A blend of supernatural horror and psychological thriller, Ransom’s impressive debut chronicles a couple’s descent into madness after they purchase a 140-year-old Victorian house in rural Wisconsin. Failed L.A. screenwriter Conrad Harrison, whose marriage is on the rocks and who’s still coming to grips with the sudden death of his estranged father, decides it’s time for a change and, on a whim, buys a turn-of-the-century birthing house he fatefully found after driving the wrong way out of Chicago. But the sprawling structure has a dark history, and after his wife lands a new job and leaves for a few weeks of training in Detroit, Harrison begins to unravel the house’s bloody past, even as his own sanity is unraveling. Replete with subtle symbolism that supports the birthing motif (spiders with bulging egg sacs, a moist clutch of snake eggs, etc.), this addictively readable ghost story will keep readers up all night, with the lights on, of course. (Aug.)

Order your signed first edition of The Birthing House by Christopher Ransom at www.vjbooks.com

(pubilsher’s Weekly, June

Lindsay doesn’t always maintain the balance between farce and something more serious in his fourth thriller to feature Dexter Morgan (after Dexter in the Dark). As fans of the hit Showtime TV series know, Dexter is a blood-splatter analyst for the Miami PD as well as a serial killer who targets killers who’ve evaded justice. When two eviscerated corpses turn up on a beach, Dexter investigates, as does his sister, Deborah, a sergeant with his department, who suffers serious injury after she’s stabbed by a suspect, Alex Doncevic. Convinced Deborah’s assailant is the person also responsible for the bodies on the beach, Dexter eliminates Doncevic, only to find that he’s taken an innocent life. To Dexter’s further dismay, someone begins posting videos of Doncevic’s murder on YouTube. While the darkly witty Lindsay deserves credit for continuing to make imaginative use of his original concept, a contrived resolution disappoints. (Sept.)

Order your signed copy of Dexter by Design by Jeff Lindsay at www.vjbooks.com

Who have we met up with? 

The list is long and distinguished: Lee Child, Mark T. Sullivan, Paul Kemprecos (and his lovely wife), Jeffery Deaver, Grant Blackwood, James Rollins - and that was just in the first 5 hours!

I promise to have more pictures - as the day proresses!  We are off for an author’s panel, or two.

The twitter account has pictures - I promise more soon!

Virginia

Paul Madriani’s chance encounter with 26-year-old Katia Solaz, a Costa Rican beauty, leads to a desperate race to avoid not only personal disaster but also a national one in Martini’s sprawling 10th thriller to feature the Southern California defense attorney (after Shadow of Power). Katia, who’s living with creepy Emerson Pike, a man old enough to be her grandfather, in a dilapidated estate surrounded by an expensive security fence, decides to return home to Costa Rica. In her flight, she just misses running into the legendary assassin known as the Mexecutioner, who sneaks into Pike’s house. The naïve Katia and well-meaning Madriani, who meet in a grocery store, provide a welcome human element amid the busy action involving escaped Guantánamo prisoners, a Colombian rebel base, a Mexican drug cartel and a plot to bring the war home to the Great Satan via a nuclear device. Tidbits like how the FBI can use cellphones as remote bugging devices add to the fun.

Order your signed copy of Guardian of Lies by Steve Martini at www.vjbooks.com

Here’s a look at Publisher’s Weekly fiction bestsellers as we reach the half-year.  It’s become increasingly hard of late for authors to hold onto the #1 spot, but this year seems tougher still.  Of the 18 authors who have nabbed that perch, only three - John Grisham, The Associate; Janet Evanovich, Plum Spooky; and Jodi Picoult, Handle with Care - have exceeded a week’s stay.  Such bestseller veterans as Michael Connelly, James Patterson, Harlan Coben, Mary Higgins Clark and others have managed only one week on top.  Of this year’s fiction newcomers, the five longest-running tenures to date are David Baldacci (First Family, nine weeks and counting); James Patterson (Run for Your Life, nine weeks); James Patterson (The 8th Confession, seven weeks); Maeve Binchy (Heart and Soul, seven weeks) and W.E.B. Griffin (Black Ops, seven weeks).

(Publisher’s Weekly, June 29)

Zafon became an international star with 2005’s The Shadow of the Wind, which has sold 12 million copies worldwide.  Angel’s Game, originally published in Spanish in 2008, has debuted at #1 in Portugal, Norway, Italy and Germany, and its 1.6 million-copy sales in Spain have made it one of the top-selling books in the country’s publishing history.  The author’s been playing to SRO crowds on a two-week tour, and his book is the #1 IndieBound pick for July.  Publisher’s Weekly starred review praised its “masterful design,” calling it “detailed and vivid.”  Copies in print:  225,000.

Order your signed copy of The Angel’s Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon at www.vjbooks.com

(Publisher’s Weekly, June 29)

In Shamus-winner Hughes’s solid fourth crime thriller to feature Dublin PI Ed Loy (after The Price of Blood), Anne Fogarty hires Loy to re-examine the facts surrounding her father’s unsolved murder in 1991—her mother’s boyfriend was found guilty but later released on appeal for the fatal beating. Loy has a second murder to look into after Paul Delaney, a promising footballer on whom Loy was keeping unofficial tabs, is gunned down. The PI learns that Anne’s father, a tax inspector, had prepared informal dossiers on three men he believed to be evading taxes and, not coincidentally, members of the IRA. One of the men is a Dublin gangster with ties to the IRA who may have been grooming Paul as a protégé. While U.S. readers unschooled with the particulars of the Troubles may have difficulty differentiating the IRA from the less familiar INLA (Irish National Liberation Army), Hughes’s ear for dialogue and his liberal—but never gratuitous—use of violence make for an intense read.

Order a signed copy of All the Dead Voices by Declan Hughes at www.vjbooks.com
(Publisher’s Weekly, May 25)

With 365,533 copies in print, the 13th novel in Coulter’s FBI series - starring a husband-and-wife FBI Special Agent duo-introduces a seven-year-old girl who can communicate telepathically.  Coulter, who has 62 novels to her credit, earned her reputation writing historical romances, but has recently turned to contemporary thrillers.  Last year’s Tailspin ran for five weeks on Publisher’s Weekly fiction list; the mass market edition is coming next month from Jove.

Order signed Knock Out by Catherine Coulter at www.vjbooks.com

(Publisher’s Weekly, June 29)