cub Pick Point of Rescue ($15). Penguin has chosen to bring her out in trade paperback in the US.

Monday October 19 at 7 pm, A Trio of Triumphs

Monday at 7 pm James R. Benn, Peter Lovesey and Stuart Neville present

their new novels.

Fresh from Bouchercon, this is their opening salvo in the West.

Benn, James R. Evil for Evil (Soho $24 Signed Oct. 19).

Like Alan Furst and Joseph Kanon, Benn explores the 1940s war theater from various, often surprising aspects. Here we find Billy, recuperating from the punishment he took with the Allies in Sicily, in Jerusalem at the luxurious King David Hotel. There he learns that the brave British lady who's won his reluctant heart proposes to return to active duty and gets his own orders from Uncle Ike (related to Billy's Boston Irish clan on Mamie's side) to cooperate with the British in Northern Ireland where various villainies are afoot. Landing in Ulster where it's bloody (cold, damp, dangerous), Billy realizes that his own clan's connections to Ireland reflect the tangled and loyalties and agendas surrounding him. What's up with the break-in and theft of weapons from a depot inside the Allied camp? Billy has much to discover, a lot of it personal.

As ever, Benn does a crackerjack job with the lingo and landscape of the era as he crafts fiction from history. Start with First Mystery Pick Billy Boyle and learn about the Norwegian court in exile in England. Then in Blood Alone visit North Africa for Operation Torch; then join the Alllied invasion of Italy in First Wave ($13 each).

Lovesey, Peter. Skeleton Hill (Soho $24)

Here is a British Crime Club Pick. If club members have never read one of Lovesey's superb Supt. Peter Diamond mysteries, it's about time. And if they have, this one has two novel elements.

One, Civil War re-enactors, British style, Roundheads v. Cavaliers; there was a major battle near Bath, Diamond's beat. And two: a look at the racing world that's rather different from the Dick Francis portraits. Diamond again proves a shrewd, intuitive, somewhat bloody-minded copper and Lovesey's gift for surprise never fails him, or us. Diamond Dagger winner Lovesey is one of My Mother's and my all time favorite writers and is collected in completist manner by PP's Mail Order King David Brooks who hails from England.

UK editions are sold out but we might be able to order more (Little Brown $43 Signed).

Lovesey's list of earlier works is enormous. There's the whole Peter Diamond series starting with The Last Detective ($13) and cleverly pursuing criminals, literary and historical bits, and the amazing, evolving trajectory of this skilled policeman's life. For all his humor and wit, Lovesey never makes light of the tragedies befalling victims, murderers, and Diamond. He has produced a wealth of short stores, collected; a Victorian series about Sergeant Cribb translated into wonderful TV; a trio about Bertie Prince of Wales as sleuth; and assorted standalones, some exploring literary circles. Ask for for those in print and for recommendations.

Neville, Stuart. The Ghosts of Belfast (Soho $24).

The Indie Next Pick from a fellow bookseller: "Former IRA killer Gerry Fegan is haunted by his past. Literally. He drinks in an attempt to block out the visions of his innocent victims, but when they demand vengeance he realizes they cannot be ignored. This gripping, well-written thriller is my favorite hard-boiled debut of the year - hands down!"

Neville's debut makes a Hardboiled Crime Club Pick by Patrick. I too am gripped by the odyssey of Fegan, an IRA killer who remains in a war zone despite the declared peace, haunted by the ghosts of his 12 victims.. So he turns himself into a kind of instrument of justice to silence them. The hitch? Aside from getting whacked himself, he's fallen for a woman with a little girl-potential hostages. How do men trained for the most brutal warfare-in Ireland, generations old-when a truce is declared?

You are so lucky that Benn and Neville are touring together as their books provide a half century of Irish history from different perspectives, thus all the more fascinating to discuss.

