Our Final Week of the April
Books Shower... |
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The Poisoned Pen
4014 N Goldwater Blvd #101
Scottsdale, AZ
85251
(480) 947-2974
(888) 560-9919
www.poisonedpen.com
sales@poisonedpen.com
Directions? Hours? Click here.
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The Night Detectives
A David Mapstone Mystery
set in Phoenix
Signed May 14 BUT
in stock now
Dead Ever After
The Final Sookie Stackhouse
early May
Home Repair & Homicide
April
Faith Fairchild does Rome
early May
A Constellation of Vital Phenomena
May Modern Firsts Pick
May Hardboiled Crime Club Pick
Navajo Trading Post Mystery
April
Frozen Solid
Set in Antarctica
Our April Thriller Club Pick
The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards
Debut and Our April Modern Firsts Club Pick
in stock now
The Hit
Will Robie
April
only 6 copies unreserved
Sarah Booth Delaney
Signed May 4
at CozyCon2
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Greetings,
I can't say enough about my excitement over David Morrell's brilliant, intelligent, and clever Gaslight Thriller Murder As a Fine Art (Mulholland $26) , one of Publisher's Weekly's Top Ten Summer Reads, to be reviewed May 5 in the NY Times, etc etc.
In short, I am not alone dancing up and down about this start of a  series satisfying on so many levels -- for example: inexplicable urban violence, a potent drug culture. Yes, the Victorians were as in to opium as the 21st Century embraces designer and other drugs.
And you can decide if Morrell has a better solution to the 1811 Ratcliffe Highway murders than PD James.
For details about the event, ordering the book, and to watch a short video produced by Morrell, please click here.
And join us for the publication party on Tuesday May 7 at 7 PM. Can't make it? You can watch it on Livestream. And order an inscribed book by May 6 to be sure of the inscription.
Don't forget we do our very own programming from The Poisoned Pen. View past and upcoming livestreamed events by clicking here. New in Livestream: Andrew Gross & Lachlan Smith; Lauren Willig; Deb Ledford & Kris Neri. See it Here Buy It Here. Keep US Here. Thank you for your continued support Barbara and The Poisoned Pen Staff | |
 
Thank you for supporting The Poisoned Pen, named Best Specialty Bookstore 2011 and 2012 by the New Times, 2012 by the Arizona Republic, 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.
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Tips for Shopping in our On-line Store
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Will has composed a blog post explaining how to use new search features in our STORE
To read (and then apply), please click here
Also Ariel has taken charge of our Home Page Photos
To view click here
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April Reading Guides
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To read and/or download the April Booknews, click here
Events, Nonfiction, First Novels, British Books, Global Novels, The Cozy Corner, our new Classics Revisited, Trade and Mass Market Paperback Picks, New Books, Southwestern Stuff, Mass Market Fiction, and History/Mystery
To see our Picks, please click here
To browse April books by categories:
Unsigned Hardcovers: click here
Signed Hardcovers, click here
Trade Paperbacks, click here
Mass Market Paperbacks, click here
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Our April Book Club Picks
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Our book clubs are for buyers, not for discussion groups. The idea is to give members of each club something new and wonderful to reach each month.
To see our January -April Picks, please click here
then check out each club for what it offers and the new Picks
To join a book club, email sales@poisonedpen.com
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Our Final April Events
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The books are reviewed in a new section below.
TUESDAY APRIL 23 7:00 PM Party! A Parker Biopic, Cookies from Dutton, his publisher, plus book giveaways
T Jefferson Parker signs The Famous and the Dead (Dutton $27)his 20th novel and 6th and final case for Charlie Hood
THURSDAY APRIL 25 7:00 PM
Hardboiled Crime Club reads Ted Lewis, Get Carter ($15)
SATURDAY APRIL 27 2:00 PM Tea Party
Tea: $5.00 You may come for free, but get no tea.
