Seattle Mystery Bookshop

Sleepy Hollow

 

Order Yours Today!

The timeless collection that introduced Rip Van Winkle, Ichabod Crane, and the Headless Horseman.

Perhaps the marker of a true mythos is when the stories themselves overshadow their creator. Originally published under a pseudonym as The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories gave America its own haunted mythology. This collection of larger-than-life tales contains Washington Irving’s best-known literary inventions—Ichabod Crane, the Headless Horseman, and Rip Van Winkle—that continue to capture our imaginations today.

Happy Halloween!

New Book Corner: The Final Silence

Out This Week!

In Belfast, Northern Ireland, memories of the city’s troubled history haunt every street corner, but for one tortured soul, the incredible violence in his past is also his most cherished legacy.

Rea Carlisle—daughter of influential Stormont politician Graham Carlisle—has inherited a house from an uncle she never knew. It doesn't take her long to clear out the dead man's remaining possessions, but one of the upstairs rooms remains stubbornly locked. When Rea finally forces it open, she discovers inside a chair, a table, and a leather-bound book, its pages filled with a host of chilling mementos, locks of hair, fingernails: a catalogue of victims.

Horrified, Rea wants to go straight to the police but her father intervenes. Graham Carlisle has worked too hard to get where he is just to have his brother’s twisted legacy ruin his own. Thwarted by her father, Rea turns to the only person she can think of: disgraced police inspector Jack Lennon, a man who also happens to have briefly been her lover.

But Lennon somehow finds himself the lead suspect in a murder investigation led by one of the force’s toughest cops, DCI Serena Flannagan. The suddenness of the murder and his implication in it, coupled with the story Rea brought to him, leaves Lennon more than a little suspicious that the two are related and that he has once again found himself lining up against people with power and influence. Lennon will risk everything to get to the bottom of this grisly conspiracy.

Radio Play: Sherlock Holmes - The Final Problem

BBC Radio Play

The Final Problem

John Gielgud, Ralph Richardson and Orson Welles star in the great detective's encounter at the Reichenbach Falls. From 1954.

Newzine 10.24.14

Halloween! Crunchy leaves, dark windy and wet streets, spooky pumpkins, costumes, kids and candy – oh my! Sunday there’s “trick or treating” for kids on the waterfront, then bring ‘em in to see Amber for a book er two.

Here’s good place for this link. On Wed. Nov 12, Fuminori Nakumura will be here to sign his third American release, Last Winter, We Parted. Adele is a HUGE fan of all three and says they’re all “CREEPY!” From the LA Times, a review that says “…it is dark and edgy, original and bold.” (It is not, we emphasise, for the squeamish.)

Rest In Peace

There isn’t much we can say about a man like Ben Bradlee that hasn’t been more eloquently stated elsewhere. And you might find it odd that we pay tribute to him now, here, in a space relegated to crime and mystery.

But we include him for his work managing the exposure of Nixon’s crimes and the stories that would group together to become known as the Watergate story. Back in the early days of hardboiled fiction, in addition to the private eyes and cops, there were lots of reporters and photographers as the heroes, and figures from the press were important characters, intrepidly investigating the high and low crimes in the world. It wasn’t really until Watergate that we once again got the image of investigative journalists as important sleuths in the world of true crime. And a large slice of that resurgeance is due to Mr. Bradlee’s influence.

            R.I.P.

Gift Certificates: They’re available in Whatever Denomination You Want; They Don’t Expire; You can Order Them by Phone, e-mail or through the Website, and we can Mail them directly to the Recipient if you’d like. Perfect for all sorts of occasIons.

Links of Interest:

The Changing Face of Sherlock Holmes

Mysterious tins are being found in thatched rooves across Wiltshire.

Sir Kyffin Williams painting stolen!

A cold case from a firey crime: Northamtonshire 1930 ‘Blazing Car Murder: Nine Families Shortlisted

Dylan Thomas’ bounced check up for auction.

Forgive us if we’re repeating ourselves. We can’t recall if we’ve posted this in the past. If we have, it was long enough ago that it merits being included again: Chandler’s LA – the locations in the fiction

While we specialize in mystery and crime books, we can order virtually any new book that you might want, no matter what its topic.

New Signings (with authors who will be visiting the shop)

Sat, March 7, noon – C.S. Harris signs Who Buries the Dead (NAL hc, $24.95)

London, 1813. The vicious decapitation of Stanley Preston, a wealthy, socially ambitious plantation owner, at Bloody Bridge draws Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin, into a macabre and increasingly perilous investigation. The discovery near the body of an aged lead coffin strap bearing the inscription King Charles, 1648 suggests a link between this killing and the beheading of the deposed seventeenth-century Stuart monarch. Equally troubling, the victim’s kinship to the current Home Secretary draws the notice of Sebastian’s powerful father-in-law, Lord Jarvis, who will exploit any means to pursue his own clandestine ends.

Working in concert with his fiercely independent wife, Hero, Sebastian finds his inquiries taking him from the wretched back alleys of Fish Street Hill to the glittering ballrooms of Mayfair as he amasses a list of suspects who range from an eccentric Chelsea curiosity collector to the brother of an unassuming but brilliantly observant spinster named Jane Austen. But as one brutal murder follows another, it is the connection between the victims and ruthless former army officer Sinclair, Lord Oliphant, which dramatically raises the stakes. Once, Oliphant nearly destroyed Sebastian in a horrific wartime act of carnage and betrayal. Now the vindictive former colonel might well pose a threat not only to Sebastian but to everything—and everyone—Sebastian holds most dear.

See the calendar of all currently-scheduled events on our website. The website calendar contains plot synopses. At the bottom of it is the updated, complete list of signed copies that we’ll be getting from other sources. Click Here.

John Connolly, Nov 10

Fuminori Nakamura, Nov 12

Maia Chance, Nov 15

Timothy Hallinan, Nov 18

F. Paul Wilson, Nov 19

Bernadette Pajer, Nov 29

Phillip Margolin, Dec 11

Jayne Ann Krentz, Jan 6

Tracy Weber & M.A. Lawson, Jan 10

Jeanne Matthews, Jan 14

Thomas Perry, Jan 16

Pamela Christie, Jan 17

Yasmine Galenorn, Jan 31

Burt Weissbourd, Jan 31 at 3:00pm

Glen Erik Hamilton, Mar 3

And there are always more on the way!

