Seattle Mystery Bookshop

Liz Osborne

What a perfect Spring day in Seattle -- a booksigning at Seattle Mystery Bookshop for my first Robyn Kelly mystery, Masquerade. I hope no one recognizes themselves in this story based on my fifteen years at Group Health's Eastside Hospital. It is mostly fiction, especially the murder part, but the ins and outs of the hospital are based on things that really happened. I hope you'll call JB and his crew to get an autographed copy. The next book in the series, Dirty Laundry, will hopefully be coming out soon.

Liz Osborne

Seattle Mystery Strikes Again!

Sooner or later you meet everyone here at Seattle Mystery -- at least everyone in the mystery world!  Great to run into Stella Cameron today and get a copy of her latest, TARGET.  Also signed a lot of my new Amanda Quick, THE RIVER KNOWS.  Take it from me, if you want something in the mystery line or if you want it signed by a real live author, this is the place. (Okay, there are some not-so-live authors here, too, but I'm not sure if they're still signing...)

--Jayne Ann Krentz (Amanda Quick, Jayne Castle)

Stella Cameron in the rain--as usual

Back at Seattle Mystery Bookshop--my favorite place to visit in Seattle.  The second book in my Pointe Judah Bayou Series, TARGET, is out.  This story follows BODY OF EVIDENCE and comes before A COLD DAY IN HELL.  JB has signed copies.  I hope you'll enjoy the book.

Cheers, Stella Cameron

Bill Cameron

When I come into Seattle Mystery Bookshop I feel like I'm walking into a locus of a very special history, surrounded by a collection of some of the greatest books to be found anywhere. Some I've read already, many more I want to read. This is a place which makes me crave a good chair, a clear light, a steaming cuppa joe, and a vast expanse of uninterrupted time. Maybe I'll reacquaint myself with one of the classics, maybe I'll get to know someone new. What I know is that anywhere I look in this shop I'll see something wonderful that calls out to me. Seattle Mystery Bookshop could fill my days with joy.

And what a privilege to see my own effort included on these shelves among such illustrious works. It's both humbling and thrilling at once. I don't presume to count myself an equal to the marvelous writers found here, but I do feel honored to stand even in their shadows. What a place.

Thank you so much for the chance to be here!

Best,

Bill Cameron author of Lost Dogs

LISA JACKSON

I'm here in Seattle at one of my favorite places in the Northwest, the Seattle Mystery Bookshop with my sister and co-conspirator, Nancy Bush.  Currently, I'm wrapping up a month-long tour for ABSOLUTE FEAR, my latest novel in the New Orleans series starring Dectectives Montoya and Bentz of the New Orleans Police Department.  Like SHIVER, the prequel, ABSOLUTE FEAR is set within the confines of an abandoned mental hospital and once again a series of bizarre murders are linked to the old institution.  ABSOLUTE FEAR is dark, creepy and intensely psychological. 

Now that the tour is over, I'm currently working on the next book in the series.  LOST SOULS (at least that was still the title as of yesterday) will be out next year about this time!

Lisa 

Nancy Bush

So, I woke up this morning, picked up my sister, Lisa Jackson, and drove to Seattle from Portland.  Love the Seattle Mystery Bookshop!  Last time I was here I brought along The Binkster, my pug, who's featured in all the Jane Kelly Mysteries.  This time Binks had to stay home, but she lives on in CANDY APPLE RED and ELECTRIC BLUE, the first two books in the series, and she makes a third appearance this October in ULTRAVIOLET.  I would feel sorry for her except that she struggles to leave the kitchen which contains her two favorite household areas: the pantry and the refrigerator.  She's a girl who knows what she wants.  But next time I'll drag her on the road trip with me.  Dog treats are portable, after all, and it's great to be in Seattle.  Thanks! 

Nancy Bush

FRIENDS OF MYSTERY

SPOTTED OWL COMMITTEE NAMES TWO WINNERS FOR 2007.

Kristine Kathryn Rusch, better known to mystery fans as Kris Nelscott, was named a Spotted Owl winner for her 2006 Smokey Dalton novel, Days of Rage. This is the fifth in the series that began in 2000 with A Dangerous Road followed by Smoke Filled Rooms,  Thin Walls, Stone Cribs, and War At Home. Stone Cribs was also the 2005 Spotted Owl winner. These novels have received many national nominations and awards.

Set during the time of the anti-Viet Nam demonstrations, the 1968 Chicago Democratic Convention and the trial of the Chicago Eight, we are taken along on the investigations of Smokey Dalton. Kris creates a strong sense of time, place, circumstances and characters that takes the reader back to that era.