To honor Reg, bring a favorite stuffed animal. Prizes
Nancy Atherton signs Aunt Dimity and the Lost Prince (Viking $26) Lori Shepherd
MONDAY APRIL 29 7:00 PM Women's Fiction
Kristin Hannah signs Fly Away (St Martins $28) Perfect for Mother's Day
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Three Different Sorts of Books
Three Gems
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Nancy Atherton signs Aunt Dimity and the Lost Prince (Viking $26) An Ideal Mother's Day Gift and suitable for readers 12 on up
I love a fable, a fairy tale as it were about a quest, that which is lost and might be found, a tour of several different, enchanted estates (English country houses around Finch, Lori Shepherd's home village),  lots of delicious food, and happy endings. With all the dark and thrilling and puzzling, it's refreshing to read this, a kind of palate cleanser that reminds us how happy life can be. It begins in a February blizzard that shuts down the village. Desperate to entertain her 8-year-old twins, Lori and her New Zealand friend Bree (of the flaming dyed hair and glittery nose ring) take the boys to visit an unusual museum in a nearby estate. There they meet a frail little girl who tells stories. And later, Lori finds a silver sleigh, a gorgeous Russian salt cellar of classic design, and sets out to discover why the young thief, for thief she must be, took the sleigh away in her parka pocket. Can there be a lost Russian prince in the Cotswolds, and if so, how shall they find him? Read this with a pot of tea and a plate of cookies (recipe in the book, yum). Note that the cover "stately home" has onion turrets a la Russe.
Kristin Hannah signs Fly Away (St Martins $28) Another Mother's Day gift idea, for older readers, bittersweet
If the boy is father to the man, then the girl is to the woman. Childhood  shaped Tully Hart and her BFF, Kate Ryan. Together they survived, even thrived. But then came a rift, and then Kate battled breast cancer and died. Tullly, always larger than life, can barely bear it. But how is Kate's daughter, 16-year-old Marah, to navigate this bleak new world where neither Tully nor her father, Johnny, is available to her, so consumed in their own grief are they? Marah too becomes unreachable. Nothing and no one seems to matter to her...until she falls in love with a young man who makes her smile again and leads her into his dangerous, shadowy world. A single, tragic choice and a middle-of-the-night phone call set those who loved Kate on a difficult path for those who have lost their way. They will need each other--and maybe a miracle.
T Jefferson Parker signs The Famous and the Dead (Dutton $27)his 20th novel and 6th and final case for Charlie Hood
Dana Stabenow, Parker and Charlie Hood fan, wrestled my ARC away and wrote this lengthy review for you:
Here, in the sixth and final installment of the Charlie Hood series, Charlie literally wrestles with the devil himself, over the narcotraffickers on the USA-Mexican border, for the lives of his friends, and maybe even for his own soul as well. I'm actually a little spooked at the way he left it.***[spoiler below]
These books are desert noir, a lone hero walking the harsh sands  beneath a merciless sun, Sam Spade among the cholla, and always with the hero's past somewhere rearing its malevolent head. Here it shows up up front, on page 36:
The past again, he thought. Barreling right in like it's welcome.
Raymond Chandler Himself would expire from sheer envy.
There is as always great craft, both undercover agent and writer's:
Hood ignored him. Let them come to you, he thought. This was a favorite rule of his old Blowdown boss, Sean Ozburn, a crack undercover agent, always cool and never made: Don't be eager. Ozburn had been the best of them unti mike Finnegan tore him to shreds--mentally, spiritually, and finally physically. Oz's lovely wife, too. All of that, without touching them.
There is so much going on in that paragraph I hardly know where to begin. It illustrates Hood's experience as an ATF agent. It lets you in on a little secret about working undercover. It sets up the villain, and it invokes the reader's sympathy for past (and passed) friends. That, folks, is not an expository lump. Later on:
To Hood, Dale Yorth was the combination of boyish adventurism and deadly adult mission that constituted law enforcement at most levels.
Ever see what cops call a trophy shot, with all the arresting officers grouped around big piles of marijuana bales or bags of cocaine? Reminds me of Holmes -- "Quick, Watson! The game's afoot!" If they didn't enjoy the chase, they wouldn't be in the game, and Jeff captures that here in one sentence.
There is, as always, some great social commentary:
Hood had always thought that, just for starters, ATF had it rough because most Americans liked alcohol, tobacco and firearms, and disliked regulation.
And then we come to Mike Finnegan, the Big Bad. He explains himself to Bradley, the struggle for whose soul has occupied much of the Charlie Hood series: Jeff has made me believe in the devil in the way no church has ever been able to.
My partners have all been very, very successful. I try my best to get to them by age eleven, and I have rigorous standards. The single best prognosticator for success as a partnered human being is ambition. This is where everything begins. Second greatest? Appetites--indulged appetites. Third? Perfectionism. I look for monstrous, gigantic egos linked closely to a sense of entitlement and possessing a simple can-do attitude.
