Seattle Mystery Bookshop

To Order or Not to Order, That is the Question...

    It has been announced that there will be a new Dan Brown out on September 15th.     

    Titled The Lost Symbol, it will be his third with Robert Langdon. The book will have a retail price $28.95, the initial print run has been announced as being 5 million copies, and various on-line sites have already announced discounts of at least 40%.

    That means that you’ll be able to order the book for around the same price as we have to pay the publisher. That means few people will bother to order the book from independents or anyone who doesn’t offer a deep discount.

    We won’t. We couldn’t afford to.

    So the book will have an incredibly high retail price, will be printed in numbers that guarantee it will never be collectable and will be readily available from big corporate concerns at a give-away price. Why should we even bother to order any?

    There comes a point when the publishers arrangements - the price they put on the book, the discounts they give to some retailers but not to others - make it difficult if not counterproductive to stock and sell their books. This is looking like one of those cases.

Meet the Author: Mon, June 8, noon, Michael Connelly

Best signing in the whole wide wold!!!!

Oooh, this was a very good day in Jayne Land. Not only is the sun shining here in Seattle, I got to sign my new novel, The Perfect Poison, at Seattle Mystery, a truly world class mystery bookstore. I gotta tell you, this is so much more fun than actually writing.  I love this part of the job.

Thanks, Seattle Mystery.  See you next time.

--Jayne

Back in Seattle Again

Back in the saddle -- I mean Seattle -- again, promoting my third Home Crafting Mystery, Spin a Wicked Web. And THIS time I remembered to bring a list of must-reads to the Seattle Mystery Book Shop. I told myself I could buy only as many books as would fit in the bag I brought. Luckily, it's a big bag. You could drown in mysteries here -- but what a way to go!

Funny how I've missed the gray skies and chilly air against my skin like a damp hand. But I have. And I've missed the wonderful folks here at SMB, both the staff and the customers who walk in the door and beeline over to see who's signing today. Real hard core mystery fans. There is simply no better place to hang out for a Saturday afternoon and chat with people about books.   

Thanks for having me back, guys, and I'll see you again next spring when Something Borrowed, Something Bleu is released!

Cricket McRae

Indies are the future!

 Back in Seattle after two years and as always it's great to be back at Seattle Mystery Bookshop. Great, enthusiastic and knowledgeable book stores like this are vital for authors and readers alike. I'm going to be popping in here every time I'm in town. Look out for another visit in 2010 for the eighth Nic Costa novel.

Ciao!

David Hewson

Murder, Mystery and More - Wrongful Death

Thanks to all for coming to see me at Seattle Mystery Bookshop, Seattle's best mystery store. And special thanks to J.B. and Fran for the support and friendship. See you all back here in 2010 with the next in the David Sloane series! For updates check out www.robertdugoni.com.

Best,

Robert Dugoni 4-14-09

My 50th book

MANNA FROM HADES, my 50th book and first of my new Cornish mystery series, came out last month. I've had some great reviews already, including this, from the Richmond, Virginia Times-Dispatch:

Cornwall-set debut is a winner

Jay Strafford

March 15, 2009 4:53 PM

A new series is always a welcome treat for mystery fans, and when it’s set in an English village, all the better. Carola Dunn — the author of the long-running Daisy Dalrymple series — starts afresh in “Manna From Hades” (305 pages, Minotaur Books, $24.95), set in the fictional village of Port Mabyn in Cornwall. There, the sixtyish, widowed Eleanor Trewynn spends her time working in a thrift shop, the proceeds of which go to charity.  When she discovers what appears to be a fortune in jewelry in a donated briefcase, she’s amazed.  When she finds the corpse of a teenage boy in the shop’s storeroom, she’s appalled. But with the help of her niece, Detective Sgt. Megan Pencarrow; her neighbors, vicar’s wife Joceyln Stearns and artist Nick Gresham; and her West Highland white terrier, Teazle, all comes right. 
Dunn — a native of England who now lives in Oregon — is equally talented at spinning a good yarn and peopling it with humorous and sympathetic characters, and “Manna From Hades” covers both bases.  Readers will want to see more of this appealing cast.

