Lift the new book by Kelly Corrigan

"I have a new book coming out next week, only 96 pages, what they call a single-sitting read. According to O Mag, it's bighearted. According to Anne Lamott, it's rich and intimate. According to my mother, it's better than The Middle Place."

We have copies of Lift the new book by Kelly Corrigan

Don't miss the chance to hear Kelly talk and get a signed copy of her book!

Kelly Corrigan is the author of The Middle Place, a New York Times bestseller. She is a YouTube sensation whose beloved “Transcending” video was sent woman-to-woman to more than 4 million viewers. She is also a contributor to O, The Oprah Magazine and Good Housekeeping, and is the founder of circusofcancer.org. She lives outside San Francisco with her husband and children.
Don't miss her:
Thursday, March 25 at 7pm
Xavier Piper Center
4710 N. 5th Str.
Call for tickets
Info: 602-565-5444

For signed copies of Lift or The Middle Place call 888 560 9919 or email sales@poisonedpen.com

Books Just In

Hunt, Stephen. Secrets of the Fire Sea ($41) Signed

A tale of high adventure and derring-do set in the same Victorian-style world as the acclaimed The Court of the Air and The Rise of the Iron Moon. The isolated island of Jago is the only place Hannah Conquest has ever known as home. Encircled by the magma ocean of the Fire Sea, it was once the last bastion of freedom when the world struggled under the tyranny of the Chimecan Empire during the age-long winter of the cold-time. But now this once-shining jewel of civilization faces an uncertain future as its inhabitants emigrate to greener climes, leaving the basalt plains and raging steam storms far behind them. For Hannah and her few friends, the streets of the island's last occupied underground city form a vast, near-deserted playground. But Hannah's carefree existence comes to an abrupt halt when her guardian, Archbishop Alice Gray, is brutally murdered in her own cathedral. Someone desperately wants to suppress a secret kept by the archbishop, and if the attempts on Hannah's own life are any indication, the killer believes that Alice passed the knowledge of it onto her ward before her saintly head was separated from her neck. But it soon becomes clear that there is more at stake than the life of one orphan. A deadly power struggle is brewing on Jago, involving rival factions in the senate and the island's most powerful trading partner. And it's beginning to look as if the deaths of Hannah's archaeologist parents shortly after her birth were very far from accidental. Soon the race is on for Hannah and her friends to unravel a chain of hidden riddles and follow them back to their source to save not just her own life, but her island home itself.

Mason, Zachary. Lost Books of the Odyssey ($26) Signed

Starred Review PW, "Mason's fantastic first novel, a deft reimagining of Homer's Odyssey, begins with the story as we know it before altering the perspective or fate of the characters in subsequent short story–like chapters. Legendary moments of myth are played differently throughout, as when Odysseus forgoes the Trojan horse, or when the Cyclops—here a gentle farmer—is blinded by Odysseus while he burgles the Cyclops's cave. Mason's other life—as a computer scientist—informs some chapters, such as The Long Way Back in which Daedalus's labyrinth ensnares Theseus in a much different way. Part of what makes this so enjoyable is the firm grasp Mason has on the source material; the footnotes double as humorous asides while reminding readers who aren't familiar with the original that, for instance, Eumaios is the swineherd who sheltered Odysseus when he first returned to Ithaca and later helped him kill the suitors. This original work consistently surprises and delights."

Pepper, Andrew. The Detective Branch ($43) Signed

Drury Lane, 1844. A robbery has been committed at a pawnbroker's, leaving three people dead. The man called in to investigate is Pyke, head of the Metropolitan Police's newly formed Detective Branch at Scotland Yard.Pyke must find the culprit and quickly, especially as the identity of one of the victims threatens to expose his own criminal past. A valuable religious artefact appears to have motivated the robbery but when the main suspect commits suicide in police custody, the investigation falters. Then the rector of a wealthy parish is brutally murdered and Pyke spots a connection. His suspicions lead him to a dissolute former Catholic priest, rumours of devil worship, and an old case that no one wants him to investigate. With time running out and the murderer threatening to kill again, Pyke must face up to forces within the police and the church who would prefer the secrets of the past to remain buried forever.

Tyler, Anne. Noah's Compass ($26) Signed tippened

Starred Review PW, " Like Tyler's previous protagonists, Liam Pennywell is a man of unexceptional talents, plain demeanor, modest means and curtailed ambition. At age 60, he's been fired from his teaching job at a second-rate private boys' school in Baltimore, a job below his academic training and original expectations. An unsentimental, noncontemplative survivor of two failed marriages and the emotionally detached father of three grown daughters, Liam is jolted into alarm after he's attacked in his apartment and loses all memory of the experience. His search to recover those lost hours leads him into an uneasy exploration of his disappointing life and into an unlikely new relationship with Eunice, a socially inept walking fashion disaster who is half his age. She is also spontaneous and enthusiastic, and Liam longs to cast off his inertia and embrace the joyous recklessness that he feels in her company. Tyler's gift is to make the reader empathize with this flawed but decent man, and to marvel at how this determinedly low-key, plainspoken novelist achieves miracles of insight and understanding."

Signed Copies of A, B, C and U

Sue Grafton graciously joined up with The Poisoned Pen to offer our customers signed copies of her first novels.

" Signed hardback copies of 'A' IS FOR ALIBI and 'B' IS FOR BURGLAR
are available in very limited quantities from the Poisoned Pen Bookstore
in Phoenix AZ. These are NOT first editions. They are printed from the
original plates...a 14th and 15th respectively.

The price is $32.00 each with an additional shipping cost of $7.00.
There's no sales tax on out of state orders.

For those of you interested in completing your set of hardbacks to date, this may be a chance to round out your collection. These are not book club editions.

To order, contact: sales@poisonedpen.com.

More copies will be offered if there's a demand."

Books Just In

Brett, Simon. The Shooting in the Shop ($39)

Christmas can be murder ...Carole Seddon hates Christmas - it all seems rather a waste of time. So when her neighbour and best friend, Jude, drags her along to go shopping at a local store called Gallimaufry, she can feel her inner-Scrooge knocking. But the sales are on and even Carole can't resist a bargain. Then, a few days later, Gallimaufry is burnt down and a body is discovered in the ashes. It seems like a tragic accident, but no-one can die of natural causes when a gun is involved. The victim was young, pretty and in a long-term relationship - who could possibly want her dead? With a host of suspicious characters - the infamous womanizer Ricky Le Bonnier with a string of ex-wives; Piers Duncton, a comedy writer who just isn't that funny; or Anna Carter, the lonely dog walker - the lady detectives know they have their work cut out for them. And as they dig deeper they discover a host of half-truths and lies. It seems that someone in Fethering has a deep, dark, deadly secret - and is prepared to kill to keep it.

