On the Horizon, A Sad Farewell

Outside of the great bookstores in my beloved Minnesota, there’s only one store at which I’ve signed for every single novel I’ve written—the Mystery Book Store in Omaha.  Owner Kate Birkel began the store in 1995, and now, after more than twenty years, Kate is preparing to close her doors.  Urban renewal is the culprit … Read more

Shake Hands

It’s over, the long standoff.  Simon and Schuster, Barnes and Noble, they’ve shaken hands and gone back to work, one publishing books and the other selling them.  It’s been a battle hard on a lot of us in the trenches, those of us whose livelihoods depend on the visibility a chain like Barnes and Noble … Read more

Rose-Colored Glasses?

Tamarack County, the next in my Cork O’Connor series, goes on sale this Tuesday.  My last four novels have been New York Times bestsellers.  Tamarack County may not join the others on this list.  That’s not because it isn’t good—it received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Booklist—but rather because it won’t be on that … Read more

The B&N Ban

I just learned that I can’t visit any Barnes and Noble store with the release of my upcoming novel Tamarack County, the thirteenth in the Cork O’Connor series.  There’s a spat going on between my publisher, Simon and Schuster, and the bookstore chain.  No Simon and Schuster author may visit any Barnes and Noble until … Read more