Ain't that nice? 

Booklist: Dunn has a knack for writing meatier-than-usual cozies

with strong female characters, and she has another charming winner here.

Publishers Weekly: ...this lively first in a new cozy series...Adept at showing character through witty dialogue, Dunn paints an amusing picture of a small town that readers will want to visit again soon.

The Oregonian: The smoothly written mystery goes down as easily as a cream tea. ...For those who like their mysteries on the cozy side, with a little humor, a little romance and a spot of tea, "Manna From Hades" is the perfect confection.

Kirkus: Welcome to Cornwall, beautiful land of Cornish pasties, cream teas and murder.... Shades of Miss Marple. Dunn’s departure from Daisy Dalrymple is a serviceable modern-day version of the classic English village mystery.

Oh well, when you write "cosy" mysteries,  what can you expect of Kirkus? They did give me a star once upon a time.

MY CONNECTION WITH CORNWALL

 

People have been asking what is my connection with Cornwall. I must have been 8 years old, I think, the first time we went there--"we" being my mother, my godmother, my sister and brother and I. We went to the south coast, a village called Mullion, and stayed in a farmhouse bed and breakfast.

I may not be able to remember the title of the book I was reading last night, but I still know the names of the farmer and his wife (Doug and Marge), and those of the five freighters we saw in Falmouth Harbour, while taking a boat tour: Eradona, Lyria, British Destiny, British Diligence and British Resolution. I remember making Eradona into a song which we kids sang all the way home. (Why any of us survived our childhoods I can't understand!)

The following year, my godmother, Bet, found a farmer in North Cornwall who rented her a field on the outskirts of Crackington Haven, overlooking the sea. There she parked her little caravan, with a view of the two headlands, Cambeak and Penkenna. And there the caravan stayed for the next thirty years or so.

We used to go down every summer, and often at Easter too. We got to know the North Coast from Clovelly to Padstow: Bude, Widemouth (Widdymth) Bay, St Gennys, Rocky Valley, Boscastle, Tintagel, Port Isaac; and Bodmin Moor--a favourite hike was to the top of Rough Tor to climb the huge rocks piled there by mythical giants.

One of my earliest Regencies, The Miser's Sister, is set on Bodmin Moor.

Bet's caravan was still on the cliff-top when my son first visited England at the age of 18 months. I have a photo of him stealing grapes from the "refrigerator," an old-fashioned meat-safe. The field had two disused water tanks, from one of which we were able to siphon washing water, though drinking water had to be carried up the hill from a friendly neighbour. There was a chemical loo in a tent behind one tank, where one could sit and watch the sun set between the headlands.

My present connection with Cornwall is that my sister lives on the Cornish bank of the Tamar, the river that separates Cornwall from Devon, north of Plymouth. She's just a few miles downstream from Cotehele, a 15th century fortified manor house. The first time I saw Cotehele, I knew I had to write about it. I was writing Regencies then, and I used it as the setting for Smugglers' Summer. After Daisy came into my life, I set a mystery there: Mistletoe and Murder. And I expect that one day Eleanor Trewynn, my sleuth in the Cornish mysteries,  will find herself mixed up in murder at Cotehele, though her home is on the North Coast.

 

Carola Dunn

March 2009 Bestsellers from the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association

