Seattle Mystery Bookshop

Sunny in Seattle, but it's drooling...

  I always love signing at Seattle Mystery Bookstore because they are infested with dogs. This time it was "Bounder," a hundred-plus pound brindle Great Dane.  As a relapsed veterinarian, it's always great to sneak in an impromptu physical exam.  Plus all the drool.  Not too many attendees drool when you meet them (okay there have been a few), so that's always great!  Also it's nice  to sit in their well-padded chair and be able to chat casually with people about everything from the latest Sigma book to the secrets behind Indiana Jones...even about the weather.  FYI, it's SUNNY in Seattle...who woulda guessed!

Thanks for the day!

Jim Rollins

Cezanne's Quarry. A Mystery

Do you want to take a trip to the south of France this summer without spending one Euro? How about meeting Cezanne during his years of struggle? And meeting a mysterious lover that no biographer has ever been able to identify? Come to Aix-en-Provence for a sultry August journey in the summer of 1885. Meet the alluring Solange Vernet and her geologist lover, with a shady past, Charles Westerbury. Find out who did it and why. Why was Cezanne obsessed? Why did he paint enigmatic violent and erotic paintings in his youth? The answers will be found in the quarry, Cezanne's Quarry.

Barbara Corrado Pope

Thirty-nine in Seattle

So here it is, my birthday, and I've left my wife behind to come to Seattle.  Seattle?  Where it even rains indoors?  Well, yes.  Because this amazing store is here, and I've got a new book (plug: it's called THE FOURTH WATCHER), and that gives me an excuse to come up here and see these terrific people who run this store and meet people who actually read my books -- you know, the ones we writers imagine when we're trying to figure out how to begin Chapter Three.

So, several quarts of coffee, ninety-three chocolate chip cookies, and fifty signed books later, I'm happy and fulfilled and hoping my next book comes out just before my birthday, too, so I can come back. 

And, no, I won't tell you which birthday this is.  Jack Benny stuck with 39 for 25 years, and that's good enough for me.

Timothy Hallinan

The kindness of Seattle Mystery Bookshop

Early in an author's career, bookstores do much more for the author than the author does for bookstores. The good folks at Seattle Mystery Bookshop -- J.B., Fran, Bill, Janine, et al.--have been welcoming and supportive of me from the start, and they're still pushing my swing, so to speak. I'm working hard to change that soon.

THE ACTRESS, first in my new suspense series with St. Martin's Minotaur, debuts this month, and I'm pleased to learn that lots of folks are reading it and talking about it.

Rita Farmer, single mom and struggling Hollywood actress, gets recruited to secretly coach the defendant in a high-stakes murder trial. As so often happens in my novels, one twist leads to another, and through the chaos our good-natured heroine learns just how much she's capable of.

If you pick it up, let me know what you think of it.

Elizabeth Sims

www.elizabethsims.com

Shedding Light on a Dark Subject

     Perhaps now that it is officially Summer, we can talk about a subject that seems to be creeping out a lot of authors: forests.

     Have you, like us, noticed just how many authors are using The Woods as a scary setting? Children go in but don't come out, or a pair go in and only one comes out, or there is not trace or the traces lead nowhere. Lives are altered forever, marriages are shattered, towns become suspicious places - the plots have similarities, like variations on the theme.

     This has been going on for some time and we're not trying to point fingers, just note a recurring theme and wondering what brings it up. Some books that easily come to mind are Ruth Rendell's The Babes in the Wood, Harlan Coben's The Woods, the new Edgar winner from Tana French In the Woods, John Connolly's The Book of Lost Things, Mathew Scott Hansen's The Shadowkiller, CJ Box's Blue Heaven, James W. Hall's Forests of the Night, Gerard Donovan's Julius Winsom, Earl Emerson's Primal Threat and, later this Fall, the new Carol O'Connell, Bone by Bone.

     Certainly, this isn't an American phenonenon - Rendell, Connolly and French write in the British Isles - and it isn't regional as some of the US books are East Coast and some West Coast. So what is it? Is it the fears of the baby-boomers coming out in mid-life or fears they have for their children? Something old and unresolved in the human gene? After all, Robin Hood took refuge in Sherwood Forest because it was said to be haunted and the Sheriff's men wouldn't pursue them into it's dark depths.

