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The Poisoned Pen

 

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.

SIGNED BOOKS FOR YOU
PLEASE PREORDER
where not in stock
Click on the title to order


virtual event with Benford and Niven June 17


Virtual Event
June 6 1:00 PM


Mary Russell, Holmes, Mrs. Hudson
Virtual Event 
June 6 2:00 PM


Our June Crime Collectors Book of the Month
in conversation with Ivy Pochoda June 8 5:00 PM


Tom Clancy
Virtual Book Launch
June 9 5:00 PM


Virtual Event with Brad Taylor June 10 5:00 PM


Always the Last to Know
June 11 2:00 PM


Virtual Event 
June 11 3:00 PM with Susan Mallery


on sale August 4
Please preorder now


Virtual Event
June 13 2:00 PM


Riley Ellison
June 13 with Carlisle


The real deal
virtual event June 15

The Daughter of Sherlock Holmes series
due in late next week


Ali Reynolds
Due in next week


due in next week
Our June Fantastic Fiction Book of the Month
A Must Read for 2020

Signed postcard from the Perigord with Balzac the Basset Hound
In stock now


Our copies come with exclusive extra material
in stock  now



Sunny Randall
now in stock

From the bestselling author of The Last Mrs. Parrish
in stock now


An excellent psychogical thriller
in stock now


An Oxford Mystery
7 left in stock


Signed copies in stock

in stock now


Colter Shaw
in stock now


Legal thriller
in stock now


our April First Mystery Book of the Month 
in stock now


Savage Son
James Reece #3
First 250 get a Signed Bookplate too
in stock now


Devoted
in stock now


Broken
Winslow has added an exclusive extra to our Signed copies
in stock now
Greetings on this very welcome day!

We have put the best system we can devise for you and for our staff in place so we can open the door to a few of you at a time. We are hugely grateful for your support and will respect your decision not to shop in the store under our guidelines. But we stick firmly to them and offer everyone:

Phone and curbside pickup  
Call us 480-947-2974 for sales and for service
Monday-Friday 11:00-3:00 Saturday  11:00-5:00 Sunday 1:00-4:00
Open Hours
Monday-Friday Noon-3:00 PM 
Saturday 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM and 3:00-6:00 PM
Sunday: telephone and curbside pickup only 1:00-4:00 PM

We will follow these guidelines:
Masks are required for staff and for customers. BYOM!
Sanitize your hands at the door, also required.
Limited to 4 people every 30 minutes on the hour and half hour
Please wait socially distanced outside the side door in the breezeway
Please follow the one way traffic flow while browsing and keep at least six feet away from any other person
No cash transactions
The public restroom will remain closed

This information is on our Home Page as well for easy reference.

The webstore and email operate 24/7
For the best service other than curbside pickup please continue to email sales@poisonedpen.com
   
Our thanks to L esa,  continuing to work with us from Indiana, is conducting some wonderful discussions with authors on books on our Blog that I urge you to read both for fun and inspiration. M uch love to our social media team which includes Susan on Twitter and Kathy on Pinterest as well as me on Instagram
Barbara and all The Pens

Find us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter 
  
Thank you for supporting The Poisoned Pen, frequently named Best Specialty Bookstore by the  New Times and by the  
Arizona Republic, one of 45 Great American Indie Bookstores 2013; Best Locally Owned and Operated Business: Scottsdale 2016; and Poisoned Pen Press/Sourcebooks, winner of the 2010 Ellery Queen Award from the Mystery Writers of America and named the 2011 Best Local Publisher by the Arizona Republic and now the mystery imprint at Sourcebooks.
The June Booknews
Many, many books scheduled for June have moved into July-September. I check carefully on the titles listed in the new June Booknews but nothing is quite for certain. Please be understanding. Also shipping is taking forever!

Here is the link to the June Booknews

I will almost surely supplement it with an additional short issue as things develop and as I read more. A growing problem is the lack of advance reading copies so I'm forced to quote publishers and reviewers until I get my hands on books

Here is a link to the June Paperback Picks which I list below also.

I also list the June Books of the Month below. They also appear on our home page... just added British Crime so it's missing there for today

Here is the link to the May BookNotes, truly rich in reading recommendations with books for June therein. There are few repeats to the Booknews so do enjoy it.