Hardcover

1 - Peter Robinson, All the Colors of Darkness, Morrow

2 - tie

    Randy Wayne White, Dead Silence, Putnam

    Jacqueline Winspear, Among the Mad, Holt

4 - Barry Eisler, Fault Line, Ballantine

5 - Robert B. Parker, Night and Day, Putnam

6 - Dana Stabenow, Whisper to the Blood, St. Martin's

7 - Steig Larsson, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Knopf

8 - tie

    Earl Emerson, Cape Disappointment, Ballantine

    Walter Mosley, The Long Fall, Riverhead

10 - Joanne Fluke, Cream Puff Murder, Kensington

Softcover

1 - Hannah Dennison, Scoop!, Signet

2 - Emily Brightwell, Mrs. Brightwell in the Nick of Time, Berkley

3 - tie

    James W. Hall, Hell's Bay, St. Martin's

    Deanna Raybourn, Silent on the Moor, Mira

5 - Rhys Bowen, Tell Me, Pretty Maiden, St. Martin's

6 - Bryan Gruley, Starvation Lake, Touchstone

7 - Andrea Camilleri, August Heat, Penguin

8 - Victoria Laurie, Ghouls Just Want to Have Fun, Obsidian

9 - Alexander McCall Smith, The Miracle at Speedy Motors, Anchor

10 - Laura Childs, The Silver Needle Murder, Berkley

Love, lust and mystery on the frontier

It's Day ??? of the usual book publicity forced march, and Seattle Mystery Bookshop offers its usual warm and friendly refuge as I go hither and yon talking about The Dakota Cipher. Ethan Gage is back for an 1801 adventure across the Great Lakes and frontier in search of Norse artifacts, and I've enjoyed chatting with readers about theories that Scandinavians not only beat Columbus, but possibly penetrated to the center of the continent. Fans with blond hair seem to believe it! It's always enjoyable to get some feedback and ideas, so please visit my website and tell me where Ethan should go next. Thanks to this store and its very loyal customers.

Bill Dietrich

Sat, July 18th, noon: the long wait is over - Clyde Ford signs Whiskey Gulf (Vanguard hc, $24.95). Charlie Noble returns! He’s hired to look into a missing couple whose sailboat cruised into a closed military zone in Canadian waters. Neither government is willing to help but his investigation will lead him to a remote and secret cove where he and Raven will be attacked. Is this what happened to the missing couple and their boat? 3rd in this watery and popular private eye series.

Lansdale signing

 

Thurs, July 16, noon, Joe R. Lansdale signs Vanilla Ride (Knopf hc, $23.95). In their seventh appearance (and first since 2001), East Texas smart-alec Hap and gay, black vet Leonard are still best buddies and unlikely knight-errants. When an old friend asks Leonard to help get his daughter away from an abusive drug dealer, the pair swings into action. Before they know it, they’re up to their eye-teeth in the Dixie Mob.

A Sunny Day in Seattle

This is my third trip to Seattle and for the first time I can see mountains.  Hurray.  There are three scenes in my newest book, Valley of the Lost, set in Seattle, as the Seattle police dig into the background of the crime that occurs in 'bucolic' Trafalgar, B.C. I didn't spend too much time writing great scenes of description.  Just something along the lines of ... they didn't see anything beyond the front of the car other than fog and rain.  But now that I know the sun can shine, and the mountains are beautiful I will have to spend some more words on description next time. This is my last stop on the big U.S. book tour that began a month ago in Hawaii, and it has all been quite wonderful.  Never mind the weather, the people at Seattle Mystery Bookshop were as welcoming as the sunshine. 

Vicki Delany

http://typem4murder.blogspot.com

Gillian Flynn

Tues, June 16, noon, Gillian Flynn signs Dark Places (Shaye Areheart hc, $24.00). Now 32, Libby Day was the only survivor of “The Satan Sacrifice of Kinnakee, Kansas”. Seven when her mother and two sisters were murdered, she testified that her brother Ben did it. Now near the end of the trust fund that has supported her since, Libby thinks she’s found a way to make money off the horror: the Kill Club is a social group devoted to famous and lurid crimes. Libby intends to interview everyone who was involved those many years ago and try to present it to the gruesome group for a fee. Stories may have changed over the years, including Libby’s. JB highly recommends this lush and twisted story. If Flynn wrote instructions to repair a Model T, he’d read it. Book of the year!