     The woods can be dark and tangled and it is hard to see your feet let alone something that might be hiding and waiting for you. And, at a time when what we've known is endangered - the costs of everything are skyrocketing, food is suspect, the climate is chaotic and the planet is possibly threatened, wars have become unhinged from states and are now fought by underground foes. It's like we're all, suddenly and unexpectedly, Deep In The Woods With No Clear Trail Out, No Sense of Direction, It Seems to Be Getting Darker and We Just Want This To Be Over...

     And, maybe like a good scary horror movie, these forest-set stories help us to be frightened in a safe, controlled way with some sort of resolution in sight, in our reading chair, so that we can expell some of the generalized fear we feel and try, do our best, to function like adults. Maybe it works like that too for the writers.

     JB

    

STOP THE PRESSES: DEAVER AT SMB

Spent a delightful hour at one of my favorite bookstores of all time, Seattle Mystery Books. Stopped into the store for delightful conversation with the fine folk in this true institution of book selling. Always feel special being surrounded by so many wonderful books and so many book lovers. Now, off to sample some local cuisine: a nice hot cup of . . . tea, then to the Pike Place Market . . . for grits and ribs.

--Jeffery Deaver

Judgment Day

It's nice to be back in Seattle!

I'm frequently asked where I get the ideas for my stories.  Judgment Day evolved in an unusual way.  I live in the Bay Area and I commute to work by ferry from my home in Marin County to my office in San Francisco.  The first thing I see every morning in San Quentin State Prison.  A few years ago, as I was passing San Quentin, I read a note in our local paper that the oldest man on Death Row had died of natural causes.  This is hardly unusual--there are more than 650 men on California' Death Row.  Most of them die of natural causes.

As I watched the prisoners in the exercise yard, I began to wonder what would have happened if the oldest man's number had come up shortly before he would have died of natural causes.  Would the State of California have proceeded with the execution anyway?  I asked a friend of mine who handles Death Penalty cases.  He quickly assured me that the the State would, in fact, proceed with the execution in such circumstances. When I asked him why, he replied, "Because it's the law."  I now had an idea for a new story.

I spent a lot of time researching Death Penalty litigation in California in order to write Judgment Day (including a visit to California's Death Row at San Quentin).  Judgment Day is not intended to make any judgments on the wisdom of imposing the Death Penalty.  It's intended to give my readers an idea of what it's like to be an appellate lawyer in the days leading up to an execution.  It's somber subject, but I'm glad I wrote it.  I still pass by San Quentin on my way to work every morning.  When I see the prisoners out in the yard, I like to think that I have a better idea of what goes on inside.

Sheldon Siegel

www.sheldonsiegel.com

Death Will Get You Sober

A friend of mine claims that any Yiddish verb can be defined by the English verb it most closely resembles and adding "shamelessly." In her lexicon, "to schmooze" means "to network shamelessly." I see schmoozing as similar to the art practiced by the 18th-century European salonistes like Madame de Stael and Ninon de l'Enclos, who surrounded themselves with brilliant and creative people and got them all talking to each other. Of course, being a 21st century woman myself, I like to do a lot of the talking.

This Saturday afternoon, the Seattle Mystery Bookshop hosted a delightful salon featuring my debut mystery, DEATH WILL GET YOU SOBER, and me, come all the way from New York to sign copies of the book and, with luck, get everybody talking. Among the brilliant and creative guests: my 96-year-old tennis playing Aunt Hilda (who could teach Ninon de l'Enclos a thing or two about staying young a century at a time); my cousin Tom; my friend Louise from high school in New York, whom I haven't seen since 1960; three Sisters in Crime--online mystery writer friends I've never met f2f before but who greet me with a hug, buy my book, and take me out to lunch afterward; my junior high school best friend's cousin Ruthie, who it turns out knows Louise, and Ruthie's friend, like me a therapist. Some browsing mystery lovers wander in, some buy the book, and when there's a lull, I have a wonderful time chatting with the bookstore staff.