Remember, too, that while it is always fun to come in and meet the author in person, that isn’t always possible. So reserve a signed copy to be mailed to you or for you to pick up later. Those who reserve in advance get the copies in the best condition!

______________________________________________________________________________

Wish List

Our website has a Wish List capability. If folks want to know what you’d like for a given holiday or birthday, it is easy to point people to our website. Amber has put together a dandy blog post explaining it and how it works.

Word of the Week

creep (v.) Old English creopan "to creep" (class II strong verb; past tense creap, past participle cropen), from Proto-Germanic *kreupan (cognates: Old Frisian kriapa, Middle Dutch crupen, Old Norse krjupa "to creep"), perhaps from a Proto-Indo-European root *g(e)r- "crooked" [Watkins]. Related: Crept; creeping.

creep (n.) "a creeping motion," 1818, from creep (v.). Meaning "despicable person" is 1935, American English slang, perhaps from earlier sense of "sneak thief" (1914). Creeper "a gilded rascal" is recorded from c.1600, and the word also was used of certain classes of thieves, especially those who robbed customers in brothels. The creeps "a feeling of dread or revulsion" first attested 1849, in Dickens.

creepy (adj.) 1794, "characterized by creeping," from creep + -y (2). Meaning "having a creeping feeling in the flesh" is from 1831; that of producing such a feeling, the main modern sense, is from 1858. Creepy-crawly is from 1858.  (thanks to etymonline.com)

You can browse our collectable and hard-to-find books, as well as signed copies from earlier author events, on Biblio.com. You do not have to place an order through them, especially if you’re a long-time customer and we have your ordering info. Just email us to order.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What We’ve Been Reading                                   

Amber Recommends:

Amber’s project for 2014: My 52 Weeks of Agatha Christie. Here’s her explanation.

This Week: Alice, Arsenic and Alliteration

Fran Recommends:

Urban Waite’s Sometimes The Wolf (Morrow hc, $26.99, signed copies available) is the follow-up to Urban’s critically acclaimed debut, The Terror of Living (Hachette, $14.99, signed copies in soon, we promise!), but you don’t have to have read The Terror of Living first; Sometimes the Wolf stands on its own. Still, reading them in order is what I’d recommend!

Bobby Drake has lived under the shadow of his father, Patrick’s, conviction for smuggling drugs out of Canada. The fact that Bobby’s dad was sheriff, as Bobby himself is now, adds to the sting, and in a small town, everyone knows everyone else’s business, so there’s no hiding from his family’s history. Now, after twelve years, Patrick is out on parole, which means that Bobby has to confront his own feelings since his dad is going to stay with them – Bobby and his wife, Sheri – until Patrick can get his feet under him.

But to survive in prison, Patrick had to make some unpleasant alliances, and two of them are coming after him. In addition, FBI Agent Driscoll is certain that Patrick was involved in other crimes besides smuggling drugs, and Driscoll is determined to bust Patrick for those past deeds. 

Bobby doesn’t know who to trust, and when his dad runs, everything falls apart, and Bobby has to figure out what is going on, and what he really believes.

I fell for the characters in The Terror of Living, and it’s great to be back with them in Sometimes the Wolf. Getting to know Patrick, to see more of Driscoll and Sheri, to meet the other new characters in this second book, well, it’s coming back to see old friends and meet the new people in their lives. Granted, some of these people are pretty unpleasant, but that’s what makes it interesting.

It’s a tribute to Urban Waite’s talent for storytelling that I can say that his writing style drives the English teacher in me crazy. He uses incomplete sentences with wild abandon, and the staccato style, the short, choppy phrases do, at times, pop me out of the story. But I love the characters he’s created and the events in their lives so much that I can shake it off and dive back in. And I can’t deny that Urban’s style does raise the tension level in the book to incredible heights without sacrificing imagery. If anything, he’s found a way to make the images more vivid.

And one of the reasons I love this taste of Cascade Noir is the fact that everyone, good guys and bad guys alike, are nuanced. Okay, one bad guy is just out-and-out nasty, but everyone else has moments of strength and weaknesses that keep them from being cariactures and land solidly in the realm of real people. It’s one of Urban Waite’s absolute strengths, and why I always look forward to reading his work, choppy sentences and all.    

We have two Tumblr blogs, in addition to our regular shop blog:

Books and Decay, maintained by Amber – interesting photos with literary quotes to match

Hardboiled, maintained by JB – pulp covers, film noir and other images of crime and mystery, and

On This Date

Oct 26, 1881 – cops and bad guys shoot it out at the OK Corral

Oct 26, 1886 – Canadian scholar and Sherlockian specialist Vincent Starrett was born

Oct 26, 1912 – future movie director Don Siegel was born in Chicago

Oct 26, 1928 – Victorian mystery writer Ray Harrison was born in Lancashire

Oct 26, 1942 – the gruff but endearing Bob Hoskins was born in Suffolk

Oct 26, 1947 – future Angel, Jaclyn Smith was born in Houston

Oct 26, 1949 – birth of Robert William “Willie” Pickton, future British Columbian pig farmer and serial killer

Oct 26, 1960 – Italian crime writer Carlo Lucarelli was born

Oct 26, 1969 – Malaysian mystery writer Shamini Flint was born in Kuala Lampur

Oct 26, 1971 – Urban Fantasy writer Jim Butcher was born in Independence, MO

Oct 26, 2008 – Tony Hillerman died

Oct 27, 1890 – Golden Age mystery mistress Frances Crane was born in Lawrenceville, IL

Oct 27 – British mystery writer Elizabeth Lemarchand was born in Devonshire (1906) and American crime writer Michael Avallone was born in NYC (1924)

Oct 27, 1940 – the future ‘dapper don’, John Gotti, was born in da Bronx

Oct 27, 19-- - future mega-seller and all-around great dame J.A. Jance was born in Watertown, SD