Child, Laura. The Teaberry Stangler ($27)

The bestselling author of Oolong Dead serves up an Old-World treat, spiced with a Sherlock Holmes-style murder mystery. It was the Dickensian evening Theodosia Browning had been hoping for. Charleston shop-owners dressed in cloaks of yore threw open their back doors to visitors, who took advantage of bargains and Theodosia's delicious teas. But later, the alleys clear except for one body- which a horrified Theodosia discovers. It's Daria, the map store's owner. Locals have shown interest in buying her shop-but enough to kill? Plus there's been a customer hell-bent on acquiring a not-for­sale map. Most alarming of all theories, however, is Detective Tidwell's: the killer mistook Daria for Theodosia. And if that theory holds, the killer's work isn't done.

We Have Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter Signed!

Grahame-Smith, Seth. Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter ($21.99) Signed

Indiana, 1818. Moonlight falls through the dense woods that surround a one-room cabin, where a nine-year-old Abraham Lincoln kneels at his suffering mother's bedside. She's been stricken with something the old-timers call "Milk Sickness."
"My baby boy..." she whispers before dying.
Only later will the grieving Abe learn that his mother's fatal affliction was actually the work of a vampire.
When the truth becomes known to young Lincoln, he writes in his journal, "henceforth my life shall be one of rigorous study and devotion. I shall become a master of mind and body. And this mastery shall have but one purpose..." Gifted with his legendary height, strength, and skill with an ax, Abe sets out on a path of vengeance that will lead him all the way to the White House.
While Abraham Lincoln is widely lauded for saving a Union and freeing millions of slaves, his valiant fight against the forces of the undead has remained in the shadows for hundreds of years. That is, until Seth Grahame-Smith stumbled upon The Secret Journal of Abraham Lincoln, and became the first living person to lay eyes on it in more than 140 years.
Using the journal as his guide and writing in the grand biographical style of Doris Kearns Goodwin and David McCullough, Seth has reconstructed the true life story of our greatest president for the first time-all while revealing the hidden history behind the Civil War and uncovering the role vampires played in the birth, growth, and near-death of our nation..

Signed Books Just In

We got another shipment of signed firsts! Don't miss:
Blake, Sara. The Postmistress ($26)

Those who carry the truth sometimes bear a terrible weight...

It is 1940. France has fallen. Bombs are dropping on London. And President Roosevelt is promising he won't send our boys to fight in "foreign wars."

But American radio gal Frankie Bard, the first woman to report from the Blitz in London, wants nothing more than to bring the war home. Frankie's radio dispatches crackle across the Atlantic ocean, imploring listeners to pay attention--as the Nazis bomb London nightly, and Jewish refugees stream across Europe. Frankie is convinced that if she can just get the right story, it will wake Americans to action and they will join the fight.

Meanwhile, in Franklin, Massachusetts, a small town on Cape Cod, Iris James hears Frankie's broadcasts and knows that it is only a matter of time before the war arrives on Franklin's shores. In charge of the town's mail, Iris believes that her job is to deliver and keep people's secrets, passing along the news that letters carry. And one secret she keeps are her feelings for Harry Vale, the town mechanic, who inspects the ocean daily, searching in vain for German U-boats he is certain will come. Two single people in midlife, Iris and Harry long ago gave up hope of ever being in love, yet they find themselves unexpectedly drawn toward each other.

Listening to Frankie as well are Will and Emma Fitch, the town's doctor and his new wife, both trying to escape a fragile childhood and forge a brighter future. When Will follow's Frankie's siren call into the war, Emma's worst fears are realized. Promising to return in six months, Will goes to London to offer his help, and the lives of the three women entwine.

Alternating between an America still cocooned in its inability to grasp the danger at hand and a Europe being torn apart by war, The Postmistress gives us two women who find themselves unable to deliver the news, and a third woman desperately waiting for news yet afraid to hear it.

Sarah Blake's The Postmistress shows how we bear the fact that war goes on around us while ordinary lives continue. Filled with stunning parallels to today, it is a remarkable novel.

Knopf, Chris. Short Squeeze ($27)

The outside world thinks living in the Hamptons requires a Bentley, a face-lift, and a shingle-style home the size of Buckingham Palace. The truth is a lot more complicated than that. Dig a little deeper and you're as likely to find a saint--or a Mensa genius--as you are a deviant or certified nut job lurking right below the surface.

I know this because these are my beloved clients.

Meet Jackie Swaitowski, a smart-aleck attorney whose legal turf is supposed to be the buzzing Hamptons real-estate market. But when a new client turns up dead, things take a sudden and decidedly dangerous turn. In a client's pocket is an envelope that contains a shocking piece of evidence that suggests that the death was anything but an accident.

Jackie has bigger fish to fry--like her old flame Harry's surprise return to town--until a late-night car chase changes her priorities. Now she has every reason to believe that the next name on the killer's list is her own.

Chris Knopf has been praised for his quick-witted writing and broad knowledge of the highs and lows of Hamptons life, and his books have been included on best-of-the-year lists complied by The New York Times, Publishers Weekly, and others. Now, in Short Squeeze, he brings an irresistible new heroine to center stage.

Mankell, Henning. The Man from Beijing ($26) us

One cold January day the police are called to a sleepy little hamlet in the north of Sweden where they discover a savagely murdered man lying in the snow. As they begin their investigation they notice that the village seems eerily quiet and deserted. Going from house to house, looking for witnesses, they uncover a crime unprecedented in Swedish history. When Judge Birgitta Roslin reads about the massacre, she realises that she has a family connection to one of the couples involved and decides to investigate. A nineteenth-century diary and a red silk ribbon found in the forest nearby are the only clues. What Birgitta eventually uncovers leads her into an international web of corruption and a story of vengeance that stretches back over a hundred years, linking China and the USA of the 1860s with modern-day Beijing, Zimbabwe and Mozambique, and coming to a shocking climax in London's Chinatown. "The Man from Beijing" is both a gripping and perceptive political thriller and a compelling detective story. It shows Henning Mankell at the height of his powers, handling a broad historical canvas and pressing international issues with his exceptional gifts for insight and chilling suspense.

Black Out by Connie Willis signed

Black Out by Connie Willis signed ($27)

In her first novel since 2002, Nebula and Hugo award-winning author Connie Willis returns with a stunning, enormously entertaining novel of time travel, war, and the deeds—great and small—of ordinary people who shape history. In the hands of this acclaimed storyteller, the past and future collide—and the result is at once intriguing, elusive, and frightening.

