Near the start of bestseller Reich’s stellar sequel to Rules of Deception, Dr. Jonathan Ransom flies from Africa to London for a medical conference. That same day, intermediaries arrange for him to meet his fugitive wife, Emma, once a secret agent with the Pentagon group known as Division, in a cheap hotel. The next day, Jonathan’s world is literally and figuratively torn apart after a large car bomb explodes in Westminster, seriously injuring the Russian interior minister. Jonathan is sure Emma is behind the car bombing, but the police, led by Det. Chief Insp. Kate Ford, think Jonathan is responsible. Thus begins a convoluted chase—Jonathan hunting his wife, Kate and the cops along with MI5 agent Colonel Graves tracking Jonathan. Everyone, including the reader, remains clueless, except for master spy Emma, as to who is really the guilty party. A blinding twist at the end adds a spectacular fillip to a masterful performance by one of the genre’s elite. (Aug.)

(Publisher’s Weekly, June 15)

Order your autographed hardcover first edition of Rules of Vengeance by Christopher Reich at www.vjbooks.com

Bestseller Jance brings together her two most popular characters, Seattle homicide investigator J.P. Beaumont and Cochise County, Ariz., sheriff Joanna Brady, for a gripping tale that’s easily one of her best. While their first dual outing, 2002′s Partner in Crime, stagnated with clichéd professional and sexual tension, this time the combination excels with a focus on parallel investigations that naturally—and chillingly—intersect. In Seattle, Beaumont looks into the burned bodies of six unidentified women. In Arizona, Brady handles the murder of an ATV park caretaker. Beaumont and Brady pool their information when a murdered woman links back to the missing sister of Jaime Carbajal, one of Brady’s detectives. While Brady stays in Arizona, Carbajal’s arrival in Washington sets off a chain of events with fatal consequences. Brady’s side investigation of a substandard nursing home adds punch. 10-city author tour. (Aug.)

(Publisher’s Weekly, June 15)

Order your signed copy of Fire and Ice by J.A. Jance  at VJ Books today!

At the start of bestseller Reichs‘s outstanding 12th thriller to feature Dr. Temperance Brennan (after Devil Bones), Brennan finds herself bound and injured in an underground tomb. In flashbacks, Reichs fills in the how and why of the forensic anthropologist’s deadly predicament. When Brennan and Andrew Ryan of the Sûreté du Québec arrive in Chicago on business, she’s accused of botching the autopsy of Rose Jurmain, a Canadian heiress. Knowing only that an anonymous caller instigated the investigation, Brennan is determined to uncover who’s out to sabotage her. Back in her Montreal lab, Brennan soon realizes that not only is Jurmain’s death possibly linked to the brutal murders of other elderly women but that whoever is out to tarnish her reputation refuses to back off. With her usual blend of cutting-edge forensic science and a stubborn, compelling heroine, Reichs manages to juggle several story lines without losing an ounce of momentum. (Aug.)

(Publisher’s Weekly, June 15)

Order your autographed hardcover 1st edition of 206 Bones by Kathy Reichs at VJ Books today!

In bestseller Kellerman‘s solid 18th novel to feature L.A. police detective Lt. Peter Decker and his wife, Rina (after The Mercedes Coffin), Rina finds that some jury duty should include hazardous duty pay. A shooting rampage at the 70-acre compound and mansion owned by shopping mall magnate Guy Kaffey leaves Kaffey, his wife and two guards dead. Kaffey’s oldest son, Gil, apparently was left for dead and two other guards are missing. A plethora of suspects and motives has Decker and his colleagues looking at Guy’s brother, Mace, and Guy’s younger son, Grant, as well as the missing guards, other household staff, the remaining off-duty staff and possibly business rivals. Decker’s cool professionalism is thoroughly tested when a chance courtroom encounter thrusts Rina into the case and puts her in harm’s way. Kellerman expertly keeps interlocking investigations moving along with a minimum of confusion but plenty of doubt as to the guilty party or parties. (Aug.)

Order your autographed 1st edition hardcover of Blindman’s Bluff by Faye Kellerman at www.vjbooks.com

Called a “tour de force” in Publisher Weekly’s starred review, this collaboration between Del Toro and Hogan launches the Strain Trilogy – and is already up to 190,000 copies in print after two trips to press.  Morrow’s tour schedule included to midnight signings, one in L.A. with Del Toro and another in Park Slope, Brooklyn, with both authors.  The Los Angeles event went past 4 a.m. because of Del Toro’s “No Geek Left Behind” policy:  he wouldn’t leave the store until everyone who bought a book and wanted an autograph got one.

(Publisher’s Weekly, June 15)

VJ Books has first edition hardcover editions (with Chuck Hogan signed bookplate laid-in) at www.vjbooks.com

Late last year, bestselling thriller writer Joseph Finder was walking around Bouchercon, the World Mystery Convention, and ran into “a couple of guys” from DC Comics. He had just finished Vanished, a novel coming out this August featuring a young alienated teenager who is creating his own comic book. Finder thought it would be cool if he could actually produce the comic and use it to promote the novel.

