Houston's Mystery Book Store Since 1980 - Murder by the Book
 

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Since 1980, where a good crime is had by all! Today is Tue, Mar 09, 2010

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Upcoming Book Signings

Our Event Signing Policies: If you're attending one of our events for the first time, please read carefully so there will be no misunderstandings...

When attending one of MURDER BY THE BOOK's signing events, please keep the following in mind:
1. The talks/readings are free. However, if you want to get any books signed (including audiobooks, movie memorabilia, e-readers, other items), the new book must be purchased from Murder By The Book.
2. You may always bring earlier books to be signed, but a limit may be imposed for authors who draw very large crowds.
3. For the bigger signings, numbers will be handed out, with attendees lining up for the signing in numerical order. Arrive early for low numbers.

When sending books to be signed:
We'll get THREE books that you send signed for every ONE copy of the new book purchased from us.

If you still have questions, please don't hesitate to call or e-mail. Thank you!


Here are some of the authors that have dropped by in the last couple of weeks... If you missed them, we still have signed copies. Please call or e-mail to reserve any!

Alex Berenson
Ally Carter
Connie Willis
Craig McDonald
David Eagleman
Amber Benson

Go here for our Signed Books page.


Saturday, February 27, 4:30 p.m.
Hannah Dennison & Kate Carlisle
Mystery writers Hannah Dennison (A Vicky Hill Exclusive!) & Kate Carlisle (Homicide in Hardcover) will sign & discuss their new books. They're billing the event as kind of an "Inside the Writer's Studio" -- they'll ask each other questions about writing, our work, our ideas, etc. Kate will discuss book restoration... Hannah will enlighten us on the living high-stakes world of snail racing! Plus, questions from the audience! And as an added incentive, Hannah's bringing some 2010 British Farmers calendars... who doesn't want to view pale, strapping men-of-the-earth and their sizable, um, produce? She has 3 to give away in a drawin... must be present to win!

Hannah Dennison will sign & discuss the third Vicky Hill mystery, Exposé! (Berkley Prime Crime; paperback original; $6.99). When the local celebrity, Scarlett Flemming, dies, Vicky learns of Scarlett's shaky finances—and marriage. While canvassing an entire town of suspects and juggling three eligible suitors, she must stay one step ahead of a killer once she realizes she's no longer writing an obituary, but an exposé!

Kate Carlisle will sign & discuss her second bibliophile mystery, If Books Could Kill (Berkley Prime Crime; paperback original; $6.99). Book restoration expert Brooklyn Wainwright is attending the world-renowned Book Fair when her ex Kyle shows up with a bombshell. He has an original copy of a scandalous text that could change history -- and humiliate the beloved British monarchy. When Kyle turns up dead, the police are convinced Brooklyn's the culprit. But with an entire convention of suspects, Brooklyn's conducting her own investigation to find out if the motive for murder was a 200-year-old secret -- or something much more personal.

Please call or e-mail to order signed or inscribed copies.

Wednesday, March 3, 6:30 p.m.
Joanne Fluke
Best-selling culinary mystery writer Joanne Fluke will sign & discuss her Hannah Swensen novel, Apple Turnover Murder (Kensington; $24). It's June in Lake Eden, Minnesota, and for Hannah Swensen, that means bridal showers galore, plus a massive fundraising event in need of confections—not to mention a killer who never learned that charity begins at home...

Early summer brings plenty of work for Hannah, even before Mayor Bascomb's wife drops by The Cookie Jar to place an order... for eleven-hundred cookies! Stephanie Bascomb is organizing an elaborate three-day event to support local charities, and though it's a worthy cause, Hannah almost flips when her business partner, Lisa, suggests setting up an apple turnover stand. Hannah's never made a turnover—but, pushover that she is, she places her faith in Lisa's mother-in-law's recipe and agrees to be a magician's assistant in the fundraiser's talent show...

Dozens of pastries and one hideous purple dress later, Hannah has to admit that stepping out of her comfort zone has been fun as well as profitable. The only snag is the show's host, community college professor Bradford Ramsey. Hannah and her younger sister Michelle each had unfortunate romantic relationships with Ramsey, and when the cad comes sniffing around between acts, Hannah tells him off. But when the curtain doesn't go up, she discovers Ramsey backstage—dead as a doornail with a turnover in his hand...

Now, to protect her reputation and Michelle's, Hannah must get to the bottom of the professor's bitter end. There are plenty of scorned suspects, including an ex-wife who feels cheated in more ways than one, and a prominent local who may have been using Ramsey to avenge her own randy spouse. But who was unstable enough to snuff out Professor Love? A killer who's flakier than puff pastry—and far more dangerous...

Includes Over Ten Cookie and Dessert Recipes!

Like Hannah Swensen, New York Times bestselling author Joanne Fluke grew up in a small town in rural Minnesota where her neighbors were friendly, the winters were fierce, and the biggest scandal was the spotting of unidentified male undergarments on a young widow's clothesline. She insists that there really are 10,000 lakes and the mosquito is NOT the state bird.

While pursuing her writing career, Joanne has worked as: a public school teacher, a psychologist, a musician, a private detective's assistant, a corporate, legal, and pharmaceutical secretary, a short order cook, a florist's assistant, a caterer and party planner, a computer consultant on a now-defunct operating system, a production assistant on a TV quiz show, half of a screenwriting team with her husband, and a mother, wife, and homemaker.

She now lives in Southern California with her husband, her kids, his kids, their three dogs, one elderly tabby, and several noisy rats in the attic.

Please call or e-mail to order signed or inscribed copies.

Saturday, March 6, 4:30 p.m.
Deanna Raybourn
Acclaimed historical mystery writer Deanna Raybourn (Silent in the Grave) will sign & discuss her new stand-alone novel of historical suspense, The Dead Travel Fast (Mira; paperback original; $13.95). With a modest inheritance and the three gowns that comprise her entire wardrobe, Theodora leaves Edinburgh – and a disappointed suitor – far behind. She is bound for Roumania, where tales of vampires are still whispered, to visit an old friend and write the book that will bring her true independence. She arrives at a magnificent, decaying castle in the Carpathians replete with eccentric inhabitants: the ailing dowager; the troubled steward; her own fearful friend, Cosmina. But all are outstripped in dark glamour by the castle's master, Count Andrei Dragulescu. Bewildering and bewitching in equal measure, the brooding nobleman ignites Theodora's imagination and awakens passions in her that she can neither deny nor conceal. His allure is superlative, his dominion over the superstitious town, absolute – Theodora may simply be one more person under his sway. Before her sojourn is ended – or her novel completed – Theodora will have encountered things as strange and terrible as they are seductive. For obsession can prove fatal...and she is in danger of falling prey to more than desire.

Highly recommended by Dean!

A sixth-generation native Texan, Deanna Raybourn graduated from the University of Texas at San Antonio with a double major in English and history and an emphasis on Shakespearean studies. She taught high school English for three years in San Antonio before leaving education to pursue a career as a novelist. Deanna makes her home in Virginia, where she lives with her husband and daughter and is hard at work on the next installment in the award-winning Lady Julia Grey series.

Please call or e-mail to order signed or inscribed copies.

Saturday, March 13, 4:30 p.m.
Carla Buckley
Julie Compton

Novelists Carla Buckley & Julie Compton will sign & discuss their new books.

Carla Buckley will sign & discuss The Things that Keep Us Here (Delacorte; $25). How far would you go to protect your family?

Ann Brooks never thought she’d have to answer that question. Then she found her limits tested by a crisis no one could prevent. Now, as her neighborhood descends into panic, she must make tough choices to protect everyone she loves from a threat she cannot even see. In this chillingly urgent novel, Carla Buckley confronts us with the terrifying decisions we are forced to make when ordinary life changes overnight.

