Poisoned Pen Press

The dead don't keep pets. So when animal behaviorist Pru Marlowe gets a call about a kitten, she doesn't expect to find the cuddly creature playing beside the cooling body of prominent Beauville lawyer David Canaday. Heart attack? His three adult daughters angrily blame drug interactions, feline allergies—and each other. And begin to feud over their father, his considerable estate, and that cute ball of fluff. While the cause of death is pending, each sister has an axe to grind—with arguments that escalate when David's partner reads out the will.Pru's special sensitivity to animals, which caused her to flee the cacophony of Manhattan for the quiet Berkshires, adds further problems. The local vet is overwhelmed as the animal hospital's money runs out. There's a needy Sheltie and some invasive squirrels, too. But the dead man's kitten, his former partner, and his troublesome family keep drawing “wild-girl” animal psychic Pru back in.Despite the wry observations of her trusty tabby Wallis, now the wrongfully accused kitten's guardian, and the grudging compliance of her cop lover, this may be one time when Pru can't solve the mystery or save the kitten she wants to believe is innocent. A single witness knows the truth about that bright spring morning. How far can Pru investigate without risking her own hidden tale?

Former beauty queen and fledgling private investigator Madeline Maclin has married her best friend, Jerry Fairweather, and settled into his old house in the small town of Celosia, North Carolina. Jerry seems to have given up his cons and schemes but not his phony séances.Then Amelia Lever, an unpopular teacher at Celosia Elementary School, dies mysteriously. Convinced hers is not a natural death, Maddy starts to investigate.And then comes Maddy's next case. Nathan Fenton hires her to help solve a riddle left to him by his Uncle Elijah, a man who loved to play games. The riddle says: “From west to east the river flows, from ancient times the sparrow flies. Trust animals that live in packs, and listen where the portrait lies.” Could the teacher's death and this mysterious riddle be somehow related?

How Many Cats Have You Killed? by Mick Herron and Strangers in a Pub by Martin Edwards from Ten Year Stretch are longlisted for the CWA Short Story Dagger
Twenty superb new crime stories have been commissioned specially to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Crimefest, described by The Guardian as 'one of the fifty best festivals in the world'.
A star-studded international group of authors has come together in crime writing harmony to provide a killer cocktail for noir fans; salutary tales of gangster etiquette and pitfalls, clever takes on the locked-room genre, chilling wrong-footers from the deceptively peaceful suburbs, intriguing accounts of tables being turned on hapless private eyes, delicious slices of jet black nordic noir, culminating in a stunning example of bleak amorality from crime writing doyenne Maj Sjowall.
The foreword is by international bestselling thriller writer Peter James. The editors are Martin Edwards, responsible for many award-winning anthologies, and Adrian Muller, CrimeFest co-founder.
All Royalties are donated to the RNIB Talking Books Library.

First book in the Alexa Glock Mystery series! For a normal tourist, finding a body in a geothermal pool in New Zealand might ruin a vacation. Forensic specialist Alexa Glock, however, sees a chance to help local law enforcement with a baffling case. But as she finds herself embroiled in the tense investigation, she can't help but wonder: is the past better left undisturbed, or unearthed?These thrilling New Zealand mysteries are:Perfect for fans of Kathy Reichs and Nevada BarrFor readers of international mysteries and forensic investigation mysteriesWhen a body is found half-submerged in a molten mud pot in one of Rotorua's famous geothermal wonderlands, forensics expert Alexa Glock spots a way to prolong her stay in New Zealand, which she has been visiting for work. Teeth are her expertise, and the investigation needs her help, as other ways of identifying the body may have… melted away.Joining Detective Inspector Bruce Horne and his team, Alexa finds herself sleuthing out more than teeth. She soon discovers that the murder victim, a city councilman, had trespassed on an island sacred to the Maori. The ancient punishment for such a transgression is disaster, demonic possession, or death… and when she visits the island to investigate, the same outcome is promised for her. Alexa is fascinated by New Zealand culture but doesn't quite believe in ancient spirits returning to exact revenge, so when another victim turns up dead, she begins to wonder whether the real threat is something—or someone—much closer to home.A fast-paced forensic mystery set in New Zealand, Molten Mud Murder introduces Alexa Glock, an investigator with a knack for gleaning the truth from bones and teeth. Full of enough forensics and action for fans of Kathy Reichs or the tv series Bones, Sara E. Johnson presents a page-turning story about facing the past and cracking the door open to an unexpected future.

