Seattle Mystery Bookshop

We are Closed Today!

Sunday March 31st

The shop is closed so the staff can hunt down Easter eggs...

Don't worry, we will back on Monday, bright eyed and bushy tailed!

Did You Know?

While you can browse upcoming events, new and forth coming titles at our shop website….

Due to various limitations….

We list the vast majority of our: used, rare, collectable, and hard to find books on a separate website?

We have 2062 books listed on Biblio.com:

83% are First Editions

80% have at least one photo

68% are Signed

Here are just a few: (of our most collectable!)

Left Coast Crime Winners

Left Coast Crime is an annual conference organised by mystery fiction fans for mystery fiction fans, first held in San Francisco in 1991. The conference enables fans to mix with authors, find new books and share their passion about books. Conference participants vote on the awards given out!

2013 Winners

Bruce Alexander Memorial Historical Mystery Award

Lefty

The Rocky

(P.S. Craig will be in the shop on Saturday July 13th at Noon!)

The Watson

Congrats to all the winners and nominees!

Jacqueline Winspear: Reserve Yours Today!

Wednesday April 10^th at Noon

Jacqueline Winspear signs Leaving Everything Most Loved

Two months after his sister’s death, and getting no satisfaction from the authorities, a man asks Maisie Dobbs to investigate. To her astonishment, she finds a subculture of Indian women who are brought to London as domestics but who are often turn out onto the street with no means of support. As Maisie delves deeper into this culture, she becomes more taken with that world and more outraged as more women begin to die.

Jacqueline will be on hand to sign books and speak informally to her fans. All we ask is you purchase one of her new books at our store, so we can continue to host these great events!

Who Would You Vote For?

Left Coast Crime

The Bruce Alexander Memorial Historical Mystery Award

Left Coast Crime is an annual conference organised by mystery fiction fans for mystery fiction fans, first held in San Francisco in 1991. Since 2004 they have given away the Bruce Alexander Memorial Historical Mystery Award, to mysteries set prior to 1950.

We looked at the nominees this year and wondered how we would vote since they are all fantastic!

Thomas Perry answers The Questions

How many rejection slips did you get before your first novel was published?

Over a lot of years I had received a number of rejection slips for earlier manuscripts for short stories, and longer and longer stories.  But when I had finished the first novel I had much hope for, The Butcher's Boy, I wrote to agents rather than publishers.  I had an alphabetical list from
the Authors' Guild, and the one who replied positively was the late Lurton Blassingame. So whoever was in the A's, and the early B's rejected my book before he got it.

 Have you ever thrown away a book you just couldn't make work?

I haven't actually thrown away a book I couldn't make work. I put them in a closet, where they gather dust.  I would say that's happened about four times.  Lots of dust in there by now.

 Is it still exciting to publish a book after all this time?

It is still exciting to publish a book after all this time--thirty years or more.  I get impatient to see what other people think of it--will they "get" it?  (Some do, some don't).  Will it sell well? (I suspect the differences over the years are probably not huge). It's always a bit of a gamble in many ways, but I still enjoy it.

Do you get ideas for new books all the time and you keep them written down, or does one come to mind when you need one?

I do get ideas for new books all the time.  I sometimes, but don't usually, write them down.  But I do keep them in mind until I find an idea that I think is worth laboring and fussing over for a year.  Then I forget the others for a while.

Do you know how a book/series is going to end when you begin it?

I don't have entire story arcs mapped out, except in my mind after I've written the book. Then certain things about the next book in the series are established, and I have to live with them. I'm not a big outliner.  What I've found is that when you write an outline it contains the best ideas you've had over a period of two or three days. When you don't write an outline, your book includes the best ideas that come to you over a much longer period, sometimes a year or more.

When I begin a book I know the general area of concern and I know who will be standing up at the end.  I don't let myself make too many irrevocable decisions too early.  

Why do you write?