More New Podcasts
There are even  more new podcasts up. We can see you are enjoying them. 

For those who prefer not to stare at a screen but would like to enjoy our conversations with authors, these are for you.

Visit our new Podcasts Easy download links are provided. They are also available on ITunes and Google Music

New: Francesca Serritella, JA Jance (really terrific, shame you can't see Paul the dog in a podcast); David Pepper, Linwood Barclay. Loads of older ones too. 


Buy Audio Books from The Pen via Libro.fm
 
It's time for the  Summer Listening Challenge

Books bought from Libro.fm create revenue for The Pen

An example of the Buy button is here on The Last Trial book order page .

Here are the May bestsellers at Libro.fm

1. The Dutch House by Ann Patchett (HarperAudio)
2. The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd (Penguin Random House Audio)
3. All Adults Here by Emma Straub (Penguin Random House Audio)
4. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic Audio)
5. The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel (Penguin Random House Audio)
6. Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo (Quill Tree Books)
7. Circe by Madeline Miller (Hachette Audio)
8. The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin (Hachette Audio)
9. Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson (HarperAudio)
10. Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens (Penguin Random House Audio)


What Are Virtual Events?

Please note that all the Facebook Live events can be viewed at any time after the event. They start on Scottsdale Time, 3 hours later than Eastern Daylight Time. Or 3 hours earlier depending on how you envision the time difference.

The programs will appear on our YouTube channel the next day, giving you a choice where to watch them. 

You can join our Croak and Dagger, SciFi Friday, or Hardboiled Discussion clubs on Zoom. Registration for the safe, limited invitation is required. 

Email Pat@poisonedpen.com for the first two.

Patrick@poisonedpen.com for the Hardboiled Crime Club.
Francine Mathews
Saturday 1:00 PM
SATURDAY JUNE 6 1:00 PM
Francine Matthews chats about  Death on Tuckernuck  (Soho $27.95), her new Merry Folger Nantucket Mystery

Signed books available. Please order quickly to secure yours and notice the Bonus Gift for one lucky person below

The  Washington Post's take: 
"Nantucket police detective Merry Folger makes her sixth appearance in a mystery that's so suspenseful it's hard not to skip a chapter to see if certain deeply likable characters are still alive. Folger's wedding with a rich, nice-guy cranberry farmer is threatened by (a) an approaching Category 3 hurricane and (b) the need to deal with a female corpse and a man in a coma who turn up on a grounded yacht along with a fortune in raw heroin. Meanwhile, plucky, conscientious Dionis Mather runs into a mysterious stranger with a gun while she is battening down Tuckernuck, a private island. The novel lives and breathes New England island life, with a plot brimming with the best kinds of rude surprises."

Yes, this is a thrilling summer read about a tiny island stuck in a time warp but forced to host a celebrity compound. A storm is bearing down and a woman is murdered....

Francine offers a super bonus: this gorgeous gift. We will do a random drawing among all the orders in by Saturday night!!




Laurie R King
Russell & Holmes on the Riviera
Saturday 2:00 PM
SATURDAY JUNE 6 2:00 PM
Laurie R. King chats about  Riviera Gold  (Bantam $28), her new Russell/Holmes mystery set in Monaco, as they search for Mrs. Hudson

Our copies are Signed by King with a nice bookplate in addition.

It's summertime on the Riviera, and the Jazz Age has come to France's once-sleepy beaches. From their music-filled terraces, American expatriates gaze along the coastline at the lights of Monte Carlo, where fortunes are won, lost, stolen, and sometimes hidden away. Some of them stay at the Hotel du Cap, not as famous then as now. 

When Mary Russell arrives by ship from Venice, tanned and hard of hand from pulling ropes and such, she falls into easy friendship with an enthralling American couple, Sara and Gerald Murphy [real people], whose golden life on the Riviera has begun to attract famous writers and artists-and some of the scoundrels linked with Monte Carlo's underworld. The Murphy set will go on to inspire everyone from F. Scott Fitzgerald and wife Zelda to Pablo Picasso, but in this summer of 1925, their importance for Russell lies in one of their circle's recent additions: the Holmeses' former housekeeper, Mrs. Hudson, who hasn't been seen since she fled England under a cloud of false murder accusations. 