Dr. Daniel Rinaldi is a psychologist who consults with the Pittsburgh Police. His specialty is treating victims of violent crime. Kevin Merrick, a college student and victim of an armed assault, is one of these people.
A fragile, troubled kid desperate for a role model and a sense of identity, Kevin has begun dressing like Rinaldi, acting like him, even mirroring his appearance. Before Daniel can work this through with his patient, he finds Kevin brutally murdered. Stunned, he and the police suspect that he, not Kevin, had been the intended target. And now the killer is threatening Rinaldi.
Feeling responsible, Rinaldi is determined to solve the crime. His journey takes him through a labyrinth of friends and colleagues, any one of whom may be the killer. It also includes an affair with a beautiful, free-spirited Assistant DA with secrets of her own. When Kevin's identity as the estranged son of a Bill-Gates-like biotech giant is revealed, his murder turns into a national story, and another person turns up dead.

Lauren Rose moved to Phoenix to begin a new life as she starts a prestigious emergency medicine residency, but she could end up doing life in the Arizona State penitentiary instead.Lauren has always lived in the shadow of her more glamorous sister Liz, the wife of baseball superstar Jake Wakefield. But when Liz is found viciously murdered in her Scottsdale home, the spotlight turns to Lauren as prime suspect in the high-profile investigation.Having lost both parents at an early age, Liz's death leaves Lauren all alone in a new city. Jake's support proves invaluable as she navigates the nightmare her life has become. As Lauren spends time with Jake, they develop a closeness that she finds both comforting and confusing. It's an intimacy forged by their shared grief, their mutual love of baseball, and by the thrill of him pitching a perfect game for the Diamondbacks.Meanwhile, the Scottsdale police repeatedly question Lauren. She objects to a lie detector test as bad science. An arrest warrant is issued. The ensuing trial leads the evening news every night as a rabid public just can't get enough of the sordid proceedings, quickly dubbed “The Trial of the Millennium.” Will the outcome be influenced by this media circus?

Why are sheep in the remote Egyptian village of Mehenopolis cutting their own throats? That's the mystery Emperor Justinian inexplicably sends John, his Lord Chamberlain, to Egypt to solve. Mehenopolis is a pilgrim destination, thanks to its ancient shrine to a snake deity.Among the characters John encounters are a pretentious local landowner battling a self-styled magician for control of the lucrative shrine, an exiled heretical cleric, an itinerant beekeeper, and a disgraced charioteer. Will John uncover what is really happening to these sheep? Are these slayings somehow linked to the murder charge of which John has frantically tried to clear himself?

“Vividly rendered and psychologically astute, this somewhat transparent puzzler provides an unusually immersive perspective on familiar historical territory.” —BooklistWorld War I is raging in Europe, but as the deadly influenza pandemic of 1918 sweeps like a wildfire through Boynton, Oklahoma, Alafair Tucker is fighting her own war. Her daughter, Alice, and son-in-law, Walter Kelley, have both come down with the flu, and Alafair has moved into town to care for them after quarantining her young children at their sister's farm. Boynton as a whole isolates itself like an old English plague village, discouraging anyone from coming into town and the residents from traveling outside. A new doctor applies science to treating the stricken, but Alafair applies all she knows about hygiene, nutrition, and old and trusted country remedies. Unable to aid her sons and sons-in-law fighting overseas, this is danger she can combat.One autumn afternoon, screams coming from next door alert Alafair that Alice's neighbor, Nola Thomason, and her son Lewis have suddenly and unexpectedly succumbed. Yet there is something about the way the pair died that causes Alafair to suspect their deaths were due to poison rather than to influenza. The epidemic is so overwhelming that it is many days before the only doctor left in town can confirm Alafair's suspicions; neither Nola nor Lewis died of the flu. The only witness to their deaths, twelve-year-old Dorothy Thomason, a special friend of Alafair's daughter, Sophronia, is so traumatized that she is rendered mute. Were Nola and her son murdered, and if so, why?The usual motives for murder are greed, or jealousy, or hatred. Or could it be, as Alafair fears, that the Raven Mocker, the most dreaded of the Cherokee wizards or witches, the evil spirit who takes to the air in a fiery shape to rob the old, the sick, and the dying of their lives, is hunting victims and bringing misery to the innocent?

