Hank Phillippi Ryan & Steve Hamilton at The Poisoned Pen!

When I learned that Hank Phillippi Ryan and Steve Hamilton were going to appear at The Poisoned Pen to promote their new books, it wasn't difficult to persuade Denis that we had to go even though we were going to be spending the Labor Day weekend with two dozen authors just a few days later. I think Denis just wanted to do something with me that took us outside the house yet still involved air conditioning. Whatever the reason, we were at our favorite bookstore nice and early to get the seats we wanted, and the time flew by.

L to R: Hank Phillippi Ryan & Steve Hamilton

Barbara Peters introduced the pair and then left center stage to them because, as she said, Ryan is a vastly superior interviewer. And since I now record these events, go home, listen to the recordings and type up the recaps, I'm just going to proceed as though I'm writing a screenplay. (Hope you don't mind!)

Ryan: How long have you been on book tour?

Hamilton: For almost two weeks.

Ryan: Do you have any idea what day it is?

Hamilton: Um... it's the middle of the week, right?

Ryan: I don't know! Book tour is so crazy. What a wild trip it is. It's so much fun, but you have no idea what day it is. There are mornings when I wake up in hotel rooms and think, 'Where am I?'  Do you have that?

Hamilton: Yes. It is a great privilege because we get to... Writing is such a solitary thing. You're in a room alone late at night, or if you're a morning person, early in the morning, and you can forget that there are people out there who read these books and they spend so much time with your characters. That's such an amazing thing, especially now when so many people don't read books. So it's great to come here and be reminded that there are still readers out there. It's something that I'll never take for granted.

Hank Phillippi Ryan

Ryan: I am not a morning writer. Lee Child always said nothing good ever happens before noon, so every time I put it off and put it off and put it off. But I think because I've been a television reporter for forty years I get more prolific as the night goes on. I think it's because I'm always half-ready for the eleven o'clock news, so at ten o'clock I can really write because I know my news deadline is coming. But in the morning I have plenty of time to put the story together. Do you write at night as well?

Hamilton: Yes, I do. I can't imagine getting up before dawn. We know writers who do it that way. William Kent Krueger in a coffee shop in Minnesota while the sun comes up, writing his books. That's like science fiction to me.

Ryan: Exactly! You would find my head clonked on a computer. [Holding up a copy of Hamilton's book] People are just effusive about Dead Man Running. This is marvelous. And it's not just because it's a fast-paced, interesting, compelling book; this has really touched some people.

Hamilton: Well! Thank you by the way... It's been five years since the last book with this guy, and actually as I go around this month, it's kind of mind-blowing that it was twenty years ago this month that A Cold Day in Paradise was released. Twenty years! And all the things that have happened since then. It's just incredible to look back on it. And now, five years since the last book... I knew I'd go back to him. I was here for the last few books, and I hope I said it whenever anyone asked about Alex-- that I'd go back to him. [character Alex McKnight]

Ryan: Why don't you tell us a bit about where Alex came from; he's such a favorite with readers! Do you remember the moment you first met him?

Steve Hamilton

Hamilton: Yeah, I remember the exact moment because I was trying to write what I thought was a private eye book. Which is the guy in the office with the hat and the thing and the bottle and the gun... you've got the whole thing in your head already. It's kind of formula, but there's nothing wrong with that formula, by the way. It still works really well. I loved that kind of book when I was growing up. I wanted to write that kind of book.

I had all this time set aside to write that kind of book, and I failed so utterly and completely. It just didn't happen.

Ryan: How did you know you had failed? Every author feels that at some point. It's not good... whose idea was this... this isn't going to work... but you had a pure, compelling thought that you were just on the wrong track. How did you know that?

Hamilton: When, after sixteen days, I had written two words. That was my clue. The words were 'Chapter One,' by the way. I mean, after all this time, I felt like such a failure. I just wanted to do this so bad, and I just thought, 'You're never going to be a writer. You don't have what it takes-- whatever that is. It's just not going to happen for you.'

And then at that point of giving up, I just decided that I was going to write something else. I had this idea about a guy who felt like I did. It felt real. I just thought of Alex McKnight sitting in a cabin in the most remote place I could think of. I thought, 'Why is he there? Why is he feeling this way?' It's a strange way to begin a story with that feeling of despair, so I just started answering questions about it. Maybe he's a cop. What's the big failure for a cop? His partner was killed and he didn't stop it. He left the force. He came to this place to get away from his life. And that first book was about how your life will always find you.

Available Now!