When a beautiful young man is found dead in Mrs. Hudson's front room, she becomes the prime suspect in yet another murder with Russell and Holmes determined to plumb her past and preserve her present.... 

Fans will recall that other murder detailed in
The Murder of Mary Russell ($17)- - and if not, this is a good time to order it and bone up.

Heather Young 
in conversation with 
Ivy Pochoda and Patrick
Monday 5:00 PM
MONDAY JUNE 8 5:00 PM
Heather Young chats about  The Distant Dead (Morrow $27.99) with  Ivy Pochoda whose new novel is  These Women (Ecco $27.99)
Signed copies of both books available

Young's is an amazing and original work and thus our June Crime Collectors Book of the Month. There are many things to dig into including the beauty of mathematics and the ravages of grief. 

A body burns in the high desert hills. A young boy, Sal Prentiss, walks into a fire station in Lovelock, Nevada, a remote community ravaged by poverty and the opioid epidemic, pale with the shock of a grisly discovery. Nora Wheaton, a local social studies teacher, worries when her colleague is late for work. By day's end, when the body is identified as the middle school's new math teacher Adam Merkel, a small town will begin its reckoning with a brutal and calculated murder. Adam had moved there seeking sanctuary only to die a terrible death seven months later. Nora is trapped there, a caregiver for the father she loves but can't forgive. And so, with her ex a cop and Jake, the fire deparment crew in nearby and tinier Marzen, Nora keeps digging. As part of it, she tries to gain the wary boy's trust, she finds he holds not only the key to Adam's murder, but an unexpected chance at the life she thought she'd lost.  

"[A] stunning piece of redemptive fiction...[Nora Wheaton's] search for the truth amid passages of almost unbearable poignancy make this an ideal recommendation for fans of Kate Atkinson and Jodi Picoult." -  Booklist Starred Review

Pochoda, Ivy. These Women (Ecco $27.99)

Michael Connelly recommend this highly during his Virtual Event on May 26, pointing out Pochoda writes about a part of LA unfamiliar to him. Patrick also raves. "This deep dive into the lives of women too often unseen in the shadows makes them vividly unforgettable."
Mike Maden
The Clancy Universe
Tuesday 5:00 PM

TUESDAY JUNE 9 5:00 PM
Mike Maden chats about  Tom Clancy Firing Point  (Putnam $29)
Signed books available. Please order quickly to secure yours

"Alive, not dead." That is young Jack's task in South Korea- to bring a bad guy back for interrogation--but he knows there's "a long, nasty road of hurt" between life and death. 

Later, he's in a Barcelona restaurant sipping vermouth when he unexpectedly meets an old flame. They chat, and he leaves just before an explosion kills everyone inside. Rushing back, he hears his dying friend whisper "Sammler." Enraged, he will stop at nothing to find her killer. 

Later on, a woman from Spain's security service also dies in Jack's presence. No wonder he's single; the guy's a walking danger zone. In typical Clancy style, the action spans four continents and the Pacific Ocean, where a container ship carrying illegal cargo is sunk. In "a new kind of piracy," drones disguised as tiger sharks sink enough ships to warrant the attention of President Ryan....

"The ultimate stakes are much higher than sunken ships: The theft of trillions of dollars may cause an 'economic apocalypse,' and what's a Clancy thriller without a ticking clock (Jack's watch, really) and a threat of World War III? Fast action and dead bodies abound in this enjoyable bit of hero worship," says  Kirkus Reviews

I really like Maden's Clancy-verse with Jack, Jr., and wish I had an early copy to read. But I will catch up before talking to Maden June 9

Our June Books of the Month

OUR JUNE BOOKS OF THE MONTH
British Crime Club One unsigned hardcover or paperback per month
North, Alex. The Shadows

Cozy Crimes Club One unsigned hardcover or paperback per month
Berenson, Laurien. Game of Dog Bones

First Mystery Book of the Month Club  One Signed First per month
Serritella, Francesca. Ghosts of Harvard

The Crime Collectors Book of the Month Club One Signed First per month
Young, Heather. The Distant Dead

Historical Fiction Club  One Signed First per month
Edwards, Martin. Mortmain Hall

Fantastic New Fiction  One Signed First per month
Pepper, David. The Voter File

Note: going forward with July joining a club means your book will ship separately, Free shipping for it, from any other orders. 