“A vivid, atmospheric mystery about 1951 Hollywood…this is a winner.” —David Morrell, New York Times bestselling authorIn June 1951, Edna Ferber heads to Hollywood to support her friend Max Jeffries who has found himself blacklisted after the McCarthy hearings in Washington rattled Hollywood with allegations of Communist-leaning sympathies. Edna first met Max when he worked on the 1927 Broadway production of Show Boat, and now he's brought his magic to a new production starring Ava Gardner. Walked off the Metro lot, shunned by friends, Max is “uncredited” on the film because of his political leanings. Edna's visit is one of friendship—nothing more. But all that changes when Max is murdered.Edna begins socializing with Ava Gardner, currently scandalizing Hollywood with her affair with Frank Sinatra. Edna finds the hard-as-nails temptress a vulnerable, insecure woman whom she comes to like. Max was killed right after a public brawl with Sinatra, and Ava fears her lover will be arrested. Edna plays sleuth quietly, uncovering dark layers of greed, envy, and desire. Against the backdrop of the new Show Boat is the tawdry romance of dream-street Hollywood itself—both parts of the world of “Make Believe.”

It's been years since Casey Maldonado visited her hometown. The only reason she's returning now is to get her brother Ricky out of jail, where he's been arrested for the murder of his girlfriend Alicia McManus. Casey believes in her brother's innocence, but proving that to the cops is a different thing altogether, especially since she has her own murder warrant to worry about. Even more frightening is Casey's confrontation with her personal demons—the home she shared with her late husband and son, the resentment of her mother, and even the presence of Eric, who wants to be more than just a friend.As Casey and her ever-present companion Death investigate, it becomes clear Alicia was not who she claimed to be. Instead of a solid history, she left only questions when she died. Where did she come from? What secrets did she know? And, most importantly, who were the three people she spoke of when Death carried her away?Casey must sort the truth from the elaborate fiction of Alicia's life in order to clear Ricky's name, but as she reveals the woman's secrets, Casey begins to see just how alike their lives appear. Is Casey destined to an existence as empty and dark as Alicia's? Or can she overcome the tragedy of her past and move forward into a life worth living?

“Astrologically inclined cozy fans will find a lot to like.”—Publishers WeeklySomeone is bumping off rock's wrinkled royalty. The latest victim? Freddie Finger, 63-year-old lead singer for Rocket Fire. Seeking answers, Freddie's daughter, movie actress Vivian Younger, retains astrologer detective David Lowell to help catch her father's killer.Freddie wasn't well liked, and Lowell has plenty of suspects. Among them are Freddie's ex-wives, who seem more intent on killing each other than anyone else. And his disgruntled band members, angry because Freddie's solo career was threatening the band's future. Then there is his greedy manager, busy promoting the death of a rock star. Or could his killer have been the musician whose career Freddie sabotaged many years ago?With the help of his red-haired assistant Sarah, master hacker and psychic Mort, and his driver and bodyguard Andy, Lowell sifts through the birth charts of the characters and follows the clues to a surprising ending.

Foreign Service veteran Richard Michaelson knows that it is often better to talk to secretaries than big wigs in the political jungles of Washington, DC. But when one such ambitious young secretary turns up dead in a locked hotel room, Michaelson suddenly realizes just how much she knew…and that the killer might now be after him. Now everyone is clamoring to get their hands on the mysterious document in the dead woman's possession. Soon investigators, staffers and liaisons are coming out of the woodwork to keep things quiet. But for Michaelson, solving this mystery could be a matter of life and death.

“Mystery meets romance meets noir meets caper.”—Kirkus ReviewsAnnabelle Starkey is a shrewd, sweet, and sexy Stephanie Plum without the Jersey girl attitude. She's a one-man kind of girl who loves hats and shoes.Annabelle also loves movies. But her own life doesn't match her favorite silver-screen scenarios. Then, one day she meets charming, slightly mysterious, and definitely magnetic Mickey Paxton and decides it's time to live one of those Cary Grant films. They fly to Las Vegas for a holiday and a test flight for romance.The script takes a surprising turn when they arrive in Sin City. Suddenly Annabelle and Mickey are on the run—from what? And why? Did Mickey lead Annabelle into this mess? Then a murder in Annabelle's San Francisco apartment sends the couple winging west to that city where, once again, criminals and cops pursue them.In two frenetic days of fast driving, fast talking, and fast thinking, Annabelle learns to trust her instincts. No matter what the danger, Annabelle's fresh and funny voice is her best weapon.

