Seattle Mystery Bookshop

From one raining city to another

  I arrived at my hotel just before midnight yesterday.  The little welcome card on my nightstand said,"we hope you enjoy your stay with us.  The weather for tomorrow is (with a radiant sun circled) sunny."  When I got up this morning and looked out my window, it was raining.  "Just like in London." I thought and felt right at home. 

It's great to be here, again.  Years ago when my sister was going to the University of Washington and subsequently working for Microsoft, I had visited Seattle.  I loved the scenery, the mountains, especially the sea, though I never thought I'd eventually love the rain as well. 

I'm in town for my first US book tour, promoting The Eye of Jade, the first in the Mei Wang mystery series, set in China.  If you don't mind the hot summer, cold winter or spring of yellow sand storms, I'd like to, with this book, introduce you to one of my favorite cities in the world - my hometown Beijing.  It's a city full of ancient histories and great modern changes.  PI Mei Wang can take you around.  If you'd like to find out more about Mei or me or to contact me, visit my website www.dianeweiliang.com.  I hope you enjoy the book. 

With love from another raining city cross the pound, Diane Wei Liang

An Incomplete Revenge

Here I am, behind the counter at the Seattle Mystery Bookshop, trying not to break the whole computer system while penning a few words on my latest novel, which I am currently talking about at bookstore events around the country - and today is Seattle's day.  I love Seattle, love the climate (my people come from damp, it's like home!), and the general mood (should I say vibe) of the city.

As each of my books featuring psychologist and investigator, Maisie Dobbs, has been published, I declare that it's my personal favorite.  This time, I think AN INCOMPLETE REVENGE will retain that place in my affection.  I wanted to write a novel in the rural tradition, with a more gentle arc to the story, an arc that reflects country life with its rhythm in time with the seasons.  I was born and raised in a small community and know well that the bucolic exterior - so attractive to tourists - can give an impression of enduring sweetness.  But in the country you are at the sharp end. Everyone knows everyone else, you share in their joys, their sadnesses, and you have a real sense of "to everything there is a season."  And the country can be a dangerous place.  In setting AN INCOMPLETE REVENGE during the hop-picking season, the scene is not only one of country people about their business - which in this case includes petty crime, arson and a secret - but the reader is brought into a story wherein issues of prejudice, bigotry and identity are front and center, along the question, "What is it that we call home?"

One of my friends told me that he thought AN INCOMPLETE REVENGE was my tribute to a place I love - and I do love Kent. 

Oh, and seeing as I'm here in Seattle, can anyone tell me about the early European settlers to this area?  Here's why - you have a lot of Kentish names here in the state of Washington. I've seen a Bellevue, a Belvedere, a Dungeness, and so many names to be found on a map of Kent, England. And I have even seen a church, St. Dunstan's, in a place called Cranbrook.  I was raised just outside Cranbrook in Kent, England, and it was in the church of St. Dunstan's that I would look up at the plaque dedicated to the men of our small community lost in the Great War, and wonder what it was that took so many young men whose names were those I knew in the town. 

That's all from me now. JB wants his computer back and I have a few books to sign!

Jacqueline Winspear

AUNTIE MAME'S HOLLYWOOD SEX AND MURDER FANTASY!

There's never been a fictional character like Mame Dennis, and there's never been Hollywood icon like Polly Pepper!  Put the two together in the new novel FINAL CURTAIN and you've got the best of showbiz!  Dear, sweet, Polly.  She sings (sorta), dances (a little), and has a comic delivery unlike anyone since the brilliant Carol Burnett!  Alas, she's getting on in age.  Britney and Lindsay, and that silly Duff girl have surpassed Polly in the fame department.  But she'll never give up.  She craves fame, and is finding more of it these days than when she was on the covers of TV Guide, Look, Life, and Nature.  You see, Polly doesn't have a lot to do these days, what with musical variety television all but gone from the airwaves.  However, fate has always been good to Ms. Pepper.  Now, instead of killing audience with laughs, she's stumbling over corpses and helping to solve the mystery of their deaths. 

Polly and her entourage (son Tim and imperious maid, Placenta) last appeared in my novel REMAINS TO BE SCENE (get it, Scene?  Ha!).  Now she's in a production of the musical MAME and mopping up the stage ... of dead bodies!  Watch for her next year in A TALENT FOR MURDER.  She's the "nice" judge in n AMERICA IDOL type of talent program titled "I'll Bo Anything to Become Famous!"  It's a show were the contestants have to prove just how far they'll go to make it in Hollywood.  ALL TRUE!!!

R.T. Jordan

Undercover assignment: Wild Horses Out of Bondage

Imagine assuming another idenity and living with a dysfunctional, violent bunch of desperados who could kill you at any moment.  Sound like your own family?  Well it's FBI Special Agent Ana Grey's "adopted family" as she goes undercover to inflitrtate a terrorist cell in rural Oregon and free the wild mustangs of eastern Oregon.  This is the third in the Ana Grey series, and folks are REALLY mad at me because once they start, they can't stop reading.  In fact, the FBI SWAT commander who was an advisor for the book read it in two days.  "I had to see how it ended," he said.  "But you're the one who TOLD me how it should end!" I said.  Hopefully it'll keep you guessing.  Love to hear from you!  Let me know.  LOVE SEATTLE MYSTERY BOOKSHOP!  These folks ar the best -- trust their picks!

