@ The Poisoned Pen with Lauren Willig and Beatriz Williams!

Last Wednesday, Denis and I found our way back to our favorite bookstore, The Poisoned Pen, in Scottsdale, Arizona.The evening was a rather feminine one for Denis, since we were going to be seeing authors Lauren Willig and Beatriz Williams, but with the promise of a stop at the Cornish Pasty afterwards, he didn't mind!

When we walked in the store, the staff were as welcoming as ever, but they seemed a bit subdued. "We're running on fumes," Patrick Millikin admitted. They had good reason to be. The Poisoned Pen held the release day party for Diana Gabaldon's Written in My Own Heart's Blood in the Grand Ballroom at the Arizona Biltmore the evening before. Dealing with over 5,000 copies of the book (all those mail orders!) and over 800 attendees meant very tired employees indeed, but I know everything was done with their usual style and enthusiasm.

A few minutes before 7 PM, bookstore owner Barbara Peters walked in and took a seat. "Lauren and Beatriz will be here in a few minutes. I took them out for wine-- which should mean an even better program." Barbara took this time to introduce us to another author in our midst-- Shona Patel. "I was stranded for 20 hours on a sandbank in a river in Burma with nothing but a copy of Shona's book and the boat's cappuccino machine. I didn't mind one bit. Teatime for the Firefly is one of my favorite books of 2014," Barbara enthused. "You should have seen my face when I found out the author lives in Fountain Hills!" [Part of the general Phoenix metropolitan area.]

Peters then talked with us about more of her favorite books: Nicola Upson's historical mystery series featuring author Josephine Tey, and the books of Tey herself.

Right out of Mad Men

L to R: Barbara Peters, Lauren Willig, Beatriz Williams

We'd just wrapped up our chat about Josephine Tey when two young women came to take their seats, looking as though they'd just stepped out of the 1960s. "We decided to dress like we'd just finished filming an episode of Mad Men," Lauren Willig said as she smoothed her skirt. Most people, having seen these two looking so cool and fresh, would never dream that it was a typical June evening in the Valley of the Sun (which means the temperature was well over 100°F). 

Barbara then welcomed everyone in the bookstore-- and everyone who would watch via Livestream-- to what she called Mary Stewart Night. "It's easy to forget that mysteries encompass more than police, detectives, and serial killers," Peters said. "I for one don't care for serial killers, and I intend to focus a bit more on what many people call romantic suspense. I'm very glad Lauren and Beatriz could come this evening."

Lauren Willig is one of the bubbliest, most animated speakers I've seen in a long, long time. She is constantly smiling, and when she speaks, she speaks with the entire upper half of her body-- even her hair. Of all the photos Denis and I took this evening, I lost count of how many showed Lauren with some part of her blurred in perpetual motion. This woman's enthusiasm is infectious!

Lauren Willig

"I grew up on 'house books'-- especially the ones written by Barbara Michaels," Lauren said. "My favorite part of writing That Summer was creating my own Pre-Raphaelite artist, and-- I kid you not-- shortly after I turned in the book... the revisions were done... I saw a headline in the Guardian saying 'Lost Pre-Raphaelite Painting Found Behind Old Wardrobe'. You can't make this stuff up!"

Barbara Peters then said to Beatriz and Lauren, "Your books aren't 'time travel' or 'time slip' like Diana Gabaldon's, but more like 'time jump' because both your books jump back and forth between two storylines in two different time frames." Both women agreed, and then there came a brief scene that would warm the cockles of any book lover's heart. Barbara told them a bit about Shona Patel's Teatime for the Firefly and handed them a copy of the book. Both women grabbed at the book and-- literally-- ooohed and ahhed as they examined the cover and the synopsis on the back.

"More coffee!"

Beatriz Williams

"I didn't consciously set out to write a time jump novel," Beatriz Williams said. The basis of her book is a story from her husband's family. Williams then lapsed into a brief section of sports terms, then laughed and explained that her husband was a big baseball fan so she's gotten used to talking in baseball analogies.

While Lauren's That Summer involves a modern-day woman inheriting a house in London that figured into the life of an unknown Pre-Raphaelite painter, Beatriz's The Secret Life of Violet Grant begins with her main character receiving an old suitcase in the mail from a relative she didn't know she had. The character of Aunt Julie in the book ties into Williams' previous book, A Hundred Summers.

Beatriz and Lauren met five years ago. They've both gotten used to going to a local Starbuck's-- or someplace similar-- to escape the distractions of their homes in order to write. They get together regularly, along with fellow author Karen White ("the three W's!" as Lauren told us), to catch up with each other's lives and to talk writing.