Oct 27, 1939 - birthday of John Cleese, writer of A Fish Called Wanda (didn’t he do some TV as well at some point?), born in Somerset

Oct 27, 1975 – the darkest of days: Rex Stout died

Oct 27, 1977 – James M. Cain died

Oct 28, 1917 – the droll and amusing Jack Soo was born Goro Suzuki aboard a ship sailing toward Japan. Reared in Oakland, he and his family spent WWII in a Utah internment camp. We recognize him for “Barney Miller”. He was a singer signed to Motown (!) and was the first to record “For Once In My Life”. The recording was never released and Little Stevie Wonder’s later version became a hit

Oct 28, 1919 – Congress passed the Volstead Act over President Wilson’s veto, setting Prohibition is motion

Oct 28th is the birthday of Dennis Franz (1944, Maywood, IL), from ‘Hill Street Blues’ and ‘NYPD Blues’, and Julia Roberts (1967, Atlanta)

Oct 28 – a big day for mystery birthdays: Virginia Lanier (1930, Madison County, FL), Anne Perry (1938, Blackheath, London), Simon Brett (1945, Surrey) and Joe R. Lansdale (1951, Gladewater, TX)

Oct 28, 1953 – Christie’s “Witness for the Prosecution” opens on a London stage

Oct 28, 2010 – James MacArthur died

Oct 29, 1886 – Gabrielle Margaret Vere Campbell was born on Hayling Island, Hampshire. She’s remembered for her mysteries based on historical crimes published under the name Joseph Shearing

Oct 29, 1901 – Presidential assassin Leon Czolgosz was executed less than two months after  shooting William McKinley

Oct 29, 1905 – Frank “Bomp” Bompensiero, future syndicate hitman and LA family caporegime, was born in Milwaukie

Oct 29, 1906 – future Edgar-winner Fredric Brown was born in Cincinnati. His first mystery, The Fabulous Clipjoint, won the 1948 Best Novel. Also the birthdays of Desmond Bagley (1923 Kendal, Westmoreland) and Dominick Dunne (1925, Hartford, CT)

Oct 29, 1943 – film producer Don Simpson (Beverly Hills Cop and The Rock) was born in Seattle

Oct 29, 1948 – younger by one year and three days, future Angel Kate Jackson was born

Oct 29, 1964 – the ‘Star of India’ is stolen from the Museum of National History in NYC by a group of thieves lead by “Murph the Surf”

Oct 29, 1969 – ARPANET, the first computer-to-computer connection, goes live, setting the state for e-mails like this. What was the first message? “Watson, come quick, we’ve got SPAM!”

Oct 29, 1980 – actor Ben Foster was born in Boston

Oct 29, 2008 – London premiere of Quantum of Solace

Oct 30, 1891 – Col. Calvin Hooker Goddard was born in Baltimore. He laid the scientific foundations of forensic ballistics (and coined the term and set up the first ever lab to conduct examinations in NYC in1925. He was an expert witness after the St. Valentine’s Massacre

Oct 30, 1940 – the wonderful character actor Ed Lauter was born in Long Beach. Harry Hamlin (“LA Law”) was born in 1951, and a couple of other great character actors, Charles Martin Smith in Van Nuys in 1953 and, in 1957, Kevin Pollak was born in San Francisco

Oct 30, 1946 – Edgar-winner Teri White was born in Topeka

Oct 30, 1975 – first murder in the series that became known as The Yorkshire Ripper case

Oct 31, 1920 – TV producer Leonard Freeman was born. We have him to thank for “Hawaii 5-0”

Oct 31, 1922 – spook and propagandist master David Atlee Phillips was born in Fort Worth

Oct 31 – names of note in the mystery world: Dick Francis (1920, Tenby, Pembrokeshire), H.R.F. Keating (1926, Sussex), Parnell Hall (1944, Culver City, CA), Janet Dawson (1949), Don Winslow (1953, NYC) and Mari Jungstedt (1962, Stockholm)

Oct 31, 1926 – Houdini died

Oct 31, 1945 – Hitchcock’s Spellbound premiered

Oct 31, 1984 - former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated

And Have a Relaxing and Book-Filled Weekend!

Go Royals

Fear City

 

Wednesday November 19^th at Noon - F. Paul Wilson signs Fear City

Rage, terror, and redemption: these are the stones upon which F. Paul Wilson builds the concluding chapter of Repairman Jack: The Early Years, the prequel trilogy focusing on the formative years of Wilson's globally popular supernatural troubleshooter. The strands of Jack's life, established in the first two books, Cold City and Dark City, are now woven into a complete pattern.  Centered around an obscure group of malcontents intent on creating a terrible explosion in New York City in 1993, Fear City shows the final stages of young Jack becoming Repairman Jack.

Reserve Your Copy Today!

10 Best Detectives in Books

Lucy Worsley Author of The Art Of The English Murder picks out her ten favorite detectives in fiction! The list may surprise you!

Click here to do to the Publishers Weekly article!

Click on the book cover to go to our site to purchase the book!

Murder a dark, shameful deed, the last resort of the desperate or a vile tool of the greedy. And a very strange, very English obsession. But where did this fixation develop? And what does it tell us about ourselves?

In The Art of the English Murder, Lucy Worsley explores this phenomenon in forensic detail, revisiting notorious crimes like the Ratcliff Highway Murders, which caused a nationwide panic in the early nineteenth century, and the case of Frederick and Maria Manning, the suburban couple who were hanged after killing Maria s lover and burying him under their kitchen floor. Our fascination with crimes like these became a form of national entertainment, inspiring novels and plays, prose and paintings, poetry and true-crime journalism. At a point during the birth of modern England, murder entered our national psyche, and it s been a part of us ever since. The Art of the English Murder is a unique exploration of the art of crime and a riveting investigation into the English criminal soul by one of our finest historians."

New Book Corner: Clariel

Garth Nix - Clariel

Do You Have Your Copy Yet?

Award-winning author Garth Nix returns to the Old Kingdom with a thrilling prequel complete with dark magic, royalty, dangerous action, a strong heroine, and flawless world-building. This epic fantasy adventure is destined to be a classic, and is perfect for fans of Game of Thrones.