A year ago, Ann and Peter Brooks were just another unhappily married couple trying–and failing–to keep their relationship together while they raised two young daughters. Now the world around them is about to be shaken as Peter, a university researcher, comes to a startling realization: A virulent pandemic has made the terrible leap across the ocean to America’s heartland.

And it is killing fifty out of every hundred people it touches.

As their town goes into lockdown, Peter is forced to return home–with his beautiful graduate assistant. But the Brookses’ safe suburban world is no longer the refuge it once was. Food grows scarce, and neighbor turns against neighbor in grocery stores and at gas pumps. And then a winter storm strikes, and the community is left huddling in the dark.

Trapped inside the house she once called home, Ann Brooks must make life-or-death decisions in an environment where opening a door to a neighbor could threaten all the things she holds dear.

Carla Buckley’s poignant debut raises important questions to which there are no easy answers, in an emotionally riveting tale of one family facing unimaginable stress.

Julie Compton will sign & discuss Rescuing Olivia (St. Martin's Minotaur; $25.99). Anders Erickson has fallen for Olivia, who likes to live in the moment and doesn’t want to talk about her past. That’s fine with Anders—who has his own memories he’d like to forget—until a car runs their motorcycle off the road and causes an accident that puts Olivia in a coma.

Olivia’s estranged father blames Anders and denies his pleas to see her. When she mysteriously disappears from the hospital and Anders tries to learn what happened, her father stops at nothing to prevent him from discovering the truth.

But Anders refuses to accept that she’s gone for good. Determined to find answers, he sets out on a dangerous path that exposes Olivia’s traumatic past and places him squarely in the way of her father’s plans. When he discovers her very life is threatened, his search for answers becomes a race against time, and he is forced to finally confront his own past if he is to have any chance of rescuing Olivia from hers.

Pitched at the intersection of suspense and family drama, Rescuing Olivia is another gripping read from Julie Compton, a talented new author who never fails to mine the most compelling emotional terrain.

Please call or e-mail to order signed or inscribed copies.

Tuesday, March 16, 6:30 p.m.
Keith Thomson
John Vorhaus
Two Random House thriller writers that we highly recommend sign their new new books at Murder By the Book!

Debut thriller writer Keith Thomson will sign & discuss his first novel, Once a Spy (Doubleday; $25.95 ). What happens when a CIA agent can't trust his own mind? The answer is in this fast-paced, witty, and highly imaginative debut thriller—Midnight Run meets Robert Ludlum.

Highly recommended by David, McKenna & Anne!

Drummond Clark was once a spy of legendary proportions. Now Alzheimer's disease has taken its toll and he's just a confused old man who's wandered away from home, waiting for his son to fetch him.

When Charlie Clark takes a break from his colossal losing streak at the track to bring Drummond back to his Brooklyn apartment, they find it blown sky high—and then the bullets start flying in every direction. At first Charlie thinks his Russian "creditors" are employing aggressive collection tactics. But once Drummond effortlessly hot-wires a car as their escape vehicle, Charlie begins to suspect there's much more to his father than meets the eye. He soon discovers that Drummond's unremarkable career as an appliance salesman was actually a clever cover-up for an elaborate plan to sell would-be terrorists faulty nuclear detonators. Drummond's intricate knowledge of the “device” is extremely dangerous information to have rattling around in an Alzheimer's-addled brain. The CIA wants to “contain” him—and so do some other shady characters who send Charlie and Drummond on a wild chase that gives "father and son quality time" a whole new meaning.

With Once a Spy, Keith Thomson makes his debut on the thriller stage with energy, wit, and style to spare. Once you read it, you'll eagerly await his follow-up, Twice a Spy.

Poker expert & crime writer John Vorhaus (Under the Gun) will sign & discuss his 2nd novel, The California Roll (Shaye Areheart; $23).

You’ve heard of a Ponzi scheme, but do you know the ins and outs of a Merlin Game, the Pigeon Drop, the Doolally Snadoodle, the Penny Skim, or the Dead Man’s Switch? World-class con artist and polymath extraordinaire Radar Hoverlander makes his living “on the snuke,” with his gift for bafflegab and an endless supply of assumed identities, the tools of a centuries-old trade. He’s very smart. And he’s very smooth. But how will he react when the snuke’s on him? As timeless as a perpetual-motion machine, and as timely as a Madoff arraignment, The California Roll brings you deep inside the world of con artistry, where every fact is fiction and the second liar never has a chance.

Vorhaus has created a character with a point of view like no one else’s. Radar’s been on the snuke since childhood, but he’s still looking for his California Roll, the one big scam that will set him up for life. With the mind of David Mamet, the voice of Tom Robbins, and the morals of a sailor on shore leave, Radar is one-of-a-kind—until, that is, he meets his match in the stunning, sassy package of Allie Quinn, a seemingly innocent stunner who knows far too much about him for someone he’s just met at a party. Allie is either the last true innocent or a con artist so slick she makes Radar look like a Quaker.

Radar’s sidekick, Vic Mirplo, a lovable but hapless grifter who couldn’t con a kid out of a candy cane, thinks Radar’s being played. But if love is blind, it's also deaf, dumb, and stupid, and before Radar knows it, Allie’s straightforward request—that Radar teach her grandfather the art of the con—is the opening move in a twisted game of double-, triple-, and quadruple-crosses that threatens not only Radar's manhood and livelihood, but perhaps most important: his life.

So clever, so witty, and so laugh-out-loud funny, The California Roll will grab you from the first line and not let you go until the very last word (a word spoken, it should be noted, in the Hot Tub of Truth).

Highly recommended by McKenna, Anne, Brenda & Michelle!

The California Roll is grand entertainment . . . Double- and triple-crosses abound in the careening plot. . . . The writing is tight and wonderfully glib, and Vorhaus slyly, shrewdly hints that he’s snuking the reader. No caper-novel fan should miss this one.”—Booklist

“John Vorhaus sure knows his stuff—a little too well, if you ask me. The California Roll is a hilarious and highly suspicious ride into the world of grift. It’s an immensely enjoyable read and an excellent primer if you’re looking for a career change.” —Lisa Lutz, New York Times bestselling author of Revenge of the Spellmans

“Whether you’re a mook or a snuke, The California Roll is more than entertainment, it’s an education. Buyer beware: John Vorhaus will steal your money and hours of your life, giving you nothing in return but a great read—fast, funny, and very, very smart.” —Harley Jane Kozak, award-winning author of A Date You Can’t Refuse

John Vorhaus is the author of The Comic Toolbox: How to Be Funny Even if You’re Not. An avid poker player, he has written several books on that subject, including the bestselling Killer Poker series and the poker-world novel Under the Gun. A veteran creative consultant, he has taught writing in twenty-four countries on four continents, most recently running the writing staff of the Russian version of Married . . . with Children. When not out making the world safe for situation comedy, he lives in Southern California, where he very much appreciates the weather.

Please call or e-mail to order signed or inscribed copies.

Wednesday, March 17, 6:30 p.m.
SPECIAL ST. PATRICK'S DAY SIGNING!
Linda Fairstein
New York Times best-selling thriller writer Linda Fairstein will sign & discuss her new Alexandra Cooper novel, Hell Gate (Dutton; $26.95). Linda Fairstein is America’s foremost legal expert on crimes of sexual assault and domestic violence, She led the Sex Crimes Unit of the district attorney’s office in Manhattan for twenty-five years. Her eleven previous Alexandra Cooper novels have been critically acclaimed international bestsellers, translated into more than a dozen languages. Fairstein lives in Manhattan and on Martha’s Vineyard.