"I can be having a plot problem, or a character may not be behaving herself, and I can ask them 'What do I do?'" Lauren told us. "The answer is usually more coffee!"

"We really don't talk about the books we're writing," Beatriz said, "but in the past couple of years Lauren and I have written books with similar themes."

At this moment, the two thought up an email contest for those of us present, and I took the time to catch up on my notes. Lauren and Beatriz were throwing out so many thoughts and ideas that the end of my pen was smoking!

"... a military operation!"

Available Now!

Lauren told us about popularity contests she sometimes holds on her website. "It's like voting for Prom King and Queen," she laughed. Since she now has a ten-month-old baby at home, getting ready to "come here was like a military operation!"

Lauren's next book will be The Mark of the Midnight Manzanilla, the eleventh in the Pink Carnation romantic thriller series. It's set in London during the vampire craze, and yes, it's meant to be a spoof of our present-day glittery vampires.

Beatriz's next book is a follow-up to A Hundred Summers. It's set on Cape Cod in 1966, centering on Vivian's sister Tiny. The working title of the book is Tiny Little Thing, although Beatriz doesn't think her publishers are going to allow her to keep it. She also let us know that she writes historical romance novels under the pen name Juliana Gray.

Available Now!

The pair had even more news to share: they are collaborating on a novel that is scheduled for release in 2016. It is set in 1944 in a Gilded Age mansion in New York City that has been converted into a convalescent home for wounded officers. This book also time jumps from a failed romance in the 1890s to a failed romance in the 1920s and back to 1944.

"I really think you two should think about conducting a workshop on collaborative writing," Barbara Peters said. "I also like how the novel is set in the U.S. Gothic doesn't necessarily mean English!"

"When we walk into an old house, we immediately begin making up stories about the people who lived in them," said Beatriz.

Influences and Work Habits

"You've borrowed story lines from Shakespeare for your books..." Barbara began.

Beatriz Williams

"I think I borrowed a bit from Middlemarch and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall for That Summer," Lauren said. 

"I've been reading The Fly in the Cathedral about the race to split the atom, and some Victorian pornography called My Secret Life," Beatriz admitted. "The whole time I was reading My Secret Life-- which is supposed to  be a true story-- I couldn't help wondering what on earth was this like for his wife!" 

All three women-- and many of us in the audience-- knew that the Victorians weren't as strait-laced as some would have us believe. "There's a strange aura of desire and virtue that permeates the entire Victorian era," Lauren said. 

Lauren's next standalone is set in 1927 London. The main character's mother dies of influenza, and when she goes back for the funeral, she finds a scrapbook and learns that her life-- even her own name-- are all a lie. "I listened to a Jeeves and Wooster soundtrack while I was writing about all these bright young things," Lauren said. "This is only the second book I've written that has a single romance within one single timeline."

Willig has had people tell her that her character in the Pink Carnation series is too far-fetched. "I'll have you know that there was a 40-year-old English woman who went undercover as a cabin boy on a French frigate during the Napoleonic Wars. The Pink Carnation series is not all that far-fetched!"

Lauren Willig

"The Night the Clock Struck Death is the first book I ever wrote," Lauren told us. "It had twin sisters as the sleuths because if one Nancy Drew is good, two are even better, right? And the bad guy was my algebra teacher. I was nine when I sent my book to Simon and Schuster."

"I cannot work at home," Williams said. "There's too much to do. I try to spend three or four hours in a local Starbuck's or diner so I can concentrate. Sometimes things can get a little hectic. I have had naked kids running around the house while I was finishing a book. You don't have time to navel gaze or wonder if you're happy when you're busy." 

When asked about the most important part of writing a book was for her, Beatriz said, "It's in finding a hook for a satisfying ending."  

Lauren replied, "For me, it's more about understanding my characters. I do so much dithering, and I rewrite the first three chapters many, many times. I don't believe in plotting far ahead because the characters may not develop in the same way as that plot says they should. I try to stay out of the barn." Seeing our puzzled looks, Willig explained: "I once wrote a scene in which I wanted several of the characters to walk into a barn. No matter what I did, I couldn't figure out how to get them in that barn. When I tried to explain my problem to my little sister, she interrupted me and asked, 'Why the barn?' She made me think about it from a completely different angle, and I could see that there was no reason for anyone to walk in there. So... now I try to stay out of the barn!"

Lauren's routine consists of getting her family ready to start the day, then going to her local Starbuck's when the babysitter arrives. She then stops at the grocery store before returning home to Mommy Duty. 