 Traditionally, writers are considered solitary folk, who toil away at their writing in isolation. And so we do (except for those hardy souls who take their laptops into Starbucks)--until our book is published and it's time to come out and schmooze--with readers, booksellers, librarians, and other writers. I'm discovering I was born to schmooze, and I'm loving every minute.

Elizabeth Zelvin, 2007 Agatha nominee

DEATH WILL GET YOU SOBER

www.elizabethzelvin.com

May Bestsellers from the Independent Mystery Booksellers' Association

Hardcovers

1 - Elizabeth George, CARELESS IN RED, Harper

2 - Charlaine Harris, FROM DEAD TO WORSE, Ace

3 - John Sandford, PHANTOM PREY, Putnam

4 - tie

Alan Gordon, MONEYLENDER OF TOULOUSE, St. Martin's

CJ Box, BLOOD TRAIL, Putnam

6 - Sharan Newman, THE SHANGHAI TUNNEL, Forge

7 - Michael Connelly, ed., MWA PRESENTS THE BLUE RELIGION, Little Brown

8 - tie

Steven Saylor, TRIUMPH OF CAESAR, St. Martin's

Harlan Coben, HOLD TIGHT, Dutton

10 - Tom Rob Smith, CHILD 44, Grand Central

Softcovers

1 - Jo Dereske, INDEX FOR MURDER, Harper

2 - Elaine Viets, MURDER WITHOUT RESERVATIONS, Signet

3 - Lorna Bartlett, MURDER IS BINDING, Berkley

4 - Donna Leon, SUFFER THE LITTLE CHILDREN, Penguin

5 - tie

Hannah Dennison, A VICKI HILL EXCLUSIVE, Berkley

Charlaine Harris, ALL TOGETHER DEAD, Ace

7 - tie Jane K. Cleland, CONSIGNED TO DEATH, St. Martin's

Barbara Cleverly, TUG OF WAR, Delta

9 - tie

Tana French, IN THE WOODS, Penguin

Margery Allingham, FLOWERS FOR THE JUDGE, Felony & Mayhem

Marc Acito, ATTACH OF THE THEATRE PEOPLE, Broadway

Alan Gordon, THIRTEENTH NIGHT, Mystery Company

Six/ Three

A dismal day of missed flights, delayed baggage and missing rental cars was made a little more bearable by the company of James Grady, or at least a James Grady novel, in this case Three Days of the Condor, which was made into a movie starring Robert Redford and directed by the late Sydney Pollack, I think.  Anyway, I'd always loved the movie, and when I saw a used copy of the novel - a film tie-in, no less, with pictures! - it seemed like an opportunity not to be passed up.  Curiously, though, the novel was originally titled Six Days of the Condor, but somebody clearly decided that six days was three days too many, and so the movie cut the number of days by 50 per cent.  The novel, then, had to be retitled to match the movie, but there are still, confusingly, six days in the novel, despite any titular claims to the contrary.

  This made my head hurt.

  I'm on about a novel a day at the moment, given that I'm taking a flight at least every second day and, for the rest of this week, a flight every day.  So far, I've torn through a manuscript of Russel McLean's excellent debut novel, The Good Son, to be published in the fall; an ARC of the very fine new Mark Billingham book, In the Dark; the second part of Conn Iggulden's series on the rise of Genghis Khan, Lords of the Bow; the new David Benioff, City of Thieves; and, now, Three/ Six Days of the Condor.  Not bad going. I've actually run out of stuff to read now, but there's no shortage of candidates.  It's one of the joys of being a reader: one is never going to run out of things to read.

 Time to start browsing . . .

JOHN CONNOLLY

House Rules

  The idea for House Rules - my third DeMarco book - started with an article in the Washington Post about the no-fly zone around D.C.  I imagined the beginning of a movie: These F-16 fighters blowing this little Cessna out of the sky as the Cessna is about to crash into the White House.  That's essentially Chapter One of the book.  After that, I had no idea where the story was going to go - why would someone want to crash a plane in the White House (no political jokes please); who were the bad guys - the good guys; what were their hidden motivations?  In the end, House Rules became a book about terrorists, corrupt politicians, mobsters & meth dealers - all springing from that one article.  