Ryan: What do you mean by that?

Hamilton: Well, it's like you can't get away from the past. You can't run away from your demons. And that was the point of that whole first book. It wasn't a private eye novel, it was a personal coming-to-terms-with-his-past novel. It just came about in a way that I never would have expected.

Ryan: When you start with your character in deep despair, you have two choices. You can have them come out of it, or not. Did you know you were writing a series, and how do you keep the idea that the core started with that despair but you can't keep despair going throughout the series?

Hamilton: No, you can't. He kinda gets dragged out of it. He kinda gets tricked out of it. I wasn't thinking of a second book, or a third book... or an eleventh book now. When the first book was published, they asked me where the second one was. I said, 'It's coming right up!' And when I went back, I realized that there was more stuff that he could do. This book is a lot different, though.

Ryan: Why?

Hamilton: Coming back from a break, it's like... have you seen the movie Skyfall? That was a brilliant movie I thought because all the stuff that had built up around the franchise was done away with. They made the decision to go back to what it was about this character that made us want to read the books and go see the first couple of movies when it was this new amazing thing before all the fancy cars and stuff. I was inspired by that. What was it about Alex McKnight twenty years ago that made me want to keep writing about him?

Steve Hamilton

Ryan: So you fell in love with your character all over again.

Hamilton: Yeah, I guess you could say that. I got back to back to that idea, and that's why he's alone in this book. It's about him on his own. It takes him out of his comfort zone, and it's a very different sort of circumstance. The book starts in the Mediterranean Sea with this guy who's on a cruise with his wife. He checks the video feed on his house back in Scottsdale, Arizona. He sees that something's not right. He checks the bedroom and sees there's a dead body in his bed.

In the next scene, you're in Arizona and they've captured this guy-- kinda too easily actually-- and the FBI is interviewing him. The guy tells them that there's one victim still alive, but you're going to have to take me to Michigan to find this ex-cop from Detroit, and you're going to have to bring him with us. That's the only way I'll cooperate.

Ryan: That's weird!

Hamilton: It is weird, especially when Alex gets there and this guy knows everything about his life-- and Alex has never seen him before.

Ryan: And that's one of the things about your books that is so terrific, that the two stories come together so beautifully. The personal story and the crime story. How do you weave that together? Do you plan it all, or does it just come together as you write?

Hamilton: This just comes out of Alex. It's who he is and how he deals with things. He uses his gut instincts to make his way through this nightmare that he's plunged into. It does tie into his own life, and there's a big twist at the end that we won't talk about. It's just part of making a story that's a complete story because you need all of that.

Ryan: To newcomers to the series, you don't have to start with the first book. They're a series of standalone books, right? That you can read in any order...

Hamilton: Right.

Hank Phillippi Ryan

Ryan: Did you know you were doing that with the first book, giving it that standalone feel?

Hamilton: I didn't know anything about the series when I wrote that first book, but as you go, you learn that it's a balancing act.

Ryan: I've learned so much about the difference between writing a series and writing a standalone because this is my first standalone, my first psychological standalone after writing nine series books. Two different series.

Hamilton: So let's talk about this book now.

Ryan: Okay!

Hamilton: I was reading your book on the plane to Phoenix, and here's the thing that struck me about it: we do these tours and events and conferences, and all that stuff is secondary to the words on the page and whether when you pick up the book that it really works for you as a reader. That's what really matters and what will last long after we're gone. As I was reading your book, I forgot that I was going to see you today and that I wanted to ask you questions about it, I just wanted to read because it's a really good book. It really pulled me in.

Ryan: It's interesting, because at the beginning of the book-- just like your Alex book, Mercer Hennessey-- who is a journalist-- quits her up and coming job as a writer to stay at home with her husband and daughter. Just to be a mom. This is what she wants to do. A year before the start of the book, she loses her husband and daughter in a terrible accident, and as the book begins, Mercer is writing in the steam on the bathroom mirror four, four, two-- the number of days since her family was taken from her. This is her daily ritual.

She can't find a reason for her to get out of bed in the morning, and she gets what may be a lifeline phone call from her old editor, asking her to cover the trial of a notorious party girl/murderer-- alleged murderer-- who's accused of killing her own daughter. Should Mercer cover the trial? Her grief over losing her own daughter is still so raw, but she's a journalist and she can be objective. So she's assigned to write the true crime coverage-- like In Cold Blood-- of this murder trial.

Hank Phillippi Ryan

Hamilton: And you actually read some of the things she's writing about the trial, so you kinda see it from the other side. She's trying to imagine herself in the mind of the person who's on trial.