Shona Patel spoke up at this point-- "It's amazing how many people write at Starbuck's!" and we all laughed. The evening drew to a close with Beatriz and Lauren admitting that they enjoy the times they spend together at Starbuck's. "We meet and gossip about our characters. It's an important part of character development!"

The entire bookstore was filled with a hum of enthusiasm and lightheartedness, and I left with writer's cramp, and a smile on my face. Mary Stewart Night was a success. 

That Summer by Lauren Willig

First Lines: "Someone's left me a house," said Julia. "In England."

When Julia Conley first learns that she's inherited a house from an unknown great aunt in London, she thinks it's a joke. After learning that it's not-- and being between jobs-- she decides to leave New York City and head to Herne Hill outside London to sort through the house's contents and get it ready for sale. Julia hasn't been back to England since the car crash that killed her mother when Julia was six, but as she begins clearing rooms in the old house with the help of her cousin Natalie and antiques dealer Nicholas, fragments of memory begin flooding back.

A window into the shadowy history of Herne Hill begins to open when Julia finds a glorious Pre-Raphaelite painting hidden at the back of an old wardrobe. From 2009, the painting takes Julia back to 1849 and the loveless marriage of Imogen Grantham. After ten years of marriage to a much older man, the only bright spot in Imogen's life is her step-daughter-- until three young artists come to see her husband's collection of medieval artifacts. When Arthur Grantham hires one of the three to paint his wife's portrait, destiny takes over.

I've been a fan of Gothic novels since I was barely into my teens. For me, it wasn't the romance of the story, but the (often) spooky mansion and the treasures it almost always had tucked away. I must've been in the perfect mood for a return to the Gothic because I fell into That Summer and sank with scarcely a trace.

The old house, Herne Hill, comes up trumps in Willig's story. It's chock-a-block with all sorts of treasures, and when Julia attempts to discover what that big old piece of furniture is hiding, her channeling Nancy Drew and muttering about "the mystery of the old wardrobe" made me laugh. The alternating timelines are also well done. Usually one timeline will be much stronger than the other, but not here. There's too much that needs explanation in Julia's past for it to take a backseat, although I will admit that the 1849 story concerning the always fascinating Pre-Raphaelites does have a tiny bit of an edge.

There are a few stock characters in That Summer; it's hard not to have them in a Gothic novel, but they are limited to a couple of minor characters. The pairs of lovers (or wannabes)-- Imogen and Gavin, Julia and Nicholas-- come close to being perfect. It's fun to read and attempt to deduce the motivations for their behavior. The romance aspect is also very well done: there's enough for romance readers to sigh happily and wish for a little more while not antagonizing those who prefer little-to-no throbbing hearts in their fiction.

Humor, romance, a good brush with creepy characters and situations now and again, secret hiding places, art treasures, and an old house with a story to tell.... If you're in the mood, then I know the book to recommend: Lauren Willig's That Summer.

That Summer by Lauren Willig

ISBN: 9781250014504

St. Martin's Press © 2014

Hardcover, 352 pages

Romantic Suspense, Standalone

Rating: A

Source: Amazon Vine 

June 2014 New Mystery Releases!

It's now my favorite time of the year: Summer with a capital S. Summer, when I get things done so I can take a tall, cold drink and a stack of books with me so I can sit in the pool in the shade and gorge on the printed page. It's true that the area wildlife usually keeps me entertained as well, but my focus is on books, books, books. Hopefully I can do what I did last year and clear a lot of spaces on my to-be-read shelves.

Here are my picks for new mysteries being released in June. They are sorted by release dates and contain all the information you'll need to find them at all your favorite book procurement sites. Book synopses are courtesy of Amazon.

Happy Reading!

=== June 1 ===

Title: Dragon's Triangle

Author: Christine Kling

#2 in a series featuring Riley, a female former Marine who's single-handedly sailing her 40-foot sailboat to places around the world

ISBN:  9781477823132

Publisher: Thomas & Mercer

Paperback, 494 pages

Synopsis: "Maggie Riley has settled into her new life in Thailand, working aboard her sailboat and doing her best to leave the past behind. When she receives a letter from a World War II vet claiming to have served with her grandfather who went missing in action, Riley is once again pulled into the intrigue that tore her family apart and led to the disappearance of her former search partner—and the love of her life.

Armed with the secret code her grandfather left behind, Riley must head to the Philippines to hunt for a mysterious shipwreck, uncover the truth of Yamashita’s gold, and find the answers to old questions about her own family."