[Shudder.] Practical, isn't he? And prescient. And...political, if you want to look at it that way and I don't see how you can avoid it.
One day, these novels will be read in history classes, in poly sci classes, and maybe in theological classes as well. Highly recommended.
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Signed British Books Sale
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We're trying something new. Will has created a list of 100 Signed British books we offer for sale so we can clear our shelves for all the new arrivals.
To see the sale books, please click here
100 UK titles for $14 USD each. Be sure to write UKSALE in the INSTRUCTIONS field when checking out. Though the original amount is listed, you'll only be billed $14 per title
In some cases we have only one or a few copies. First order in, first filled.
Not all the cover images come up as the data base doesn't include them. So just roll your mouse over each blank or filled image and click and it will take you to the book's page where you can order it.
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Reprising Peaerson and Kerr
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We sold out of Pearson's The Kingdom Keepers VI Dark Passage (Disney $18) Ages 12+. The good news: Pearson returns June 13 with a new thriller, second in his splendid Rutherfurd Risk series and set in Amsterdam: Choke Point ($26.95). Start with the first entry, Risk Agent ($9.99). And he will sign more copies of The Kingdom Keepers. We'll ask him to come early to talk to kids who couldn't make it April 19.
This review of Kerr's superb 9th thriller for Bernie Gunther ran yesterday in the NY Times, so I couldn't quote it last week. We still have signed copies of Kerr's A Man Without Breath (Putnam $27)
Here is the Times review: "One of these days, World War II will come to an end, and then how will we manage without Bernie Gunther, the cynical Berlin cop who has somehow contrived to stay alive and retain some vestige of personal integrity in Philip Kerr's harrowing historical thrillers? Bernie is still trapped inside Nazi Germany, although in a relatively protected position with the Bureau of War Crimes in the Wehrmacht's legal division. But when a mass grave containing thousands of Polish officers is uncovered in Smolensk, Bernie finds himself back on the Eastern Front, looking for a way to pin the blame for the Katyn massacre on the Russians, which would alienate their Western allies and possibly turn the tide of the war. Meanwhile, he's fresh out of schemes for keeping certain attractive Jewish women and their families out of detention camps. These are the kind of lose / lose situations Kerr loves to toss Bernie into...a regular guy living in irregular times...Kerr's sardonic vision always encompasses wry humor, even amid the horrors of war."
 What does an ordinary, a decent man, moreover, a man charged with keeping the law, do when decency and law are discarded? Kerr introduced us to Gunther in his Berlin Noir trilogy and with every new chapter, informs and thrills us more. Think Alan Furst and Joseph Kanon but with a series character, Bernie.
Patrick says, "Kerr's Bernie Gunther novels are modern classics: impeccably researched and elegantly written. A Man Without Breathmay be his finest effort yet." The New York Times reviews this book on Sunday April 21.
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S Is For...
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Scottoline, Lisa. Don't Go Signed (St Martins $29).
From the point of view of Lisa's first male narrator, a riveting thriller about one man's search for his wife's killer. Grief-stricken, Mike makes decisions upon returning to Afghanistan which will change his life forever. It's not until he comes home for good that he grasps the gravity of his actions...
Strout, Elizabeth. The Burgess Boys Signed (Random $26). Only 4 Signed firsts left
"After Amy and Isabelle, Abide with Me and the Pulitzer Prize-winning  Olive Kitteridge, no one should be surprised by the poignancy and emotional vigor of Elizabeth Strout's new novel. But the broad social and political range of The Burgess Boys shows just how impressively this extraordinary writer continues to develop...As she showed in Olive Kitteridge, Strout is something of a connoisseur of emotional cruelty. But does anyone capture middle age quite as tenderly? Those latent fears-of change, of not changing, of being alone, of being stuck forever with the same person. There seems no limit to her sympathy, her ability to express, without the acrid tone of irony, our selfish, needy anxieties that only family can aggravate-and quell."-The Washington Post
Shepherd, Lynn. A Treacherous Likeness Signed (Constable $42).
Lord, the Godwins and the Shelleys, it all reads like today's gossip rags full of sex, adultery and wife swapping, betrayals, even incest. Those Romantics took more than poetic license. With a helpful family tree and lots of notes at the end, this lively, witty, intelligent novel is "A potent mix of passion, intrigue, perversion and betrayal, exploring the lives of Shelley, Byron, and their Romantic intimates through a Gothic lens."--Lyndsay Faye.