I think telling stories is a basic human activity, related in some ways to dreaming, and in other ways to children's role-playing games.  I think a writer "becomes" each of the people in the story, and mentally acts out their parts in it, just as an oral storyteller does. During that work period (or maybe play period, or dream period), he's definitely somewhere else, in the characters' world.

When I worked in television and got to see actors every day, I noticed that all of them want to do everything. They want to be the good guy, the bad guy, and the victim. They want to make people laugh, cry, fear, and think.  I think writers want to do everything too.  We're limited by
the short period of time we have to keep at it.  I would like to write every kind of book I haven't written yet.

 Is there anything about your writing career you'd change?

I don't think I'd change my writing career much.  I haven't been one of the most popular, but I've done okay and sent my kids to good schools and driven cars that start when I turn the key.  I've always given myself the freedom to write whatever I wanted, which is not true of friends of
mine who are wildly big sellers.  My parents, who were teachers, said do what you like best, and there will be enough money.  So far, we haven't missed any meals.

 What do you like best about writing, and what do you like least?

 I like being able to make a living with nothing but a piece of paper and a pen.  What I like least is having to make a living with nothing but a piece of paper and a pen.

If you could have written any single work – novel, screenplay, stage play, poem, history, biography – that you most admire and adore, what would it be? 

Any single work?  I suppose I would have liked to write Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom! which is probably the best meditation on storytelling that I've ever read. But to do it I'd have had to write everything else he wrote too--The Sound and the Fury, Light in August, Go Down, Moses. That's a lot to ask without earning it. 

Anything you’ve always wanted to be asked about your writing but no one ever has?

There's nothing I've wanted asked but haven't been.  People have always been better at questions than I've been at answers.  

 Thanks very much for your kindness and hospitality at the store. It was a real pleasure.

 

Best,

Thomas Perry

Joanne Fluke & Red Velvet Cupcake Murder

(We only have one or two signed copies left in stock, get them before they are gone! -SMB)

--> How many rejection slips did you get before your first novel was published?

Enough so that I was able to wallpaper an entire bathroom with them! Really, true story!

--> Have you ever thrown away a book that you just couldn't make work?

That’s never happened, I save EVERYTHING!

--> Is it still exciting to publish a new book even after all this time?

Every time I see a new book of mine in print, my heart races and I start smiling. I have always loved being a writer (Especially the Hannah Swensen Mysteries).

--> Do you get ideas for new books all the time and you keep them written down, or does one come to mind when you need one?

It happens both ways.

--> Do you have entire story arcs mapped out when you begin a trilogy or a series of related books?

I have each book mapped out, before I begin in outline form, but I have never plotted an “arc” of a series. I just write one book at a time- focusing on each one individually.

--> Do you know how a book/series is going to end when you begin it?

Yes.

--> Do you have to enter a different mind-set to write different stories for different names / characters?

No.

--> Is there any kind of book you would like to write but haven't?

Of Course.

--> If you could change anything about your writing career, what would it be?

I wouldn't change anything about Hannah. She wouldn't let me.

--> If you could have written any single work – novel, screenplay, stage play, poem, history, biography – that you most admire and adore, what would it be?

I wish I had written a check to myself for a million dollars that hadn't bounced!

--> Anything you’ve always wanted to be asked about your writing but no one ever has?