Ryan: It's interesting because the first part of the book is a book in a book. So you read about Mercer's life and how she's covering this trial. She's under tremendous pressure because the book must be finished by the time the defendant is sentenced. She's under intense deadline pressure. She's writing like crazy. She's researching. She's watching the trial on a video feed in her house. She's in this sort of locked room situation with this grisly story about a horrible murder coming through the video feed.

You see Mercer covering the trial, and you see what she thinks about it. Then you're also reading the book she's writing about it. So we know what happens to the accused murderer through Mercer's eyes and through what Mercer is writing, and we can see Mercer trying to stay objective. And then everything changes, which I can't tell you about at all!

Hamilton: I know! The plane landed, and all I want to do is get back to the book and start reading, which is the highest compliment you can pay a writer, I think. I think tonight will be a long night because I want to see what happens next.

Ryan: What happens next is so fascinating because it's why we all read crime fiction. We want to see what happens in this case, we want to find out whodunit. 

This is a little-known story, and I'll tell it quickly. I was assigned many years ago by a big fancy publishing house to write the true crime novel of the Casey Anthony trial. I had to cover the trial and write the book and be done when the trial was over. I was supposed to hit send and the book was to be published the day she was sentenced to life in prison because, of course, she was guilty. Everyone knew that.

Hank Phillippi Ryan with Trust Me

I had three computers. I had one to do research, I had one where I was watching the trial feed, and I had one where I was writing the book. I wrote eighteen to twenty hours a day like crazy. I have to tell you that, at one point, I thought, 'This is really good, this is a good book. I have found my calling. It's going to be the new In Cold Blood!'

And then... and then... she was acquitted. The publisher called me and said, 'Thanks so much. We don't need this book.' It was over. But here's the point of it. When that happened to me, I realized that I had written this book which was supposed to be objective through the brain and eyes of a person-- me-- who really thought she was guilty. Now I'm a criminal defense attorney's wife. I can tell you why anybody is not guilty, but in this case, I really thought she was guilty.

It was very profound to me to have it revealed how I had actually been writing that book. Not objective in any way, and also, the jury had come up with a completely different version of the truth than I had. How could that be? That's when I realized that there are three sides to every story: yours, mine, and the truth. And that's what you see on the cover of the book.

[Looking at Hamilton] Do you know how your books will end before you start writing them?

Steve Hamilton

Hamilton: I used to sort of not know. Really, when I was first starting out, in the first ten McKnight books. I'd just start out with something really interesting and then ask myself what's the worst thing he could get himself into next. Okay-- so what has to happen next? That's a pretty good North Star for a writer. It seems inevitable, but you can work your way into some pretty big surprises. And you can really surprise yourself.

Ryan: Isn't that kind of fun, though, when you're typing and something gets put on the page and you think, 'Really? That happened? I didn't see that coming!' That's such a joy when that happens.

Hamilton: Unless it's something really horrible, and then it's not. It's 'Wait a minute! This can't happen!'

Ryan: One of the things I say about Trust Me is 'I dare you to show me the liar.' It's an obsessed journalist and a troubled mom in a cat-and-mouse game about this terrible crime, but only one can prevail. Which one is the cat, and which one is the mouse? And I dare you to find the liar. If you look at the book this way, see what the cover says?

Available Now!

Isn't that amazing? And once you see that it says 'LIAR', you can't unsee it.

Hamilton: That's really cool!

Ryan: They did a great job!

Hamilton: Was this your first standalone?

Ryan: Yes, it was. What was your first standalone?

Hamilton: I did a book called Night Work. Then any sensible person would've gone back, but I had this big idea for this eighteen-year-old safecracker who never talks.

Ryan: I remember interviewing you for The Lock Artist and asking 'Why would you choose to write about a character who never talks? That's hard for a book...'

Hamilton: I didn't know that was going to happen until about fifty pages in and he still hadn't said anything!

Hank Phillippi Ryan

Ryan: That has just stuck with me forever because that's absolutely what you were talking about... that you didn't even plan that, and if you had-- forgive me-- but if you had, you wouldn't've done it because it's such a stupid idea!

Hamilton: Exactly! Exactly! Maybe it was a stupid idea because it certainly felt that way.

Ryan: Did that not win the Edgar?

Hamilton: It kinda won the Edgar, yeah.

Ryan: Then that's not stupid.