Shepherd is best known for her debut novel, Murder at Mansfield Park, throwing Jane Austen into a murder mystery and introducing Detective Charles Maddox. Last year she penned a remarkable remake of Dickens'Bleak House, also featuring Maddox. Now, with her latest, Shepherd throws our young detective into a scintillating case involving the only surviving son of Percy and Mary Shelley. Soon long-buried secrets come to light, including possible ties to Percy's first wife Harriet and Maddox's own great-uncle. I especially like her theories about Frankenstein and who wrote it....
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What's Up in May?
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Or rather, looking at our calendar, what isn't at The Pen?
WEDNESDAY MAY 1 7:00 PM
Michael Ryan signs The BOOM BOOM Book ($9.99) Practical career advice from the media executive
THURSDAY MAY 2 7:00 PM
Daniel Palmer signs Stolen (Kensington $25) Medical thriller
SATURDAY MAY 4 10 AM-4 PM CozyCon2
Phoenix Public Library 1221 N Central Avenue, Phoenix 85004
Registration: $40 includes lunch and 3 afternoon panels 480 947-2974 or email sales@poisonedpen.com
Paranormal and Psychic: Blackwell, Haines, Laurie
Nothing Like a Dame: Coonts, Kendrick, McKinlay, Milchman
Historical Mystery: Ramsay (Jerusalem 29 CE), Robertson (Sherlock Holmes variation), Gardner (Regency)
First 100 to register will receive a free goodie bag of swag from assorted authors
Juliet Blackwell signs Murder on the House (Berkley $7.99) Haunted Home Renovation Mystery
Deborah Coonts signs Lucky Bastard (Forge $26) Lucky O'Toole
Ashley Gardner signs A Death in Norfolk ($11) Captain Lacey Regency
Carolyn Haines signs Smarty Bones (St Martins $25) Sarah Booth Delaney AND as RB Chesterton, starts a series with The Darkling (Pegasus $25)
Beth Kendrick signs The Week Before the Wedding (NAL $15)
Victoria Laurie signs What a Ghoul Wants (Signet $7.99) Ghost Hunter Mystery
Jenn McKinlay signs Going, Going, Ganache (Berkley $7.99) Bakery Mystery
Jenny Milchman signs Cover of Snow (Random $26) Debut
Frederick Ramsay signs Holy Smoke (Poisoned Pen $25 or $15) Jerusalem Mystery
Michael Robertson The Baker Street Translation (St Martins $25) Baker Street Letters Mystery
TUESDAY MAY 7 7:00 PM Launch Party
David Morrell signs Murder As a Fine Art (Morrow $26) Thomas De Quincey Victorian thriller
WEDNESDAY MAY 8 7:00 PM
Gini Koch signs Alien in the House (DAW $7.99) 7th in SciFi series
THURSDAY MAY 9 7:00 PM Small Press Special
Meagan Beaumont signs Carved in Darkness (Midnight Ink $15)
Matt Coyle signs Yesterday's Echo (Ocean View $27)
Darrell James signs Sonora Crossing (Midnight Ink $15) Del Shannon
FRIDAY MAY 10 TGIF 7:00 PM
John Sandford signs Silken Prey (Putnam $28) Lucas Davenport
SATURDAY MAY 11 10:30 AM
Coffee and Crime Club discusses Cristobel Kent's A Fine and Private Place ($15), a police procedural set in Florence, Italy
And then at NOON:
Suzanne Rindell signs The Other Typist (Putnam $26) Unnerving debut novel
MONDAY MAY 13 7:00 PM Diamond (Daggers) Are Forever
Peter Lovesey signs The Tooth Tattoo (Soho $26) Chief Supt. Peter Diamond in a witty and wicked British crime
TUESDAY MAY 14 7:00 PM
Jon Talton signs The Night Detectives (Poisoned Pen $25) David Mapstone goes PI with former Sheriff Peralta. CSI:Phoenix (and some San Diego)
Also in trade paper: The Night Detectives ($15)
WEDNESDAY MAY 15 4:15 PM Happy Hour
A Skyped Interview with Dan Brown discussing Inferno (Doubleday $30). Those who buy a copy from The Pen will be put into a drawing for 10 signed copies plus some for mail order customers. Receipt required
THURSDAY MAY 16 7:00 PM
John Lescroart signs The Ophelia Cut (Atria $27) Dismas Hardy
FRIDAY MAY 17 7:00 PM
Michael Harvey signs The Innocence Game (Knopf $25) Chicago Legal thriller begins at Northwestern University