Oxford in 2060 is a chaotic place. Scores of time-traveling historians are being sent into the past, to destinations including the American Civil War and the attack on the World Trade Center. Michael Davies is prepping to go to Pearl Harbor. Merope Ward is coping with a bunch of bratty 1940 evacuees and trying to talk her thesis adviser, Mr. Dunworthy, into letting her go to VE Day. Polly Churchill’s next assignment will be as a shopgirl in the middle of London’s Blitz. And seventeen-year-old Colin Templer, who has a major crush on Polly, is determined to go to the Crusades so that he can “catch up” to her in age.

But now the time-travel lab is suddenly canceling assignments for no apparent reason and switching around everyone’s schedules. And when Michael, Merope, and Polly finally get to World War II, things just get worse. For there they face air raids, blackouts, unexploded bombs, dive-bombing Stukas, rationing, shrapnel, V-1s, and two of the most incorrigible children in all of history—to say nothing of a growing feeling that not only their assignments but the war and history itself are spiraling out of control. Because suddenly the once-reliable mechanisms of time travel are showing significant glitches, and our heroes are beginning to question their most firmly held belief: that no historian can possibly change the past.

From the people sheltering in the tube stations of London to the retired sailors who set off across the Channel to rescue the stranded British Army from Dunkirk, from shopgirls to ambulance drivers, from spies to hospital nurses to Shakespearean actors, Blackout reveals a side of World War II seldom seen before: a dangerous, desperate world in which there are no civilians and in which everybody—from the Queen down to the lowliest barmaid—is determined to do their bit to help a beleaguered nation survive.

New Signed UK Titles Just In

Cleeves, Ann. Blue Lightning ($39) Signed

Shetland Detective Jimmy Perez knows it will be a difficult homecoming when he returns to the Fair Isles to introduce his fiancée, Fran, to his parents. It’s a community where everyone knows each other, and strangers, while welcomed, are still viewed with a degree of mistrust.

Challenging to live on at the best of times, with the autumn storms raging, the island feels cut off from the rest of the world. Trapped, tension is high and tempers become frayed.

Enough to drive someone to murder…

When a woman's body is discovered at the renowned Fair Isles bird observatory, with feathers threaded through her hair, the islanders react with fear and anger. With no support from the mainland and only Fran to help him - Jimmy has to investigate the old-fashioned way. He soon realizes that this is no crime of passion - but a murder of cold and calculated intention.

With no way off the island until the storms abate - Jimmy knows he has to work quickly. There's a killer on the island just waiting for the opportunity to strike again…

Griffiths, Elly. The Janus Stone ($31) Signed

Ruth Galloway is called in to investigate when builders, demolishing a large old house in Norwich to make way for a housing development, uncover the bones of a child beneath a doorway - minus the skull. Is it some ritual sacrifice or just plain straightforward murder? DCI Harry Nelson would like to find out - and fast. It turns out the house was once a children's home. Nelson traces the Catholic priest who used to run the home. Father Hennessey tells him that two children did go missing from the home forty years before - a boy and a girl. They were never found. When carbon dating proves that the child's bones predate the home and relate to a time when the house was privately owned, Ruth is drawn ever more deeply into the case. But as spring turns into summer it becomes clear that someone is trying very hard to put her off the scent by frightening her half to death...

Pepper, Andrew. The Detective Branch ($43)

Drury Lane, 1844. A robbery has been committed at a pawnbroker s, leaving three people dead. The man called in to investigate is Pyke, head of the Metropolitan Police s newly formed Detective Branch at Scotland Yard.
Pyke must find the culprit and quickly, especially as the identity of one of the victims threatens to expose his own criminal past. A valuable religious artefact appears to have motivated the robbery but when the main suspect commits suicide in police custody, the investigation falters. Then the rector of a wealthy parish is brutally murdered and Pyke spots a connection. His suspicions lead him to a dissolute former Catholic priest, rumours of devil worship, and an old case that no one wants him to investigate.
With time running out and the murderer threatening to kill again, Pyke must face up to forces within the police and the church who would prefer the secrets of the past to remain buried forever.

Just In

Hart, Erin. The False Mermaid (Scribner $26 in now Signed April 21).

Her third mystery in an award-winning Irish series takes Nora Gavin back to the Twin Cities and the unsolved murder of her sister's death. It haunts Nora who is sure the husband did it.... but how to prove the case?

Mercer, Ken. Slow Fire ($26) Signed

Leaving behind the gritty streets of Los Angeles and a heroin addiction, former LAPD narcotics detective Will Magowan takes a job as chief of police in the small Northern California town of Haydenville. His advanced skills are required almost immediately, when the body of young Caitlyn Johnson is discovered near an abandoned kayak. But a controversial shooting at the town's only bar puts Will in the cross hairs of local enemies like Frank Carver, transformed from a Hell's Angel and convicted killer into philanthropist and literary lion. Will's pending divorce, his eager but bumbling deputy Thomas, as well as the effort of staying clean pile up the stress, and Mayor Bonnie Newman, who hired him to clean up Haydenville's blossoming drug trade, warns that his days may be numbered. Mercer's debut is full of familiar plot elements, but both his prose and his hero are refreshingly honest and direct.

Parker, Robert B. Split Image (Putnam $26 -- Unsigned, in case you did not learn the sad news of Parker's death in January).

Paradise Police Chief Jesse Stone has a body in legbreaker Petrov Ognowski. Curiously, Petrov's employer Reggie Galen has an ocean front mansion in Paradise right next door to a similar estate owned by fellow Boston crime boss Knocko Moynihan. Why is that? The two racketeers (retired?) are married, 20 years each, to identical twins Rebecca and Roberta. In their (Catholic) youth, the girls were known as the Bang Bang Twins by Boston youth. Is this meaningful when Knocko is then murdered? Meanwhile Sunny Randall is in Paradise checking out a teenager in a gentle kind of cult. The girl has way weird parents...and then goes missing. The real mystery of course is whether Parker will abandon the Spenser/Susan box and free Jesse and Sunny for each other....

Simmons, Dan. Drood ($16).

A stunning re-creation of Dickens' London and its characters that is almost as good as...Dickens. This is here history and horror meet..."-Booklist Starred Review, matching raves from various critics and even Stephen King.

Dan will be here March 3 at 7 pm to discus and sign his new book Black Hills a title that earned a starred review from Publisher Weekly

Our Magazines

Hey all you mystery fans. Did you know that we had Mystery Magazines?