Hamilton: But it still felt stupid in the middle. I was stuck and it would've been so helpful if my guy would just say something! But in that first scene, I just knew there was something different about him besides his talent with locks and safes. What is it about this kid that makes him different from everyone else? And as I wrote, he just kept his mouth shut. He would not say anything!

Ryan: That's just classic. And you could've gone on to write more books about him, but it would've been tedious and wouldn't work. And here's where the difference between writing series and writing standalones is so profound. In a series, Alex McKnight is not going to die because he's going to come back in the next book. So the tension in your book is from whatever the situation is.

But in a standalone, this is the biggest, most tectonic-plate-shifting thing, the most life-changing thing that has ever happened-- or will ever happen-- to Mercer Hennessy and Ashlynne Bryant. This will not happen again. This is a moment in time. This is a cat-and-mouse game that can only happen once. Only one can win. This makes a standalone be so no-holds-barred! You can do anything, you can kill anybody, anybody can be guilty.

Steve Hamilton

Hamilton: How did that feel not having any of your characters... because normally you know these guys, you know the place-- it's like coming back home-- and you gave up all that to write something totally from scratch. Was that scary?

Ryan: It was fabulous. I have to say that I'm in love with writing standalones.

As I said before, my husband is a criminal defense attorney, and I listened to him give his closing argument for a big murder trial. I told him that he had a slam-dunk acquittal.

Then I pictured the wife of the prosecuting attorney across town doing the same thing. That's what caused me to write this book-- whether I could take the same set of evidence and make two completely different stories that were equally believable.

Hamilton: So it sounds like we're going to see more standalones?

Ryan: Yeah, it's due Friday! It's almost done-- really!



And then after Hamilton admitted that, after recently losing his father,  he realized how much of his father was in the character of Alex McKnight, there was a short Q&A session.

It was another fun and informative night at The Poisoned Pen which Denis and I talked about all the way home. I hope you enjoyed it, too!

At The Poisoned Pen with Hank Phillippi Ryan & Linwood Barclay!

With Denis scheduled to work, I found myself jumping in the Jeep and heading to The Poisoned Pen all by my lonesome to see Hank Phillippi Ryan and Linwood Barclay. I was already acquainted with Barclay, having both read his novels and seen him in a previous appearance at my favorite bookstore, but this would be the first time I'd see Ryan, whose books I have yet to read.

One of the first things we all learned was that this wasn't a mere promotional stop for either writer. Ryan had flown in from Boston and Barclay from Toronto to attend meetings of the Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime, the latter occurring after this event. Rhys Bowen was also in town and was in attendance. 

L to R: Linwood Barclay, Barbara Peters, Hank Phillippi Ryan, Rhys Bowen

When host Barbara Peters mentioned that this wasn't the usual time of year for Barclay to be visiting the bookstore, he smiled and said, "Yes. I'm very glad the book came out now so I didn't have to visit Phoenix in August!" The book Barclay was talking about was The Twenty-Three, the last of three interconnected books with a background story that explodes in this last novel.

Available Now!

Barclay wrote all three books in fifteen months and thought that he would be able to put his feet up for the next year and a half... until he learned that his publisher had tightened his writing schedule. The trilogy, in order, is Broken Promise, Far From True, and The Twenty-Three. The author did have an unpleasant dream or two about something happening to him before he finished the trilogy-- which reminded him of the horrific accident that Stephen King had several years ago. King received so many messages from his fans, many of which said something along the lines of "We're so glad you're okay because now we'll get to read the end of the Dark Tower series!"

From the beginning, Barclay knew that the major story was about someone who had an ax to grind with the town of Promise Falls. Looking at all of us in the audience, the author assured us, "All questions will be answered."

Linwood Barclay

Barclay had a reader contact him to say that he was so angry that the meaning behind the number twenty-three wasn't given by the second book that he wasn't going to bother reading the third. "So... what's the deal with the number twenty-three?" the reader asked. Barclay refused to tell him. (Good for him! I wouldn't either.)

Hank Phillippi Ryan told Barclay, "You've juggled the point of view so beautifully in these books!"

Barclay thanked her and then explained to the uninitiated that each book in the trilogy was told from one person's point of view, and that person changed from book to book.

The two authors were conducting their own interview. Barbara Peters had joined Rhys Bowen in the audience. Ryan then asked Barclay, "Did you know what was going to happen at the end of book three? Did you have a big plan from the very beginning?"

"Yes," Barclay replied.

"How did you feel when you finished the third book? Happy? Sad?" Ryan asked. 

