| A Quartet Plays This Week at The Pen... of Authors |
|
Happy Monday
again!
Last Monday was a joyful day for us and for a debut author.
Sara Johnson
signed her debut
Molten Mud Murder
(Sourcebooks/Poisoned Pen Press $15.95)
This is a series start set in New Zealand and recommended to fans of Kathy Reichs and Douglas Preston, who praises Sara's book.
I wish I knew why the Arizona Republic Book Calendar carried last week's events rather than this week's but... please always check with us, not the newspaper
Check our Updated Ticketed Events: Correction, Diana Gabaldon and Tara Bennett appear on Saturday October 19 at 6:30 PM, not October 15. And New: Janet Evanovich signs a new Plum,
Twisted Twenty-Six, at her book launch on November 11. Details below. Janet to the right.
Do check our BLOG regularly. Lesa updates awards, news, and interviews.
Much love to our social media team.
Barbara and all The Pens
|
|
Thank you for supporting The Poisoned Pen, frequently named Best Specialty Bookstore by the
New Times
and by the
Arizona Republic
, one of 45 Great American Indie Bookstores 2013; Best Locally Owned and Operated Business: Scottsdale 2016; and Poisoned Pen Press, winner of the 2010 Ellery Queen Award from the Mystery Writers of America and named the 2011 Best Local Publisher by the
Arizona Republic and now the mystery imprint at Sourcebooks.
|
|
The September Booknews, Club and Paperback Picks, Staff Picks
and a link to the August BookNotes
|
Note it has a Cozy section before the Small Paperbacks, loads of Signed and Event Books, and a roundup of Cool Critters for fun.
The September Paperback Picks and Books of the Month are listed below.
Do browse our
Web Store . New additions are frequently made to upcoming books and events. I've added loads of titles to Coming Soon... a very big fall looms.
Please remember:
See It Here. Buy It Here.
Thank you for your business. I remind all of you reading this, that it only takes buying one book a month by each of you to keep us here!
Or merchandise, or a gift card. Or, a new audio book option.
|
|
Who Is Bill?
|
That new guy in the store or that new voice on the Telephone is
Bill Smith. It's hard to resist calling him "BS" so we're sticking
with Bill.
Bill began his new career on September 1 at The Pen.
He is our full time Store Coordinator.
I don't yet have a photo to post but we'll get one.
Please welcome Bill and feel free to share any thoughts or concerns, praise or complaints, about The Pen with him:
|
|
Andrew Gross
A World War II Spy Story
Tonight 7:00 PM
|
MONDAY SEPTEMBER 16 7:00 PM
After writing a variety of thrillers, Gross has been giving us outstanding books rooted in history, much of it WWII. Here we dive into a plot that starts in February, 1939.
Europe teeters on the brink of war. In New York City, 22,000 cheering Nazi supporters pack Madison Square Garden for a raucous, hate-filled rally. In a Hell's Kitchen bar, Charles Mossman is reeling from the loss of his job and the demise of his marriage when a group draped in Nazi flags barges in. Drunk, Charlie takes a swing at one with tragic results and a torrent of unintended consequences follows.
Two years later. America is wrestling with whether to enter the growing war. Charles's estranged wife and six-year-old daughter,  Emma, now live in a quiet brownstone in the German-speaking New York City neighborhood of Yorkville, where support for Hitler is common. Charles, just out of prison, struggles to put his life back together, while across the hall from his family, a kindly Swiss couple, Trudi and Willi Bauer, have taken a liking to Emma. But Charles begins to wonder if the couple might not be who they say they are. As the threat of war grows, and fears of a "fifth column"-- German spies embedded into everyday life -- are everywhere, Charles suspects that the seemingly amiable Bauers may be part of a sinister conspiracy. When Pearl Harbor is attacked and America can no longer sit on the sideline, Charles is the only one who can see the fifth column threat
|
|
Nevada Barr
You must meet Rose!