Clariel is the daughter of one of the most notable families in the Old Kingdom, with blood relations to the Abhorsen and, most important, to the King. She dreams of living a simple life but discovers this is hard to achieve when a dangerous Free Magic creature is loose in the city, her parents want to marry her off to a killer, and there is a plot brewing against the old and withdrawn King Orrikan. When Clariel is drawn into the efforts to find and capture the creature, she finds hidden sorcery within herself, yet it is magic that carries great dangers. Can she rise above the temptation of power, escape the unwanted marriage, and save the King?

Amazon's Monopoly Is Not OK

Oct 19, 2014

From Nobel-prize wining economist Paul Krugman:

"Amazon.com, the giant online retailer, has too much power, and it uses that power in ways that hurt America....

....Which brings us back to the key question. Don’t tell me that Amazon is giving consumers what they want, or that it has earned its position. What matters is whether it has too much power, and is abusing that power. Well, it does, and it is."

Ian Rankin Radio Play!

Part 1     Part 2

BBC 4 Radio Drama!

You Have 2 Weeks Left To Listen!

Ian Rankin's crime thriller centres on the building of the new Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh in 1998. During the construction work a body is discovered in an old fireplace. The forensics suggest the victim was murdered 20 years before. Police are still attempting to identify the corpse when a second body is found on the site - and this time it's one of the prospective candidates for the new parliament. It's a high-profile case and the rising star of Lothian And Borders Police - 28-year-old Detective Inspector Linford - is assigned to investigate, assisted by a reluctant John Rebus.

Newzine 10.17.14

Nightmare or fondest dream? US Tourist Locked Inside London Bookshop

Any bets on what the most tasteless Halloween costume will be this year? Actually, it won’t be a costume but people will look as if they’re sweaty and coughing…. Don’t shake hands with them!

Rest In Peace

We say vios con dios to Elizabeth Peña, an actress of great range and long career. She appeared in many crime shows on the tube (“Cagney & Lacy”, “Hill Street Blues”, “L.A. Law”) as well as in the movie theatre (Blue Steel, Lone Star, Rush Hour). She was funny in some, commanding in others but always added interesting dimensions to the works.

Born on Sept 23^rd, 1959 in Elizabeth, NJ, she never had a chance to escape performance. Her parents were deeply involved in the theatre, her father being a playwright, actor, director and novelist. Her film debut came in 1979 and she worked steadily, as an actress and director, until her death on Oct 14 of natural causes, after a brief illness.

If you'd like to see one of her best roles AND a really creepy movie perfect for this time of year, find Jacob's Ladder, 1990, with Tim Robbins.  CREEPY AND FREAKY!

            R.I.P.

Gift Certificates:

They’re available in Whatever Denomination You Want; They Don’t Expire; You can Order Them by Phone, e-mail or through the Website, and we can Mail them directly to the Recipient if you’d like. Perfect for all sorts of occasIons.

Links of Interest:

In case you’re always wondering just what we mean by the different tags we give styles of mysteries, here’s a handy list: Crime fiction dictionary: from Cozies to Hick Lit and everything in between

Ace Atkins explores the possibility of a spy conning an extraordinary number of people, including our own government.

David Greenglass, spy who sent sister Ethel Rosenberg to electric chair, dies

 Here’s a video of David Simon talking about how he came to create “The Wire”

Maia Chance will be signing here Saturday, Nov. 15 at noon. Want to know more about her and her new book? The Jungle Reds interviewed her, and there’s an excerpt from Snow White Red Handed included. Check it out and then reserve your copy!

While we specialize in mystery and crime books, we can order virtually any new book that you might want, no matter what its topic.

New Signings (with authors who will be visiting the shop)

Wed, Jan 14, noon, Jeanne Matthews signs Where the Bones are Buried (Poisoned Pen tp 14.95, hc 24.95 by special order). In her 5^th adventure, Dinah Pelerin’s peaceful life in Berlin with boyfriend, Thor, is jeopardized when her Seminole mother, Swan, comes to visit carrying a headful of blackmail schemes and lies. When they result in murder, Swan is the obvious suspect and it is up to Dinah, like it or not, to get her mom out of it. 5^th in the series from this local writer.

Tues, Mar 3, noon, Glen Erik Hamilton signs Past Crimes (Morrow hc, $26.99). Van Shaw broke with his training as a professional thief when he was 18 and became an Army Ranger. He hadn’t had any contact with his grandfather – his teacher – for a decade. Now he’s received a message in Gaelic from his grandfather asking him to come back to Seattle. When he arrives, he finds his grandfather mortally wounded. Though he vowed to stay away from that lawless world, he recognizes that he’ll have to use the skills he learned as a child – and in the military – to find justice. Debut by a man who grew up on the waterfronts of the Pacific Northwest, this is the launch of the tour for the book.

See the calendar of all currently-scheduled events on our website. The website calendar contains plot synopses. At the bottom of it is the updated, complete list of signed copies that we’ll be getting from other sources. Click Here.

Urban Waite, Oct 21

John Connolly, Nov 10

Fuminori Nakamura, Nov 12

Maia Chance, Nov 15

Timothy Hallinan, Nov 18

F. Paul Wilson, Nov 19

Bernadette Pajer, Nov 29

Phillip Margolin, Dec 11

Jayne Ann Krentz, Jan 6

Tracy Weber & M.A. Lawson, Jan 10

Thomas Perry, Jan 16

Pamela Christie, Jan 17

Yasmine Galenorn, Jan 31

Burt Weissbourd, Jan 31 at 3:00pm

And there are always more on the way!

Remember, too, that while it is always fun to come in and meet the author in person, that isn’t always possible. So reserve a signed copy to be mailed to you or for you to pick up later. Those who reserve in advance get the copies in the best condition!

______________________________________________________________________________

Wish List

Our website has a Wish List capability. If folks want to know what you’d like for a given holiday or birthday, it is easy to point people to our website. Amber has put together a dandy blog post explaining it and how it works.