SUNDAY OCTOBER 18 Brent Ghelfi, James Sallis 2 pm

Participate with us in the Big Read this SUNDAY OCTOBER 18 as we have authors: Brent Ghelf and James Sallis in to discuss Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 and The Art of Storytelling. 2 pm

Free and open to the public. Ghelfi, a rising literary star, studied writing with Sallis so they will include commentary on the student/teacher relationship in learning the craft.

Ghelfi signs The Venona Cable (Holt $25)

Much praised by James Sallis, Brad Thor, Lee Child, and Greg Iles, Ghelfi works in Martin Cruz Smith territory but with a kind of anti-hero in Alexei Volkovoy. First met in Volk's Game ($14) and Volk's Shadow ($14 signed firsts), Volk becomes involved in Cold War espionage and disinformation when a famous Hollywood filmmaker is found dead in Moscow and decrypted documents from the Venona Cables are released. The Soviet messages had implicated the Rosenbergs, Alger Hiss, Kim Philby, tons of other Soviet spies. How crucial is a difference on one marked-up intercept, and why must Volk suddenly clear his long-missing pilot father's name? It's a great read.

Don't take just my word for how good this is.

From Library Journal

Volk is a Russian agent who works in the violent intersection between espionage and crime. In this third outing, Russia's state secret organs are intent on a 1942 cable named Venona, still hoping to identify "19," code name for the person who fed key Allied decisions to Stalin. Volk gets looped in because this may be his chance to rehabilitate his father, long reviled as a defector. At the heart of this agonizing saga, Volk finds an American spymaster deeply enmeshed in his own secret history of betrayals. VERDICT Ghelfi expertly portrays the seamy undersides of Moscow and L.A. while capturing the brutality of Volk's profession. The pace, plot, and dialog are intensely accelerated, yet the intricate emotions and motives evoked in t

From Kirkus -Hacking through a thicket of reversals and betrayals, Volk fixes on theoverriding question of his father's nature. Swift, sharp character descriptions and atmospheric evocations of gray, melancholy Moscow and the seedier streets of Los Angeles add style and color to a delectably complicated plot.

From Publishers Weekly

When the body of Everett Walker, an elderly U.S. cinematographer who was blacklisted by Hollywood, turns up in a Moscow warehouse where Volk used to make pornographic videos, Volk gets charged with Walker's murder. Walker, who came to Russia to look for Volk, was carrying a microdot copy of the cable as well as a photo of himself with Volk's disgraced father, Stepan, who disappeared in 1974. To clear himself, Volk must go to the U.S. to determine whether Stepan was a bona fide agent of the GRU (military intelligence) or a defector and traitor. Neither the Russians nor the Americans are sure which agents are real and which are double, and the doubt goes all the way back to WWII. Plentiful action scenes keep the pages turning.

With all the horrible recent news about the fate of Chechen activists and for those of you who attended our Daniel Silva event, his comments, you won't want to miss Volk's Shadow ($14 Signed firsts) which pulls no punches dealing with bad, bad Chechen stuff.

Sallis signs What You Have Left: The Turner Trilogy (Walker $19)

Sallis' writing hovers just at the edge of brilliance.
Booklist

James Sallis's extraordinary fiction is distinguished by its honesty and meticulous artistry. With his highly imagistic stories, he has regularly displayed a finely honed mastery of sophisticated literary techniques and sharply etched psychological portraits.
Twentieth-Century Science Fiction Writers

Sallis is one of the finest crime writers around ... If you like your novels on a higher level, Sallis is your man.
The Times

Sallis is a fine talent, introspective, sardonic, a master of quick characterization and narrative compression.
Buffalo News

Sallis is a rare find ... a fine prose stylist with an interest in moral struggle and a gift for the lacerating evocation of loss.
New York Newsday

A strong and inventive writer with a certain sensitivity to language as well as an understanding of the deeper workings of the psyche.
Review of Contemporary Fiction

Sallis is a masterful writer, vigorously exploring the seemingly inexhaustible territory of the post-modern detective novel.
New Orleans Times-Picayune