In Hell Gate, Fairstein takes Alexandra Cooper inside a world she’d rather not see. New York City politics have always been filled with intrigue and behind-the-scenes deals. Alex finds her attention torn between investigating a shipwreck that has contraband cargo— human cargo—and the political sex scandal of a promising New York congressman now fallen from grace. When Alex discovers that a woman from the wreck and the congressman’s lover have the same rose tattoo—the brand of a “snakehead,” a master of a human trafficking operation—it dawns on her that these cases aren’t as unrelated as they seem and that the entire political landscape of New York City could hang in the balance of her investigation. As Alex looks on at the nameless victims in the morgue, she realizes she’s looking at the present-day face of New York’s long, dark tradition of human trafficking—a tradition that began hundreds of years ago with slave trade from Africa, now a multimillion-dollar industry that will stop at no cost, even if that cost is Alex’s life.

Please call or e-mail to order signed or inscribed copies.

Friday, March 19, 6:30 p.m.
Randy Wayne White
New York Times best-selling thriller writer Randy Wayne White will sign & discuss his new Doc Ford novel, Deep Shadow (Putnam; $25.95).

Many dangers lurk in the deep -- the worst of them are human.

Thirty minutes into what should have been an easy, beginner-level dive in a remote Florida lake, the rim of a cave collapses, trapping two of Doc Ford's friends. Ford himself manages to escape and quickly surfaces to find help-but that's when his troubles only begin.

Two men are waiting for him on the shore, and they are not the kind of men you want to meet at any time. Murderers and ex-cons, they're intent on diving to the bottom of the very deep lake and uncovering the remains of a legendary plane wreck there, supposedly loaded with Cuban treasury gold. Ford's expertise is just what they need. And if he doesn't want to help? He can die. His friends? They can die, too. In fact, they can die right now. . . .

As the hours tick away, two mortal struggles unfold simultaneously, one above and one below. Neither outcome is certain, no man is safe . . . and in the deep shadow, only death awaits.

"A nail-biter that's virtually impossible to put down." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Highly recommended by David!

Please call or e-mail to order signed or inscribed copies.

Saturday, March 20, 4:30 p.m.
Colleen Thompson
Suspense writer Colleen Thompson will sign & discuss her new novel, Touch of Evil (Leisure; paperback original; $7.99). The noose cuts off all air, leaving its victim struggling hopelessly against death. One by one, the members of a small town zydeco band are being murdered by a macabre killer.

Sheriff Justine Wofford is boxed in on all sides, investigating a series of gruesome hangings everyone else considers suicide. Hospitalized by a severe blow to the head, unable to remember the details of the attack, under fire from her own department, she reaches out to the man she's sworn to avoid at any cost.

Their affair was a close-kept secret, their bodies coming together with explosive heat even as she tried to maintain emotional distance. But now Justine can't stay away from Ross. Somehow, he's mixed up in this case and his hold on her is only getting tighter.

Please call or e-mail to order signed or inscribed copies.

Monday, March 22, 6:30 p.m.
Steven M. Forman
Florida crime writer Steven M. Forman will sign & discuss his second "Boca" novel, Boca Mournings (Forge; $24.99). Eddie Perlmutter, a fifty-nine-year-old highly decorated Boston cop, retired to Boca Raton, hoping for some peace and quiet after more than thirty years on the force. But before he could even get a tan he busted Russian mafia counterfeiters, unraveled the details of a mysterious death in a gated community, and saved damsels in distress from neo-Nazi punks. A local newspaper reporter wrote about Eddie’s exploits and nicknamed him the “Boca Knight,” a man willing to fight for everyone’s right to live in peace. Eddie Perlmutter was a hero all over again.

A widower for more than twenty years, Eddie becomes involved with two totally different women, but once he hangs out his P.I. shingle he has precious little time for romance. Eddie’s one-man Boca Knights Detective Agency has more cases than he can handle: a haunted elevator, a double kidnapping, an octogenarian bagel thief—and that’s just for starters. Quack doctors have to be busted; old hearts need fixing; scams must be exposed. While standing up for the underdog, Eddie doesn’t even have enough time to bend over for a prostate exam.

On top of his P.I. work, he’s got some unfinished business with one of the young neo-Nazi miscreants. He may have to fly halfway across the world to see justice done, if he isn’t cut down by Russian mafia bullets in the gayborhood or run over on a Boca street by a pint-size maniac in a huge Cadillac.

Retirement has never been so un-retiring.

Please call or e-mail to order signed or inscribed copies.

Thursday, March 25, 6:30 p.m.
John DeMers
Houston food journalist John DeMers will sign & discuss his first crime novel, Marfa Shadows (Bright Sky; $23.95).

Local writer and radio host John DeMers takes a whole new direction in his 40-book career with the big-splash national release of Marfa Shadows, his first mystery novel and the start of a series starring his culinary crime-fighter Chef Brett Baldwin. The new book, and presumably its years and years of siblings, are set in the small-but-artsy Far West Texas town of Marfa -- Brett’s hometown and the place his fictional restaurant called Mesquite is located. But as John stresses, the action can take his hero just about anywhere, starting in Shadows with the nearby drug violence-riddled Tex-Mex border.

John writes when he isn’t on the air for NewsRadio 740 KTRH, hosting his "Delicious Mischief" food and wine radio show on Saturdays or his Houston ArtsWeek on Sundays. Both shows, plus John’s new weekly "Delicious Mischief" in Austin, are sponsored by Spec’s Wines, Spirits and Finer Foods. The big difference, he says: a lot more people get themselves killed in his novels!

"John DeMers' unlikely hero, chef Brett Baldwin, takes us on a spicy, culinary crime cruise through the mean streets of small-town West Texas, and beyond. Hot stuff!" -- Peter May

Please call or e-mail to order signed or inscribed copies.

Sunday, March 28, 2:00 p.m.
Walter Mosley
New York Times best-selling, Edgar Award-winning crime writer Walter Mosley will sign & discuss his new Leonid McGill novel, Known to Evil (Riverhead; $26.95). Leonid McGill -- the protagonist introduced in The Long Fall, the book that returned Walter Mosley to bestseller lists nationwide -- is still fighting to stick to his reformed ways while the world around him pulls him in every other direction. He has split up with his girlfriend, Aura, because his new self won't let him leave his wife -- but then Aura's new boyfriend starts angling to get Leonid kicked out of his prime, top-of-the-skyscraper office space. Meanwhile, one of his sons seems to have found true love-but the girl has a shady past that's all of sudden threatening the whole McGill family -- and his other son, the charming rogue Twilliam, is doing nothing but enabling the crisis.

Most ominously of all, Alfonse Rinaldo, the mysterious power-behind-the-throne at City Hall, the fixer who seems to control every little thing that happens in New York City, has a problem that even he can't fix -- and he's come to Leonid for help. It seems a young woman has disappeared, leaving murder in her wake, and it means everything to Rinaldo to track her down. But he won't tell McGill his motives, which doesn't quite square with the new company policy -- but turning down Rinaldo is almost impossible to even contemplate.

Known to Evil delivers on all the promise of the characters and story lines introduced in The Long Fall, and then some. It careens fast and deep into gritty, glittery contemporary Manhattan, making the city pulse in a whole new way, and it firmlyestablishes Leonid McGill as one of the mystery world's most iconic, charismatic leading men.

Walter Mosley has just been nominated for the 2010 Hammett Prize! More information here.

Please call or e-mail to order signed or inscribed copies.