«Burgundy: Twisted Roots is an intriguing and multi-layered novel about love, wine and intrigue, steeped in a deep knowledge of the seductive French lifestyle, from wild boar hunts to wine harves feasts, with side servings of skullduggery and inheritance laws.» —MARTIN WALKER, bestselling author of the Bruno, Chief of Police seriesMax Maguire of the NYPD, daughter of a legendary NY cop and a French mother disowned by her aristocratic family when she married, met examining magistrate Olivier Chaumont over murder at the wedding of an old friend in the Champagne wine region. They remained on-again-off-again partners and lovers over more murder again, this time in Bordeaux. And now, six months later, Max is on her way to Burgundy where it's time to give up her promising career and commit—or split.Murder occurs. There's a mystery girl, American. Fractured families. Motives aplenty. But the story's real fascination lies in two things French: the wine culture and French inheritance laws which are convoluted and guaranteed to spark family wars, even unto death. And the French justice system functions differently which frustrates Max, an action-oriented, straightforward investigator, and causes some friction with Olivier. Janet Hubbard wraps up her Vengeance in the Vineyard trilogy with a surprise and solutions that will please readers.

“Webb offers fans the profound pleasure of watching Lena mature as she comes one step closer to understanding and accepting her difficult past, while providing new readers with an introduction to this strong and genuinely likable character.” —Publishers WeeklyWhen the man who raped Scottsdale PI Lena Jones when she was a nine-year-old foster child is released from prison, Lena is waiting for him in the parking lot—with a big knife. “Papa” Brian Wycoff survives their meeting, but the next day, his wife, who knew about his crimes but did nothing to stop him—in fact enabled him—is found dead in their Apache Junction home, shot through both eyes. Terrified he will be next, Wycoff, violating his parole, flees north to the small town of Black Canyon City, taking shelter in an RV on his brother-in-law's small ranch. A couple of days later, he is found tortured to death, eight horizontal marks burned into his flesh. One for each of his victims?Suspicion first falls upon Lena, who has trailed Wycoff to Black Canyon City to make sure he doesn't come near any other children. When the local authorities arrive to question her, she admits to having been tempted to kill her former foster father, but someone beat her to the punch. Suspicion then falls on Wycoff's other victims, the now-grown men and women he abused when they were still in his care, and on the mothers of the children who went missing before his arrest.When Lena takes up the case, more to protect one of the mothers who has been arrested than to find the real killer, her conscience is torn. Does a serial child rapist, a pedophile also implicated in the disappearance of several children, really deserve justice? That choice might not be left up to Lena when members of a local group, Parents of Missing Children, start working to prevent her investigation from succeeding. How far will they go to make sure she fails?

“Bowen writes with knowledge and wit, tongue in cheek or rudely protruding. His cat-and-mouse corporate thriller zips merrily to a high-speed conclusion.”—Publishers WeeklyWhen shadowy gray market hustler and aspiring crony capitalist Jerzy Schroeder is murdered while Josie Kendall is hitting him up for a million dollars to help cash in on alternative energy funding, the police suspect her of adultery and her husband, Rafe, of homicide. Josie, who works for Majority Values Coalition, an “activist fundraising organization,” is a new but passionate D.C. player. Suave Rafe, long a Washington insider, also a long widower, is passionate about Josie. He's on a new track as a literary agent and supporting Josie's how-Washington-works learning curve.For Josie and Rafe, this isn't a murder investigation but a political damage control problem. They attack the issue with an array of finely tuned skills: strategic leaks, manipulation of the media, judicious use of inside information, and a flexible attitude toward the truth—plus the assistance of Josie's Uncle Darius, a veteran spin doctor with surprising connections, who—luckily—is out on parole.They'll need a full arsenal, since, as one capital insider points out, “A damage control strategy that hasn't succeeded within thirty days has failed.” Along the way, Josie, juggling plot lines, will have to decide whether there are ethical lines that even she won't cross.A proposal from Schroeder's ex-wife, Ann DeHoin, known as “The Gray Lady,” thanks to her wardrobe, shows Josie that she was (and probably still is) being gamed. To what end?The priority here is to figure out what the game is before the body count rises, while staying on mission at MVC, which gets money from people committed to a cause, spends part of it promoting that cause through channels like running ads, and keeps the rest.In this contemporary House of Cards scenario, determining who actually murdered Schroeder is a low-priority problem but Josie manages to do that as well. It's all in a day's (well, thirty days') work.