James Sallis is one of the best writers in the United States.
Sue Walker

Poetry smuggled in at the back door. Sallis, an accomplished musician, has a beautiful sense of the pitch and rhythm of language. He knows precisely how to make use of what he calls 'the battery of affects available: alliteration, syllabics, alexandrines, slant rhymes, simple euphony'.
Iain Sinclair

Then there's James Sallis - he's right up there, one of the best of the best. His series of novels about private eye Lew Griffin is thoughtful, challenging and beautifully written. Sallis, also a poet, is capable of smart phrasing and moments of elegiac energy.
Ian Rankin

Speaking of Jim Sallis in the same tone as Poe and Dostoevski is not overblowing on my part. His early work indicates a mind and talent of uncommon dimensions.
Harlan Ellison

Ever among the most unconventional and interesting writers of crime fiction.
Kirkus Reviews

Sallis might be one of the best writers in America.
Les Roberts

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 14 Joseph Kanon 7 PM

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 14 at join us for an evening with author Joseph Kanon

Kanon signs Stardust (Atria $28)

"Spectacular in every way...wonderfully imagined, wonderfully written, an urgent personal mystery set against the sweep of glamorous and sinister history. Joseph Kanon owns this corner of the literary landscape and it's a joy to see him reassert his title with such emphatic authority."-- Lee Child

Hollywood, 1945. Ben Collier has just arrived from wartorn Europe to find that his brother, Daniel, has died in mysterious circumstances. Why would a man with a beautiful wife, a successful career in the movies, and a heroic past choose to kill himself?
Determined to uncover the truth, Ben enters the maze of the studio system and the uneasy world beneath the glossy shine of the movie business. For this is the moment when politics and the dream factories are beginning to collide as Communist witch hunts render the biggest stars and star makers vulnerable. Even here, where the devastation of Europe seems no more real than a painted movie set, the war casts long and dangerous shadows. When Ben learns troubling facts about his own family's past, he is caught in the middle of a web of deception that shakes his moral foundation to its core.
Rich with atmosphere and period detail, Stardust flawlessly blends fact and fiction into a haunting thriller evoking both the glory days of the movies and the emergence of a dark strain of American political life. It brilliantly proves why Joseph Kanon has been hailed as the "heir apparent to Graham Greene" (The Boston Globe).

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 13 Michael Connelly with Reed Farrel Coleman NOON

Tomorrow, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 13 at lunch, you can meet Michael Connelly with Reed Farrel Coleman at NOON

Connelly Nine Dragons (Little Brown $28), a Harry Bosch novel, at a lunchtime kickoff for the Nine Dragons book tour.

From the streets of L.A. to the shimmering skyline of Hong Kong, Harry Bosch must find his missing daughter.

Harry Bosch is assigned a homicide call in South L.A. that takes him to Fortune Liquors, where the Chinese owner has been shot to death behind the counter in a robbery.

Joined by members of the department's Asian Crime Unit, Bosch relentlessly investigates the killing and soon identifies a suspect, a Los Angeles member of a Hong Kong triad. But before Harry can close in, he gets the word that his young daughter Maddie, who lives in Hong Kong with her mother, is missing.

Bosch drops everything to journey across the Pacific to find his daughter. Could her disappearance and the case be connected? With the stakes of the investigation so high and so personal, Bosch is up against the clock in a new city, where nothing is at it seems.

Joining Connelly is Reed Farrel Coleman.

Coleman signs The Tower (Busted Flush Press $15), written with Ken Bruen who is not expected to join Coleman and Connelly (at this time)....
Born into a rough Brooklyn neighborhood, outsiders in their own families, Nick and Todd forge a lifelong bond that persists in the face of crushing loss, blood, and betrayal. Low-level wiseguys with little ambition and even less of a future, the friends become major players in the potential destruction of an international crime syndicate that stretches from the cargo area at Kennedy Airport to the streets of New York, Belfast, and Boston to the alleyways of Mexican border towns. Their paths are littered with the bodies of undercover cops, snitches, lovers, and stone-cold killers. In the tradition of The Long Goodbye, Mystic River, and The Departed, Tower is a powerful meditation on friendship, fate, and fatality. A twice-told tale done in the unique format of parallel narratives that intersect at deadly crossroads, Tower is like a beautifully crafted knife to the heart. Imagine a Brooklyn rabbi/poet -- Reed Farrel Coleman -- collaborating with a mad Celt from the West of Ireland -- Ken Bruen -- to produce a novel unlike anything you've ever encountered. A ferocious blast of gut-wrenching passion that blends the fierce granite of Galway and the streetwise rap of Brooklyn. Fasten your seat belts, this is an experience that is as incendiary as it is heart shriven.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 10 Joanne Fluke Oct 2 pm