Monday, March 29, 6:30 p.m.
Alafair Burke
Crime writer Alafair Burke will sign & discuss her new Ellie Hatcher thriller, 212 (Harper; $24.99). When New York University sophomore Megan Gunther finds personal threats posted to a Web site specializing in campus gossip, she's taken aback by their menacing tone. Someone knows her daily routine down to the minute and is watching her — but thanks to the anonymity provided by the Internet, the police tell her there's nothing they can do. Her friends are sure it's someone's idea of a joke, but when Megan is murdered in a vicious attack, NYPD Detective Ellie Hatcher is convinced that the online threats are more than just empty words.

Highly recommended by McKenna!

Alafair Burke is the author of what the Sun-Sentinal has hailed as "two power house series" featuring NYPD Detective Ellie Hatcher and Portland Deputy District Attorney Samantha Kincaid. Alafair's novels grow out of her love for writing, her experience as a prosecutor in America's police precincts and criminal courtrooms, and her ability to create strong, believable, and eminently likable female characters. According to Entertainment Weekly, Alafair "is a terrific web spinner" who "knows when and how to drop clues to keep readers at her mercy."

Please call or e-mail to order signed or inscribed copies.

Tuesday, March 30, evening, at Alliance Francaise.
Cara Black
Best-selling crime writer Cara Black will sign & discuss her new Aimée Leduc novel, Murder in the Palais Royal (Soho; $25), at a special event at Houston's Alliance Francaise.

The event will include a special PowerPoint presentation of photos taken by Cara of the various Paris locations where her books are set!

In Murder in the Palais Royal, her partner, René, has been shot, and eyewitnesses have identified Aimée as the culprit. A mysterious deposit has been made to their firm's bank account, interesting the taxman in their affairs. Someone seems to be impersonating Aimée; someone wants revenge. Two murders ensue. How do they relate to the youth whom Aimée's testimony sent to jail in the very first Aimée Leduc investigation, Murder in the Marais?

Highly recommended by McKenna!

Please call or e-mail to order signed or inscribed copies.

Wednesday, March 31, 6:30 p.m.
Lisa Scottoline
New York Times best-seller Lisa Scottline will sign & discuss her new thriller, Think Twice (St. Martin's; $26.99). Bennie Rosato looks exactly like her identical twin, Alice Connolly, but the darkness in Alice’s soul makes them two very different women. Or at least that’s what Bennie believes, until she finds herself buried alive at the hands of her twin.

Meanwhile, Alice takes over Bennie’s life, impersonating her at work and even seducing her boyfriend in order to escape the deadly mess she has made of her own life. But Alice underestimates Bennie and the evil she has unleashed in her twin’s psyche, as well as Bennie’s determination to stay alive long enough to exact revenge.

Bennie must face the twisted truth that she is more like her sister Alice than she could have ever imagined, and by the novel’s shocking conclusion, Bennie finds herself engaged in a war she cannot win—with herself.

Lisa Scottoline is the Edgar Award-winning, bestselling author of Look Again, Lady Killer, Daddy’s Girl, Dirty Blonde, and many more. She currently has twenty-five million copies of her books in print in the United States, and she is published in twenty-five countries. She lives in Pennsylvania.

Please call or e-mail to order signed or inscribed copies.


Two events on Saturday, April 3rd!

Saturday, April 3, 4:00 p.m.
David Corbett
Edgar Award-nominated crime writer David Corbett will sign & discuss his new novel, Do They Know I'm Running? (Mortalis; paperback original; $15). Roque Montalvo is wise beyond his eighteen years. Orphaned at birth, a gifted musician, he’s stuck in a California backwater, helping his Salvadoran aunt care for his damaged brother, an ex-marine badly wounded in Iraq. When immigration agents arrest his uncle, the family has nowhere else to turn. Roque, badgered by his street-hardened cousin, agrees to bring the old man back, relying on the criminal gangs that control the dangerous smuggling routes from El Salvador, through Guatemala and Mexico, to the U.S. border.

But his cousin has told Roque only so much. In reality, he will have to transport not just his uncle but two others: an Arab whose intentions are disturbingly vague and a young beauty promised to a Mexican crime lord. Roque discovers that his journey involves crossing more than one kind of border, and he will be asked time and again to choose between survival and betrayal—of his country, his family, his heart.

"This is not just a thriller, but an elegant novel, full of heart, soul, music, food, cruelty, betrayal, poverty and love. The line runs through Ernest Hemingway and Graham Greene, straight on to David Corbett. I’m not kidding. He’s that good." -- John Lescroart, bestselling author of A Plague of Secrets

"Rarely does a novel knock you totally out of the park; this one does.” -- Ken Bruen, author of The Guards

David Corbett is the author of three critically acclaimed novels: The Devil’s Redhead, Done for a Dime (a New York Times Notable Book), and Blood of Paradise— nominated for numerous awards, including the Edgar, and named both one of the Top Ten Mysteries and Thrillers of 2007 by the Washington Post and a San Francisco Chronicle Notable Book. His short fiction and essays have appeared in numerous periodicals and anthologies, and his story “Pretty Little Parasite,” from Las Vegas Noir, was selected for inclusion in Best American Mystery Stories 2009. For more, go to www.davidcorbett.com.

Please call or e-mail to order signed or inscribed copies.

Saturday, April 3, 6:00 p.m.
Alan Bradley
The author of our store's all-time best-selling hardback, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (Delacorte; $23), will sign & discuss his new Flavia mystery, The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag (Delacorte; $24). Signing line numbers available beginning the book's on-sale date, Tuesday, March 2, with purchase of The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag from Murder By The Book.

The sequel is highly recommended by McKenna, Brenda, Kinley, Anne & Michelle!

From Dagger Award–winning and internationally bestselling author Alan Bradley comes this utterly beguiling mystery starring one of fiction’s most remarkable sleuths: Flavia de Luce, a dangerously brilliant eleven-year-old with a passion for chemistry and a genius for solving murders. This time, Flavia finds herself untangling two deaths—separated by time but linked by the unlikeliest of threads.

Flavia thinks that her days of crime-solving in the bucolic English hamlet of Bishop’s Lacy are over—and then Rupert Porson has an unfortunate rendezvous with electricity. The beloved puppeteer has had his own strings sizzled, but who’d do such a thing and why? For Flavia, the questions are intriguing enough to make her put aside her chemistry experiments and schemes of vengeance against her insufferable big sisters. Astride Gladys, her trusty bicycle, Flavia sets out from the de Luces’ crumbling family mansion in search of Bishop’s Lacey’s deadliest secrets.

Does the madwoman who lives in Gibbet Wood know more than she’s letting on? What of the vicar’s odd ministrations to the catatonic woman in the dovecote? Then there’s a German pilot obsessed with the Brontë sisters, a reproachful spinster aunt, and even a box of poisoned chocolates. Most troubling of all is Porson’s assistant, the charming but erratic Nialla. All clues point toward a suspicious death years earlier and a case the local constables can’t solve—without Flavia’s help. But in getting so close to who’s secretly pulling the strings of this dance of death, has our precocious heroine finally gotten in wayover her head?

Please call or e-mail to order signed or inscribed copies.


Two events on Monday, April 5th!

Monday, April 5, 3:00 p.m.
Lisa Lutz
Award-winning mystery writer Lisa Lutz will sign & discuss her 4th & final "Spellmans" novel, The Spellmans Strike Again (Simon & Schuster; $25), at a special afternoon Murder By The Book event. (If you can't make our event & want to catch her later in the evening, she'll be signing at Blue Willow Bookshop at 7:00 p.m.)

At the ripe old age of 32, former wild child Isabel "Izzy" Spellman has finally agreed to take over the family business. And the tradition won't be a smooth one.

First among her priorities as head of Spellman Investigations is to dig up some dirt on the competition, slippery ex-cop Rick Harkey — a task she may enjoy a little too much. Next, faced with a baffling missing-persons case at the home of an aging millionaire, Izzy hires an actor friend, Len, to infiltrate the mansion as an undercover butler — a role he may enjoy a little much.