MONDAY MAY 20 7:00 PM
Sophie Littlefield signs Garden of Stones (Mira $18)
TUESDAY MAY 21 7:00 PM
Walter Mosley signs Little Green (Doubleday $26) Easy Rawlins
WEDNESDAY MAY 22 7:00 PM Gothic Night
Alex Grecian signs The Black Country (Putnam $27) Victorian Scotland Yard Murder Squad in knockout English Gothic
THURSDAY MAY 23 7:00 PM
Josh Harris signs Captain Phil Harris: The Deadliest Catch
(SimonSchuster $25). Legendary Alaskan crab fisherman, TV show airs new episodes
SATURDAY MAY 25 5:00 PM
John Scalzi signs The Human Division (Forge $26) Sequel to
TUESDAY MAY 28 7:00 PM
Clive Cussler and Graham Brown both sign Zero Hour (Putnam $29) NUMA Files Awesome weaponry targets Australia
THURSDAY MAY 30 7:00 PM
Hardboiled Crime discusses Anthony Neil smith's Yellow Medicine ($15) set in rural Minnesota
MONDAY JUNE 3 7:00 PM
Steph Cha signs Follow Her Home (St Martins $25) Debut, Korean community
TUESDAY JUNE 4 7:00 PM A Pair of Crime
Ace Atkins signs a new Spenser Robert B Parker's Wonderland (Putnam $27)
And a new Quinn Colson, the Ranger, in Broken Places (Putnam $27)
June 5 Lauren Beukes June 6: Taylor Stephens; June 8 Jeffery Deaver; June 11 Robert K. Tanenbaum (nonfiction); June 12 Craig Johnson; June 13 Ridley Pearson and Jon Steele; June 14 Steve Berry; June 15 Dennis Palumbo; June 18: Jason Matthews; June 19: Ingrid Tofth; June 20 Walter Walker; June 24 James Rollins; June 25 Linda Castillo; June 27 Dorothea Benton Frank; June 29 David Freed; July 6 Poisoned Pen Conference. And wait until you see July!
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10 Authors July 6
Plus Daniel Silva, Frederick Forsyth, and Sue Grafton
all Books at the Biltmore
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Saturday July 6: 9-4:30 Our annual Poisoned Pen Conference
Friday July 19
7 PM: Daniel Silva
Tuesday August 21: Frederick Forsyth
Tuesday September 10: Sue Grafton Book Launch for W Is for....
Our rate at the Arizona Biltmore Resort and Spa for all these exceptional events is $95 night plus taxes.
An upgrade to the next level is $115/night.
The Code to use when reserving a room is 2726435
Our contact is Patrick Pilcher, 602.954.2538
Patrick.Pilcher@waldorfastoria.com
The Arizona Biltmore hosts our annual Conference once again.
Saturday July 6 9 AM-4:30 PM.
Registration $50 Cash buffet lunch. Cupcakes for dessert to go with the Cupcake Cozy Panel
Call 888 560 9919 or 480 947-2974
Confirmed authors now include Marcia Clark with
Avery Aames, Kate Carlisle, Jane Cleland, Steve Hamilton, Michael Kahn, Susanna Kearsley, Jenn McKinlay, Sheldon Siegel, Qiu Xiaolong. St Martin's Press editor Keith Kahla will be our Luncheon Speaker. Make a weekend of it, enjoy the pool.
Friday July 19 7:00 PM 
Daniel Silva signs The English Girl (Harper $28) Gabriel Allon
(come in early for July 16: Martin Walker, 17: Alex Kava, and 18, Brad Taylor)
Wednesday August 21 7:00 PM
Frederick Forsyth signs The Kill List
(Putnam $27.95)
(stay over for Carol O'Connell August 22)
Tuesday September 10 7:00 PM
Sue Grafton signs W is for .... (Putnam $28.95) Kinsey Millhone #23
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Buy Poisoned Pen Gift Cards Online
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You can now buy our Gift Cards, a perfect present!, right from our website
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The Poisoned Pen
| Is a full service general bookstore with a specialty in crime fiction. 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 sales@poisonedpen.com. 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!
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 Mystery Writers of America, The American Booksellers Association, The Independent Mystery Booksellers Association, Valley Independent Bookstores.
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