Seattle Mystery Bookshop

Producing a Book Cover

Here is a neat video of the creation of a book cover, for Blameless the third book in the Parasol Protectorate series. Then our review of Soulless, the first in this  fantastic series!

 

Gail Carriger - Soulless

Alexia Tarabotti has been on the shelf since she was fifteen. Her mother decided her Italian heritage and unconventional looks (dark hair, dark eyes and the predilection of tanning) was too much to overcome, that no gentleman would seriously pursue Alexia. So she made the early decision to concentrate her attention and money on securing good marriages for her two younger daughters. What her mother didn’t know was this suited Alexia just fine.
 
Alexia enjoys the freedom spinsterhood allows her; to read whatever she likes, consort with flamboyant friends and concentrate on finding the best foods Victorian London can provide. Plus, well it would be a scandal if it came out to society that Alexia was born without a soul. Soullessness can be an advantage when dealing with some of the residents of London, Werewolves, Vampires and Ghosts, since just her touch negates their power. This comes in handy when a very rude vampire has the audacity of attacking Alexia at party, thereby tossing Alexia into Lord Maccon’s path again, (how many times does she have to say the Hedgehog was not her fault?) and into the mystery of why all the lone wolves and rogue vampires are disappearing from all around England….
 
If you are looking for historical accuracy of Victorian London, with insights into the life and times of the people living in this period, this is NOT the book for you. If you are looking for a funny, witty, romantic, melodramatic action-packed supernatural romp, then I highly recommend this book to you! I enjoyed every second of this book, the ridiculousness of pairing proper Victorian manners when being attacked by an unknown Vampire is hilarious. Alexia and the rest of the characters are over the top in their personalities and are just fun to read. And the mystery at the core of this book is well thought out as well, setting up future villains and problems in the books to come. I cannot wait to read the rest of this series!
 
I picked up this book purely because of the author description “Gail Carriger writes to cope with being raised in obscurity by an expatriated Brit and an incurable curmudgeon. She escaped small town life for Europe and inadvertently acquired an education. She now resides in the Colonies with a harem of American lovers and tea imported from London.” If you find this as humorous and intriguing as I did, like urban fantasy without sparkling vampires, and enjoy a bit of steampunk thrown in for flavor, I think you will really like this book. (Not a Kids Book)

Partners in crime at SMB

I'm having a fabulous day at . . .see page 194 of CAPACITY FOR MURDER . . . with Judy Dailey. Between customers, we're plotting crime, dropping clues. We know who the victim is . . .and now we're putting our intrepid sleuth (a mystery author) on the trail . . . or is the author the whodunit?








Bernadette Pajer

 

 

 

A Delicate Truth

 

 

John le Carre - A Delicate Truth

A counter-terrorist operation, codenamed Wildlife, is being mounted on the British crown colony of Gibraltar.  Its purpose: to capture and abduct a high-value jihadist arms buyer. Its authors: an ambitious Foreign Office Minister, a private defense contractor who is also his bosom friend, and a shady American CIA operative of the evangelical far-right. So delicate is the operation that even the Minister’s personal private secretary, Toby Bell, is not cleared for it.

Three years later, a disgraced Special Forces Soldier delivers a message from the dead. Was Operation Wildlife the success it was cracked up to be—or a human tragedy that was ruthlessly covered up? Summoned by Sir Christopher (“Kit”) Probyn, retired British diplomat, to his decaying Cornish manor house, and closely observed by Kit’s daughter, Emily, Toby must choose between his conscience and duty to his Service. If the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing, how can he keep silent?

In The Shop Now!

The Innocence Game

It's a beautiful day in Seattle. I'm visting the city's premier bookstore to promote my latest stand-alone, THE INNOCENCE GAME. It's about three grad students at Northwestern who, as part of a class assignment, reopen a death penalty case the Chicago PD would prefer remain undisturbed. Quick tip for would-be gumshoes: if you're investigating cops (especially Chicago cops) you suspect might be framing people for murder, be careful you don't wind up getting framed yourself.