Crimespree $5.95
You will find:
From the Editor by Jon Jordan
Q & A with Jamie Freveletti by Dana Kaye
Hey It's Ayo - Akimitsu Takagi
Jason Pinter Interviewed by a Jerk
Fiction - Daughters by Nathan Walpow
Cover Story - Bruen and Coleman Interviewed by Gabriel Cohen
Robert Ward Interviewed by Jon Jordan
City of Hearts, City of Dragons by Kelli Stanley
Interview with Mike Carey by by Jon Jordan
A Touch of Paris by Margot Justes
I Love You Jonathan A Turner by Steve Hockensmith
Interview with Rick Geary by Jon Jordan
Dialogue With Declan (Declan Burke)
Reed Farell Coleman column
Evan Dorkin and Jill Thompson Interviewed by Jon Jordan
Craig's Joint (Craig McDonald)
Sunshine and Crime from Michael Lister
Eye On Hollywood by Jeremy Lynch
DVD Reviews
The Sixty Year Old Virgin from Lenny Kleinfeld
Crimespree On Tap featuring Anthony Neil Smith
Footprints: Dorothy Uhnak by Ruth Jordan
Interview with Adrian McKinty by Ruth Jordan
Buzz Bin/Book Reviews
Crimespree on Comics
Cooking With Crimespree featuring JT Ellison

Deadly Pleasures $4.50

Deadly Pleasures is America's premier fan-oriented mystery magazine. In it and on this site we celebrate all that is good about the mystery genre AND point you to the best in crime fiction.

Our 59th issue is now available. The cover article focuses on Ken Bruen and Irish Crime Fiction.

and If you love books…

First, the Book Collector's Magazine $7.95
March 2010

Collecting Michael Chabon
Whether he is writing mainstream fiction or genre novels, for adults or young readers, Michael Chabon has—as evidenced by the acclaim of his fans and many critics—achieved his potential and gained an honored spot in the pantheon of American Jewish writers.

Picking Up the Trash
One of the most popular articles Firsts ever ran was “Trash Collecting,” which appeared in the September 2000 issue. Now that a decade has passed, we discover that there were some trash books we missed the first time around. Do we chuck them out in our spring cleaning? Not a chance.

The “New Candidates” Checklist
At one time, all these books were easy to find in first edition and collector’s condition. All were best-sellers. Now some of them are scarce in any condition.

Books into Film
Raintree County

New Awards

2010 AGATHA AWARDS
Best Novel
Donna Andrews. Swan for the Money ($25)
Barrett, Lorna. Bookplate Special ($7.99)
Rhys Bowen. Royal Flush ($25 Signed)
Lousie Penny. A Brutal Telling ($25 Signed)
Hank Phillippi Ryan. Air Time ($7.99)

Best First Novel
Lisa Bork. For Better For Murder ($15)
Alan Bradley. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie ($15)
Meredith Cole. Posed for Murder ($25)
Elizabeth Duncan. The Cold Light of Mourning ($25)
Stefanie Pintoff. In the Shadow of Gotham ($25)

2010 BRUCE ALEXANDER AWARD
Recognizing an historical mystery Presented
March 13 at Left Coast Crime
Tasha Alexander, Tears of Pearl ($27 Signed)
Rhys Bowen, In a Gilded Cage ($7.99 March)
Rebecca Cantrell, A Trace of Smoke ($15)
Gary Phillips, Freedom's Fight ($11)
Jeri Westerson, Serpent in the Thorns ($25 Signed)

2010 DIAMOND DAGGER
Val McDermid

2010 DILYS AWARD
Recognizing a favorite from Independent Mystery Booksellers
Alan Bradley, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie ($15; $150 Signed)
R.J. Ellroy, A Quiet Belief in Angels ($25)
Craig Johnson, The Dark Horse ($14 May)
Stieg Larsson, The Girl Who Played with Fire ($7.99 March)
Stuart Neville, The Ghosts of Belfast ($25 Signed)
Louise Penny, The Brutal Telling ($25 Signed)
S.J. Rozan, The Shanghai Moon ($25)

2010 HAMMETT PRIZE
The prize will be presented at the Bloody Words Mystery Conference in Toronto, May 28–30
Abbott, Megan. Bury Me Deep ($15)
Atkins, Ace. Devil's Garden ($15 March; $25 Signed)
Berry, Jedidiah. The Manual of Detection ($15))—a 2009 First Mystery Pick.
Mosley, Walter. The Long Fall ($14)
Pelecanos, George. The Way Home ($25 Signed)
Atkins signs Infamous (Putnam $26) here April 20
Mosley signs the sequel Known to Evil (Putnam $27) here March 29

The International Association of Crime Writers/North America (IACW/NA) awards The Hammett Prize annually for literary excellence in the field of crime-writing, as reflected in a book published in the English language in the U.S. and/or Canada. The winner receives a "Thin Man" trophy, designed by sculptor Peter Boiger. Click here for more information on IACW & The Hammett Prize. http://www.crimewritersna.org/hammett/index.htm

2010 LA Times BOOK PRIZE
Presented April 23 Complete list at http://www.latimes.com/extras/bookprizes/
Mystery/Thriller

2010 LEFTY AWARD
Recognizing a humorous mystery
Donna Andrews, Swan for the Money ($25)
Mike Befeler, Living with Your Kids Is Murder
Denise Dietz, Strangle a Loaf of Italian Bread ($26)
Rita Lakin, Getting Old Is a Disaster ($6.99)
Kris Neri, High Crimes on the Magical Plane ($17 Signed)

2010 MINNESOTA BOOK AWARDS
Mystery
Housewright, David. Jelly's Gold ($25)
Sandford, John. Rough Country ($27 Signed)
Thompson, Richard. Frag Box ($25 Signed)

A PANIK AWARD
A one-time honor given at the March 2010 Left Coast Crime Conference in order of its deceased Chairman Paul Anik
Gar Anthony Haywood. Cemetery Road ($29)
Gregg Hurwitz. Trust No One ($27 Signed)
Linda Richards. Death Was in the Picture ($25)
Stephen J. Schwartz. Boulevard ($25 Signed).