=== June 2 ===

Title: Want You Dead

Author: Peter James

#10 in the Roy Grace police procedural series set in England

ISBN: 9781250030207

Publisher: Minotaur Books

Hardcover, 416 pages

Synopsis: "Single girl, 33, redhead and smouldering, love life that’s crashed and burned. Seeks new flame to rekindle her fire. Fun, friendship and—who knows—more maybe?

When thirty-year old Red Cameron met handsome, charming and rich thirty-five year old Bryce Laurent through an online dating agency, it was instant attraction at first sight. But as their love blossomed, the truth about his past began to emerge, and with it his dark side. Everything he has told Red about himself turns out to be a tissue of lies, and her infatuation with him gradually turns to terror.

Within a year, and under police protection, she evicts him from her flat and her life. But far from being over, her nightmare is only just beginning. For Bryce is obsessed and besotted with her. He intends to destroy, by fire, everything and everyone she has ever known and loved—and then her, too. It's up to Detective Superintendent Roy Grace to stop him before it's too late..."

=== June 3 ===

Title: Night of the Living Thread

Author: Janet Bolin

#4 in the Threadville cozy series set in Pennsylvania

ISBN: 9780425267998

Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime

Mass Market Paperback, 320 pages

Synopsis: "It’s early October, and hordes of visitors have descended on the tiny, celebrated village of Threadville, Pennsylvania, to attend a Halloween crafts fair, a zombie retreat, and the wedding of Edna Battersby—dear friend to Willow Vanderling, owner of the chic machine embroidery boutique, In Stitches.

As a friendly prank for Edna’s wedding, Willow and the rest of the Threadville gang have fashioned an overly extravagant hoopskirt, complete with lights and music. But in a bizarre turn of events, the garish gown is implicated in a mysterious lakeside murder.

Now Willow must follow a trail of glow-in-the-dark thread, delve into ancient Egyptian curses, and creep through a haunted graveyard to unearth a killer—before she becomes the next fashion victim…"

Title: Present Darkness

Author: Malla Nunn

#4 in the Emmanuel Cooper police procedural series set in 1950s South Africa

ISBN:  9781451616965

Publisher: Atria Books

Paperback, 352 pages

Synopsis: "Five days before Christmas, Detective Sergeant Emmanuel Cooper sits at his desk at the Johannesburg major crimes squad, ready for his holiday in Mozambique. A call comes in: a respectable white couple has been assaulted and left for dead in their bedroom. The couple’s teenage daughter identifies the attacker as Aaron Shabalala— the youngest son of Zulu Detective Constable Samuel Shabalala—Cooper’s best friend and a man to whom he owes his life.

The Detective Branch isn’t interested in evidence that might contradict their star witness’s story, especially so close to the holidays. Determined to ensure justice for Aaron, Cooper, Shabalala, and their trusted friend Dr. Daniel Zweigman hunt for the truth. Their investigation uncovers a violent world of Sophiatown gangs, thieves, and corrupt government officials who will do anything to keep their dark world intact." 

Title: Tempest in a Teapot

Author: Amanda Cooper

#1 in the Teapot Collector cozy series set in New York State

ISBN:  9780425265239

Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime

Mass Market Paperback, 304 pages

Synopsis: "When her fashionable Manhattan restaurant goes under, Sophie Taylor retreats to her grandmother’s cozy shop, Auntie Rose’s Victorian Teahouse, where serenity is steeped to perfection in one of her many antique teapots. The last thing Sophie expects is a bustling calendar of teahouse events, like her old friend Cissy Peterson’s upcoming bridal shower.

Not everyone is pleased with the bride-to-be’s choice of venue—like Cissy’s grandmother, who owns a competing establishment, La Belle Epoque, and has held a long-simmering grudge against Rose for stealing her beau sixty years ago. Tensions reach a boiling point when Cissy’s fiancé’s mother dies while sampling scones at La Belle Epoque. Now, to help her friend, Sophie will have to bag a killer before more of the guest list becomes a hit list…"

Title: Hell With the Lid Blown Off

Author: Donis Casey

#7 in the Alafair Tucker historical mystery series set in rural Oklahoma circa 1916

ISBN:  9781464202988

Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press

Hardcover, 250 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books

Synopsis: "In the summer of 1916, a big twister brings destruction to the land around Boynton OK.  Alafair Tucker’s family and neighbors are not spared the ruin and grief spread by the storm.  But no one is going to mourn for Jubal Beldon, who made it his business to know the ugly secrets of everyone in town. It doesn’t matter if Jubal’s insinuations are true or not. In a small town like Boynton, rumor is as damaging as fact.