"Actually my reaction was 'Thank God, it's all over,'" Barclay said, "especially since all three were written back to back." He is one writer who knows how to buckle down and make his deadlines. He wrote three humor columns for the Toronto Star for fifteen years. Newspaper reporting will teach you to make deadlines.

Hank Phillippi Ryan

Hank Phillippi Ryan has no fear of deadlines either; she's been a television reporter for forty years. She is used to working very fast. As a writer, Ryan feels that her first job is "to be entertaining. I also like to take something complicated and make it fascinating. Imagine someone reading my book on the subway and missing their stop. I love that image."

With her latest book, Say No More, Ryan knew that she wanted the book to contain two different stories so it wasn't "just this linear thing."

One of the ideas that became Say No More happened to Ryan when she and her husband saw a Cadillac smash into a van and then leave the scene. The author got a description and wrote the license plate number in the dust on the dashboard of their vehicle. A month later she was called and asked to perform a nonsuggestive identification in which she would be in the courtroom and asked if the person driving the car was present.

The trial dealt with some unsavory characters, and Ryan's reaction was, "No thank you! I'm recognizable, and this could put my life in danger." She then realized that her whole life had been devoted to getting people to tell her things, and this one incident-- and her very personal reaction to it-- had shifted her entire perspective. Now she understood why some people do not want to cooperate.

Available Now!

In her latest novel, Jane Ryland sees a hit-and-run that ruins someone's alibi, and her silence is the only thing that's keeping three women alive. 

Barclay wasn't done with that nonsuggestive identification. "Was the guy you saw in the courtroom?" 

"Yes, he was!" Ryan exclaimed.

"The moral of that story is Do Not Dust Your Dashboard," Barclay quipped.

"These days, we'd have our phones," she replied.

Ryan and Barclay then began to talk a bit about their writing processes.

Barclay said, "By 8:30 or 9 AM, I'm in the study with my coffee, and I write until 2 or 3 PM. My wife calls up the stairs, 'It's vodka o'clock!' and I hear that whistle blow. Normally I write 2,000 words a day."

Ryan told us, "I have an author friend who was going to ask for a two-month extension on her deadline because she 'wasn't feeling it.' I can just see myself at the television station saying, 'What if I go on at 6:10 instead of 6? I'm not feeling it.'"

Linwood Barclay

"She must've been writing literary fiction," Barclay deadpanned, which reminded me of Barbara Peters' definition of that genre.

"Another person took ten years to write a book on brown paper that she'd attached to the walls. When she finished, she tore the paper off the walls and started over again. In sentences this time," Ryan said. 

In answer to a fan's question, Barclay said, "When I start writing a book, I know the end point, but I don't know what route I'm going to take to get there. Pace is also important. A really good crime novel has a sense of momentum."

"I love it when I'm in the zone, writing so fast that Word can no longer correct my spelling," Ryan said. "I never know the ending of my book. I surprised myself with the ending of Say No More. I love that!" 

Hank Phillippi Ryan

"I had my first Zack Walker book halfway written  when my agent, Helen, asked me who did it. I said, 'It's either....' She cut me short. 'Stop. Don't write another word until you know whodunit,'" Barclay said. 


"I like digging for information. I like real life," Ryan commented. "We don't know what's going to happen."

These two were bouncing from one question to the next.  Barclay's two favorite films? Rear Window and Vertigo, and he'll be finishing his next book by December 1 (which means it's done). 

Ryan's next book is a standalone whose working title is "The Truth as I Know It." It deals with the truth that someone tries to convince us is true and the indefinable real truth. She also shared that her first draft of her first book, Prime Time, was over seven hundred pages long. 

Most of Barclay's books start out with his thinking a simple "what if?"

An extremely enjoyable and informative afternoon ended all too soon. What should come as a surprise to none of you is that I went home with my first Hank Phillippi Ryan book to read. Ah, the perils of The Poisoned Pen!

Hank and Linwood

September 2012 New Mystery Releases!

I can already see (and feel) that summer is beginning to pack its bags and head south for the winter, but I'm going to continue reading in my favorite spot in the pool for as long as I can. I figure I can get a few books from this month's list read before the water's too cold!

It was murder trying to prune the list down to a manageable size; I hate leaving anyone out! There are some excellent books in store for us in September, and (after grouping them by release dates) I've included all the information you'll need to find them at your favorite book spots. Hopefully, I've chosen a title or two that tickles your fancy. Which of these are on your own wish lists?