Tuesday 7:00 PM
|
TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 17 7:00 PM Book Launch
68-year-old recently widowed Rose Dennis navigates her incarceration in Longwood in the Memory Care Unit --and her escape.
We meet Rose as she's barely navigating some Charlotte, NC,  woods, dehydrated, clad only in a gaping hospital gown. But dimly she realizes something is way wrong. Captured and tranquilized, cuffed to her bed, she perseveres in hiding her medication, hazily forms a new plan, and escapes again. This time she makes it back to her home where she connects with her young granddaughter Mel.
Mel points out Rose's behavior went weird when her husband was killed. A diagnosis of early Alzheimer's convinced her stepsons to hospitalize her.
But Rose, growing stronger, and narrowly ducking assassination, convinces Mel her memory is returning off drugs and launches a reclamation of her life. It gets wild.
"Thrilling action, madcap humor, and a larger-than-life cast energize this cleverly plotted take on a traditional mystery. Barr surprises and entertains from start to finish."-- Publishers Weekly Starred Review. True-but the beating heart of this book is the uncanny way Barr dives deep inside Rose's apparent dementia to lead her out of it.
|
|
Linwood Barclay
Killer Elevator Tech
Wednesday 7:00 PM
|
WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 18 7:00 PM
Wow!
It all begins on a Monday, when four people board an elevator in a Manhattan office tower. Each presses a button for their floor, but  the elevator proceeds, non-stop, to the top. Once there, it stops for a few seconds, and then plummets. Right to the bottom of the shaft. It appears to be a horrific, random tragedy. But then, on Tuesday, it happens again, in a different Manhattan skyscraper. And when Wednesday brings yet another high-rise catastrophe, one of the most vertical cities in the world - and the nation's capital of media, finance, and entertainment - is plunged into chaos. Clearly, this is anything but random. But what is it? Domestic terrorism. For sure it's terrorizing New York and bringing commerce to a halt.....
I recently read a fascinating piece in the WSJ about Otis Elevators and the smart technology it is developing and installing and one big issue is... it means an elevator carrying a specific passenger or passengers can be hacked. Once again crime fiction cuts along the edge of change.
|
|
Craig Johnson
Walt Longmire
Thursday 7:00 PM
You may purchase tickets at the door
|
THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 19 7:00 PM
$32 admits one with one book; $37 admits two with one book
Attempting to recover from his harrowing experiences in Mexico, Sheriff Walt Longmire is neck deep in the investigation of what could or could not be the suicide of a Chilean shepherd, working on a Basque family ranch, who has been found hanged in a tree.
 The man's death has unsettling connections to the ranch family with its reputation for removing the legs of Absaroka County sheriffs (Walt's predecessor Lucas). And Walt is distracted from the case by the appearance of an oversize wolf in the Big Horn Mountains, a big male who could be a local and not an imported wolf, to which Walt finds himself feeling more and more empathetic. And then there are those moments when Walt just seems to freeze, not relating to anything or one....
All the
Walt Longmires
are in print and form an indelible picture of the wide cast of characters and of varying aspects of Wyoming.
|
|
Two Ticketed Events
Gabaldon/Bennett October 19
Janet Evanovich
November 11
|
SATURDAY OCTOBER 19
Diana Gabaldon and Tara Bennett discuss and sign a
Series Guide to Seasons 3 & 4
$55 one book and admits one $60 one book and admits two (limited number of $60 tickets)
Limit: 600 fans
Time: 6:30 PM (Doors Open 5:30 PM)
Location:
The DoubleTree Hilton Hotel
5401 North Scottsdale Road
Scottsdale AZ 85250
(The Pen has no arrangement with the hotel for discounted rooms.
Please check with the Hilton directly for room reservations. There
are numerous hotels in the immediate area)
No personal books. Diana will sign any books purchased at the event
Can't attend? Please click on the title to order your copy signed by both authors:
.
