Kingdom Keepers 4

I first met Ridley Pearson in 1988 on his tour for Undercurrents, as he, along with Lou Boldt and Daphne Matthews, made there way to Tower Books in east Portland.  It was my first author signing and I was electrified as I stood in line waiting for him to sign my lone copy of Undercurrents.  I still have that book.  He inscribed it, “To John, watch out for The Angel Maker, Ridley Pearson.”  From that day forward I have been a book collector, and as such have every book he has written since.

Boldt and Matthews became regular visitors to my house each year.  In off years they would send others in their place, sometimes Chris Klick and more recently Walt Fleming.  There was even an odd visit one year by Ellen Rimbauer.

The excitement grew to a fever pitch when Peter and the Starcatchers reached our home.  Mitchell was 7 at the time and Evan had just turned 4.  Every evening we would read from “Starcatchers.”  The conclusion of each night’s reading you could hear the echo of young boy voices “one more chapter dad!”  We read the sequels in the same way, as Peter and the Shadow Thieves, Peter and the Secret of Rundoon, and Peter and the Sword of Mercy finally arrived.

Ridley with co-author Dave Barry

The boys are older now, (more…)

VJ Books has received:  Yann Martel – Beatrice and Virgil, Ben Bova – The Hittite, Ridley Pearson – Kingdom Keepers 3:  Disney in Shadow, Jonathan Kellerman – Deception, Stephen Cannell – The Pallbearers, Alafair Burke – 212, Ellen Horan – 31 Bond Street, and Junius Podrug – Feathered Serpent 2012.

For those who wonder what happens inside Disney World after the gates close at night, you’ll find the answers in the Kingdom Keepers series by Ridley Pearson.

When Disney Imagineers installed hologram guides for the Magic Kingdom using teenage models, they had no idea the technology might backfire.  But backfire it did: some nights when the kids go to sleep, they wake up in one of the Disney parks as a hologram.

In Kingdom Keepers III, Finn, Philby, Willa, Charlene, and Maybeck are back as they search to find Wayne, their mentor and head Imagineer who has mysteriously gone missing.  Concerned that Wayne has been abducted by the Overtakers-Disney villains who, along with other Disney characters, take over the parks when the turnstiles stop spinning.  They desperately want to steer the parks to a far darker place.  The five kids pick up a major clue from a close friend, Jez, whose dreams often accurately predict the future. The clue leads the kids to… (more…)

VJ Books has just received:  Dave Barry / Ridley Pearson – Walt Disney’s Peter Pan,  Michael Crichton – Pirate Latitudes,  Sherrilyn Kenyon – Night Pleasures,  Sue Grafton – U is for Undertow.

VJ Books has just received:  Ridley Pearson and Dave Barry – Peter and the Sword of Mercy,  Louise Penny – The Brutal Telling,  David Baldacci – True Blue.

Bestseller Pearson makes the most of the theme of the lawman with a bunch of personal problems in his engaging third crime thriller to feature Walt Fleming, the likable sheriff of Sun Valley, Idaho (after Killer View). Walt’s ex-wife is living with one of his deputies; Walt’s teenage nephew, Kevin, is grappling with his father’s suicide; and Walt’s trying to raise twin daughters on his own. Meanwhile, a big wine convention has come to Sun Valley, and three bottles owned by Thomas Jefferson and given to John Adams are sure to bring big bucks at auction, unless a gang of super thieves, which has hit town with an elaborate scheme in which Kevin becomes unwittingly involved, steals the bottles first. But nothing is as it seems, and even the savviest readers will be fooled as Pearson drags poor Walt and friends through a series of clever twists and turns in this fast-paced nail-biter. Author tour. (June)

Order your signed copy of Killer Summer by Ridley Pearson from www.vjbooks.com

(Publisher’s Weekly, Apr. 27)

Jeffery Deaver’s “The Weapon,” about the limitations of torture, and Ridley Pearson’s “Boldt’s Broken Angel,” which features a race to prevent a cop’s death, provide solid bookends to this nifty all-original anthology, the sequel to 2006’s Thriller: Stories to Keep You Up All Night. The 23 selections—all by members of International Thriller Writers Inc.—score hits more often than misses. One of the few non-Americans, Spaniard Javier Sierra, might claim the blue ribbon with his tale of impending apocalypse, “The Fifth World.” Lisa Jackson’s “Vintage Death” keeps the reader guessing and on tenterhooks from start to finish. Marcus Sakey’s “The Desert Here and the Desert Far Away” tests the strength of the bonds forged in the current Iraq War when comrades return home. Other contributors include Robert Ferrigno, David Hewson, Jon Land, Carla Neggers and R.L. Stine. In addition to a brief general introduction, Cussler supplies intros to the individual stories. (June 2009)

Order your copy from www.vjbooks.com

(Publisher’s Weekly, Mar. 23)

Grdankl the Strong, president of Kprshtskan, is plotting to take over the American government. His plan is to infiltrate the science fair at Hubble Middle School, located in a Maryland suburb just outside Washington. The rich kids at Hubble cheat by buying their projects every year, and Grdankls cronies should have no problem selling them his government-corrupting software.   What transpires is a hilarious adventure filled with mystery, suspense, and levitating frogs.

See it at www.vjbooks.com!