=== September 1 ===

Title: Watching the Ghosts

Author: Kate Ellis

Series: #4 in the Joe Plantagenet series set in present-day North Yorkshire, England

ISBN: 9781780290270

Publisher: Creme de la Crime

Hardcover, 240 pages

Synopsis: "DI Joe Plantagenet investigates a house with a disturbing past in the fourth of this popular police procedural series. Boothgate House has a sinister past. Once an asylum for the insane, serial killer Peter Brockmeister was sent there on his release from prison in 1978. Three years later, it closed, and Brockmeister died in mysterious circumstances. Solicitor Melanie Hawkes is investigating the suspicious events when her young daughter is kidnapped. Meanwhile, Boothgate House resident Lydia Brookes is burgled. And why is a paranormal researcher fascinated by the building’s basement? As Joe uncovers the appalling truth, he faces an evil that threatens those closest to him – and puts his own life in jeopardy."

=== September 4 ===

Title: Wall-to-Wall Dead

Author: Jennie Bentley

Series: #6 in the Do It Yourself Home Renovation series set in Maine

ISBN: 9780425255568

Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime

Mass Market Paperback, 304 pages

Synopsis: "Avery Baker never thought she’d leave Manhattan, until she inherited her aunt’s old Maine cottage and found her true calling—home renovation. But when Avery goes to work restoring a condominium, she discovers it’s another condo owner who’s been condemned... 

Avery and her partner, Derek, are fixing up a cute little condo in homey Waterfield, Maine, hoping for a quick turnaround and some extra money. It seems like a simple project—and Avery is looking forward to using her big-city experience with small spaces.

But they didn’t expect to have their every move watched by the resident busybody in the condo, Hilda Shaw, who loves snooping on everyone’s comings and goings. When the busybody becomes a dead body, Avery suspects foul play. Soon she’s doing some snooping of her own—and it seems everyone in the complex has a secret. Could one of them be worth killing for? Avery needs to work fast, before someone decides to fix her...for good."

Title: Last Wool and Testament

Author: Molly MacRae

Series: #1 in the Haunted Yarn Shop series set in Tennessee

ISBN: 9780451237828

Publisher: Signet

Mass Market Paperback, 352 pages

Synopsis: "Molly MacRae spent twenty years in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains of Upper East Tennessee, where she managed the Book Place, an independent bookstore; may it rest in peace. Before the lure of books hooked her, she was curator of the history museum in Jonesborough, Tennessee's oldest town. Her short stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine for more than twenty years, and she has won the Sherwood Anderson Award for Short Fiction. MacRae lives with her family in Champaign, Illinois, where she connects children with books at the public library.

Coming in September 2012 - Last Wool and Testament, first in a new, light paranormal, mystery series from Signet starring Kath Rutledge, a textile preservationist, who inherits her grandmother's wool shop in Blue Plum, Tennessee, and also ends up with a depressed ghost on her hands. Think of it as the series that puts the woo-woo in wool."

Title: Face of the Enemy

Authors: Joanne Dobson and Beverle Graves Myers

Series: #1 in the New York in Wartime series set in New York City during World War II

ISBN: 9781464200311

Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press

Hardcover, 250 pages

Synopsis: "December, 1941: With New Yorkers painfully aware of their vulnerability after the Pearl Harbor attack, the FBI prowls the city snatching up Japanese residents. Tension increases for a sensitive Japanese artist when she’s accused of murder as well as espionage. Is Masako Fumi guilty? Or a victim of racial paranoia? Nurse Louise Hunter is outraged and vows to help her friend.

When the murdered body of Masako’s art dealer is discovered in the gallery where he’d been closing down her controversial show, Masako’s troubles multiply. Homicide detective Michael McKenna doubts her guilt, but an ambitious G-man schemes to lever the homicide and ensuing espionage accusations into a political cause célèbre.

Struggling to focus on one man’s murder while America plunges into a worldwide war, Louise and McKenna defy both racism and ham-fisted government agents in order to expose the real killer."

Title: The Other Woman

Author: Hank Phillippi Ryan

Series: #1 in the Jane Ryland series set in Boston

ISBN: 9780765332578

Publisher: Forge Books

Hardcover, 416 pages

Synopsis: "Jane Ryland was a rising star in television news…until she refused to reveal a source and lost everything. Now a disgraced newspaper reporter, Jane isn’t content to work on her assigned puff pieces, and finds herself tracking down a candidate’s secret mistress just days before a pivotal Senate election.

Detective Jake Brogan is investigating a possible serial killer. Twice, bodies of unidentified women have been found by a bridge, and Jake is plagued by a media swarm beginning to buzz about a 'bridge killer' hunting the young women of Boston. 