If using
PayPal please email
[email protected] to get the shipping
rate to be included in your payment
MONDAY NOVEMBER 11 7:00 PM
Order VIP Tickets to attend the November 11 publication party @ 7:00 PM
DoubleTree Resort 5401 North Scottsdale Road Scottsdale AZ 85250
$33 admits one person with one copy of the book
Doors open 6:00 PM
Cash Bar. Free valet Parking
Can't attend? Then please order the book to pick up or be shipped to you.
|
|
More New Signed Books!
|
First, there was a mix up at Harper which has arranged for new bestseller David Koepp to resign our copies of his debut thriller
Cold Storage
(Harper $27.99). A Signed debut in the old Michael Crichton tradition
 They thought it was contained. They were wrong. Here's
"The Andromeda Strain on crack: chilling end-of-the-world terror infected with wicked humor"
Our September First Mystery Book of the Month
selection is also a September Indie Next Pick -- clearly the creepinge fungus captures readers as a force to be reckoned with.
"Screenwriter and director Koepp makes his fiction debut with a sensational thriller.
Breakneck pacing and nonstop action" ensue.
I like having something creepy to set us up for Halloween.
On sale now, Signed here with Martin Limon October 15.
US Army detective Billy Boyle is assigned to track down a French traitor, code-named Atlantik, who is delivering classified Allied plans to German leaders in occupied Paris. The Resistance is also  hot on his trail and out for blood, after Atlantik's previous betrayals led to the death of many of their members. But the plans Atlantik carries were leaked on purpose, a ruse devised to obscure the Allied army's real intentions to bypass Paris in a race to the German border. Now Billy and Kaz are assigned to the Resistance with orders to not let them capture the traitor: the deception campaign is too important. Playing a delicate game, the chase must be close enough to spur the traitor on and visible enough to ensure the Germans trust Atlantik. The outcome of the war may well depend on it.
When council officer Chris Buckley is approached by an odd old  man demanding help in healing a decades-old family rift, he sends the stranger away. But then the old man is murdered, and the police arrive on the Chris's doorstep asking questions to which he has no answers. As Chris begins to look into the circumstances of the murder, he uncovers a deadly secret in the misty silt and mud of the local Lichfield canals that he'll realize was better kept buried. Booth has always excelled at making his landscapes, usually the Peak District, living characters. Set in and around the dark, misty canals of Lichfield, this is a standalone for the always atmospheric Booth in the tradition of Robert Goddard.
Clayton, Meg Waite.
Last Train to London
(Harper $29). World War II has inspired many novels exploring globe-spanning facets of the war. Watch a video trailer for this book
The Kindertransport is a story worth telling. As is the bravery of a childless Dutch woman and her husband who fought
 impossible odds and risked everything to save as many children as they could before war commencing on September 1, 1939, shut the Kindertransport down.
The Indie Next Pick: "Based on a real heroine of the Dutch resistance and scrupulously researched, The Last Train to London brings to vivid life the extraordinary bravery of one fiercely dedicated childless woman who is attempting to save the lives of literally thousands of innocent children as Hitler marshals his forces across Europe. By writing the Kindertransport story as a novel, Meg Waite Clayton captures the humanity of the young victims and the inhumanity of those who were 'just following orders' more than any biography could. A memorable addition to the literature of World War II and one that is eerily relevant to present-day migrant struggles the world over." And our September History Book of the Month. Only 9 copies left
This is a terrific new chapter with surprises galore in the Gold Dagger winning Tony Hill series. Recommeded!! Only 6 left
With Tony Hill behind bars and Carol Jordan no longer a cop, he's finding unexpected outlets for his talents in jail and she's joined  forces with a small informal group of lawyers and forensics experts looking into suspected miscarriages of justice. But they're doing it without each other; being in the same room at visiting hour is too painful to contemplate. Meanwhile, construction is suddenly halted on the redevelopment of an orphanage after dozens of skeletons are found buried in the grounds. Forensic examination reveals they date from between twenty and forty years ago, when the nuns were running their repressive regime.