Lauren Willig and Joanne Dobson

Barbara Peters talks with Lauren Willig (author of Betrayal of the Blood Lily) and Joanne Dobson (author of Death Without Tenure) about academia, the historic PLAZA hotel and book theives among other things. I had to email Barbara to catch up on the references, her response is as follows:

"Ah, it's the historic PLAZA Hotel (http://theplaza.com/)
with its fabulous bathroom on the ground floor for women
and its history with Eloise, a famous children's book.

http://www.eloisewebsite.com/eloise_at_the_plaza.htm

The Plaza was also the site of
the famous Palm Court where having afternoon tea was a classic for women of all
ages"


If you would like a signed copy of either author's novel, head over to www.poisonedpen.com or just drop Patrick an email at sales@poisonedpen.com.

New Signed Books at the Poisoned Pen Bookstore

Atherton, Nancy. Aunt Dimity Down Under ($27)

The original supernatural sleuth is back in the latest cozy Aunt Dimity mystery

A shock wave rocks Lori Shepherd's world when she hears that her beloved neighbors, Ruth and Louise Pym, may be dying. Bracing herself for a final farewell, Lori instead receives a request from the eccentric sisters: Find their long-lost brother before it's too late. Aubrey Pym is a wicked scoundrel who was banished from his family long ago; and much to Lori's surprise, she must travel all the way to New Zealand to find him. In granting her dear friends' dying wish, Lori sets out on a journey full of surprises. And with the help of a charming Kiwi and the otherworldly guidance of Aunt Dimity, Lori goes Down Under to search for the mysterious Aubrey, unraveling a web of secrets that has haunted the Pym family for generations.

Blake, Sara. The Postmistress ($26)

Those who carry the truth sometimes bear a terrible weight...

It is 1940. France has fallen. Bombs are dropping on London. And President Roosevelt is promising he won't send our boys to fight in "foreign wars."

But American radio gal Frankie Bard, the first woman to report from the Blitz in London, wants nothing more than to bring the war home. Frankie's radio dispatches crackle across the Atlantic ocean, imploring listeners to pay attention--as the Nazis bomb London nightly, and Jewish refugees stream across Europe. Frankie is convinced that if she can just get the right story, it will wake Americans to action and they will join the fight.

Meanwhile, in Franklin, Massachusetts, a small town on Cape Cod, Iris James hears Frankie's broadcasts and knows that it is only a matter of time before the war arrives on Franklin's shores. In charge of the town's mail, Iris believes that her job is to deliver and keep people's secrets, passing along the news that letters carry. And one secret she keeps are her feelings for Harry Vale, the town mechanic, who inspects the ocean daily, searching in vain for German U-boats he is certain will come. Two single people in midlife, Iris and Harry long ago gave up hope of ever being in love, yet they find themselves unexpectedly drawn toward each other.

Listening to Frankie as well are Will and Emma Fitch, the town's doctor and his new wife, both trying to escape a fragile childhood and forge a brighter future. When Will follow's Frankie's siren call into the war, Emma's worst fears are realized. Promising to return in six months, Will goes to London to offer his help, and the lives of the three women entwine.

Alternating between an America still cocooned in its inability to grasp the danger at hand and a Europe being torn apart by war, The Postmistress gives us two women who find themselves unable to deliver the news, and a third woman desperately waiting for news yet afraid to hear it.

Sarah Blake's The Postmistress shows how we bear the fact that war goes on around us while ordinary lives continue. Filled with stunning parallels to today, it is a remarkable novel.

Buckley, Carla. The Things That Keep Us Here ($27)

How far would you go to protect your family?

Ann Brooks never thought she’d have to answer that question. Then she found her limits tested by a crisis no one could prevent. Now, as her neighborhood descends into panic, she must make tough choices to protect everyone she loves from a threat she cannot even see. In this chillingly urgent novel, Carla Buckley confronts us with the terrifying decisions we are forced to make when ordinary life changes overnight.

A year ago, Ann and Peter Brooks were just another unhappily married couple trying–and failing–to keep their relationship together while they raised two young daughters. Now the world around them is about to be shaken as Peter, a university researcher, comes to a startling realization: A virulent pandemic has made the terrible leap across the ocean to America’s heartland.

And it is killing fifty out of every hundred people it touches.

As their town goes into lockdown, Peter is forced to return home–with his beautiful graduate assistant. But the Brookses’ safe suburban world is no longer the refuge it once was. Food grows scarce, and neighbor turns against neighbor in grocery stores and at gas pumps. And then a winter storm strikes, and the community is left huddling in the dark.

Trapped inside the house she once called home, Ann Brooks must make life-or-death decisions in an environment where opening a door to a neighbor could threaten all the things she holds dear.

Carla Buckley’s poignant debut raises important questions to which there are no easy answers, in an emotionally riveting tale of one family facing unimaginable stress.

Joe Hill's new title, Horns signed $28

Hill, Joe. Horns ($28) Signed

Joe Hill has been hailed as "a major player in 21st-century fantastic fiction" (Washington Post); "a new master in the field of suspense" (James Rollins); "one of the most confident and assured new voices in horror and dark fantasy to emerge in recent years (Publishers Weekly); a writer who "builds character invitingly and plants an otherworldly surprise around every corner" (New York Times).

This gifted and brilliantly imaginative author catapulted to bestsellerdom with the chilling Heart-Shaped Box and cemented his reputation with the prizewinning volume of short fiction 20^th Century Ghosts. At last, the New York Times bestselling author returns with a relentless supernatural thriller that runs like Hell on wheels. . . .

Ignatius Perrish spent the night drunk and doing terrible things. He woke up the next morning with a thunderous hangover, a raging headache . . . and a pair of horns growing from his temples.

At first Ig thought the horns were a hallucination, the product of a mind damaged by rage and grief. He had spent the last year in a lonely, private purgatory, following the death of his beloved, Merrin Williams, who was raped and murdered under inexplicable circumstances. A mental breakdown would have been the most natural thing in the world. But there was nothing natural about the horns, which were all too real.

Once the righteous Ig had enjoyed the life of the blessed: born into privilege, the second son of a renowned musician and younger brother of a rising late-night TV star, he had security, wealth, and a place in his community. Ig had it all, and more—he had Merrin and a love founded on shared daydreams, mutual daring, and unlikely midsummer magic.

But Merrin's death damned all that. The only suspect in the crime, Ig was never charged or tried. And he was never cleared. In the court of public opinion in Gideon, New Hampshire, Ig is and always will be guilty because his rich and connected parents pulled strings to make the investigation go away. Nothing Ig can do, nothing he can say, matters. Everyone, it seems, including God, has abandoned him. Everyone, that is, but the devil inside. . . .

Now Ig is possessed of a terrible new power to go with his terrible new look—a macabre talent he intends to use to find the monster who killed Merrin and destroyed his life. Being good and praying for the best got him nowhere. It's time for a little revenge. . . . It's time the devil had his due. . . .