As the body count rises and election looms closer, it becomes clear to Jane and Jake that their cases are connected…and that they may be facing a ruthless killer who will stop at nothing to silence a scandal."

Title: More Than Sorrow
Author: Vicki Delany
Standalone
ISBN: 9781590589854
Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press
Hardcover, 250 pages

Synopsis: "Once, Hannah Manning was an internationally-renowned journalist and war correspondent. Today, she’s a woman suffering from a traumatic brain injury. Haunted by her memories, Hannah goes to her sister’s small-scale vegetable farm in Prince Edward County, Ontario to recover and spend time with her ten-year-old niece, Lily.

Hannah retreats into the attic full of boxes and moldy letters that have accumulated for more than two centuries. As she reads about the original settlers of this land, she is increasingly drawn to the space beneath the old house.

More than carrots, potatoes, soups and jams are down in the dark, damp root cellar. Hannah experiences visions of a woman emerging from the icy cold mist. Is the woman real?

In this modern Gothic novel of heart-wrenching suspense, past and present merge into a terrifying threat to the only thing Hannah still holds dear—Lily."

Title: Seven Days
Author: Deon Meyer
Series: #3 in the Benny Griessel series set in Capetown, South Africa
ISBN: 9780802120359
Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press
Hardcover, 320 pages

Synopsis: "A police officer is shot dead. The next day, one of his colleagues is as well. Then the South African police receive an email threatening an additional cop killed each day until a cold case is solved. Inspector Benny Griessel is charged with reopening the file on the murder of Hanneke Sloet, an ambitious lawyer stabbed to death in her luxury apartment. There’s no apparent motive and no leads, just a set of nude photographs and a burly ex-boyfriend with a rock-solid alibi. Then more policemen are shot and the pressure mounts. Can Bennie solve the case and stay sober?

Featuring the fantastic characters from Deon Meyer’s Thirteen Hours, which won the Barry Award for Best Thriller in 2011, Seven Days is another gripping adventure from a masterful writer at the top of his game."

=== September 5 ===

Title: A Door in the River

Author: Inger Ash Wolfe

Series: #3 in the Hazel Micallef series set in Ontario, Canada

ISBN: 9781605984209

Publisher: Pegasus

Hardcover, 288 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books*

Synopsis: "Stinging deaths aren't uncommon in the summertime, but when Henry Wiest turns up stung to death at an Indian reservation, Detective Hazel Micallef senses not all is as it seems.  And when it turns out the 'bee' was a diabolical teenaged girl on a murder spree with a strange weapon, a dark and twisted crime begins to slowly emerge.  The questions, contradictions, and bodies begin to mount, as two separate police forces struggle to work together to save the soul of Westmuir County."

=== September 8 ===

Title: Hide and Snoop

Author: Sue Ann Jaffarian

Series: #7 in the Odelia Grey series set in southern California

ISBN: 9780738718897

Publisher: Midnight Ink

Paperback, 288 pages

Synopsis: "A merger at Odelia Grey’s law firm has put her job in jeopardy, and her new icy-cold boss, Erica Mayfield, has it in for her. The humiliation doubles when Erica dumps her three-year-old niece with Odelia and disappears for the weekend. The nerve! Primed for a confrontation, Odelia impulsively goes to her boss’s house in the middle of the night—and finds Erica’s sister murdered. Before she knows it, Odelia’s madcap misadventure to prove her own innocence ends up in a cuddly cradle of crime."

=== September 18 ===

Title: Lucky Stuff

Author: Sharon Fiffer

Series: #8 in the Jane Wheel series set in Illinois

ISBN: 9780312643034

Publisher: Minotaur Books

Hardcover, 320 pages

Synopsis: "Officially divorced, antiques picker and private investigator Jane Wheel finally faces the reality that she needs to sell her house, which means clearing out her extensive—and beloved—antique collection. While it’s a daunting task, the preemptive move proves worthwhile when her house sells in one day. Finding herself suddenly homeless, Jane heads to her hometown, Kankakee, Illinois, to find that it, too, has been turned upside down.

Lucky Miller, a little-known comedian, is staging what he calls a comeback. It’s all part of his plan to break into showbiz by making it seem like he’s always been a big name. Suspicious of what Lucky’s trying to prove and why he’s chosen to prove it in Kankakee, Jane’s mother, Nellie, hires Jane to investigate. But why does Nellie care? Lucky would sure like to know, so he, too, calls on Jane to find out. Still, Nellie may be the least of his problems when a driver on his crew turns up dead hours after claiming that Lucky tried to kill him."