But then a different set of skeletons are discovered in a far corner, young men from as recently as ten years ago. When newly promoted DI Paula McIntyre discovers that one of the male skeletons is that of a killer who is supposedly alive and behind bars--and the subject of one of Carol's miscarried investigations --it brings Tony and Carol irresistibly into each other's orbit once again...
|
|
Our September Calendar
|
MONDAY SEPTEMBER 23 7:00 PM 
Justice Flanagan 1803 New York City
TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 24 7:00 PM
Publication Party for James Sallis
Lydia Chin & Bill Smith
THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 26 7:00 PM
Suspense based on a true story of a Downs child
FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 27 7:00 PM 
Mitch Rapp
SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 28 2:00 PM Mystery Tea
Mary Anna Evans
signs
Catacombs (Sourcebooks $26.95 and $15.95)
Faye Longchamp Archaeology Mysteries
SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 29 2:00 PM
Poisoned Pen Press Party with giveaways and treats
Warren Easley
signs
No Way to Die (Sourcebooks $26.95 and $15.95)
Lawyer Cal Claxton Oregon Mysteries
Psychologist Dr. Daniel Rinaldo
MONDAY SEPTEMBER 30 7:00 PM Book Launch 
Our copies come with an exclusive custom-designed extra that fits
The Body in the Library of Virgil Flowers #12
WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 2 7:00 PM
JP Beaumont
OCTOBER 3OFFICIAL 30th BIRTHDAY PARTY
TICKETED EVENT
This event has sold out. Thank you.
SEPTEMBER DISCUSSION CLUBS
Please buy your copy from The Pen. Anyone welcome but remember you risk spoilers if you don't read the selection in advance
Coffee & Crime
: Saturday September 14 10:30 AM
SciFi Friday
: September 20 7:00 PM
Croak & Dagger
: Saturday September 21 10:30 AM
Hardboiled Crime:
Wednesday September 25 7:00 PM
|
|
Our Early October Calendar
|
WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 2 7:00 PM
JP Beaumont
SATURDAY OCTOBER 5 7:00 PM 
James Rollins interviews Raymond Khoury
Rollins previews his March 9 event at The Pen for
The Last Odyssey
(Morrow $28.99).
MONDAY OCTOBER 7 7:00 PM
James & Kincaid in the Cotswolds
WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 9 7:00 PM
1930s series start
SATURDAY OCTOBER 12 2:00 PM Mystery Tea 
Minerva Spencer
signs Scandalous (Kensington $7.99)
Lady Sherlock
TUESDAY OCTOBER 15 7:00 PM
Billy Boyle
Bascom & Sueno
FRIDAY OCTOBER 18 7:00 PM 
John Sandford interviews John Connolly
Charlie Parker
SATURDAY OCTOBER 19 6:30 PM
Ticketed Event
$55 admits one with one boom; $60 admits two with one book
No personal books, please
|
|
September Books of the Month!
|
SEPTEMBER BOOKS OF THE MONTH 
British Crime Club
One unsigned hardcover or paperback per month
Cozy Crimes Club
One unsigned hardcover or paperback per month
Discovery Club
One paperback or hardcover per month
First Mystery Club
One Signed First per month
Hardboiled Crime Club
One signed First per month
History/Mystery Club
One Signed First per month
History Paperback
One per month
Modern First Editions
One Signed First per month
SciFi/Fantasy/Horror Club
One Signed First per month 
Surprise Me! Club
One Signed First Per Month
Thriller Club
One Signed First per month
Sandford, John.
Bloody Genius
Comes with a special extra created just for you
|
|
September Paperback Picks
|
OUR SEPTEMBER SMALL PAPERBACK PICKS
OUR SEPTEMBER LARGE PAPERBACK PICKS
|
|
Parking, Drinks & Dining
and a generous offer from Arcadia Farms Cafe
|
We suggest when you can you come early to The Pen (chairs go down around 5:00 PM or 1:00 PM for afternoon events), reserve your seat(s), and explore our vibrant Old Town Scottsdale neighborhood.