Bob Patterson considers himself an Everyman—albeit an Everyman with a rich, beautiful wife, two good kids, and a mail-it-in job that ignores his law degree. Despite his good fortune, Bob is idling through life, bored at work and at home. In short, he is the proverbial Coaster.Bob's wife, Sarah, is the anointed heir to the empire built by her father, Sam—a kind of Kansas City, Missouri, Warren Buffet. Fine by Bob, the family soccer mom. But early one morning he and Sarah awake to terrible news.Sam's death reveals he appointed Bob to be the trustee of his personal fortune and, as the IRS currently has it, he'll be in charge of his mother-in-law's money. Even more terrifying, Bob realizes he faces the prospect of actually working all day, for stakes that matter.Is the reappearance of Bob's wildest fraternity brother from college and a proposal from a bland businessman with a plan that seems too good to be true mere coincidence? A businessman who refuses to take No for an answer. After a lifetime of choosing the path of least resistance, will Bob finally take a stand when his family needs him most? If so, where?Bob peppers his story with sports and pop culture references and wry commentary on everything from the sex lives of married couples (such as they are) to the enormous cost of being “honored” at a charitable event. Bob knows what the hero should do in the situations he encounters (he's read the books and seen the movies, too). He doesn't have “a very particular set of skills” or a secret past in the Special Forces. He's just a regular guy who handles extreme pressure and threats to his family about like you'd expect (not well). It's going to take all he's got (really, more than he's got) to raise his game. Fortunately he's got an ace-in-the-hole…at home.Darkly comic, The Coaster turns the conventions of the mystery/suspense genre upside down.

“Ifkovic successfully blends homicide with a loving homage to Budapest on the eve of World War I.” —Kirkus ReviewsIn 1914, as rumors of war float across Europe, Edna Ferber travels to Budapest with Winifred Moss, a famous London suffragette, to visit the homeland of her dead father and to see the sights. Author Edna is fascinated by ancient Emperor Franz Joseph and by the faltering Austro-Hungarian Empire, its pomp and circumstance so removed from the daily life of the people she meets. Sitting daily in the Café Europa at her hotel, she listens to unfettered Hearst reporter Harold Gibbon as he predicts the coming war and the end of feudalistic life in Europe while patrons chatter.Then a shocking murder in a midnight garden changes everything.Headstrong Cassandra Blaine is supposed to marry into the Austrian nobility in one of those arranged matches like Consuela Vanderbilt's still popular with wealthy American parents eager for titles and impoverished European nobility who have them to offer. But Cassandra is murdered, and her former lover, the dashing Hungarian Endre Molnár, is the prime suspect. Taken with the young man and convinced of his innocence, Edna begins investigating with the help of Winifred and two avant-garde Hungarian artists. Meanwhile possible war with Serbia is the topic of the day as Archduke Franz Ferdinand prepares to head to Sarajevo. While the world braces for disaster, Edna uncovers the truth—and it scares her.

«The Longchamp mysteries combine history and mystery in a gritty way that makes them feel different from most amateur-sleuth fare—dark-edged rather than cozy. Faye, too, is not your traditional amateur sleuth; she could just as easily anchor a gritty thriller series and give some of the giants in that genre a run for their money.» —BooklistIn Undercurrents, the eleventh Faye Longchamp Mystery, Faye has traveled to Memphis, a city steeped in music, poverty, history, and the smoky tang of barbecue. She's there working alone to do an assessment of a site, welcome work for her small archaeological consulting firm.When Faye spies a child too young to be wandering along a creek alone, she follows the girl. A day later she uncovers a dying woman, buried alive near a spot where Kali might well be hiding. Nobody would blame Faye for running hard, but she can't make herself leave Kali, the woman's now orphaned daughter, who might be in danger. She's not welcomed by the people in Kali's struggling community, nor by the police working the crime. Yet she stays, for Kali, and for the bereaved who need her to communicate their fears to a police department that they trust even less than they trust Faye.When they confide rumors of other women beaten to death by a man so obsessed with burial that he places fresh flowers in their cold hands, Faye begs the police to widen the investigation to seek a serial killer. They refuse. Faye's gut is telling her that a monster is stalking Memphis, endangering the child she has come to love. If the police can't catch him, then she will have no choice but to try to find him herself.

“Kies's sequel to the Sue Grafton Award nominee Shadow Hill is a compelling story for readers who want to follow investigative reporters into the crime scenes.”— Library Journal Geneva encounters a deceptive cast of suspects who pull her into a high-speed chase into the Whisper Room, a dating app for only the most elite members of society—where affairs, blackmail, and murder are all on the menu.When wealthy men crave no-strings attached encounters, the Whisper Room promises to deliver. Escorts are turning up dead, and Geneva Chase is ready to dive into the exclusive dating ring and catch the killer.But then one of The Whisper Room's escorts turns up murdered—and she looks a lot like the blond in the blackmail video. The more Genie digs, the more blackmail victims and potential suspects she finds—and the more people she angers. Dangerous people, with links to organized crime and human trafficking. Will this story of a lifetime put a premature end to her own?