New Books at the Poisoned Pen Bookstore

Mankell, Henning. The Man from Beijing ($26) us

One cold January day the police are called to a sleepy little hamlet in the north of Sweden where they discover a savagely murdered man lying in the snow. As they begin their investigation they notice that the village seems eerily quiet and deserted. Going from house to house, looking for witnesses, they uncover a crime unprecedented in Swedish history. When Judge Birgitta Roslin reads about the massacre, she realises that she has a family connection to one of the couples involved and decides to investigate. A nineteenth-century diary and a red silk ribbon found in the forest nearby are the only clues. What Birgitta eventually uncovers leads her into an international web of corruption and a story of vengeance that stretches back over a hundred years, linking China and the USA of the 1860s with modern-day Beijing, Zimbabwe and Mozambique, and coming to a shocking climax in London's Chinatown. "The Man from Beijing" is both a gripping and perceptive political thriller and a compelling detective story. It shows Henning Mankell at the height of his powers, handling a broad historical canvas and pressing international issues with his exceptional gifts for insight and chilling suspense.

Parshall, Sandra. Broken Places ($) Signed

*STARRED REVIEW*

“Near the start of Parshall's excellent third Rachel Goddard mystery (after 2007's Disturbing the Dead), the Mason County, Va., veterinarian witnesses an argument between newspaper publisher Cam Taylor, who's desperate for money to save his paper, and popular cartoonist Ben Hern (aka Cuban-American artist Benicio Hernandez), who won't give him any, at Ben's mansion. On the drive home, Rachel spots Cam's abandoned car in the road, pulls over, hears gunshots, and finds Cam dead in the woods. Rachel and her vet assistant, Holly Turner, must take care not to become a frantic killer's next victims in a suspenseful tale distinguished by its sharp prose.” –Publishers Weekly of Broken Places

*STARRED REVIEW*

“This third Rachel Goddard mystery (after The Heat of the Moon and Disturbing the Dead ) grips readers from the opening page with a suspenseful plot that will leave them breathless. The tension between Tom and Rachel adds to the thrill of the hunt for a clever murderer who has covered all the bases. Fans of Margaret Maron's Deborah Knott mysteries will enjoy.” –Library Journal of Broken Places

Pearson, Ridley. Steel Trap: The Academy ($16) Signed

Steven "Steel" Trapp has been placed in an East Coast boarding school for gifted kids by his FBI agent father. He soon discovers that there's a clubby element of the faculty and upper classmen that is very secretive and protective. To his surprise, his friend Kaleigh arrives to board at the school and it isn't long before the two realize that this is not your normal boarding school. It seems a select few students are recruited, while still minors, to serve as special "translators" for the US Government. People-including diplomats and dignitaries-will say things around kids that they wouldn't otherwise dare speak outside of embassies. The willing student "agent" takes a semester abroad and ends up spying for his country.

But there are dark elements at play at the school. Foreign agents may have penetrated the school's secrecy and may have sleepers in place: kids spying on future kid spies. There is conspiracy and competition among the elite faculty that threatens security. As Steel and Kaileigh are recruited for their first test run-trying to break a ring of pickpockets in a Boston hotel-things go impossibly wrong. Betrayal and conspiracy cloud what should have been a straightforward assignment. And all too soon, their very lives are in danger.

Roberts, John Madox. The Year of Confusion. SPRQ 13 ($25) Signed

“Readers looking for a crafty and entertaining journey to the past won’t be disappointed." —Publishers Weekly on SPQR XI: Under Vesuvius

Caius Julius Caesar, now Dictator of Rome, has decided to revise the Roman calendar, which has become out of sync with the seasons. As if this weren’t already an unpopular move, Caesar has brought in astronomers and astrologers from abroad, including Egyptians, Greeks, Indians and Persians. Decius is appointed to oversee this project, which he knows rankles the Roman public: “To be told by a pack of Chaldeans and Egyptians how to conduct their duties towards the gods was intolerable.” Not long after the new calendar project begins, two of the foreigners are murdered. Decius begins his investigations and, as the body count increases, it seems that an Indian fortuneteller popular with patrician Roman ladies is also involved. This latest in the acclaimed series is sure to please historical mystery fans.

Another New Sideline

We now have a selection of lovely handcrafted European style pens made from exotic hardwoods. ($49.95)


Each pen is unique, made by carving on a small lathe, sanded, polished, and finished while still spinning on the lathe. These pens are carefully hand-assembled one at a time and finished with a shellac-wax combination that is permanent, but can be revitalized once or twice a year by buffing with a paste wax – even clear shoe polish will do.

Refills are available in stationary stores – use the screw in, cross type refills.

Allison Maslan signs Blast off!

Last night we had an inspiring evening with life coach and author Allison Maslan as she disused her book Blast Off!: The Surefire Success Plan to Launch Your Dreams into Reality

This is the perfect book for any individual or group looking for motivation and we have it signed!

"Blast Off! gives the what and how to create the personal and professional life of your dreams. Allison Maslan’s easy-to-follow program offers a great recipe for prosperity, success and fulfillment." --Marci Shimoff, New York Times bestselling author, Happy for No Reason and featured teacher in The Secret

"When I went to see Allison, I was, like many people, stuck and unfulfilled in my career. Allison helped me to sort myself out and see my potential. She helped me find the clarity and the guts to take the leap. Thank goodness she did! Now I have my own national television show on Discovery Health, 11 Emmys and my first book." --Sam Zien, The Cooking Guy, Author, Just a Bunch of Recipes, Host/Producer, Discovery Health’s TV show Just Cook This!

Get Ready to Love Your Life!
Leading Life and Career Coach, Allison Maslan, will guide you to personal and professional transformation The burning question is “Do you want to be in the same place you are now in ten years, or even five years?” The truth is that you will be asking yourself that same question in another decade if you don’t take action now. There is a completely fulfilling life just waiting to be claimed as your own. The next question is “What are you waiting for?”
* Are you an executive who wants to focus on taking your career to the next level?
* Are you ready to embark on a new business or career adventure?
* Do you want to find your soulmate and manifest the relationship of your dreams?
* Are you ready to take action on building financial wealth and freedom?
* Do you desire to reclaim the healthy, attractive body you deserve?
* Is it time to tap into your spiritual/intuitive side for heightened satisfaction in life?
* Are you not sure what you want but know that there has to be more than this?
Through her proven Blast Off! techniques and practices, Allison Maslan will teach you step-by-step how to let go of limiting fears and beliefs, inspire you to create a new path full of passion and meaning, then personally give you the vision and skills to achieve your dreams and aspirations in all aspects of your life. isn’t it your turn to 3-2-1 Blast Off! to a whole new way of living?