Join us SATURDAY, OCTOBER 10 for a yummy afternoon with Joanne Fluke Oct 2 pm

Fluke signs The Plum Pudding Murder (Kensington $24), so naturally we will serve some in a kind of Christmas prelude... We think the whole reason to eat the pudding is to slather on the hard sauce so we'll make some of it and pass out recipes.

The Cookie Jar's busiest time of the year also happens to be the most wonderful time...for Christmas cookies, Hannah's own special plum pudding - and romance! Holiday orders are high, and Hannah's slated to provide dessert at the Reverend Knudsen's upcoming nuptials. She's busy as can be and loving it. She also gets a kick out of 'Lunatic Larry Jaeger's Crazy Elf Christmas Tree Lot', a kitschy carnival taking place smack-dab in the middle of the village green. Larry thinks he's crazy like a fox with his wild business schemes, but this time, the entrepreneur may have bitten off more than he can chew. Rumour has it that Larry's in the red - an idea that takes a sinister turn when Hannah discovers the man himself dead as a doornail in his own office...It seems quite a few people would have liked to fill Larry's stocking with coal and then bash him with it - including his bitter ex-wife, his ex-partner's daughter, a woman he was wooing, and the Crazy Elf Tree lot's extremely exasperated investors...Now, with so many suspects to investigate and the twelve days of Christmas ticking away, Hannah's running out of time to nab a murderous Scrooge who doesn't want her to see the New Year.

Some News From The Poisoned Pen Bookstore

Phoenix Noir Event
by John Talton
...It's gratifying to see Phoenix added to the list with this book edited by historic district homie Patrick Millikin. The authors for Phoenix Noir include
Rogue Columnist - http://roguecolumnist.typepad.com/rogue_columnist/

BSC Interview – James Sallis
By Keith Rawson
... Pen Press and Harvest books), for which he is best known. I was fortunate enough to sit down with Jim Sallis before his recent appearance at the Poisoned Pen bookstore in Scottsdale, Arizona, to discuss his critically lauded career. ...
BSCreview - http://www.bscreview.com/


Lesa's Book Critiques: Alan Jacobson at The Poisoned Pen
By Lesa
Alan Jacobson is on his book tour for Crush, and the Poisoned Pen Bookstore in Scottsdale was one of his stops. Since he and I had exchanged emails about the Mets, and we're both fans, I went to meet this "original Mets fan." ...
Lesa's Book Critiques - http://lesasbookcritiques.blogspot.com/

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 9 Ghoulie Gals: Sarah Langan, Alex Sokoloff, Sarah Pinborough, and Rhodi Hawk - A Halloween Night at Scottsdale Library 6 pm

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 9 Ghoulie Gals: Sarah Langan, Alex Sokoloff, Sarah Pinborough, and Rhodi Hawk - A Halloween Night at the Scottsdale Library 6 pm





Join Sarah Langan, Alex Sokoloff, Sarah Pinborough and Rhodi Hawk for a horrifically entertaining evening of ghoulish literary fun as these four authors talk about their horror novels.