Word of the Week

panic (n.1) "mass terror," 1708, from earlier adjective (c.1600, modifying fear, terror, etc.), from French panique (15c.), from Greek panikon, literally "pertaining to Pan," the god of woods and fields, who was the source of mysterious sounds that caused contagious, groundless fear in herds and crowds, or in people in lonely spots.

In the sense of "panic, fright" the Greek word is short for panikon deima "panic fright," from neuter of Panikos "of Pan." Meaning "widespread apprehension about financial matters" is first recorded 1757. Panic button in figurative sense is first recorded 1955, the literal sense apparently is from parachuting. Panic attack attested by 1970. (thanks to etymonline.com)

You can browse our collectable and hard-to-find books, as well as signed copies from earlier author events, on Biblio.com. You do not have to place an order through them, especially if you’re a long-time customer and we have your ordering info. Just email us to order.

_______________________________________________________________________________

What We’ve Been Reading                                 

Amber Recommends:

Amber’s project for 2014: My 52 Weeks of Agatha Christie. Here’s her explanation.

This Week: The Bard

Fran Recommends:

One thing you can count on when you begin a Jasper Fforde book is that it will be chock full of memorable characters. And surprises.

The Eye of Zoltar (Houghton, Mifflin, Harcourt, $16.99), the third in The Chronicles of Kazam series - following The Last Dragonslayer (HMH, $7.99) and The Song of the Quarkbeast (HMH, $7.99) - runs off in several directions at once, and they're all fascinating. Jennifer Strange, indentured orphan and manager of Kazam Mystical Arts Management, has already accomplished a great deal, but her skills are put to the test when The Mighty Shandar (who never gives refunds) insists that she find the missing Eye of Zoltar, a powerful magic gem. Of course, no one knows where it is or if it even really exists, but Jennifer must find it or a horrible fate will befall Colin and Feldspar, the last dragons.

I can't say more without giving too much away, except that we get to meet a whole new set of people. Jennifer's only companion is Perkins; the rest of the crew must stay home. But the people that Jennifer and Perkins meet along the way, including a spoiled princess, an intrepid guide, and various hungry beasts, will charm you to no end.

I had been afraid The Eye of Zoltar would complete the series but no, this opens the doorway to an incredible adventure, and I can't wait to see what comes next. My only regret is that there wasn't enough Quarkbeast in it, but I feel confident that in upcoming books, there will be plenty of Quarkbeast action.

If you're looking for a fun, fantastical series, this is it. Ignore the fact that it's considered Young Adult (unless you are a young adult, in which case, carry on), and simply immerse yourself in the fabulous, magical world that Jasper Fforde has created!

We have three Tumblr blogs, in addition to our regular shop blog:

Books and Decay, maintained by Amber – interesting photos with literary quotes to match

Hardboiled, maintained by JB – pulp covers, film noir and other images of crime and mystery, and

On This Date

Oct 19, 1936 – the multi-talented actors Tony Lo Bianco was born in Brooklyn (1936), Michael Gambon was born in Dublin (1940), John Lithgow was born in Rochester, NY (1945) and John Favreau was born in Queens (1966)

Oct 19 - birthday of David John Moore Cornwell (aka John Le Carre, 1931, Dorset) and Andrew Vachss (1942, NYC), Dick Lochte (1944, New Orleans)

Oct 20, 1883 – future writer of suspense and espionage George Valentine Williams was born in London. In his spare time he was also a journalist, actor and screenwriter

Oct 20, 1905 - birthday of Frederic Dannay who, along with his cousin Manfred Lee, created and wrote as Ellery Queen

Oct 20 – Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó was born in Austria-Hungary (1882, we know him as Bela Lugosi) the late, great Jerry Orbach was born (1935, The Bronx), George Wyner (1945 Boston, “Hill Street Blues” and “Nero Wolfe”), Bill Nunn (1953, Pittsburgh, PA) and Viggo Mortensen (1958 NYC)

Oct 20, 1934 – the diminutive Michael Dunn was born in Shattuck, OK. He may not have been tall but he played important people: Dr. Miguelito Loveless on “The Wild Wild West” and Mr. Big, head of KAOS on “Get Smart”. Besides acting, he was a talented singer and pianist and a philanthropist

Oct 20, 1951 – Eliot Pattison was born

Oct 20, 1973 – “The Saturday Night Massacre” takes place, as Nixon flailed away trying to save himself

Oct 20, 1981 – members of the Black Liberation Army and the Weather Underground kill two cops and a guard during an armored car robbery. One of the guards who survived his wounds would die twenty years later on Sept 11^th

Oct 21, 1921 – President Warren G. Harding gives the first speech by a sitting president condemning lynching in the South

Oct 21, 1926 - Roderic Jeffries was born in London

Oct 21, 1954 – James Bond first appears on the screen in a CBS TV adaptation of Casino Royale with Barry Nelson starring as American agent ‘Jimmy Bond’. Peter Lorre played the villain Le Chiffre. One of the producers of that show went on to co-create ‘The Wild Wild West’

Oct 22, 1866 – birth of the blue-blooded playboy author E. Phillips Oppenheim in London. He would publish 116 novels and 39 short stories. His most well known book was published in 1920, The Great Impersonation

Oct 22, 1910 – Dr. Crippen was convicted of murder

Oct 22, 1934 – Pretty Boy Floyd was shot down

Oct 22 - Ann Rule, Grand Mistress of True Crime, was born (1935, Lowell, MI) and Lowen Clausen – retired cop, Ballard-invester and Nebraska farmer/gentleman was born (1948)

Oct 22, 1938 – the hugely talented Derek Jacobi was born in London

Oct 22, 1969 – US premiere of Marlowe, the James Garner adaptation of Chandler’s The Little Sister

Oct 22, 1998 – Eric Ambler died

Oct 23rd is the birthday of screenwriter and hard-boiled novelist Jonathan Latimer (1906) and screenwriter/director/Edgar-winner Michael Crichton (1942) – both in Chicago, Jean Stubbs (1926, Denton, Lanchaster), and Peter Turnbull (1950, Rotherham, Yorkshire), director Sam Raimi (1959, Royal Oak, IL) and former prosecutor and TV personality Nancy Grace (1958, Macon, GA)