6 Questions to Jumpstart Your Dream Career!

Recently featured on More.com: http://www.more.com/2009/10381-10-questions-to-jumpstart-your

You know you want to make a change: You don’t want to be in the same place you are now in ten years, or even five years. But what if you’re stuck and have no idea what to do next? As a life and career coach, Allison Maslan has helped thousands of people discover a new direction full of passion and meaning. One of the best tools is an inward search. The following questions can help you see your life and its possibilities through a completely new perspective. Write your answers down and embark on the start of a new career.

1. As a child, what did you dream of being when you grew up?

2. What are some of your favorite hobbies or activities—in the present and in the past—and why? Wouldn’t it be great if you could turn your favorite pastime into your dream career?

3. What things have you always wanted to do, but were afraid to try?

4 Think of combining thing you love with what you believe in. For example, Allison’s client, Kenneth, loves parasailing, so he is creating a charity that will help trauma victims heal through this sport.

5. What movies and books have inspired you over the years, and why?

6. If you had plenty of money at your disposal to invest in your own dream career, what kind of business would you start?

An entrepreneur for the last 25 years, life and business strategist Allison Maslan now coaches others to become successful career professionals or start their own businesses and become thriving entrepreneurs themselves. Since January 2009 Allison has helped launch over 15 businesses. Allison herself has owned nine businesses including her own advertising agency.

New Signed Books at the Poisoned Pen Bookstore

Farndale, Nigel. The Blasphemer ($32)

An astonishing, ambitious and masterful new novel, with echoes of Birdsong, that reads at the pace of a thriller.

On its way to the Galápagos Islands, a light aircraft crashes into the sea. Zoologist Daniel Kennedy is confronted with a stark Darwinian choice. Should he save himself, or Nancy, the woman he loves? But how can one moment of betrayal ever be forgiven? And after he escapes the plane and swims for help, who is the elusive figure who guides him away from certain death?

Back in London, Daniel thinks he finds the answer; it is connected with his great grandfather and the first horrific day of Passchendaele. But as the past collapses into the present, the fissures in his relationship with Nancy show through. Until he is given a second chance to prove his courage and earn her forgiveness. The Blasphemer is a novel that speaks to the head as well as the heart of the reader.

Meyers, Randy Susan. Murderers Daughters ($27) Signed A beautifully written, compulsively readable debut that deals with the after math of a shocking act of violence that leaves two young sisters with nothing but each other—in the tradition of White Oleander, this haunting novel is a testament to the power of family and the ties that bind us together, even as they threaten to tear us apart

Mama was “no macaroni-necklace-wearing kind of mother.” She was a lipstick and perfume-wearing mother, a flirt whose estranged husband still hungered for her. After Mama threw him out, she warned the girls to never let Daddy in the house, an admonition that tears at ten-year-old Lulu whenever she thinks about the day she opened the door for her drunken father, and watched as he killed her mother, stabbed her five-year-old sister Merry and tried to take his own life. Effectively orphaned by their mother’s death and father’s imprisonment, Lulu and Merry, unwanted by family members and abandoned to a terrifying group home, spend their young lives carrying more than just the visible scars from the tragedy. Even as their plan to be taken in by a well-to-do foster family succeeds, they come to learn they’ll never really belong anywhere or to anyone—that all they have to hold onto is each other. As they grow into women, Lulu holds fast to her anger, denies her father’s existence and forces Merry into a web of lies about his death that eventually ensnares her own husband and daughters. Merry, certain their safety rests on placating her needy father, dutifully visits him, seeking his approval and love at the expense of her own relationships. As they strive to carve lives of their own, the specter of their father, unrepentant and manipulative even from behind bars, haunts them. And when they learn he’s about to be paroled, the house of cards they’ve built their lives on teeters on the brink of collapse.

Rowe, Rosemary. Requiem for a Slave ($35)

The eleventh book in the Libertus Mystery of Roman Britain series - Libertus has an important order to fulfil for Quintus Severus, who has commissioned a new mosaic. But when Lucius, the pie-maker, is found dead in Libertus’ workshop, and Libertus’ faithful slave Minimus is missing, he is once again dragged into a criminal underworld. Can Libertus find Minimus, clear him of the murder, and discover who really killed the pie-seller, and why? The omens aren’t looking good . . .


Scott, Manda. Rome Emperors Spy ($31)

'Stop this fire, whatever it takes. I, your Emperor, order it'. The Emperor: Nero, Emperor of Rome and all her provinces, feared by his subjects for his temper and cruelty, is in possession of an ancient document predicting that Rome will burn. The Spy: Sebastos Pantera, assassin and spy for the Roman Legions, is ordered to stop the impending cataclysm. He knows that if he does not, his life - and those of thousands of others - are in terrible danger. The Chariot Boy: Math, a young charioteer, is a pawn drawn into the deadly game between the Emperor and the Spy, where death stalks the drivers - on the track and off it. From the author of the bestselling "Boudica" series, "The Emperor's Spy" begins a compelling new series of novels featuring Sebastos Pantera. Rich characterisation and spine tingling adventure combine in a vividly realised novel set amid the bloodshed and the chaos, the heroism and murderous betrayal of ancient Rome.

Sedley, Kate. Wheel of Fate ($35)

In fifteenth-century London, the child-king is not the only one under threat - 1483. Amidst the chaos following the death of King Edward IV, Roger the Chapman is called to London to investigate a threat to the Godslove family. In the past year, there have been two deaths and a mysterious poisoning. Roger dismisses their worries at first but, when another member of the family disappears, he stumbles across a shocking secret that threatens to destroy the entire Godslove family . . .