Please email Karen@poisonedpen.com for details and to renew or sign up. 
Our June Paperback Picks

OUR JUNE SMALL PAPERBACK PICKS
Most of these do not publish until June 30 so please be patient but preorder

Atkins, Ace. The Shameless ($9.99)
Gerritsen, Tess. The Shape of Night ($9.99).
Hunter, Stephen. Game of Snipers ($9.99).
McKinlay, Jenn. A Word to the Wise ($7.99).
Parker, T Jefferson. The Last Good Guy ($9.99).
Penny, Louise. A Better Man ($9.99).
Pobi, Robert. City of Windows ($9.99).
Ryan, Hank Phillippi. The Murder List ($9.99).
Steadman, Catherine. Something in the Water ($9.99).
 
OUR JUNE LARGE PAPERBACK PICKS
Bell, David. The Request
Casey, Eliza. Lady Rights a Wrong
Clark, Martin. The Substitution Order
Cotterill, Colin. The Second Biggest Nothing
Doiron, Paul. Almost Midnight
Gentill, Sulari. A Dangerous Language
Lippman, Laura. Lady in the Lake
Nesser, Hakan. The Summer of Kim Novak
North, Alex. The Whisper Man
Penny, Louise. A Better Man
Our June Calendar
Please keep checking as more events pop in as one just did for June 26

MONDAY JUNE 1 5:00 PM
Francesca Serritella chats about her debut Ghosts of Harvard (Random $27)
Signed books available. Please order quickly to secure yours
 
TUESDAY JUNE 2 7:00 PM
JA Jance chats about her new Ali Reynolds investigation Credible Threat (Gallery $27.99)
Signed books available. Please order quickly to secure yours. Books will arrive from Jance a bit delayed
 
WEDNESDAY JUNE 3 5:00 PM
David Pepper chats about his terrifying political thriller 
The Voter File (Putnam $27)
Signed books available. Please order quickly to secure yours
 
SATURDAY JUNE 6 1:00 PM
Francine Matthews chats about Death on Tuckernuck (Soho $27.95), her new Merry Folger Nantucket Mystery
Signed books available. Please order quickly to secure yours
 
SATURDAY JUNE 6 2:00 PM
Laurie R. King chats about Riviera Gold (Bantam $28), her new Russell/Holmes mystery set in Monaco, as they search for Mrs. Hudson
Signed books available. Please order quickly to secure yours

MONDAY JUNE 8 5:00 PM
Heather Young chats about The Distant Dead (Morrow $27.99) with Ivy Pochoda whose new novel is These Women (Ecco $27.99)
Signed copies of both books available

TUESDAY JUNE 9 5:00 PM
Mike Maden chats about Tom Clancy Firing Point (Putnam $29)
Signed books available. Please order quickly to secure yours
 
WEDNESDAY JUNE 10 5:00 PM
Sean McFate discusses his thriller  High Treason (Harper $27.99) with Brad Taylor
Signed books available. Please order quickly to secure yours
 
THURSDAY JUNE 11 2:00 PM with John
Kristan Higgins chats about Always the Last to Know (Berkley $26/$16)
Signed books available. Please order quickly to secure yours

THURSDAY JUNE 11 3:00 PM with John
Susan Mallery previews her August Book The Friendship List (Harlequin $26.99)
Signed bookplates will be available for the August publication

Susan Elizabeth Phillips discusses Dance Away With Me (Harper $28.99)
Signed books available in mid-June for Phillips. Please order quickly to secure yours
 
SATURDAY JUNE 13 2:00 PM
Kate Carlisle chats about The Grim Reader (Berkley $26)
Jill Orr chats about  The Full Scoop (Prospect Park Books $25.95/$16)
Signed books available. Please order quickly to secure yours
 
MONDAY JUNE 15 5:00 PM
Tom Clavin talks with Patrick about Tombstone (St Martins $29.99)
The true story of the Earp brothers, Doc Holliday, and the famous Battle at the OK Corral, by the New York Times bestselling author of Dodge City and Wild Bill
Signed books available. Please order quickly to secure yours
 
WEDNESDAY JUNE 17 6:00 PM
Gregory Benford and Larry Niven discuss  Glorious
(Tor $29.99), continuing the hard science Bowl of Heaven novels, with Pat
Signed books by Niven with a bookplate by Benford. Please order quickly to secure yours
 