Oct 23, 1935 – the “Chophouse Massacre”, a good, old-fashioned Mob rub-out as The Commission hit Dutch Schultz after he asked permission to hit presecutor Thomas Dewey

Oct 23, 1960 – premiere of a great American movie about a group of hardboiled gunmen hired by a town to rid them of a gang of pillaging mobsters: John Sturges’ The Magnificent Seven

Oct 23, 1976 – 2^nd Son of Sam shootings and Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds was born in Vancouver, BC

Oct 23, 1981 – Stefano Baldi and Susanna Cambi become the 7^th and 8^th victims of The Monster of Florence

Oct 23, 1992 – Reservoir Dogs premiered

Oct 23, 2002 – over 40 Chechen terrorists overtook a theatre in Moscow and took roughly 700 civilians hostage

Oct 24, 1903 – future G-man Melvin Purvis was born in Timmonsville, SC

Oct 24, 1905 – Lenore Glen Offord was born in Spokane. She also wrote as Theo Durrant

Oct 24, 1917 – thriller writer Ted Allbeury was born in Cheshire. His experience in British Intelligence during WWII informed his novels

Oct 24, 1918 – Helen Nielsen was born in Roseville, IL

Oct 24 – births of Michael Avallone (1924, NYC) and Ann Cleeves (1954, Hereford)

Oct 24, 1934 – the first Nero Wolfe, Fer-de-Lance by Rex Stout, is published

Oct 24th is the birthday of Bob Kane, creator of Batman (1915, NYC), twins Ronnie and Reggie Kray, British gangsters and maniacs (1933, London), F. Murray Abraham (1939, who played the man who claimed to have murdered Mozart, Pittsburgh, PA) and Kevin Kline (1947, St. Louis, who starred in Wanda with Cleese), Robert Pickton, BC pig farmer and serial killer (1949, Port Coquitlam, BC), and Meredith Hunter (1951, Alameda County, CA) who, when he is 18, will be murdered by Hell’s Angels at the Rolling Stones’ concert in Altamont, CA

Oct 24, 1962 – Frankenheimer’s adaptation of The Manchurian Candidate premiered

Oct 24, 1973 – “Kojak” premiered

Oct 24, 1985 – the international ‘The Pizza Connection’ narcotics trial begins in NYC

And Have a Relaxing and Book-Filled Weekend!

Newzine 10.10.14

Monday is one of those pseudo-holidays that the bankers get off but not the rest of us. Some call it Columbus Day, some now call it Indigenous People’s Day – the rest of us call it “Monday”. [Here’s a thought – don’t change the name~ just abolish it.] We’ll be here!

File this under Matches Made in Heaven:

Tim Hallinan tweeted that Eddie Izzard is producing an NBC TV series based on his Junior Bender books.

Junior Bender = funny.

Eddie Izzard = Funny.

Us = excited!

The 2014 Seattle Antiquarian Bookfair is upon us! 

It is this weekend, Oct 11^th and 12^th. Admission is $5, which is good for both days. It’s always fun and interesting, and worth the time and Five Spot even if you have no intention of buying anything. Ya never know what you’ll see!

Our best goes out to Jackie Winspear who ended up in the emergency room after her horse stepped on a large nest of bees. Heal well, Jackie! Oliver – don’t feel bad!

Gift Certificates: They’re available in Whatever Denomination You Want; They Don’t Expire; You can Order Them by Phone, e-mail or through the Website, and we can Mail them directly to the Recipient if you’d like. Perfect for all sorts of occasIons.

Links of Interest:

The Adventure of the Agatha’s Lost Diamonds

Noir novelist Megan Abbott on How “Twin Peaks” Cast a Rich Shadow Over All of Her Books

14 Scary Books for Halloween That Will Freak You Out Just Enough

And, finally, things we can attest to: 12 Awkward Bookseller Moments (thank god we don’t have to deal with the bear…)

While we specialize in mystery and crime books, we can order virtually any new book that you might want, no matter what its topic.

New Signings(with authors who will be visiting the shop)

Sat, Jan, 10, noon,M.A. Lawson signsViking Bay (Blue Rider hc, $26.95). Now working for the Callahan Group – a shadowy government agency with murky motives – former DEA agent Kay Hamilton is sent to Afghanistan to make contact with Ara Khan, the Western-educated, ex-party-girl daughter of a man the US government wants to be the next president of his country. Ara is now intimately involved in her father’s career and Hamilton is to find out what their intentions are. (M.A. is Also Known As Mike Lawson)

Fri, Jan 16, noon, Thomas Perry signsA String of Beads (Mysterious Press hc, $26.00). Retired for the last year and living a quiet married life in suburbia, Jane Whitefield is surprised to have a visit from 8 Seneca clan mothers. A childhood friend of Jane’s has vanished after being accused of murder and the women want Jane to find him before the cops do. Once on the man’s trail she realizes she’s not the only one searching for her old friend.

Signed Copies to Reserve (the authors will not be here for a formal signing or we’ll be getting the copies from other sources):

Craig Johnson,Wait For Signs (Oct., Viking hc, $22.00). 12 Longmire stories, including his first appearance, written and published before the first novel. For 11 years, Craig wrote a story as a Christmas present each year. Now they’re collected for the first time in print, with one new story written for this collection.Boy Howdy – they’re a hoot!

[Quantities of signed copies for these books will bevery limited. Reserving ahead of time – such as in next few days – is HIGHLY recommended. For the most part, we’ll be ordering only enough for those who reserve. You don’t have to pay until you pick it up or we mail it. Ask us to hold a copy for you!]

See the calendar ofall currently-scheduled events on our website. The website calendar contains plot synopses. At the bottom of it is the updated, complete list of signed copies that we’ll be getting from other sources. Click Here.