So Easy by Ellie Krieger

So Easy So Luscious by Ellie Krieger Signed ($30)

A New York Times' bestselling author's guide to quick and healthy everyday meals

As weekly host of the Food Network's Healthy Appetite, Ellie Krieger is known for creating light and healthy dishes that taste great and are easy enough for the busiest people to prepare. Now, Ellie has put together a collection of meal solutions for those of us who love food and want to eat well but struggle to make it happen given life's hectic pace. With 150 delicious, easy-to-prepare, fortifying recipes, Ellie provides dishes that tackle every possible mealtime situation. Illustrated with 50 full-color photos, there are recipes for:

• Grab-and-go breakfasts for hectic days, as well as easy breakfast options for more leisurely mornings
• Lunches to go, each road-tested in a cooler pack, along with at-home lunches for when you have the luxury of eating in
• A month's worth of different rush-hour dinners-fabulous meals you can whip up in less than thirty minutes-as well as dinners for days when you have a little more time to marinate or roast, but still want it all to be effortless
• Decadent desserts, some ready in minutes, others truly worth waiting for-all easily pulled together

As a mom with a full-time job, Ellie knows how busy life is when you're juggling your family's needs. Now, you can stop stressing over whether to eat healthily or to eat fast. The recipes here-from Cheddar Apple Quesadilla, Pork Piccata with Spinach and Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Marinated Flank Steak with Blue Cheese Sauce to Chocolate-Cream Cheese Panini Bites and Fig and Ginger Truffles-are ideal, regardless of the time, or experience, you have in the kitchen.

When so much in life is complicated, isn't it nice to know that eating doesn't have to be? After making and enjoying the meals in this book, you will say along with the title, "That was SO EASY!"

SIGNED BOOKS JUST IN

Dorsey, Tim. Gator a Go Go($27) Signed

That's right: Serge and Coleman do spring break!
It's been a long time coming, but they're at the party now-and you'll never look at a Frisbee the same way again.
One spring break location obviously isn't enough for Serge, so he must hit them all, traveling through various historic locales, spewing nuggets of history at anyone who won't run away and dispensing his own signature brand of Sunshine State justice.
Along the way he and his sidekick, Coleman, attract a growing following of the nation's top college students . . . and a mysterious gang that leaves a trail of young bodies in their wake.
Are the kids safer under Serge's protection? Or does being with him put them in more peril? The classroom and the pot brownies never prepared them for this.

Pack the cooler, load the car, and head to where the water is warm for a spring vacation you won't soon forget-no matter how much you might try!

Hall, James W. Silencer ($27) Signed

Starred Review from PW, "Shamus-winner Hall's superlative 11th thriller to feature Thorn (after Hell's Bay) finds his iconoclastic Key Largo, Fla., PI with a newly acquired fortune. Thorn is excited when his girlfriend, Rusty Stabler, presents a deal to protect 300 square miles of Florida from development and also put Earl Hammond's Coquina Ranch game-hunting operation out of business. Then Hammond is shot to death, Thorn is kidnapped-but Hall is just getting warmed up. While Thorn tries to figure a way out of the literal hole he's in, Rusty and Thorn's longtime friend Sugarman try to track him. Warped contract killers Jonah and Moses Faust, who deal in serial killer memorabilia, and Hammond's very different sons, ex-football star Browning and Miami cop Frisco, play large roles. Hall steadily ratchets the suspense while seamlessly combining elements of Florida's natural history with elements of the state's early development and overdevelopment."

New Sideline

We now have Hillary Kaye's Matchbox Museum of Fine Art - mystery series.
These Hand-painted matchboxes feature classic crime fiction book covers and movie posters. Perfect for collectors or fans 1 1/3" x 2" $2 each

New Signed Books at the Poisoned Pen Bookstore

Boyd, Noah. Bricklayer($27) Signed

Someone gives you a dangerous puzzle to solve, one that may kill you or someone else, and you're about to fail. . . . And there is no other option. No one who can help. No one but the Bricklayer.

The Bricklayer is the pulse-pounding novel introducing Steve Vail, one of the most charismatic new heroes to come along in thriller fiction in many years. He's an ex-FBI agent who's been fired for insubordination but is lured back to the Bureau to work a case that has become more unsolvable-and more deadly-by the hour.

Nadel, Barbara. Death by Design($45) Signed

Barbara Nadel's new Turkish crime novel sees Inspector Ikmen tackling a complex case of organized crime in London.

When the Istanbul police raid a counterfeit goods factory in the run-down district of Tarlabasi, a young man with explosives strapped to his chest blows himself up in front of them. In the process, Istanbul's Inpsector Çetin Ikmen is injured. Documents found in the factory lead the authorities in both Istanbul and London to believe that a terrorist attack, in part orchestrated from the Tarlabasi factory, is about to be enacted in the British capital. Ikmen goes undercover amongst the Turkish community of North London, although what he uncovers there is certainly not what his British colleagues were expecting...

New colorful reusable Poisoned Pen bags!

It is estimated that in one year,one shopper throws out 500 plastic bags.


We are joining the mission is to reduce single-use bag waste by offering compact reusable bags and packs that are designed to fold up for storage and used over and over again.

These wonderful light-weight bags are $9.95 and are available in: Black, Blue, Pale Green, Red and Purple all with our logo in white ink.


You can also reduce your waste and wrap gifts with these colorful reusable bags!

Click here to watch a video on how to use your new Poisoned Pen bag as gift wrap!

New Signed Books at the Poisoned Pen Bookstore

Gage, Leighton. Dying Gasp ($26) Signed

The granddaughter of a prominent politician is missing. Silva and his team find her in Manaus, a jungle hellhole on the Amazon where an evil female doctor is making gory snuff films. Silva must overcome his own department's indifference and the corrupt local cops before he can obtain a semblance of justice for the victims.




Hess, Joan. Merry Wives of Maggody ($27) Signed

Maggody, Arkansas (pop. 755) is perceived of as a two-bit hick town, filled with one-bit hicks. But Mrs. Jim Bob Buchanan seeks to change that perception with her latest scheme-a charity golf tournament. This presents a bit of a challenge, since no one in Maggody plays golf and there is no course. But when the prize for the first hole-in-one is announced-a top of the line bass boat-nearly everyone in town develops a new-found interest in the sport. The town goes golf crazy, trying to learn the sport in time to win the bass boat, with limited success and maximum domestic disorder. Sheriff Arly Hanks, who has better things to worry about, just wishes it would all go away. When a small-town golf instructor wins the bass boat on the first day of the tournament, it looks like all the excitement is over. But the next morning, when he's found dead, sitting in the parking lot in the front seat of the bass boat, the prize is once again up for grabs and nearly everyone in town is a murder suspect.

The Parisian Prodigal

Gordon, Alan. Parisian Prodigal ($28) Signed

“Only a fool would pass this one up.” —Laurie R. King In 1205, Theophilos—a fool by trade, a family man by choice, and a spy by design—belongs, along with his family, to the Fools’ Guild, a group that secretly maintains the fragile order of society. In Toulouse, that order is threatened when, unexpectedly, a man claiming to be a full brother of the ruling count is found one morning in a local bordello next to a dead whore, killed with his own sword. Now, Theophilos and his family must uncover the truth.