If you’re thinking of getting any of my books for the holidays, it couldn’t be easier. I’ve got you covered, even for autographed books!

Three books events in the bag, more to go! My wife, Denise Kiernan, hits the road this week for another book event to promote her trio of titles about the creation of the Thanksgiving holiday. This time, her conversation partner in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, tomorrow, will be none other than yours truly. Yes, I know you’re excited. But do try to keep your cool. The interview portion will be brief. It’s billed as a family event, which means that after we talk, she’ll be showing some folks and their kids how to construct a gratitude wreath. Should be a fun event. The dates and times are all listed below…

My wife, Denise Kiernan, has an article in today’s Washington Post. It’s a review of a most excellent book about women who served in the CIA, from its WWII beginnings as the OSS to modern times. Denise really enjoyed the book, and it was a fun review to write. The text appeared online Friday, but you’ll find it in the print edition of the Sunday paper, in a story entitled:

The daring housewives and coffee fetchers behind America’s spy agency

I’ve got a post running today over at SleuthSayers on the topic of indigenous mysteries for kids. November is the start of Native American Heritage Month in the United States, and I’ve wanted to talk about some of the books I picked up when we visited Cherokee, North Carolina, back in summer. The three I’m recommending today…

I resolved to post on a regular basis, and I have done well since July or so. But the last two weeks have thrown me for a loop. Denise had three book events in town alone, then we were on the road for a few days for a combo book tour/research trip, then…sadly, the death of one of my old college friends necessitated a trip north for a funeral. Those are never fun, but in this case it was important to me to do so…

My wife, Denise Kiernan, hits the road tomorrow for what will be the first of a couple of trips to promote her trio of books about the creation of the Thanksgiving holiday. As I’ve said before, these three books—one read for three different ages, kids, little kids, and adults—are NOT the story of Pilgrims and Native Americans. It’s a way better story than that. It touches on the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln, and the crusading woman editor who lobbied for a national day of gratitude…

Some years ago I told the story on this blog about the time I wrote a series of columns for the New York Times, and received as payment not money but—wait for it—pie.

No, I’m not kidding.

I’m not talking about pie in some metaphorical sense, if that were even possible. Nor am I referring to the mathematical pi.

I’m talking baked goods. A delicious pastry crust packed with fruit or savory gourds, or what-have-you.

A literal fucking pie…

Back in 2015, I attended the Bouchercon mystery conference in Raleigh, and sat listening to a panel discussion in which a bunch of mystery writers recommended some of their favorite books. When her turn came, the New York Times Bestselling author Laura Lippman mentioned a children’s book entitled The Egypt Game, by Zilpha Keatley Snyder. I remember her saying it was an unusual book for kids, because its key subplot deals with the murder of a child.

Published in 1967, the title was named a Newbery Honor book. That’s one of the top two awards a children’s book can receive. Clearly, it was highly regarded by many in its heyday, though I had never heard of it…

These days when I need a recipe in a hurry, I turn to the web. But if I have time, I turn to the legion of cookbooks that we have collected over the years. Besides the cookbooks we each brought to our marriage, we have a number of books rescued from the estates of loved ones who are no longer with us.

I recently wrote about two books of mine that I have long treasured. They are books on French cooking by an interesting author named Edouard de Pomiane (1875-1964), a medical doctor and food scientist who also presided over a popular radio show in France during the 1930s. He espoused a philosophy of simple cooking, which is unusual when you consider the complexity of most French cooking techniques.

Pomiane wrote a lot of books, but these two are the ones most easily found translated into English…

Two of the novels in my Mesmerist series of books are live and available for purchase in the Apple audiobooks store! These are the seventh and eight books of mine to go live for readers who prefer to consume books that way. They are also the fourth and fifth novels of mine to become an audiobook.

You can learn more about the first two book in the series, The Mesmerist and Ear of God right here.

In a nutshell, this is a thriller series that focuses primarily on psychic phenomena. An FBI agent and a New York City cop team up to investigate strange cases that have no conventional solutions. It’s basically my take on the occult detective genre. Part detective fiction, part urban fantasy…