Parking is more difficult sometimes because of the restaurants (editorial comment -- the City of Scottsdale's parking policies suck!).
We've given you locations beyond our parking lot.
Good News: Arcadia Farms Cafe has generously offered us its parking for evening events when needed. You can also park just south of our lot between the alley and Main Street.
One reason we don't have a cafe or bar in The Pen is there isn't enough dedicated parking to allow one.
Enjoy --there are all sorts of food and beverages on offer.
|
|
Swtich to Libro.fm and Get a 3 for 1 Deal
|
Start your Libro.fm membership and use the code "SWITCH" to get 3 audiobooks for the price of 1 ($14.99).
Already a member? Vsit our webstore and search for the title you're interested in.
If Libro.fm has it available you'll see a new
Buy The Audiobook button on the same page where you order the book.
More info from
Libro.fm can be found by clicking on the link.
Here is its list of bestselling fiction audiobooks for August
1.
Where the Crawdads Sing
by Delia Owens (Penguin Random House Audio)
2. City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert (Penguin Random House Audio)
3. The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead (Penguin Random House Audio)
4. Circe by Madeline Miller (Hachette Audio)
5. Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes (Penguin Random House Audio)
6. The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware (Simon & Schuster Audio)
7. Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid (Penguin Random House Audio)
8. Mrs. Everything by Jennifer Weiner (Simon & Schuster Audio)
9. A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles (Penguin Random House Audio)
10. The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides (Macmillan Audio)
New to Libro.fm's list is Ocean Vuong's
On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous
. The author-read audiobook gives a direct authenticity that readers will appreciate
|
|
Mystery-of-the-Month Club
|
Looking for something new to read each month and aren't sure what to choose? Let us help... And it makes a great gift for Dad!
The Mystery-of-the-Month Club is individually tailored to each customer's specific tastes. Just let us know what kinds of mysteries you enjoy, whether your looking for signed hardcover books or paperbacks, and we'll take it from there!
For more information, drop Patrick King a line at
|
|
We Don't Want to Lose You!
|
If you change your email address you will disappear from our Enews mailing list automatically.
We can't tell unless you either
Go to the very bottom of any Enews and Click on
UPDATE PROFILE or go here and fill in the form. You can choose whether to get the Enews alone or the Enews and Event invitations.
or
Email us your new Email address so we can input it for you into The Enews list. Please tell us that's what you want because we cannot just subscribe you.
|
|
|
Forwarding to a Friend
|
|
Here's something you can do for readers you know...and for free. Forward them an Enews. Or, you can sign a new subscriber up by using this link. It only takes a minute to fill in an email address and name. The Enews has an easy Unsubscribe feature at the bottom of each issue. |
|
Buy Poisoned Pen Gift Cards Online
|
|
|
|
| |
|
| |
|
The Poisoned Pen
|
Is a full service general bookstore with a specialty in fiction of all kinds, and in history. When books are not on our shelves we can order them for you quickly or, if British, it takes a little longer.
Email any requests to
[email protected]. It's all part of the experience. Thank you for supporting The Poisoned Pen.
Winner, 2001 Raven Award from the Mystery Writers of America! Winner,
2012 The Arizona Republic and the New Times Best of Phoenix and Best of Scottsdale, Best Bookstore! 2013 Arizona Republic's Critics' Choice and Reader's Choice Best Specialty Bookstore
12-time Nominee, Publishers Weekly's Bookseller of the Year
Winner, James Patterson Page-Turner Award
Poisoned Pen Press, Winner, The 2010 Ellery Queen Award from The Mystery Writers of America
Member of the Crime Writers of Canada, British Crime Writers Association, The American Booksellers Association,
|
|
|