But as Mr. Lee the undertaker does his grim duty for the storm victims, he discovers that even in death Jubal isn’t going to leave his neighbors in peace.  He was already dead when the tornado carried his body to the middle of a fallow field. Had he died in an accident or had he been murdered by someone whose secret he had threatened to expose? There are dozens of people who would have been happy to do the deed, including members of Jubal’s own family.

As Sheriff Scott Tucker and his deputy Trenton Calder look into the circumstances surrounding Jubal’s demise, it begins to look like the prime suspect may be someone very dear to the widow Beckie MacKenzie, the beloved music teacher and mentor of Alafair’s daughter Ruth.  Ruth fears that the secrets exposed by the investigation are going to cause more damage to her friend’s life than the tornado. Alafair has her own suspicions about how Jubal Beldon came to die, and the reason may hit very close to home."

Title: The Farm

Author: Tom Rob Smith

Standalone

ISBN: 9780446550734

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

Hardcover, 368 pages

Synopsis: "Daniel believed that his parents were enjoying a peaceful retirement on a remote farm in Sweden. But with a single phone call, everything changes.

Your mother...she's not well, his father tells him. She's been imagining things - terrible, terrible things. She's had a psychotic breakdown, and been committed to a mental hospital.

Before Daniel can board a plane to Sweden, his mother calls: Everything that man has told you is a lie. I'm not mad... I need the police... Meet me at Heathrow.

Caught between his parents, and unsure of who to believe or trust, Daniel becomes his mother's unwilling judge and jury as she tells him an urgent tale of secrets, of lies, of a crime and a conspiracy that implicates his own father." 

Title: A Dark and Twisted Tide

Author: Sharon (S.J.) Bolton

#4 in the Lacey Flint police procedural series set in London, England

ISBN: 9781250028587

Publisher: Minotaur Books

Hardcover, 448 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books

Synopsis: "Lacey Flint, Sharon Bolton’s enigmatic protagonist, has been living in a houseboat on the River Thames, and she’s becoming a part of London’s weird and wonderful riverboat community. Against her friends’ better judgment, she’s taken up swimming in the Thames, and she feels closer than ever to Detective Mark Joesbury, despite his involvement in a complicated undercover case. For the first time in her life, as she recovers from the trauma of the last few months, Lacey begins to feel almost happy.

Then, at dawn one hot summer morning while swimming down the river, Lacey finds the body of a shrouded young woman in the water. She assumes it was chance—after all, she's recently joined the marine policing unit, and she knows how many dead bodies are pulled out of the river every year, most the result of tragic accidents. But further investigation leads her policing team to suspect the woman’s body was deliberately left for Lacey to find. Lacey’s no longer a homicide detective, but as she begins to notice someone keeping a strangely close eye on her, she’s inexorably drawn into the investigation.

Award-winning author Sharon Bolton has once again crafted a tightly plotted, utterly unpredictable thriller around one of the most compelling characters in crime fiction today, intensely private London police officer Lacey Flint, whose penchant for keeping secrets is only matched by her determination to uncover those of others."

Title: That Summer

Author: Lauren Willig

Standalone romantic suspense

ISBN:  9781250014504

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Hardcover, 352 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books

Synopsis: "2009: When Julia Conley hears that she has inherited a house outside London from an unknown great-aunt, she assumes it’s a joke. She hasn't been back to England since the car crash that killed her mother when she was six, an event she remembers only in her nightmares. But when she arrives at Herne Hill to sort through the house—with the help of her cousin Natasha and sexy antiques dealer Nicholas—bits of memory start coming back. And then she discovers a pre-Raphaelite painting, hidden behind the false back of an old wardrobe, and a window onto the house's shrouded history begins to open...

1849: Imogen Grantham has spent nearly a decade trapped in a loveless marriage to a much older man, Arthur. The one bright spot in her life is her step-daughter, Evie, a high-spirited sixteen year old who is the closest thing to a child Imogen hopes to have. But everything changes when three young painters come to see Arthur's collection of medieval artifacts, including Gavin Thorne, a quiet man with the unsettling ability to read Imogen better than anyone ever has. When Arthur hires Gavin to paint her portrait, none of them can guess what the hands of fate have set in motion. 

 

From modern-day England to the early days of the Preraphaelite movement, Lauren Willig's That Summer takes readers on an un-put-downable journey through a mysterious old house, a hidden love affair, and one woman’s search for the truth about her past—and herself."