Today, I'm having the privilege of writing this from Seattle Mystery Bookshop - my favorite bookstore on planet Earth.  No one has helped my fledgling career more than the folks at this store, and my biggest wish is to be here this time next year doing the same thing.      

Mike Lawson

Nothing to Lose

All kinds of new experiences today - rain in Seattle (first time I saw it) ... TV with Nancy Pearl (first time I met her) ... and then my annual visit to SMB.  OK, I know this is their site, so you probably assume I'm bullshitting, but SMB has always been my most loyal supporter and has probably sold more copies of Killing Floor (for instance) than any other store in the known universe.  So it's always great to be here, even though the signing stacks usually leave me with blisters and cramps.  This time was unique, too, because both the dedicatees from Nothing to Lose were in the store with me, so SMB has special thrice-signed volumes - the only place in the world, which is absolutely fitting.

Until next time ... best to all, always.  Lee

Can a President of the United States be a serial killer?

One question I am frequently asked when I'm on a book tour is "Where do your ideas come from?" My latest book, Executive Privilege, was published in 2008 but I got the idea in 1995. I was thinking about Richard Nixon for some reason and how he had run a burglary ring out of the White House. That got me thinking about whether a President, with all the security around him and the constant spoltight he's under, could commit a series of murders. Over the years, I pushed the plot forward but I could never figure out how to end the story. Then, one day in the summer of 2006, I was driving back from Central Oregon and I thought about the book for some reason. All of a sudden I got a brain storm and I knew how to end the book. It's not unusual for it to take me years to go from the idea for a book to a well-thought-out plot. My advice to unpublished writers is to not rush when you get a good idea. Take your time and think the plot through to the end. Your chance of getting your book goes way up if the book is good from beginning to end.

Phillip Margolin

Our May 2008 Bestsellers

Our May 2008 Bestsellers

Hardcovers

1 – Elizabeth George, Careless in Red, Morrow

2 – John Straley, The Big Both Ways, Alaska Northwest Books

3 – Sue Henry, Degrees of Separation, NAL

4 – C.J. Box, Blood Trail, Putnam

5 – Steve Martini, Shadow of Power, Morrow

6 – tie

     Mike Lawson, House Rules, Atlantic

     John Sandford, Phantom Prey, Putnam

8 – James W. Hall, Hell’s Bay, St. Martin’s

9 – tie

     William Dietrich, The Rosetta Key, Harper

     Dominic Stansberry, Ancient Rain, St. Martin’s

     Nevada Barr, Winter Study, Putnam

Trade Paperbacks

1 – Marc Acito, Attack of the Theatre People, Broadway

2 – Susan Hill, Various Haunts of Men, Overlook

3 – Michael Gruber, The Book of Air and Shadows, Harper

4 – Marc Acito, How I Paid for College, Broadway

5 – Kjell Ericksson, Cruel Stars of the Night, St. Martins

6 – Tana French, In the Woods, Penguin

7 – tie

     Michael Chabon, The Yiddish Policeman’s Union, Harper

     Andreas Camilleri, Paper Moon, Penguin

9 – tie

     Nicole Griffith, Always, Riverhead

     Stella Rimington, Secret Asset, Vintage

     Carina Burman, The Streets of Babylon, Marion Boyars

     Barbara Cleverly, Tug of War, Delta

Mass Market Paperbacks 

1 – Jo Dereske, Index to Murder, Avon

2 – Donna Leon, Suffer the Little Children, Penguin

3 – Mike Lawson, The Inside Ring, Vintage

4 – Allen Wyler, Deadly Errors, Tor

5 – tie

     Earl Emerson, Firetrap, Ballantine

     Barry Eisler, Requiem for an Assassin, Onyx

     Lee Child, Bad Luck and Trouble, Bantam

8 – tie

      Jo Dereske, Miss Zukas and the Library Murder, Avon

     Caitlin Kittredge, Night Live, St. Martin’s

     Joshilyn Jackson, gods in Alabama, Warner

     John Straley, The Woman Who Married a Bear, Soho