Meanwhile, Izzy is being blackmailed by her mother (photographic evidence of Prom Night 1994) to commit to regular blind dates with promising professionals — an arrangement that doesn't thrill Connor, an Irish bartender on the brink of becoming Ex-boyfriend #12.

At Spellman headquarters, it's business as unusual. Doorknobs and light fixtures are disappearing every day, Mom's been spotted crying in the pantry, and a series of increasingly demanding Spellman Rules (Rule #27: No Speaking Today) can't quite hold the family together. Izzy also has to decipher weekly "phone calls from the edge" from her octogenarian lawyer, Morty, as well as Detective Henry Stone's mysterious interest in rekindling their relationsh...well, whatever it was.

Just when it looks like things can't go more haywire, little sister Rae's internship researching pro bono legal cases leads the youngest Spellman to launch a grassroots campaign that could spring an innocent man from jail — or land Rae in it.

The Spellmans Strike Again is hands down the most hilarious, thrilling, and moving book in this bestselling, award-nominatedseries. And it proves beyond a reasonable doubt that Isabel Spellman, no matter how much she matures, will never be able to follow Rule #1: Act Normal.

Please call or e-mail to order signed or inscribed copies.

Monday, April 5, 6:30 p.m.
BOOK LAUNCH PARTY!
Jacqueline Winspear
New York Times best-selling novelist Jacqueline Winspear will launch her national book tour for the new Maisie Dobbs mystery, The Mapping of Love and Death (HarperCollins; $25.99), at Murder By The Book!

In the latest mystery in the New York Times bestselling series, Maisie Dobbs must unravel a case of wartime love and death—an investigation that leads her to a long-hidden affair between a young cartographer and a mysterious nurse.

August 1914. Michael Clifton is mapping the land he has just purchased in California's beautiful Santa Ynez Valley, certain that oil lies beneath its surface. But as the young cartographer prepares to return home to Boston, war is declared in Europe. Michael—the youngest son of an expatriate Englishman—puts duty first and sails for his father's native country to serve in the British army. Three years later, he is listed among those missing in action.

April 1932. London psychologist and investigator Maisie Dobbs is retained by Michael's parents, who have recently learned that their son's remains have been unearthed in France. They want Maisie to find the unnamed nurse whose love letters were among Michael's belongings—a quest that takes Maisie back to her own bittersweet wartime love. Her inquiries, and the stunning discovery that Michael Clifton was murdered in his trench, unleash a web of intrigue and violence that threatens to engulf the soldier's family and even Maisie herself. Over the course of her investigation, Maisie must cope with the approaching loss of her mentor, Maurice Blanche, and her growing awareness that she is once again falling in love.

Highly recommended by McKenna!

Please call or e-mail to order signed or inscribed copies.


Tuesday, April 6, 6:30 p.m.
BOOK LAUNCH PARTY!
Jim Butcher
#1 best-selling paranormal writer Jim Butcher launches his national book tour with a special signing of the new Dresden novel, Changes (Ace; $25.95), at Murder By The Book!

Highly recommended by Anne & Sarah!

Long ago, Susan Rodriguez was Harry Dresden's lover -- until she was attacked by his enemies, leaving her torn between her own humanity and the bloodlust of the vampiric Red Court. Susan then disappeared to South America, where she could fight both her savage gift and those who cursed her with it. Now Arianna Ortega, Duchess of the Red Court, has discovered a secret Susan has long kept, and she plans to use it -- against Harry. To prevail this time, he may have no choice but to embrace the raging fury of his own untapped dark power. Because Harry's not fighting to save the world... He's fighting to save his child.

At the event, we will be doing a trivia contest, with two questions from each of the Dresden File books (not including Changes since it will just be released that day). The highest scorers will win one of two LARP-ing swords, as if Harry was making them the guardian of one of the Swords of the Cross.

Please call or e-mail to order signed or inscribed copies.

Wednesday, April 7, 6:30 p.m.
C. J. Box
New York Times best-seller C. J. Box will sign & discuss his new Joe Pickett novel, Nowhere to Run (Putnam; $25.95).

Joe Pickett's in his last week as the temporary game warden in the town of Baggs, Wyoming, but there have been strange things going on in the mountains, and his conscience won't let him leave without checking them out: reports of camps looted, tents slashed, elk butchered. And then there's the runner who simply vanished one day. Joe doesn't mind admitting that the farther he rides, the more he wishes he could just turn around and go home. And he is right to be concerned. Because what awaits him is like nothing he's ever dealt with, like something out of an old story, except this is all too real and too deadly. When he'd first saddled up, he'd thought of this as his last patrol. What he hadn't known was just how accurate that thought might turn out to be.

Highly recommended by Michelle!

Please call or e-mail to order signed or inscribed copies.

Thursday, April 8, 6:30 p.m.
Edgar Award winner
Naomi Hirahara
Edgar Award-winning mystery writer Naomi Hirahara will sign & discuss her 4th Mas Arai mystery, Blood Hina (St. Martin's Minotaur; $24.99). Mas' best friend Haruo is getting married and Mas has grudgingly agreed to serve as best man. But then an ancient Japanese doll display of Haruo's fiancee goes missing, and the wedding is called off with fingers pointed at Haruo. To clear his friend's name, Mas must first uncover a world of heartbreaking memories, deception, and murder.

Other books in the series, which features a Japanese American gardener and atomic-bomb survivor who solves crimes, include Summer of the Big Bachi, Gasa-Gasa Girl, and the Edgar Award-winning Snakeskin Shamisen. Her crime short stories are featured in Los Angeles Noir, Los Angeles Noir 2: The Classics, A Hell of a Woman, and The Darker Mask. Her book for younger readers, 1001 Cranes, was chosen as an Honor Book for the Youth Literature of the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature in 2009. She also contributes a mystery serial, “Heist in Crown City” to an English-language weekly in Japan, Asahi Weekly.

A graduate of Stanford University with a degree in international relations, she is the president of the Southern California chapter of Mystery Writers of America.

Her web site is www.naomihirahara.com.

Please call or e-mail to order signed or inscribed copies.

Friday, April 9, 6:30 p.m.
Patricia Briggs
#1 best-seller Patricia Briggs signs her new Mercy Thompson thriller, Silver Borne (Ace; $24.95). When mechanic and shapeshifter Mercy Thompson attempts to return a powerful Fae book she'd previously borrowed in an act of desperation, she finds the bookstore locked up and closed down.

It seems the book contains secret knowledge-and the Fae will do just about anything to keep it out of the wrong hands. And if that doesn't take enough of Mercy's attention, her friend Samuel is struggling with his wolf side -- leaving Mercy to cover for him, lest his own father declare Sam's life forfeit.

All in all, Mercy has had better days. And if she isn't careful, she might not have many more to live...

Please call or e-mail to order signed or inscribed copies.

Saturday, April 10, 4:30 p.m.
Susan Wittig Albert
New York Times best-selling Texas mystery writer Susan Wittig Albert will sign & discuss her new China Bayles novel, Holly Blues (Berkley Prime Crime; $24.95). China Bayles is fit to spit when her husband's troubled ex-wife, Sally, shows up at her herb shop, claiming to be broke with nowhere else to turn. China isn't sure if it's the goodness of her heart or the scent of Christmas wreaths, but she invites Sally to stay.

Then China starts receiving menacing calls from an "ex" of Sally's, who seems to have a connection to the murder of her parents nearly a decade ago. With her P.I. husband out of town, it's up to China to weed out the truth behind whatever it is Sally's running from before danger catches up to all of them.

Please call or e-mail to order signed or inscribed copies.