=== September 25 ===

Title: Murder in the Rue Dumas

Author: M.L. Longworth

Series: #2 in the Verlaque and Bonnet series set in Aix-en-Provence, France

ISBN: 9780143121541 

Publisher: Penguin Books

Paperback, 304 pages

Synopsis: "When the director of the theology department at a university in Aix is found dead, Judge Verlaque is dumbfounded. Professor Moutte was about to announce the recipient of both a fellowship, and his position as Director—which includes the coveted apartment in a 17th century mansion. The prospective recipients and others close to Moutte make up a long list of suspects, but Verlaque isn’t convinced any of the eager students or desperate teachers are capable of murder, and he must dig deeper.

With Marine’s help—and that of her plucky mother—Verlaque uncovers a world that proves more complicated than university politics, and doing his best to keep his love life with Marine above water."

Title: Talking to the Dead

Author: Harry Bingham

Series: #1 in the Fiona Griffiths series set in Wales

ISBN: 9780345533739

Publisher: Delacorte Press

Hardcover, 352 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books*

Synopsis: "At first, the murder scene appears sad, but not unusual: a young woman undone by drugs and prostitution, her six-year-old daughter dead alongside her. But then detectives find a strange piece of evidence in the squalid house: the platinum credit card of a very wealthy—and long dead—steel tycoon. What is a heroin-addicted hooker doing with the credit card of a well-known and powerful man who died months ago? This is the question that the most junior member of the investigative team, Detective Constable Fiona Griffiths, is assigned to answer.

But D.C. Griffiths is no ordinary cop. She’s earned a reputation at police headquarters in Cardiff, Wales, for being odd, for not picking up on social cues, for being a little over-intense. And there’s that gap in her past, the two-year hiatus that everyone assumes was a breakdown. But Fiona is a crack investigator, quick and intuitive. She is immediately drawn to the crime scene, and to the tragic face of the six-year-old girl, who she is certain has something to tell her . . . something that will break the case wide open.

Ignoring orders and protocol, Fiona begins to explore far beyond the rich man’s credit card and into the secrets of her seaside city. And when she uncovers another dead prostitute, Fiona knows that she’s only begun to scratch the surface of a dark world of crime and murder. But the deeper she digs, the more danger she risks—not just from criminals and killers but from her own past . . . and the abyss that threatens to pull her back at any time."

Title: A Lack of Temperance

Author: Anna Loan-Wilsey

Series: #1 in the Hattie Davish historical series set in Arkansas

ISBN: 9780758276346

Publisher: Kensington

Paperback, 304 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books*

Synopsis: "Have typewriter will travel...and track down dead bodies. Not the usual motto for a Victorian private secretary and certainly not what Miss Hattie Davish has in mind when she responds to the latest summons for her services.  On the eve of the 1892 Election, Hattie arrives in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, a booming health spa and vacation resort, hoping to hike the hills, botanize and placate the demands of her newest high-society employer.  Yet her employer is missing, and this idyllic Ozark village is being plagued by a league of temperance women attacking saloons with hatchets and bricks, a city council candidate fighting in the streets and a trail of cryptic death threats.  With her reputation and life on the line, Hattie will put more than her trusty typewriter to the test."

Title: Big Maria

Author: Johnny Shaw

Standalone

ISBN: 9781612184395

Publisher: Thomas and Mercer

Paperback,384 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books*

Synopsis: "There’s gold in them thar hills—or more precisely, in Arizona’s Chocolate Mountains, where one hundred years ago a miner stashed a king’s ransom of the stuff. But times have changed. The world has changed. And now the Chocolate Mountains are the home of the largest military artillery range in the world.

Harry’s living on disability and getting liquored up and beaten down. Frank’s a feisty old-timer battling cancer and a domineering daughter. And Ricky’s a good kid in a bad spot, doing everything for family. Together they’re staking what little they have left on a dangerous quest to the Big Maria Mine— and the gold that can offer them a new beginning.

Unfortunately a meth-dealing biker wants a piece, a trigger-happy AWOL soldier wants to play chicken in a live minefield, two stubborn burros want to go home, a starving mountain lion wants his dinner, and the US Army wants to rain on our heroes’ parade with real bombs.

When you’re all out of crazy ideas, you’ve got to try the stupid ones."


So... how'd it go? Did you add as many books to your wish list as I did to mine? Which ones in particular are you looking forward to? Inquiring minds want to know!