Title: Circles in the Snow

Author: Patrick F. McManus

#6 in the Sheriff Bo Tully humorous police procedural series set in Idaho

ISBN: 9781629141701

Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing

Hardcover, 240 pages

Synopsis: "Bo Tully, sheriff of Blight County, Idaho, has dealt with small-town crime throughout his long, storied career. Now, contemplating retirement after years on the job, Tully is faced with perhaps his most perplexing case yet. When area bald eagles start getting picked off by a ghost-like killer, and when a prominent local rancher is murdered by an arrow with eagle fletching, things gets complicated fast. In this fast-paced whodunit, Tully has a vast array of suspects to chose from—including the rancher’s gorgeous, bird-loving wife who mysteriously leaves for a ranch in Mexico the day of the murder; the beautiful chef at the local house of ill repute, who is well-known as a budding ornithologist; and the ranch foreman, who is rumored to be having an affair with his boss’s widow.

Will Tully put the pieces of the puzzle together, yet again? Will sending his dad, the former sheriff of Blight County, along with his number two man, down to Mexico help solve the mystery? And what about the mysterious large circles in the snow that Tully finds around the ranch—with no footprints leading in or out of the area?

It all adds up to another engrossing series of twists and turns. And in the end, Tully gets his man . . . or woman . . . or does he?"

=== June 19 ===

Title: The Silkworm

Author: Robert Galbraith

#2 in the Cormoran Strike private detective series set in London, England

ISBN: 9780316206877

Publisher: Mulholland Books

Hardcover, 464 pages

Synopsis: "When novelist Owen Quine goes missing, his wife calls in private detective Cormoran Strike. At first, Mrs. Quine just thinks her husband has gone off by himself for a few days-as he has done before-and she wants Strike to find him and bring him home.

But as Strike investigates, it becomes clear that there is more to Quine's disappearance than his wife realizes. The novelist has just completed a manuscript featuring poisonous pen-portraits of almost everyone he knows. If the novel were to be published, it would ruin lives-meaning that there are a lot of people who might want him silenced.

When Quine is found brutally murdered under bizarre circumstances, it becomes a race against time to understand the motivation of a ruthless killer, a killer unlike any Strike has encountered before... A compulsively readable crime novel with twists at every turn, THE SILKWORM is the second in the highly acclaimed series featuring Cormoran Strike and his determined young assistant, Robin Ellacott." 

=== June 24 ===

Title: Angelica's Smile

Author: Andrea Camilleri

#17 in the Inspector Montalbano police procedural series set in Sicily

ISBN: 9780143123767

Publisher: Penguin Books

Paperback, 304 pages

Synopsis: "A rash of burglaries has got Inspector Salvo Montalbano stumped. The criminals are so brazen that their leader, the anonymous Mr. Z, starts sending the Sicilian inspector menacing letters. Among those burgled is the young and beautiful Angelica Cosulich, who reminds the inspector of the love-interest in Ludovico Ariosto’s chivalric romance, Orlando Furioso. Besotted by Angelica’s charms, Montalbano imagines himself back in the medieval world of jousts and battles. But when one of the burglars turns up dead, Montalbano must snap out of his fantasy and unmask his challenger."

=== June 26 ===

Title: Identity

Author: Ingrid Thoft

#2 in the Fina Ludlow private investigator series set in Boston, Massachusetts

ISBN: 9780399162138

Publisher: Putnam

Hardcover, 464 pages

Synopsis: "It’s been a couple months since Fina’s last big case—the one that exposed dark family secrets and called Fina’s family loyalty into question—but there’s no rest for the weary, especially when your boss is Carl Ludlow.

Renata Sanchez, a single mother by choice, wants to learn the identity of her daughter Rosie’s sperm donor. A confidentiality agreement and Rosie’s reticence might deter other mothers, but not Renata, nor Carl, who’s convinced that lawsuits involving cryobanks and sperm donors will be “the next big thing.” Fina uncovers the donor’s identity, but the solution to that mystery is just the beginning: within hours of the case going public, Rosie’s donor turns up dead.  

Fina didn’t sign on for a murder investigation, but she can’t walk away from a death she may have set in motion. She digs deeper and discovers that DNA doesn’t tell the whole story and sometimes, cracking that code can have deadly consequences."

June has a little something for everyone, doesn't it? Cozies, police procedurals, thrillers, private investigators, historicals... set in various places around the world. I've already read some of my picks for June, so I have to say that Tom Rob Smith's The Farm is really intriguing me. How about you? Did you add any of these books to your own wish list? Which ones? Inquiring minds would love to know!

@ The Poisoned Pen with Author Rhys Bowen!

It's Saturday of the Labor Day weekend, and I'm tooling across Phoenix on the way to The Poisoned Pen to see Rhys Bowen, author of the Evan Evans, Molly Murphy, and Royal Spyness mystery series.