On a serious note, there are pieces of this novel that are taken from real-life capital cases I've worked as a journalist. Check out the case of Odell Barnes on-line. He was executed by the state of Texas in 2000 and has his own Wikipedia page. If you read about Odell and read INNOCENCE, you'll see the connection...and wonder if, in real life, Texas didn't execute an innocent man.

Hope you get a chance to check out my latest and visit me as

Michael Harvey

There's always one in a crowd

Afer our strange experience with the Seattle Police today, the 'granola bar bomb', the covereage in the blogosphere and on news blogs, you really shouldn't be surprised that some nitwit in the crowd has to demonstrate how dullwitted and mean they are.

This evening, the shop received this message from John277621@moronsareus.duh who thought it fair to to pick on someone he don't know about something he know nothing about:

After reading the news reports about her call to the police, I concluded that Amber is an idiot...tell her to get a life...really ..a granola bar?

To which I replied:

Thanks for chiming in, John. For the record, the street was blocked off when she turned the corner from 2nd. The cops were already there long before her bus arrived downtown. According to the cops, they've seen a lot of strange bombs but this one was strange and unsettling due to the presentation (arrayed on a clean piece of paper). Amber happened into the events, she didn't start them.

So that John wouldn't feel alone, "P O" at polaris@universalidiots.wow had this to say:

 your famous!  many people are laughing at you on infowars.com & its understandable.

I commented with this:

 "that couldve been much much worse..
a bomb that size , exploding & sending granola wrapper shrapnel in every direction
is something we all need to look out for."

         PO

To which I replied: "you're, not your"

People who need to send such messages to a stranger in order feel important and witty ... well let's just hope they don't vote or procreate.

JB

Blood and Thunder at Seattle Mystery Bookshop

    I'm making my upteenth visit to Seattle's premier mystery bookstore today, signing copies of No. 6 in the Ethan Gage series, 'The Barbed Crown,' as well as other titles. The store is always friendly, despite its shelves being filled with gruesome crimes, and warm, despite the outlines of coldblooded killings, and comprehensive, meaning they carry my books! I also learned the back alley is sometimes used for fashion shoots by local photographers. What's not to like?

In 'The Barbed Crown,' my American hero lands in France in 1804 bent on revenge against Napoleon, and is soon entangled with spies and counterspies in plans for Bonaparte's invasion of England, his coronation as emperor, and eventually the decisive naval battle of Trafalgar. His wife Astiza comes back from the dead (explained, of course) and his four-year-old son Harry plays a critical role. Skirmishes, storms, battles, new-fangled weapons and the birth of the modern police (French) and spy service (British.)

Hope you browse my signed books at the store and all the others of Mystery Bookshop's magnificent collection. Thanks to J.B. and gang for the warm welcome again.

William Dietrich

Dude, so not cool!

So an unusual sight greeted me when I came to open the shop this morning.

The Seattle police department had cordned off the whole sidewalk (and most of the block) in front of the shop. As it turns out someone had left a suspicious package infront of the shop, and the police were checking things out. As it turns out it was a hoax/joke, one in very poor taste (and never want to see repeated ever agin!).

Somone had left an odd looking confiiguration of a granola bar hooked up to a circuit board and phone wires. Nothing even remotly harmful, but in this day and age you cannot be to careful. Thanks to the SPD for making sure everthing was safe at the shop!

That was the start of our day, how was yours?

Amber

Suzanne Rindell Has Super Powers!

On my way over to Seattle Mystery Bookstore, my media escort, Eileen, took me for a quick stroll by Pioneer Square.  She pointed out the pergola, a beautiful turn of the century structure originally made in Paris.  "One time," she told me, "a truck was turning at that corner, and accidentally crashed into the pergola and took it down. The trucking company paid for its restoration." Just as she finished telling me this, sure enough, a truck cut the corner too close and clipped the side of the pergola.  Within minutes, it became wedged over a bollard and under the overhang of the perola's roof! 