Copies of the authors' books will be also be available for sale after the program:
by Alexandra Sokoloff: The Unseen (St Martins $25). Sokoloff presents a new supernatural thriller. Two Duke University psychology professors, Laurel MacDonald and Brendan Cody, stumble on suppressed findings of an inquiry into poltergeist activity conducted under the auspices of Duke's Rhine parapsychology lab nearly half a century earlier. All the participants appear to have died, disappeared or, in the case of Laurel's enfeebled uncle, gone mad. Laurel and Brendan corral two students and camp out at spooky Folger House....also The Price ($7) and The Harrowing ($7)

by Sarah Langan: Audrey's Door (Harper $8) Built on the Upper West Side, the elegant Breviary claims a regal history. But despite 14B's astonishingly low rental price, the recent tragedy within its walls has frightened away all potential tenants . . . except for Audrey Lucas.
No stranger to tragedy at thirty-two-a survivor of a fatherless childhood and a mother's hopeless dementia- Audrey is obsessively determined to make her own way in a city that often strangles the weak. But is it something otherworldly or Audrey's own increasing instability that's to blame for the dark visions that haunt her . . . and for the voice that demands that she build a door? A door it would be true madness to open . . . also the Keeper ($7) and The Missing ($7)

by Rhodi Hawk: A Twisted Ladder ($15) is a debut Southern gothic thriller, introducing Dr. Madeleine LeBlanc, a staff psychologist at New Orleans's Tulane University with a special interest in cognitive schizophrenia. Maddy's father, "Daddy Blank," suffers from the disease, as does her brother, Marc, whose suicide leads Maddy, who fears she may also be schizophrenic after psychic visits from a "devil-child," to probe her family's past. Tulane neurologist Ethan Manderleigh provides support as terrible secrets surface about the family sugarcane plantation.

by Sarah Pinborough: Torchwood: Into The Silence ($12)
Feeding Ground (Leisure $7.99) is Pinborough's sequel to her 2007 British Fantasy Award-nominated novel Breeding Ground. Set in post-apocalyptic London, Feeding Ground combines chilling science fiction narrative with visceral horror in a way that is simultaneously unflinching yet emotionally satisfying. Publishers Weekly has compared Pinborough to Bentley Little and Dean Koontz.

"This is one of those rare horror novels that hits the ground running on page one and doesn't break stride once all the way through.... Breeding Ground is a wonderfully entertaining and shriek-inspiring novel beautifully wrought by an author with an unflinching eye and a steady hand." ---Creature Feature

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8 Deborah Crombie and Stephanie Barron

Join us for an evening with Deborah Crombie and Stephanie Barron on THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8 7 pm

Crombie signs Necessary as Blood (Morrow $25)

Once the haunt of Jack the Ripper, London's East End is a vibrant mix of history and the avant garde, Georgian homes cheek by jowl with colorful street markets and the hippest clubs. But race and cultures still clash and Whitechapel maintains a violent and seedy underside. One day a young mother, photographer and fabric artist Sandra, simply disappeared. The Yard's Gemma James and Duncan Kincaid get caught up in this unsolved case when new crimes arise....

Barron signs The White Garden (Bantam $15), a novel of Sissinghurst and Virginia Woolf, our October History Paperback Pick.

In March 1941, Virginia Woolf filled her pockets with stones and drowned herself in England's River Ouse. Her body was found three weeks later. What seemed like a tragic ending at the time was, in fact, just the beginning of a mystery. . . .

Six decades after Virginia Woolf's death, landscape designer Jo Bellamy has come to Sissinghurst Castle for two reasons: to study the celebrated White Garden created by Woolf's lover Vita Sackville-West and to recover from the terrible wound of her grandfather's unexplained suicide. In the shadow of one of England's most famous castles, Jo makes a shocking find: Woolf's last diary, its first entry dated the day after she allegedly killed herself.

If authenticated, Jo's discovery could shatter everything historians believe about Woolf's final hours. But when the Woolf diary is suddenly stolen, Jo's quest to uncover the truth will lead her on a perilous journey into the tumultuous inner life of a literary icon whose connection to the White Garden ultimately proved devastating.

Rich with historical detail, The White Garden is an enthralling novel of literary suspense that explores the many ways the past haunts the present-and the dark secrets that lurk beneath the surface of the most carefully tended garden.