The Poisoned Pen Bookstore was founded by Barbara G. Peters in 1989 in Scottsdale, Arizona. The store carries current and classic works of mystery, thrillers, historical and literary fiction, and literature of the American Southwest, much of it offered in Autographed First Editions. For many bookstores, that would be enough, however, Poisoned Pen isn’t just an independent bookstore, it’s also a well-known publisher of mysteries.
KRL enjoys featuring the many rat rescues around the county. This month we are chatting with Any Rat Rescue in Arizona.
Route 66 was constructed in the 1920s. Bobby Troup wrote the song lyrics in the 1940s, and by the 1960s, the Mother Road had taken on mythic proportions, becoming the best-known highway in the country. A TV series took its name and sent two young men on adventures down the road. Rock stars recorded Troup’s song. For me, growing up in Southern California, Route 66 represented the appeal of the open road, the wide open spaces of the West, and the pull of days gone by. So when I looked for a setting for a retro-themed suspense novel, it was natural for me to follow the yellow-striped road.
We had one of those vacations that you rarely hear about these days. The flight from San Francisco to Phoenix was tolerable, almost pleasant, even though I was chosen for an inside-out photo op by security.
We spent one night in Phoenix and then we hit the road north to Sedona and her beautiful “other worldly” red rock formations. Along the way we stopped at Montezuma’s Castle National Park where we were awestruck by the 1000 year-old ruins of the Sinaqua people.