Bystanders stared in disbelief, and soon after started snapping photos. Everyone began speculating over how to solve the riddle of getting the truck unstuck. As for my media escort and I, we couldn't believe our eyes. "Wow," Eileen said.  " I suppose I should've said one time I won the lottery, just to see what happens." 

She walked me over to the bookstore, where as people drifted in and out, the main refrain was: "Did you see what happened to the pergola in Pioneer Square?"  I settled into the store, and eventually Eileen went to go take a walk.  I asked her if she was going back to the scene of the crime. "I'm going to buy a lottery ticket," she said with an impish smile. 

Here's to hoping Eileen buys a winning ticket, and that the mystery of how to get the truck unwedged from the pergola is quickly and safely solved! 

 Suzanne Rindell

Mr. Lovesey's Visit: Books, Baseball and BBQ

As you know, we're deadly serious here.

To prove that, here are some photos of Peter Lovesey's first ever signing at Seattle Mystery Bookshop.

First up, the table, full of his books, waiting for him and his fans:

Signing one of Leon's baseballs (probably the first time for Peter, we think):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Two grand ol'Men of Mystery, shop founder Bill Farley and author Peter Lovesey:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The lunch tableb - Dianna, Bill, Peter and Jim - BBQ chicken sandwich for the author

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Damn - do we know how to show an author a grand time or what!

Big Hairy Werewolf Love

Today, at the Seattle Mystery Bookshop, I bit each of the booksellers. I came here, after all, to spread the infection. That's the premise behind my new novel -- Red Moon (Grand Central/Hachette) -- a post-9/11 reinvention of the werewolf myth. My werewolves -- or lycans, as I call them -- are infected with prions, the misfolded protein responsible for Mad Cow and Chronic Wasting Disease. In prehistoric times, it leapt out of the wolf population and mutated in humans, targeting the brain, leading to rage and sexual impulse. Fast forward to today and roughly 5% of the population is infected. They are unable to hold certain jobs -- they are part of a public registry similar to a sex offenders' list -- they have to take an emotionally deadening drug and succumb to monthly blood tests. And of course there is an uprising -- and a swift government response. Hijinks ensue. And the Pacific Northwest will never be the same. Neither will this bookstore, where I signed some books in blood and chewed on everyone I could get my paws on. If you stop by, you're next...

Benjamin Percy

Fran's Review:

All teenagers believe they’re different, but in Claire Forrester’s case, it’s true.

In Benjamin Percy’s new novel, Red Moon, there’s a group of people living among us who are definitely different, even though they’re trying to fit in. They’re lycans, werewolves living as if they’re human. For those who don’t want to try to fit in, there’s the Lupine Republic, but that’s heavily guarded, really nothing more than a containment camp, and life there is incredibly hard. But with the proper medication, lycans have been living among us, mostly peacefully. 

However, when a lycan explodes into deadly fury on an airplane, leaving human Patrick Gamble the only survivor, the tenuous balance is shifted, and containing lycans becomes a political juggernaut. In this atmosphere, Claire’s family is slaughtered by the government, and she alone escapes. 

Red Moon is the beginning of what may be a series, is certainly headed for a trilogy (because I don’t see how he’ll wrap up everything he started here in a single follow-up book!), and Benjamin Percy has created a grim and powerful world where discrimination is expected, where political manipulation is expected, and where moments of joy and love stand out all the more for their passion and desperation.

Percy has created some fabulous, dynamic people and put them in a struggle that is nothing less than epic. His bad guy has an air of evil masked in smiles that is decidedly creepy. I liked not only his main characters, but some of his secondary characters are equally vibrant. I know I want to see more of Miriam! My only whine -- and it is just that – is that it’s becoming more and more difficult for me to read present-tense novels, so it took me a while to get into it because I had to twist my head into a space that can read and enjoy that style. But that’s just my own quirk, and I’m more than willing to tackle it for the sequel!