Monday, April 12, 6:30 p.m.
Martha Grimes
New York Times best-selling mystery writer Martha Grimes will sign & discuss her new Richard Jury novel, The Black Cat (Viking; $25.95). Three months have passed since Richard Jury was left bereft and guilt- ridden after his lover's tragic auto accident, and he is now more wary than ever. He is deeply suspicious when requested on a case far out of his jurisdiction in an outlying village where a young woman has been murdered behind the local pub. The only witness is the establishment's black cat, who gives neither crook nor clue as to the girl's identity or her killer's.

Identifying the girl becomes tricky when she's recognized as both the shy local librarian and a posh city escort, and Jury must use all his wits and intuition to determine the connection to subse quent escort murders. Meanwhile, Jury's nemesis, Harry Johnson, continues to goad Jury down a dangerous path. And Johnson, along with the imperturbable dog Mungo, just may be the key to it all.

Written with Martha Grimes's trademark insight and grace, The Black Cat signals the thrilling return of her greatest character. The superintendent is a man possessed of prodigious analytical gifts and charm, yet vulnerable in the most perplexing ways.

Highly recommended by Dean & Anne!

Please call or e-mail to order signed or inscribed copies.

Tuesday, April 13, 6:30 p.m.
Jesse Kellerman
New York Times best-seller Jesse Kellerman will sign & discuss his new thriller, The Executor (Putnam; $25.95). Perpetual graduate student Joseph Geist is at his wit's end. Recently kicked out of their shared apartment by his girlfriend, he's left with little more than a half bust of Nietzsche's head and the realization that he's homeless and unemployed. He's hit a dead end on his dissertation; his funding has been cut off. He doesn't even have a phone. Desperate for some source of income, he searches the local newspaper and finds a curious ad:

CONVERSATIONALIST SOUGHT.
SERIOUS APPLICANTS ONLY.
PLEASE CALL 617-XXX-XXXX
BETWEEN SEVEN A.M. AND TWO P.M.
NO SOLICITORS.

And so Joseph meets Alma Spielman: a woman who, with her old-world ways and razor-sharp mind, is his intellectual soul mate. How is he to know that what seems to be the best decision of his life is the one that seals his fate?

Highly recommended by David!

Please call or e-mail to order signed or inscribed copies.

Wednesday, April 14, 6:30 p.m.
Tom Lowe
Crime writer Tom Lowe will sign & discuss his second Sean O'Brien novel, The 24th Letter (St. Martin's Minotaur; $25.99). When Father John Callahan hears the confession of a frightened prison inmate, he learns that a man facing lethal injection is innocent. The lead investigator on the case, his friend Sean O’Brien, is still haunted by the case. The 24th letter in the Greek alphabet—Omega—may provide the key to uncovering the killer’s identity.

Highly recommended by Michelle!

Tom Lowe is an award-winning documentary writer/director whose films air nationwide on PBS. As he writes his novels, Tom draws from his travels around the world and his background as a print and broadcast journalist. He worked fifteen years in television news and did freelance stories for CNN. His first novel was A False Dawn, published last year. Tom is a sailor and SCUBA diver. He lives in Florida.

Please call or e-mail to order signed or inscribed copies.

Thursday, April 15, 6:30 p.m.
Cornelia Read
More details to come.

Please call or e-mail to order signed or inscribed copies.

Saturday, April 17, 5:00 p.m.
Jennifer Lee Carrell
The best-selling author of Interred with Their Bones will sign & discuss the sequel, Haunt Me Still (Dutton; $25.95). A legendary theatrical curse... A rune-engraved blade, a mysterious mirror, and an ancient cauldron... And a ritually murdered body laid out in the manner of ancient pagan burials.

Kate Stanley, Jennifer Lee Carrell's dauntless Shakespearean scholar-turned-director, made a memorable -- and New York Times bestselling -- debut in Interred with Their Bones. Having chased down her mother's killer (and recovering one of Shakespeare's lost plays in the process), Kate's fame as a director with an expertise in "occult Shakespeare" catapults her-and Ben Pearl, her partner in crime- solving-into a new production of Macbeth, showcasing a fabled collection of objects relating both to the play and the historical Scottish king for whom it is named.

The Bard's darkest play is famously cursed, its reputation for malevolence so strong that many actors refuse to quote or even name the play aloud. And as rehearsals begin at the foot of Scotland's Dunsinnan Hill, it doesn't take long for the curse to stir. Strange references to the boy actor who first played Lady Macbeth in Shakespeare's day -- and died in the role -- pop up. A trench atop Dunsinnan Hill is found filled with blood, and a severed human thumb turns up among the props. And Kate begins sleepwalking, waking early one morning alone atop the hill, her hands smeared in blood.

Kate has no memory of how she got there, but later that day a local woman is found dead on the hill in circumstances that suggest not just ritual murder but ancient pagan sacrifice. With the police more focused on Kate as a suspect than as a possible future victim, she and Ben find themselves in a desperate race to discover a lost version of Macbeth, said to contain rituals of witchcraft aimed at conjuring demonic forces to gain forbidden knowledge. However much Kate would like to dismiss such rituals as superstition, someone else appears willing to kill for them -- and for the manuscript said to spell them out.

Highly recommended by McKenna!

Please call or e-mail to order signed or inscribed copies.

Monday, April 19, 6:30 p.m.
Ace Atkins
More details to come.

Booklist on Infamous: "It's Atkins' prodigious research that makes this novel a compelling road trip through Depression-era America. He vividly portrays the Dust Bowl, foreclosures, the grinding poverty, gnawing hunger, desperation and the rage at bankers (most of which resonate in today's America); and he captures the imminent end of the gangsters' heyday. Like many fine historical crime novels, Infamous offers a window on society, then and now."

Please call or e-mail to order signed or inscribed copies.

Tuesday, April 20, 6:30 p.m.
Erin Hart
More details to come.

Please call or e-mail to order signed or inscribed copies.

Thursday, April 22, 6:30 p.m.
Carlos Cisneros
Crime writer Carlos Cisneros will sign & discuss his new novel, The Name Partner (Arté Publico; $24.95). The son of migrant workers, Guillermo “Billy” Bravo is one of South Texas’ most successful attorneys, and he’s determined to see his name on his firm’s stationery. He can see it in his mind’s eye: Bates, Domani, Rockford, Lord & Bravo. But suddenly, his life starts spinning out of control. He learns that fifteen years ago, a month after getting married, a one-night stand led to a son he didn’t know he had. He’s sure his wife will hand him his private parts on a platter, along with divorce papers, when she finds out. And he’ll never make name partner if there’s a contentious divorce.

Then Billy gets a new case, to defend BostonMagnifica Pharmaceuticals against a wrongful death suit. Tomas Ray’s widow contends that a new, powerful psychotropic drug, caused her husband—a successful attorney—to kill two innocent bystanders before killing himself. Billy quickly finds himself being pressured by both his boss and BM’s CEO to make the lawsuit go away. But he soon finds evidence confirming BM has something to hide.

In this hard-hitting and timely novel about a drug company that puts its shareholders’ profits over safety, Carlos Cisneros takes the reader on a whirlwind ride as his protagonist struggles with his responsibilities to his client, his family, and his own personal ethics.

Carlos Cisneros is the author of the crime novel, The Case Runner (Arte Público Press, 2008). A graduate of the University of Texas at Austin and South Texas College of Law in Houston, he practices law in Brownsville, Texas, where he lives with his family.

Please call or e-mail to order signed or inscribed copies.

Saturday, April 24, 5:00 p.m.
Join us for tea w/
Gail Carriger
Nicole Peeler
Jaye Wells

Three oftoday's top female paranormal writers sign & discuss their new books at Murder By The Book!