Turns out those “guys” were DC Comics senior editor Will Dennis and Brian Azzarello, comic book writer extraordinaire, multiple Eisner Award winner and author of last year’s bestselling graphic novel, Joker. The result of that chance meeting is The Cowl, an 11-page comic book written by Azzarello, illustrated by Spanish comics artist Benito Gallego and based on the characters and comic in Finder’s novel that also offers an important clue to the prose novel’s mystery.

Finder said at the time he was just looking to make sure his book’s account of creating a comic was accurate. “I wanted my character to make sense, but then I thought, what if we did a real comic,” he said. Azzarello and Dennis gave Finder a “comics for dummies seminar,” and later on Dennis helped him find an artist for the project. After trying to write the comics story himself, Finder took a chance and (more…)

Megaseller Koontz, no stranger to radio interviews, gives a major shout-out to the interviewers themselves in his latest opus, whose protagonist is an author: “Radio hosts, both talk-jocks and traditional tune-spinners, do better interviews than TV types.  Rare is the TV interviewer who has  read your book, but eight of ten radio hosts will have read it.”  Relentless copies in print:  a cool 550,000.

(Publisher’s Weekly, June 22)

Order your signed copy of Relentless by Dean Koontz at www.vjbooks.com

James Ellroy fans will find a lot to like in this gritty look at post-WWII Hollywood from Edgar-winner Kanon (Los Alamos). Ben Collier, recently returned to the U.S. from service in the Signal Corps in Europe, travels to California after his sister-in-law, Liesl, informs him that his director brother, Danny, has suffered a serious fall from a hotel window. Was it an accident or a suicide attempt? Ben arrives in time to witness his brother briefly emerge from a coma, but soon afterward Danny dies. While Liesl believes the suicide theory, Ben suspects someone pushed Danny out the window and turns amateur detective to identify the culprit. In a noirish twist, the widowed Liesl comes on to Ben. The stakes rise after Ben learns Danny was playing a part in an anticommunist crusade a congressman is launching against the film industry. Kanon perfectly balances action and introspection, while smoothly integrating such real-life figures as actress Paulette Goddard into the plot. (Sept.)

(Publisher’s Weekly, July 6)

Order your signed hardcover first edition of Stardust by Joseph Kanon at www.vjbooks.com

Janet Evanovich’s eventful book tour launched with a June 23 street fair in her honor in Cherry Hill, N.J., where the B&N store and locatl mall ran contests, gave out gift cards and served food from area restaurants, all leading up to an evening signing:  six hours, 2,500 people.  When a wheelchair-bound fan at a Toronto Chapter’s Bookstore event the next day requested a photo with Evanovich, she happily obliged.  Heading toward the person, however, she tripped on a riser, fell and broker her foot.  But the show must go on, and 500 books later she was done.  Onto Chicago the next morning:  X-rays, a temporary cast and an evening signing.  Signings in Atlanta and Fort Myers, Fla., followed.  Can you say “trouper”?  St. Martin’s reports six to eight weeks in a cast for Evanovich, and two million copies in print of her latest opus.

(Publisher’s Weekly, July 6)

Don’t want to brave the crowds? 

VJ Books has signed first edition copies of Finger Lickin’ Fifteen by Janet Evanovich for sale!

Seven years ago, Marcus Sakey and his girlfriend, g.g., went looking for a new place to live. Sakey’s Atlanta-based graphic design company had folded, a victim of the bursting Internet bubble, and he and g.g. had decided they wanted to move to a “real city.” “We opened a bottle of wine, took out a map, and went around the country,” Sakey recalls. “We said too cold, too rainy, not big enough, not enough mass transit. It came down to Chicago, Boston, and Toronto as the leading contenders.” The couple finally settled on Chicago, little realizing they had chosen not only a new home but also the setting for the crime novels that would soon catapult Sakey to fame.

Flash forward to the present. Sakey and g.g. are married now, living in a Lake View graystone. Sakey’s latest thriller, The Amateurs —the story of four Chicago friends whose unlikely foray into high-stakes theft yields calamitous results—is due out in August, and it seems preordained to share the success enjoyed by its three predecessors. Ben Affleck’s production company has optioned Sakey’s first novel, The Blade Itself, while Tobey Maguire has picked up the rights to Sakey’s third book, Good People. And it’s not just Hollywood’s A-list lining up to pay homage: Reviewing his second novel, At the City’s Edge, the Chicago Tribune anointed Sakey “the reigning prince of crime fiction.”

Sakey, however, resists being pigeonholed within a particular genre. “I’m not at all upset to be considered a crime novelist,” he says. “But for (more…)