FRIDAY JUNE 19th 7:00 PM
SciFi Friday meets on Zoom to discuss Scott Hawkins' 
To join in email Pat@poisonedpen.com for an invitation
 
SATURDAY JUNE 20th 10:30 AM
Croak and Dagger meets on Zoom to discuss Clare Mackintosh's Let Me Lie ($16)
To join in email Pat@poisonedpen.com for an invitation
 
TUESDAY JUNE 23 Time TBA
James Murray, aka "Murr," chats with Pat about Obliteration (Harper Voyager $27.99), in the Awakened universe series
Signed books available. Please order quickly to secure yours
 
WEDNESDAY JUNE 25 6:00 PM
Michael Elias chats about his thriller 
You Can Go Home Now   (Harper $27.99)
 Signed books available. Please order quickly to secure yours

THURSDAY JUNE 25 5:00 PM
Nina Laurin joins in with David Bell, Meg Gardiner, and Heather Gudenkauf to discuss her new book A Woman Alone (Grand Central $14.99) as well as work by the other authors
 
NEW FRIDAY JUNE 26 Time TBA


SATURDAY JUNE 27 2:00 PM
Conversation and Cooking
Diana Gabaldon and Theresa Carle-Sanders present
Outlander Kitchen Volume 2 (Delacorte $35)
Our copies are signed by Diana while Theresa, a Canadian, includes a signed recipe card for a delicious treat
Outlander Kitchen Volume 1 ($35) is also available, again signed by Diana with a different recipe card signed by Theresa
 
MONDAY JUNE 29 5:00 PM
Megan Miranda signs The Girl from Widow Hills (SimonSchuster $26.99)
Riley Sager signs Home Before Dark (Dutton $27)
Signed books available. Please order quickly to secure yours 

TUESDAY JUNE 30 Time TBA
Jill Clark  chats with Liv Constantine (Lynne) about Clark's July First Mystery Book of the Month, The Last Flight 
(Sourcebooks $26.99 )
Signed books available. Please order quickly to secure yours
 
THURSDAY JULY 2 2:00 PM
Ellie Alexander chats with John about 
Abby Collette signs A Deadly Scoop (Berkley $16)
 
THURSDAY JULY 2 5:00 PM
Paul Doiron chats with Tess Gerritsen about his new Mike Bowditch Maine thriller One Last Lie (Minotaur $27.99)
Signed books available. Please order quickly to secure yours
What Can You Do Today?
#ReadIndieForward
  • Buy a book from your favorite independent bookstore and send it to a loved one. That bookstore could be The Pen. And you can  modify it to sending a Pen Gift Card
  • Post to social media that you #ReadIndieForward by sending a book to a loved one
  • Tag the person receiving the book, tag the independent bookstore you bought the book from, and use #ReadIndieForward
Mystery-of-the-Month Club 

Looking for something new to read each month and aren't sure what to choose?  Let us help... And it makes a great gift for Dad!
 
The Mystery-of-the-Month Club is individually tailored to each customer's specific tastes.  Just let us know what kinds of mysteries you enjoy, whether your looking for signed hardcover books or paperbacks, and we'll take it from there!
 
For more information, drop Patrick King a line at
 
We Don't Want to Lose You!

If you change your email address you will disappear from our Enews mailing list automatically.  We can't tell unless you either

Go to the very bottom of any Enews and Click on 
UPDATE PROFILE or go here and fill in the form. You can choose whether to get the Enews alone or the Enews and Event invitations.

or  Email us your new Email address so we can input it for you into The Enews list. Please tell us that's what you want because we cannot just subscribe you.
Buy Poisoned Pen Gift Cards Online 
The Poisoned Pen
Is a full service general bookstore with a specialty in fiction of all kinds, and in history. When books are not on our shelves we can order them for you quickly or, if British, it takes a little longer.

Email any requests to 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! 2013 Arizona Republic's Critics' Choice and Reader's Choice Best Specialty Bookstore
12-time Nominee, Publishers Weekly's Bookseller of the Year
Winner, James Patterson Page-Turner Award
Poisoned Pen Press, Winner, The 2010 Ellery Queen Award from The Mystery Writers of America
Member of the Crime Writers of Canada, British Crime Writers Association, The American Booksellers Association,