Urban Waite, Oct 21

John Connolly, Nov 10

Fuminori Nakamura, Nov 12

Maia Chance, Nov 15

Timothy Hallinan, Nov 18

F. Paul Wilson, Nov 19

Bernadette Pajer, Nov 29

Phillip Margolin, Dec 11

Jayne Ann Krentz, Jan 6

Tracy Weber & M.A. Lawson, Jan 10

Pamela Christie, Jan 17

Yasmine Galenorn, Jan 31

Burt Weissbourd, Jan 31 at 3:00pm

And there are always more on the way!

Remember, too, that while it is always fun to come in and meet the author in person, that isn’t always possible. So reserve a signed copy to be mailed to you or for you to pick up later. Those who reserve in advance get the copies in the best condition!

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Word of the Week

plague (n.) From the late 14^th C.,plage, "affliction, calamity, evil, scourge;" early 15^th C., "malignant disease," from Old Frenchplage (14^th C.), from Late Latinplaga, used in Vulgate for "pestilence," from Latinplaga "stroke, wound," probably from root ofplangere "to strike, lament (by beating the breast)," from or cognate with Greek (Doric)plaga "blow," from Proto-Indo-European*plak- (2) "to strike, to hit" (cognates: Greekplazein "to drive away," plessein "to beat, strike;" Old English flocan "to strike, beat;" Gothicflokan "to bewail;" Germanfluchen, Old Frisianfloka "to curse").
        The Latin word also is the source of Old Irishplag (genitiveplaige) "plague, pestilence," GermanPlage, Dutchplaage. Meaning "epidemic that causes many deaths" is from 1540s; specifically in reference to bubonic plague from c.1600. Modern spelling follows French, which had plague from 15^th C. Weakened sense of "anything annoying" is from c.1600.  (thanks to etymonline.com)

You can browse our collectable and hard-to-find books, as well as signed copies from earlier author events, on Biblio.com. You do not have to place an order through them, especially if you’re a long-time customer and we have your ordering info. Just email us to order.

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What We’ve Been Reading                

Amber Recommends:

Amber’s project for 2014: My 52 Weeks of Agatha Christie. Here’s her explanation.

This Week: Ampicillin & Missing Persons

Fran Recommends:

“Maybe everyone lives with terror every minute of every day and buries it, never stopping long enough to look. Or maybe it’s just me. I’m speaking here of your ordinary basic terrors, like the meaning of life or what if there’s no meaning at all, or what if somebody pushes the red-alert button, or the economy collapses and we turn into ravaging beasts fighting over food, not to mention the noises in an old house when boards creak and things go bump in the night. Sometimes I think we’re all tightrope walkers suspended n a wire two thousand feet in the air, and so long as we never look down we’re okay, but some of us lose momentum and look down for a second and are never quite the same again: we know.

        “That’s why, when I found the note hidden in the old hurdy-gurdy, I didn’t take it as a joke. I could smell the terror in the words even before I’d finished reading the first sentence: They’re going to kill me soon – in a few hours, I think – and somehow they’ll arrange it so no one will ever guess I was murdered.’”

 

        That’s the beginning ofDorothy Gilman’sThe Tightrope Walker (Fawcett, $7.99). Amelia Jones is a quietly polite, well mannered and somewhat terrified young lady who owns the Ebbtide Shop, Treasures and Junk, in Trafton, PA. When she finds the note in her hurdy-gurdy, Amelia discovers a strange need to know what happened to the writer of the note. She knows that whatever was going to happen has happened, she can’t change that. But still, she needs to know.

        Most people are familiar withDorothy Gilman’s “Mrs. Pollifax” series, and I do quite like it, butThe Tightrope Walker is one of my absolute favorites and from time to time, I have to reread it. Amelia’s need to find out about Hannah, the author of the note, and the journey she takes, both physically and internally, have always left me feeling hopeful. It’s one of my go-to books when I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed by life, and it never disppoints.

JB Recommends:

This is a joint movie/book review, of a sort. (wow – what an engaging way to begin something!)

I’ve been a fan of Gillian Flynn’s writing since I first read the advance copy of her debut in 2005. She’s a brilliant writer, with sparkling sentences and dynamic plots. Added to this is that she purposefully creates characters who are difficult to like and puts them in uncomfortable situations, and her works are fascinating combinations of opposites. When it was announced thatGone Girl was to be made into a movie with David Fincher directing a script that she’d write I saw it as good news. The book would not be an easy book to transfer to film. But I was perplexed to hear, as the movie neared release, that she’d changed the ending for the movie. Why mess with a great thing?

When I saw the movie, I couldn’t really tell what had been changed. It had been at least two, if not three, years since I read it and details of even the most enjoyed books fade. But it seemed as it the movie stayed true to the book. The only thing to do was to re-read the book. So I just did.

Certainly, plot lines are streamlined. Scenes are omitted, characters are marginalized or dropped altogether.That happens with nearly any adaptation. But the movieGone Girl is a very faithful adaptation that has minor changes to the story but nothing major. The ending of the movie is faithful to the ending of the novel with some small tweaks.

Like what? Nope – can’t tell you that.

What I can tell you is that what is missing from the movie is the joy of reading her writing. Crimminy, that woman can write sentences that astonish, that end up in unexpected places. Chandler wrote that Hammett’s strength was that he wrote scenes that never before had been written. Flynn does that but also writes sentences that have never before been written.

So do go seeGone Girl. Great movie, great cast, very well crafted by very talented people.

But read the book first.