Phoenix is the sixth largest city in the United States, it's Saturday, and the streets are practically deserted. I wonder where everyone is while the Jeep keeps a steady speed, going through one green light after another. The thought runs through my mind that I hope everyone stays where they're at so my trip home will be as smooth.

I walk into my favorite bookstore, say hello to all the familiar faces, choose my seat, and sit down to read until the festivities begin. As others begin to arrive, I'm reminded that Bowen had requested everyone to wear a hat. There's judging to be done and prizes to be won. I have some sort of phobia about having things on my head, so I wasn't in the running for any of the prizes-- unless it was having the whitest hair in the group.

"Lady Georgie would never..."

Part of the author event includes a chat with Lauren Willig via Skype, so while we wait for Lauren to finish primping and appear on screen, Rhys begins with an apology about the refreshments: "Lady Georgiana would never serve iced tea. I'm so sorry!" We all laugh and acknowledge the truthfulness of the remark, but we Americans tend to prefer our tea cold (especially here in Phoenix during the summer), so it didn't keep us from the drinks table.

Bowen gives us a brief preview of her next Molly Murphy mystery which will be published in March 2014. Tentatively titled City of Darkness and Light, this book will have Molly Murphy going to Paris. Bowen loves the Impressionist painters and has often wondered what steered artists away from depicting scenes of serene beauty to other areas like Surrealism and paintings which show people with blue faces and the like. Molly will be getting a taste of the art scene in March, and we'll all get to join her.

It is now time to judge the hat contest. The winner is a young woman who is wearing a stunning hat adorned with peacock feathers that she purchased when the film Titanic was released. "The original price of my hat was $150, and I bought it for $15 at a Nordstrom's back East," she tells us.

The runner-up is a woman who really got into the spirit of the contest. She was dressed in 1930's glam from head to toe-- including gloves. Everything's over so quickly that I have no chance to take photos. Drat!

Barbara Peters (left), Rhys Bowen (right) with Lauren Willig on Skype

"I can't seem to stay away from..."

Lauren comes into view on the large screen in front of us. Bright and bubbly, she tells us that she'll soon be writing the first "Pink Carnation" book that takes place partially in the United States. Several fans have asked when one of these romantic thrillers would be set on these shores, and they're going to be getting their wish!

Willig then talks about her next book, A Summer Engagement. It's her second standalone novel and will be released in May 2014. "I can't seem to stay away from dual timelines," she says with a laugh. The two timelines are the summer of 2009 and the same season in 1849-- the beginning days of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood-- and concerns a lost Pre-Raphaelite painting discovered in a house in 2009. I like dual timelines, art, and goodies found in old houses, so I circle the book title in my scribbled notes.

In a flash, Lauren was gone, and the action shifted back to Rhys Bowen.

"You've written a real country house mystery."

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In talking of Bowen's latest book, Heirs and Graces, Barbara Peters says, "It seems to me that you've written a real country house mystery."  Bowen agrees and tells us a bit about the latest adventure of Lady Georgiana Rannoch, thirty-fourth in line to the throne of England. 

Georgie's mother's memoirs are not going well. It seems she's having a problem selecting which memories to include. "Oh no, not that night. It would bring down the government."  "Noooo... that wouldn't set well with the Pope." And while this meandering is going on, Georgie gets to leave the freezing cold castle in Scotland to stay at a beautiful country house. Once again, she's been summoned by the Queen. An heir has been found in Australia, and Georgie's prime directive is to knock all his rough edges off and teach him all the proper etiquette. 

Like Jacqueline Winspear's Maisie Dobbs series, Rhys Bowen's "Royal Spyness" books mirror "the Long Weekend"-- that period of time between World Wars I and II. Many of the royal tidbits are based on fact, and Bowen shares one. Lady Mountbatten once left her two daughters at a Hungarian hotel for six months because she couldn't remember in which hotel she'd left them. With historical precedence like that abounding, "...is it any wonder that we all tend to go batty in England?" Bowen says with a laugh.

The smile continues as she dangles another tantalizing tidbit in front of us. She's just finished the rough draft of the next Royal Spyness book-- and Georgie will finally be coming to the United States. What a treat!

"The Queen will be so disappointed..."

Rhys Bowen

Rhys Bowen was born in Bath, England. Queen Mary and the princesses spent a lot of time at nearby Longleat during the war to be away from the bombing in London, and the Queen loved to go to Bath to search for antiques. She was quite adept at getting marvelous items for a song. The antiques dealers in Bath-- after losing some costly pieces to her-- soon learned to hide all the good stuff down in their basements whenever they learned that she was on her way to town. 