Gail Carriger, one of our FAVORITE discoveries of 2009, will sign & discuss her 2nd Alexia Tarabotti novel, Changeless (Orbit; paperback original; $7.99). Alexia Tarabotti, now Lady Maccon, awakens in the wee hours of the mid-afternoon to find her husband, who should be decently asleep like any normal werewolf, yelling at the top of his lungs. Then he disappears -- leaving her to deal with a regiment of supernatural soldiers encamped on her doorstep, a plethora of exorcised ghosts, and an angry Queen Victoria.

But Alexia is armed with her trusty parasol, the latest fashions, and an arsenal of biting civility. Even when her investigations take her into the backwaters of ugly waistcoats, Scotland, she is prepared: upending werewolf pack dynamics as only A soulless can.

She might even find time to track down her wayward husband, if she feels like it.

Highly recommended by McKenna, Kinley, Anne, Dean & Michelle!

Nicole Peeler will sign & discuss Tempest Rising (Orbit; paperback original; $7.99). Living in small town Rockabill, Maine, Jane True always knew she didn't quite fit in with so-called normal society. During her nightly, clandestine swim in the freezing winter ocean, a grisly find leads Jane to startling revelations about her heritage: she is only half-human.

Now, Jane must enter a world filled with supernatural creatures alternatively terrifying, beautiful, and deadly -- all of which perfectly describe her new "friend," Ryu, a gorgeous and powerful vampire.

It is a world where nothing can be taken for granted: a dog can heal with a lick; spirits bag your groceries; and whatever you do, never ever rub the genie's lamp.

If you love Sookie Stackhouse, then you'll want to dive into Nicole Peeler's enchanting debut novel.

Nicole D. Peeler does not have any cats, kids, or husbands. Instead, she vexes literature in her new role as an assistant professor of English Literature at Louisiana State University in Shreveport. Although she's excited to call Louisiana "home," she has previously set up shop in her native Illinois, Boston, Spain and Scotland. Nicole is ashamed of her dreadful potty mouth and fervently wishes that she were taller. Tempest Rising is her first novel.

Jaye Wells (Red-Headed Stepchild) will sign & discuss her second Sabina Kane novel, The Mage in Black (Orbit; paperback original; $7.99). Sabina Kane doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to family. After all, her own grandmother, leader of the vampire race, wants her dead. So when she arrives in New York to meet her mage relatives, the reunion puts the fun in dysfunctional. Not only is mage culture completely bizarre, but everyone seems to think she’s some kind of ‘Chosen’ who’ll unite the dark races. Sabina doesn’t care who chose her, she’s not into destiny.

But the mages aren’t Sabina’s only problem. In New York’s Black Light District, she has run-ins with fighting demons, hostile werewolves and an opportunistic old flame. Sabina thought she’d take a bite out of the Big Apple -- but it looks like it wants to bite back.

Please call or e-mail to order signed or inscribed copies.

Monday, April 26, 6:30 p.m.
Michael Harvey
More details to come.

Please call or e-mail to order signed or inscribed copies.

Tuesday, April 27, noon
Have lunch & bush tea with
Alexander McCall Smith

Tuesday, April 27, 2010, 12:30 p.m.
$60 (includes lunch, a cup of bush tea, & a copy of The Double Comfort Safari Club, the upcoming Mma. Ramotswe book)
Tickets on sale now! More information here.

Please call or e-mail to order signed or inscribed copies.

Friday, April 30, 6:30 p.m.
P. J. Tracy

We're sad to announce that their tour has been cancelled. However, we will still have signed copies.

Please call or e-mail to order signed or inscribed copies.

Sometime in May. Date to be set.
Tasha Alexander
Andrew Grant

More details to come.

Please call or e-mail to order signed or inscribed copies.

Saturday, May 1, 5:00 p.m.
Bill Crider
More details to come.

Please call or e-mail to order signed or inscribed copies.

Tuesday, May 4, two events
Laurie R. King
New York Times best-seller Laurie R. King will sign & discuss the new Mary Russell novel, The God of the Hive (Bantam; $25), at two MBTB events!

Luncheon at The Briar Club, 11:30 a.m. Tickets required. For more information, please go here.
Store signing, 6:30 p.m.
Signing line numbers available with purchase of The God of the Hive from Murder By The Book, beginning the book's on-sale date, Tuesday, April 27th.

Top ten New York Times bestselling author Laurie R. King "enriches the Sherlockian legacy" (The Boston Globe) in her mesmerizing, powerful conclusion to the blockbuster hit The Language of Bees. Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes are each on the trail of exposing a ruthless villain. Will being apart help them solve a devilishly difficult mystery, or make them easier targets...? Picking up where the bestselling The Language of Bees left off, The God of the Hive finds its characters scattered to the four winds. Russell is covertly making her way back to London, picking up a mysterious friend with a hidden past along the way. Holmes has fled to Holland, hiding a wounded son, poring over a host of questions. And the villains who nearly killed them all are still alive, back in London and laying traps to lure and finish off the intrepid detectives. King weaves a jawdropping cat-and-mouse tale, where Russell and Holmes must draw upon all of their considerable wits to solve this mystery and survive a foe who intends to see the entire Holmes bloodline bled dry.

Please call or e-mail to order signed or inscribed copies.

Wednesday, May 5, 6:30 p.m.
Andrew Gross
More details to come.

Please call or e-mail to order signed or inscribed copies.

Friday, May 7, 6:30 p.m.
Rachel Caine
More details to come.

Please call or e-mail to order signed or inscribed copies.

Saturday, May 8, 5:00 p.m.
Peter May
More details to come.

Please call or e-mail to order signed or inscribed copies.

Friday, May 14, 6:30 p.m.
Olen Steinhauer
More details to come.

Please call or e-mail to order signed or inscribed copies.

Saturday, May 15, 5:00 p.m.
Deborah Coonts
More details to come.

Please call or e-mail to order signed or inscribed copies.

Monday, May 17 , 6:30 p.m.
2010 Edgar Award nominee
Attica Locke
More details to come.

Please call or e-mail to order signed or inscribed copies.

Friday, May 21, two events
Lee Child
New York Times best-seller Lee Child will sign & discuss the new Jack Reacher thriller, 61 Hours (Delacorte; $28), at two MBTB events!

Luncheon at The Briar Club, 11:30 a.m. Tickets required. For more information, please go here.
Store signing, 6:30 p.m.
Signing line numbers available with purchase of 61 Hours from Murder By The Book, beginning the book's on-sale date, Tuesday, May 18th.

Sixty-one hours. Not a minute to spare.

A tour bus crashes in a savage snowstorm and lands Jack Reacher in the middle of a deadly confrontation. In nearby Bolton, South Dakota, one brave woman is standing up for justice in a small town threatened by sinister forces. If she’s going to live long enough to testify, she’ll need help. Because a killer is coming to Bolton, a coldly proficient assassin who never misses.

Reacher’s original plan was to keep on moving. But the next 61 hours will change everything. The secrets are deadlier and his enemies are stronger than he could have guessed—but so is the woman whose life he’ll risk his own to save.

In 61 Hours, Lee Child has written a showdown thriller with an explosive ending that readers will talk about for a long time to come.

Highly recommended by David & McKenna!

Please call or e-mail to order signed or inscribed copies.

Saturday, May 22, 4:30 p.m.
Leann Sweeney
Houston mystery writer Leann Sweeney will sign & discuss new Jillian Hart novel, The Cat, the Professor and the Poison (Obsidian; paperback original; $7.99). Between her kitty quilt-making business and her three beloved cats -- Merlot, Chablis and Syrah -- Jillian Hart has her hands full. that doesn't stop her from wanting to solve the mystery of the milk cow that's gone missing from her friend's farm. But imagine her surprise when a stolen cow leads to the discovery of fifty stray cats and one dead body -- a victim of cold-blooded murder.