Not yet, but there is always hope

Joanne Fluke

Feb. YA / Kids Bestsellers

YA / Kids Bestsellers

1. Lissa Evans - HORTENS MIRACULOUS MECHANISMS , Sterling

2. Jasper Fforde - THE LAST DRAGONSLAYER, Harcourt

3. Dori Butler -THE BUDDY FILES: THE CASE OF THE LOST BOY, Whitman

4. Brandon Mull - FABLEHAVEN, Aladdin

5. Jo Nesbo - BUBBLE IN THE BATHTUB, Aladdin

6. Jennifer Bradbury - WRAPPED, Atheneum

7. Rachel Hawkins - HEX HALL, Hyperion

9. Tie

Adam Rex - COLD CEREAL, Balzer + Bray

Kathryn Littlewood - BLISS, Tegen

F.T. Bradley - DOUBLE VISION, Harper

Frank Beddor - THE LOOKING GLASS WARS, Speak

Diana Renn - TOKYO HEIST, Viking - Signed Copies Available

February MM Bestsellers

Mass Market

1 – Yasmine Galenorn, Haunted Moon, Jove - Signed Copies Available

2 – Mary Daheim, The Alpine Winter, Ballatnine - Signed Copies Available

3 – Randy Wayne White, Chasing Midnight, Berkley

4 – tie

Gail Carriger, Soulless, Orbit

K.W. Jeter, Infernal Devices, Angry Robot

Mary Lou Kirwin, Killer Librarian, Pocket

7 - tie

Jo Nesbø, Redbreast, Harper

Sheila Connolly, Buried in a Bog, Berkley

Harlan Coben, Stay Close, Signet

Alex Berenson, Shadow Patrol, Jove

J.A. Jance, Left for Dead, Pocket - Signed Copies Available

February TP Bestsellers

Trade Paperbacks

1 – Chris Pavone, Expats, Broadway

2 – Lecretia Grindle, Villa Triste, Grand Central

3 - tie

Jim Lynch, Truth Like the Sun, Vintage

Ian Hamilton, Disciples of Las Vegas, Picado

5 – tie

Thomas Perry, Poisoned Flower, Mysterious Press

Peter Spiegelman, Thick as Thieves, Vintage

7 – tie

Jussi Adler-Olsen, The Keeper of Lost Causes, Plume

Robert Goldsborough, Archie Meets Nero Wolfe, Mysterious Press

Ross Allison, Spooked in Seattle, Clerisy Press

10 – tie

Jess Walter, We Live in Water, Harper

Tom Hansen, This is What We Do, Emergency Press - Signed Copies Available

Lori Armstrong, Merciless, Touchstone

Cara Black, Murder at the Lanterne Rouge, Soho - Signed Copies Available

February HC Bestsellers

1 – J.A. Jance, Deadly Stakes, Touchstone - Signed Copies Available

2 – Roger Hobbs, Ghostman, Knopf - Signed Copies Available

3 – Joanne Fluke, Red Velvet Cupcake, Kensington - Signed Copies Available

4 – Mary Daheim, The Alpine Xanadu, Ballantine - Signed Copies Available

5 – Ian Rankin, Standing in Another Man’s Grave, Mulholland - Signed Copies Available

6 – Burt Weissbourd, Inside Passage, Vireo Rare Bird - Signed Copies Available

7 – Lawrence Block, Hit Me, Mulholland - Signed Copies Available

8 – Robert Crais, Suspect, Putnam

9 – tie

Jenny Milchman, Cover of Snow, Ballantine

Timothy Hallinan, Little Elvises, Soho - Signed Copies Available

Affair in Seattle

My affair with Seattle begins at the Seattle Mystery Bookshop --- all the crime and mystery novels I can devour. This is the best place to Launch a book on Pub Day and I'm thrilled to launch Murder Below Montparnasse set in Paris in a Northwest semi-equivalent with almost as many cafes.

Big merci's to JB, Amber, Fran and Adele for a brilliant and warm launch!!!!!!!!!!

Bises, Cara

Hey, People

Stopped in at the Seattle Mystery Bookshop to sign on opening day.  Weather is Seattle springish -- gray and sweet smelling.  First stop on the tour and I'm pretty stoked. 

Dan Dos Santos's cover art is incredibly beautiful.  There is always something in one of his paintings that is amazing.  On Hunting Ground, it is in the detail of the ribbon on Anna's sweater.  Bone Crossed had the drops of water hanging from the crowbar and Mercy's chin.  For Frost Burned, its the incredible way that he made the tail light on Mercy's doomed car light up.

All Best,

Patty Briggs

"Slap!" "POW!" "OOF!"

 

from theuncommonuncommon.tumblr

The Right Artwork

The most recent reissue from Rue Morgue Press came in today. The title is one of Bill Farley's all-time favorites. They've done it justice with a terrific cover.

They're a class act!