Here's Gretchen's review from our 3.20.09 newzine:

            Dark Places by Gillian Flynn : I sat down yesterday and read the whole thing.  There is no way to match JB's glowing recommendation for this book (newzine 2.5.09) - except to say that I agree wholeheartedly with everything he said. I also had her debut (Sharp Objects, Three Rivers tp, $14) as one of my best of 2006 books - it is a spot-on description of a "cutter" and a glorious read.  I’ve been eagerly awaiting her next one.  And I must say it is right up there with her first.  

            Dark Places is dark of the dark, people absolutely splayed open revealing their grimy humanness.  A story that weaves between the present - Libby trying to find the truth of her family’s murder - and the past  - the truth about them catching up with her.  Chapters alternate to reveal the next step for Libby, followed by a little more of what happened on the day of the murders.  The intensity of wondering what really happened and what Libby will find tightens and tightens the further you read. 

            Gillian has the most amazing way of describing people, events and situations. They get under your skin. "My neighborhood doesn't even have a name, it's so forgotten.  It's called Over There That Way.  A weird, subprime area, full of dead ends and dog crap.  The other bungalows are packed with old people who've lived in them since they were built.  The old people sit, gray and pudding-like, behind screen windows, peering out at all hours."

            Superb writing that flows and then grabs you cold.

            Do yourself a favor and read this book - this author!

 

And here's JB's review from 2.5.09:

    If Gillian Flynn wrote a cookbook for water, a textbook on non-linear accounting or a how-to book detailing the way to needlepoint  an exact replica of the pre-interstate highway system of the US, I’d read them. She’s that damn fine a writer.

    Her debut book (Sharp Objects, Three Rivers tp, $14) was a wonder, and was one of my favorite books of 2006. But you always have the question in the back of your head that a great first book may be the only great book any writer has in them. After all, they’ve probably worked on it for years and subsequent books – especially the aptly named ‘sophomore slump’ – can disappoint. No such worries for Gillian.

    Dark Places is a staggeringly fine book. The writing is lush and memorable and grabs your soul from the first page. The first line is “I have a meanness inside me, real as a organ.” The narrator is Libby Day who survived the slaughter of her family 25 years ago. Her testimony as a 7 year old helped to convict her 15 year old brother of the murders of their mother and two sisters. Libby has coasted ever since, living on a trust fund set up to care for her and alienating everyone in her path. That money is about to run out and she’s found a new source of income, but it will mean talking to those from the past and dealing with the murders, something she’s spent the years since avoiding with all her power. She’s as brutal on herself as she is on everyone else: “In class photos my hair was always crooked – barrettes hanging loosely from strands, as if they were airborne objects caught in tangles – and I always had bulging pockets under my eyes, drunk-landlady eyes.”

    The structure of the story is a wonder, just like the story-telling. Chapters of Libby in the present alternate with chapters detailing the day of the murders. As Libby begins to see people from the past and ask questions, the chapters from the past move toward the horrors of that early morning, so both sides of the narration creep steadily toward the answers and the crimes. It is both crime novel and mystery book, a family’s saga as well as an individual’s story, the story of inevitable and stunning crimes as well as a search for and strange places we find peace, and the book reminds us of the heavy toll of actions and inactions.

    In our culture, one often hears that ‘there is nothing new’ in movies or plays or books. That it has all been done before. Gillian Flynn is glorious proof that those who promote this claim are as hollow as the culture they decry. Gillian Flynn is a brave new voice in fiction, a fascinating and fluid writer, and an artist of the highest talents.

    She is what is new.

 

 