Kristine Kathryn Rusch is also an award winning science fiction and fantasy author and editor as well as a romance author writing under the pen name of Kristine Grayson. She lives on the Oregon coast with her husband, author Dean Wesley Smith.

The Spotted Owl Committee is presenting an award this year for a debut mystery novel. Lost Angel by Mike Doogan was selected for this 2007 award. Mike Doogan was a journalist for the Anchorage Daily News for 19 years and was a recent contributor to a collection of mystery short stories titled Wild Crimes. In Lost Angel Nik Kane is a former Anchorage police detective with a checkered past. He is hired by a religious community to find the granddaughter of its leader. While searching for the teenager, he also gets involved with solving a gold mine payroll robbery. It is a tightly written novel that echoes the cold of Alaska and the independent spirit of its residents.

The 2007 awards mark the 12^th year of Spotted Owl winners. This is the second time an author has been given two Spotted Owl awards. Lowen Clausen was the previous two-time winner. Other previous winners were Earl Emerson, John Straley, Tom Mitcheltree, L.L. Thrasher, Marcia Simpson, Kate Wilhelm, G.M. Ford and Kevin O’Brien.

Runners-up for the 2007 Spotted Owl award are:

G.M. Ford for Blown Away

Aaron Elkins for Unnatural Selection

Heather Sharfeddin for Mineral Spirits

Michael Lawson for Second Perimeter

Patrick McManus for The Blight Way

Daniel Kalla for Rage Therapy

J.A. Jance for Dead Wrong

Robert Dugoni for The Jury Master

Mark Schorr for Borderline

Kenneth Lewis for Little Blue Whales

The committee evaluated 71 books.

Friends of Mystery is a non-profit literary/educational organization headquartered in Portland, Oregon. For the past 22 years we have presented lectures, organized conferences, and sponsored reading groups. We also publish a regular newsletter. Our purpose is to promote the study and understanding of mystery literature.

Patrick McManus

Here I am at Seattle Mystery BookShop--one of my favorite places.  Just signed my new Bo Tully mystery, my second mystery, Avalanche.  It was fun to write.  I hope it is fun to read!--Patrick McManus

Michael Gruber

It was a pleasure to drop by and sign for you guys and pick up on all the book and mystery trade gossip. It's a real treat knowing that there are nuclei of intelligent readers in independent bookstores around the country, and I keep telling myself I should drop by more often, but, as you know, writers never get out. I hope that The Book of Air and Shadows does well for you, or as we call it, for those who don't like Shakespeare, the Book of Erin Shadowes. Erin Shadowes! By day, New York's most sought-after supermodel, by night, a ninja-trained assassin for a top-secret government agency. Maybe for the next book I'll go totally down-market like that.

Thanks again for inviting me.

Michael Gruber

The border collie of bookstores

If I were a big hairy liar, I'd pretend that I loved all bookstores equally.  I'd say that I didn't have a favorite -- just that I preferred to read and sign in independent stores rather than the big chains.  This is true, but it's not the whole truth.  To save my own skin, I'll tell the whole truth by analogy.  I have four dogs: a border collie, a Scottish terrier, a lab, and a mutt.  I love all of them; I feed all of them; I play with all of them, but, in my heart of hearts, I love the border collie best.  He's just so damned smart.  There's something there behind his brown eyes that thinks beyond the fetch and the walks and the Milk Bones.  I love dogs, all dogs, but there's a difference between a dog and a border collie.

Are you catching my drift . . . or rather my Frisbee?  Here's the thing:  you can walk into Seattle Mystery Bookshop and say, "I'm looking for a classic British cozy set between the wars.  I want a few good murders -- nothing too gruesome -- witty dialogue, a funny detective, eccentric characters, and an attractive setting." Then Fran or Bill or Tammy or JB will pull out a dozen offerings and give you an on-the-spot review of each.  They've read them all, you see.  They know their stuff. 

Make no mistake -- this bookshop is dangerous.  You'll walk away with no money left for dinner, the parking meter, or this month's rent, but who needs that stuff?  Read.  That's what's important.  You can always subsist on crackers and catsup, and with gas at three bucks a gallon, does it really matter if your car gets clamped?  You can't afford to drive it anyway.  As for the rent, bring home enough good British cozies, and Mom will let you have your old room back.  I guarantee it.

Just remember this formula.  Seattle Mystery Bookshop = border collie.  Don't forget.

Joan Opyr, Author of Idaho Code, soon-to-be author of From Hell to Breakfast, and lifelong fan of the British cozy and bookstores EXACTLY like this one.