Now Jillian has an even bigger investigation on her hands. Good thing her kitties are always ready to help. With their curiosity, smarts, and talent ofr sniffing out rats, the the three felines are bound to help Jillian and her best friend, Deputy Candace Carson, stop a killer -- someone evil enough to give humans a bad name.

Leann Sweeney is the author of the Yellow Rose Mystery Series set in Texas featuring adoption PI Abby Rose and the Cats in Trouble Mystery Series set in fictional small town Mercy, South Carolina. The Cat, the Quilt and the Corpse was the #1 bestseller in May 2009 on IMBA list and was on several bookstore bestseller lists for 2009 across the country. Her latest book in the series. The Cat, the Professor and the Poison, will tell readers much more about her heroine, Houston transplant Jillian Hart. Leann lives in Friendswood, Texas with her husband Mike, her ADHD labradoodle Rosie and her cats, Indigo, Agatha Christie and Archie Goodwin. Her ani-pals are helping her write the third cat book, due out in April 2011.

Please call or e-mail to order signed or inscribed copies.

Monday, May 24, 6:30 p.m.
Boyd Morrison
More details to come.

Please call or e-mail to order signed or inscribed copies.

Wednesday, May 26, 6:30 p.m.
John Sandford
More details to come.

Please call or e-mail to order signed or inscribed copies.

Saturday, May 29, 4:30 p.m.
Sisters in Crime Mystery Month event
More details to come.

Please call or e-mail to order signed or inscribed copies.

Wednesday, June 2, 6:30 p.m.
Christopher Farnsworth
More details to come.

Please call or e-mail to order signed or inscribed copies.

Saturday, June 5, 5:00 p.m.
Victor Gischler
Duane Swierczynski

More details to come.

Please call or e-mail to order signed or inscribed copies.

Monday, June 7, 6:30 p.m.
BOOK LAUNCH PARTY!
Jeffery Deaver
Best-selling thriller writer Jeffery Deaver (The Bone Collector) will launch his new Lincoln Rhyme novel, The Burning Wire (Simon & SChuster; $26.99), at Murder By The Book, the day before the book goes on sale! Don't miss this very special event!

Please call or e-mail to order signed or inscribed copies.

Friday, June 11, 6:30 p.m.
Craig Johnson
Best-selling crime writer Craig Johnson (The Cold Dish) will sign & discuss his new Walt Longmire novel, Junkyard Dogs (Viking; $24.95).

Please call or e-mail to order signed or inscribed copies.

Tuesday, June 15, 6:30 p.m.
Michael Koryta
More details to come.

Please call or e-mail to order signed or inscribed copies.

Monday, June 21, 6:30 p.m.
Tarquin Hall
Tarquin Hall, the acclaimed author of last year's debut, The Case of the Missing Servant, will sign & discuss the sequel, The Case of the Man Who Died Laughing (Simon & Schuster; $24). Vish Puri is back with a fresh collection of investigations. When a so-called Guru Buster is killed one morning at his local "Laughing Club," witnesses point to one of the country's most recognizable Hindu ascetics. Puri, who has worked with the victim in the past -- in The Case of the Man Who Predicted His Own Death -- pursues the case, sending his undercover operative Facecream to the sacred town of Haridwar disguised as the bratty daughter of an Indian businessman -- aka Puri.

Meanwhile, Puri continues his bread-and-butter work of vetting potential arranged-marriage candidates. He's hired by a wealthy Sikh scaffolding manufacturer to look into the background of a young woman and her family. The girl, studying at an air hostess academy, checks out. But her parents are hiding something from their past.

While Puri is mired in his detective work, his meddling Mummy is determined to track down the thieves who robbed the aunties at a recent gathering. Mummy, Puri, and the rest of our favorite characters continue to entertain in this whirlwind sequel to Tarquin Hall's lauded debut.

Highly recommended by Brenda!

Tarquin Hall is a British author and journalist who has lived and worked throughout South Asia, the Middle East and Africa. He is the author of The Case of the Missing Servant, dozens of articles, and three works of non-fiction, including the highly acclaimed Salaam Brick Lane, an account of a year spent above a Bangladeshi sweat shop in London’s notorious East End. He is married to Indian-born journalist, Anu Anand. They divide their time between London and Delhi.

Please call or e-mail to order signed or inscribed copies.

Thursday, June 24, 6:30 p.m.
NOIR NIGHT!






Sarah Cortez
Vicki Hendricks
Gary Phillips
Dennis Tafoya

Jonathan Woods
More details to come.

Please call or e-mail to order signed or inscribed copies.

Friday, June 25, 6:30 p.m.
P. F. Chisholm (a.k.a. Patricia Finney)
More details to come.

Please call or e-mail to order signed or inscribed copies.

Saturday, June 26, 5:00 p.m.
DELTA BLUES PARTY!

Carolyn Haines
Alice Jackson
Dean James
...and more to come!

More details to come.

Please call or e-mail to order signed or inscribed copies.

Thursday, August 5, 6:30 p.m.
Dean James (writing as Miranda James)
More details to come.

Please call or e-mail to order signed or inscribed copies.

Saturday, August 7, 5:00 p.m.
Jack Kerley
Best-selling thriller writer Jack Kerley (The Hundredth Man) will sign & discuss his new Carson Ryder novel, Buried Alive (U.K. import; paperback original; $15.95). When police detective Carson Ryder wins a free vacation to the isolated Appalchian mountains, he welcomes the chance to take a well-deserved rest. But all too soon an anonymous phone-call summons him to the scene of grisly torture. This is just the first of a series of increasingly savage murders and Ryder finds himself helping overstretched local detective Donna Cherry and forest ranger Lee McCoy sift through the bizarre clues.

And adding to the confusion his disturbed brother Jeremy has settled in the area. Meanwhile back home in Alabama, the ill-advised hypnotic regression of ex-professional fighter Bobby Lee Crayline has led to his escape. With several malevolent killers on the loose, it is Ryder's death-defying challenge to unearth horrors others wished buried years ago.

Though they're not published in the U.S., Murder By The Book stocks all of Jack Kerley's Carson Ryder thrillers in paperback, imported from England!

Please call or e-mail to order signed or inscribed copies.

Saturday, August 28, 4:30 p.m.
Victoria Laurie
Young adult thriller writer Victoria Laurie will sign & discuss the sequel to The Secrets of Delphi Keep, The Curse of Deadman's Forest (Random House; $16.99). Since finding an ancient prophecy, Ian Wigby and his sister Theo's lives have changed forever. A powerful evil is building, and to defeat it, six uniquely gifted children must be gathered. According to the newest prophecy, a trip through the magical portal near their home will bring them to the third Oracle -- a child with extraordinary powers to heal. But this same prophecy also foretells of Ian's death should he venture through the portal again. If Ian and Theo stay in Dover, all will surely be lost, but to to heed the prophecy they risk their very lives and everything they have ever held dear.

Please call or e-mail to order signed or inscribed copies.

Monday, October 18, 6:30 p.m. Tentative.
Ace Atkins
Tom Franklin

More details to come.

Please call or e-mail to order signed or inscribed copies.

Friday, November 12, 6:30 p.m.
Lauren Willig
More details to come.

Highly recommended by McKenna & Michelle!

Please call or e-mail to order signed or inscribed copies.

Saturday, November 13, 4:30 p.m.
Kathryn Casey
More details to come.

Please call or e-mail to order signed or inscribed copies.

We're also working on Jonathan Maberry, David Handler, Reed Farrel Coleman, Ridley Pearson, Barry Eisler, and more. Please stay tuned for more details.

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