Our March 2009 Bestsellers

Hardcovers

1 – Earl Emerson, Cape Disappointment, Ballantine

2 – Lono Waiwaiole, Dark Paradise, McMillan

3 – Tim Dorsey, Nuclear Jellyfish, Morrow

4 – Robert B. Parker, Night and Day, Putnam

5 – Cara Black, Murder in the Latin Quarter, Soho

6 – tie

    Walter Mosley, The Long Fall, Riverhead

    Peter Robinson, All the Colors of Darkness, Morrow

8 – Jacqueline Winspear, Among the Mad, Holt

9 – tie

    Susan Hill, The Risk of Darkness, Overlook

    Philip Kerr, A Quiet Flame, Putnam

    Dianne Emley, The Deepest Cut, Ballantine

    Randy Wayne White, Dead Silence, Putnam

Softcovers

1 – David Benioff, City of Thieves, Plume

2 – tie

    Andreas Camilleri, August Heat, Penguin

    Caitlin Kittredge, Second Skin, St. Martin’s

    Kelley Armstrong, Exit Strategy, Bantam

    David Levien, The City of Sun, Vintage

    Lisa Lutz, The Spellman Files, Pocket

7 – tie

    Dianne Emley, Cut to the Quick, Ballantine

    Alexander McCall Smith, The Miracle at Speedy Motors, Anchor

9 – tie

    Michael Gruber, The Forgery of Venus, Harper

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

    Kat Carlisle, Homicide in Hardcover, Obsidian

    Marcus Sakey, At the City’s Edge, St. Martin’s

    Lee Child, Nothing to Lose, Dell

    Cynthia Baxter, Too Rich and Too Dead, Bantam

    Kelley Armstrong, Made to be Broken, Bantam

    Minette Walters, The Chameleon’s Shadow, Vintage

    Harley Jane Kozak, A Date You Can’t Refuse, Broadway

Lisa Lutz is tired

Happy Birthday, Isabel Spellman!

I'm at the Seattle Mystery Bookshop on April Fool's Day. I love them here, but they did make me wake up at five a.m. to catch a flight to Seattle. And Fran is holding a gun (yes, a gun) to my head and making me blog in my sleep deprived state.

They have a ton of my books here. Please drop by and take some of them off their hands. I beg of you.

Until next year,

Lisa Lutz

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Seattle Mystery Bookshop Announces Economic Stimulus Windfall

In a sure sign that the Obama Administration’s Economic Stimulus Plan is working its way to the Pacific Northwest and small businesses, today the Seattle Mystery Bookshop announced it has received $18.25 with which it will use to benefit the overall American – and global – economy.

“Well, we would have appreciated getting a bit more,” admitted shop owner JB Dickey, “At least then it might be possible to do some bonuses and ‘retention payments’. We’re doing ok in general, and if other businesses who need more are getting more, I guess that’s fair. But out of $700 billion, would adding an extra zero have killed them? We’re not AIG or GM, but come on…”

Bookkeeper Fran Fuller was a tad less sanguine. “Oh for pity’s sake – that’s a bucket of nickels! Still, it is reassuring that the feds are getting the money out and we’ll get some of the other stimulus money in sales, so that is good. And it is more than the last administration did for us – unless you can count the way the dollar cratered and that brought in the foreign tourists last summer.”

“If nothing else, this would pay for most of a pizza for a staff lunch on a busy signing day. Maybe we’ll save it for when Michael Connelly or Lee Child is here. Those days will be crazy and we’ll be ready for lunch after the crowds have thinned out”, chimed in Marie Ary. Standing nearby, Bill Farley laughed and said “Hey, we can spread it around the neighborhood – coffee, Dr. Pepper, and split pea soup. Guess that stimulates the Bakeman’s economy. Won’t do much to balance out the void of WaMu’s destruction, but if other businesses are getting a bucket of nickels… Add a bunch of buckets of nickels together and pretty soon, well, you’ve got to hire some guys to move it all.”

Saturday bookseller Janine Wilson was hearing all of this for the first time. Asked for her view, she was literally speechless. While her mouth would periodically open to say something, nothing would emerge.

Dickey expects the check to arrive at the beginning of April. “Yeah, $18.25 isn’t a lot of money, in the grand scheme of things, but we’re a little business and our sales, year in and year out, day in and day out, are made out of good and loyal customers buying a few paperbacks or a hardcover and all of those little sales gather together to make a solid day or month or year of sales. Those are all important and crucial and normal. We can’t snort at selling $18.25 worth of books, how can we not accept $18.25 from the feds? It’s all money into the checking account. Besides, we aren’t looking to the government for help. We rely on our customers. We’d be fools to look at it any other way.”

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