April Smith 

Distance Makes the Heart Grow Fonder, and the Bladder Fuller

It's a long drive up I-5 from Portland, and today's included the requisite spatters of rain, high-speed lane changes by semi-trucks, and too much distance to the next rest area when I really needed it. But it was all good, because the destination was Seattle Mystery Bookshop. The final stop made the long drive, crazy drivers and the frantic need to pee more than worth it.

Joining my friend Gregg Olsen to sign books was also a great thrill. In the end, I'm a reader first, so the chance to hang out with a writer as a fan is a great thrill. But then I get to top that by meeting and talking to so many readers as well. And oh, the conversations. This is such a great place to just stand around and love books, and share that love with others. I feel so privileged by the chance to come to SMB as both a writer and a reader. It's only a marvelous bookstore with a great staff and great customers, but it also has a bathroom.

Gregg sends a special shout-out to Chris Mearns, the Scottish lady who called from England during our visit. You're the best, Chris. Enjoy your scotch, and enjoy the books when they make their way across the pond.

Bill Cameron

A Vigil of Spies

  Happy Valentine's Day! I'm deeply immersed in the love story of Alice Perrers and King Edward III of England, and I'm finding (you all knew this already, right?) that love stories aren't all hearts and flowers. I'm proud to announce that I've just written my first contemporary mystery story for an ACWL (American Crime Writers League--www.acwl.org) anthology. It's all about karma--watch out! Karma's a tricky concept, just right for a murder mystery. You're creating your future NOW. And NOW. Gets you thinkin'. I'm also plotting out the next Owen and Lucie mystery. So all in all, I'm happily writing my heart out. Which brings me back to Valentine's Day. Ciao!

Candace Robb

January 2008 Bestsellers for the IMBA

Compiled from reporting member stores of the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association http://www.mysterybooksellers.com/

Hardcover

1) BLEEDING KANSAS by Sara Paretsky

2) BLUE HEAVEN by C.J. Box

3) TOUCHSTONE by Laurie R. King

4) A PALE HORSE by Charles Todd

5) DEATH SONG by Michael McGarrity

6) THE TIMER GAME by Susan Arnout Smith

7) PLUM LUCKY by Janet Evanovich

8) tied

BLASPHEMY by Douglas Preston

'T' IS FOR TRESPASS by Sue Grafton

10) tied

THE CHAMELEON'S SHADOW by Minette Walters

THE VENETIAN BETRAYAL by Steve Berry

Paperback

1) THE STATE OF THE ONION by Julie Hyzy

2) DEATH OF A MAID by M.C. Beaton

3) DARKLING by Yasmine Galenorn

4) CHILI CON CORPSE by J.B. Stanley

5) THE SHAPE SHIFTER by Tony Hillerman

6) A DEEPER SLEEP by Dana Stabenow

7) GETTING OLD IS TO DIE FOR by Rita Lakin

8) WATER LIKE A STONE by Deborah Crombie

9) THE OVERLOOK by Michael Connelly

10) BRING YOUR OWN POISON by Jimmie Ruth Evans

Dreams Do Come True...

For longer than I'm comfortable admitting, I've dreamed about being sandwiched between two naked ladies.  I'm here to tell you it's just as much fun as I'd imagined. 

Thanks to Janine, Bill, Fran, and JB for making my fantasies reality!  Drinks are on me this evening.  Well, some of them, at least...

-Marcus
MarcusSakey.com

Who Forgot the Jello?

Having a great time at the Seattle Mystery Bookshop! Sister Naked Lady, Christa Faust (wearing her signature hootchie mama vintage togs) and I teamed up with Marcus Sakey for a great signing and later we're all meeting for drinks, along with folks from this great not-to-be-missed book store.  The only downside was that the three of us were supposed to have a jello wrestling demonstration, but Marcus forgot the lime jello ... bad, Marcus, bad. Maybe we can have a rematch when Marcus comes to Los Angeles. I know Christa will be up for it.

Sue Ann Jaffarian

Naked Ladies (and Marcus) in Seattle

Sue Ann Jaffarian and I have taken our "Naked Ladies" tour on the road, signing our new novels MONEY SHOT and THUGS AND KISSES (both of which happen to have naked ladies on the cover.) We're causing trouble, getting rowdy and tearing up genre boundries along the way. Today we're joined by honorary lady-for-a-day Marcus Sakey. His new book AT THE CITY'S EDGE doesn't have a naked lady on the cover but it does have a very large gun. I'll let you guys draw your own concusions.

I tried to get out the door with only one new book and wound up with four - CAUGHT STEALING by Charlie Huston, OUT by Natsuo Kirino and the Pegasus reprint of ALL SHOT UP by Chester Himes as well as Sakey's new book. At least I don't have to worry about running out of things to read on the plane.

Christa Faust