Bowen's father owned a large paper company, and met Queen Mary on more than one occasion. At one of Queen Mary's appearances, she was walking along, automatic polite smile and royal wave in full gear, when she spotted Bowen's father. Queen Mary paused, a big smile spreading across her face as she waved enthusiastically to Bowen's father. "Queen Mary's reaction made my dad's life," Bowen says with a fond smile. "A lot of things that happen to Georgie happened to me in my own life."

Bowen is a veteran traveler. She goes on tour with one small carry-on, and the hat she's wearing in the photo gets packed in that case. "When I'm on tour and in a different hotel every night, after three days I forget my room number. I've learned to take a picture of my door with my phone."  You could hear that little piece of advice getting filed away in a lot of minds!

Bowen stopped writing the Evan Evans series set in Wales when some of the books began going out of print. She felt there was no point in continuing the series if readers couldn't get their hands on all of the books. (The author married into an aristocratic family and does speak Welsh. Everyone in Wales must learn Welsh until the age of eleven, and it's possible for those who wish it to continue their education in Welsh all the way through university.)  "After four or five Evans books, I wanted to write about someone a lot like me," she says, and thus the Royal Spyness books were born.

Bowen closes out the event with two stories. Both are hilarious. 

She had to pick up a prescription at a local Safeway store and was served by a totally obnoxious pharmacist.  After impugning her intelligence, it was a miracle that Bowen could control the urge to throttle him. Infuriating though he was, he became impressed with Bowen and offered her a job. (If only you could be present to witness Bowen's transformation into the very proper and completely unamused Grande Dame!)

"I already have a job, and I'm thinking of buying Safeway."

"Well then, maybe I could be your gardener."

"I already have one."

We haven't recovered from laughing at the Safeway tale when Bowen hits us with her best shot. 

Queen Elizabeth was making an appearance at a hospital, and in one of the wards she stopped to talk with an old man. "What seems to be wrong?" the Queen asks the old man. He looks up at her from his bed and exclaims, "I have huge boils all over me testicles!"  Without the slightest flicker of a change in her facial expression, the Queen wishes him a speedy recovery and moves on to the next ward. She's barely left when the hospital staff descend on the old man. "What on earth were you thinking?!? You simply cannot speak that way to the Queen!!!"

A month or so later, the Queen's sister, Princess Margaret, visits the same hospital... and the same ward. Stopping by the old man's bed, Princess Margaret asks him what's wrong with him. The old man looks at her for a second or two then says, "I have boils all over my... stomach." Princess Margaret looks at him and replies, "Oh dear. The Queen will be so disappointed to hear they've spread."

It takes a while for the laughter to die down inside The Poisoned Pen. I leave soon thereafter and make good time along the still-deserted streets, but all the while I'm thinking, "I could follow Rhys Bowen for the entire tour just to listen to her tell stories!"

REVIEW: The Secret History of the Pink Carnation

Title: The Secret History of the Pink Carnation
Author: Lauren Willig
Protagonist(s): Eloise Kelly, a Harvard graduate student and Amy Balcourt, a young wannabe swashbuckler
Setting: present-day London and Paris, France in 1803
Series: #1
Rating: F

First Lines: The Tube had broken down. Again.

Harvard graduate student Eloise Kelly knew that the Scarlet Pimpernel and the Purple Gentian, famous spies of the Napoleonic era, had been unmasked, but when she discovers that the identity of the Pink Carnation is still a mystery, she knows what she wants to write her dissertation on and heads off for London. Allowed access to a private treasure trove of early nineteenth-century papers, the reader is suddenly thrown into a novel-within-a-novel. Young Amy Balcourt was exiled to rural England with her mother. More than ten years later, she receives an invitation from her brother to return to France. It is her fondest wish to join forces with the Purple Gentian to overthrow Napoleon and gain some small measure of revenge for the deaths of her parents.

This book held my interest through 250 pages. The voice of Eloise was refreshing, and many of her one-liners were laugh-out-loud funny. And although Amy Balcourt was one of those feisty heroines I'd rather slap than listen to, her adventures in Paris interested the latent swashbuckler in me. However, by page 250 the entire book descended into a traditional bodice ripper--a genre of which I'm less than fond. The alternating storylines did not blend seamlessly into each other, and I had serious doubts about Eloise's intelligence, since the identity of the Pink Carnation was blindingly obvious. I skimmed through the remaining 200 pages vowing never to darken the doorway of historical chick lit again. Everything's a learning experience, eh?