We have three Tumblr blogs, in addition to our regular shop blog:

Books and Decay, maintained by Amber – interesting photos with literary quotes to match

Hardboiled, maintained by JB – pulp covers, film noir and other images of crime and mystery, and

On This Date

Oct 11, 1782 – Danish writer Steen Steensen Blicher was born in Viborg. In 1829 he publishedThe Rector of Veilbve, one of the earliest mystery stories – before Poe! – it was based on an actual murder case. In this story, the wrong deductions are reached, the wrong person is accused and executed

Oct 11, 1809 – Meriwether Lewis died. Some still question whether it was actually suicide

Oct 11, 1925 – the prolific and multi-directional Elmore Leonard (1911, New Orleans), and Rulan Barber, who wrote morally ambiguous characters (1940, Reading, Berkshire) under the pen name David Fletcher

Oct 11, 1944 –Laura premièred

Oct 11, 1953 – actor, singer, director and writer David Morse was born in Hamilton, MA

Oct 11, 1969 – last ‘official’ Zodiac murders

Oct 12, 1893 – Velvalee Dickinson was born in Sacremento. On Jan 21, 1944, she was arrested by the FBI for spying for the Japanese. She was released from prison in 1951

Oct 12, 1904 – future Black Mask writer Lester Dent was born in La Plata, MO (as Kenneth Robeson, he created Doc Savage)

Oct 12, 1939 – the late, great James Crumley was born in Three Rivers, TX. His first mystery,The Wrong Case, was published in 1975

Oct 12, 1939 - Paula Gosling was born in Detroit

Oct 12, 1949 - Ilich Ramírez Sánchez was born in Venezuela (aka Carlos the Jackal) and writer Richard Price was born in The Bronx

Oct 12, 1960 –Inherit the Wind premiered and TV viewers in Japan witness the assassination of the Socialist Party Inejiro Asanuma live

Oct 12, 1968 – actor and singer Hugh Jackman was born in Sydney

Oct 12, 1978 – Nancy Spungen was found dead of a stab wound to the torso in the bathroom of the hotel room she shared with Sid Vicious

Oct 12, 1984 – the IRA bombs a hotel in Brighton in an assassination attempt against Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. She escaped unhurt but 5 are killed and 31 wounded

Oct 12, 1988 – 13 hours after one of their buddies is killed by police, two Australian constables, Steven Tynan and Damien Eyre, were ambushed and murdered in South Yarra

Oct 12, 2000 – suicide bombers struck theUSS Cole, killing 17, wounding nearly 40 and blowing a massive hole in the side of the hull. Two years later terrorists carry out another bombing, this one at the Sari Club in Kuta, Bali, killing 202 and wounding over 300

Oct 13, 54 – Emperor Claudius was poisoned under ‘mysterious circumstances’. 17-year-old Nero succeeds him to rule the Roman Empire

Oct 13, 1867 – Australian Guy Boothby was born. He creates memorable characters, both good and bad, and Simon Carne, his gentleman/crook, appears two years before Raffles

Oct 13, 1902 – bank robber and Dillinger associate Harry Pierpont was born

Oct 13, 1920 – espionage and thriller writer Philip McCutchan was born in Cambridge

Oct 13, 1943 - Rick Boyer was born in Evanston, IL

Oct 13, 1957 – writer, director, producer and the brain behind ‘The X Files’, Chris Carter was born in Bellflower, CA

Oct 14, 1586 – Mary, Queen of Scots, went on trial for conspiracy against the Queen Elizabeth

Oct 14, 1912 – former president Theodore Roosevelt is shot in the chest but the bullet is slowed by the speech in his pocket. He gives the address before going to the hospital. They bullet is left in his chest and he has it for the rest of his life

Oct 14, 1926 – noted mystery author A.A. Milne published a book for children, something about a stuffed bear and the bear’s friends…

Oct 14, 1927 – Roger Moore was born – spy and Saint – in London

Oct 14, 1942 – 2^nd and better-known adaptation ofThe Glass Key, with Brian Donlevy and screenplay by Jonathan Latimer, premiered

Oct 14, 1951 – Andrew Taylor was born in Hertfordshire

Oct 15, 1915 – Douglas Rutherford, born in Kilkenny, Ireland, used his wartime intelligence experiences to inform his post-war thrillers

Oct 15 – a huge day for authors: Elizabeth Daly was born in NYC (1878), Arthur B. Reeve, creator of scientific sleuth Craig Kennedy, was born. His “American Sherlock Holmes” would make him the first US mystery writer widely read in Britain (1880), P.G. Wodehouse was born in Surrey (1881), S.S. van Dine was born Willard Huntington Wright in Charlottesville, VA (1888), C.P. Snow was born in Leicester (1905), Mario Puzo was born (1920,The Godfather was published when he was 49), the late, great and prolific Salvatore Lombino (aka Evan Hunter/Curt Cannon/Hunt Collins/Ezra Hannon/Richard Marsten/Ed McBain) was born (1926), and Gerald Petievich was born in LA (1944)

Oct 15, 1915 –Detective Story Magazine begins publication

Oct 15, 1917 – Mata Hari was executed by the French for spying for Germany

Oct 15, 1959 – “The Untouchables” premiered

Oct 15, 1966 – The Black Panthers are founded in Oakland by Bobby Seals and Huey Newton as a force to protect black neighborhoods from police brutality

Oct 15, 1969 – actor Dominic West was born in Yorkshire

Oct 15, 1976 – mob boss Carlo Gambino died from a heart attack while watching a Yankee game on TV

Oct 16, 1860 – while working for Samuel Winchester, Benjamin Tyler Henry received a patent for his improved repeating rifle, thereafter known as the deadly and indispensable Henry rifle

Oct 16, 1888 – London police receive the letter “From Hell” from Jack the Ripper

Oct 16 – from Hollywood – the sultry Linda Darnell was born in Dallas (1923), and the durable Angela Lansbury was born (1925, London,Manchurian Candidate and ‘Murder She Wrote’)

Oct 16, 1969 – named for her paternal grandmother, Alafair Burke was born in Fort Lauderdale, FL

Oct 16, 1991 – George Hennard shoots up Luby’s Cafeteria in Killeen, TX, killing 23 and wounding 20

Oct 17 - C.H.B. Kitchin was born in Yorkshire (1895), and publisher and novelist Barbara Wilson was born in Long Beach, CA (1950)

Oct 17, 1907 – veteran character actor John Marley was born and he will probably be remembered

forever as the guy who woke up the a horse’s head in his bed

Oct 17, 1918 – Rita Hayworth was born Margarita Carmen Cansino in Brooklyn

Oct 17, 1920 – John Trench was born in Newick, Sussex

Oct 17, 1930 – journalist, columnist, playwright, screenwriter and novelist Jimmy Breslin was born in Queens

Oct 17, 1931 – Al Capone was convicted of tax evasion and sent off to da Rock

Oct 17, 1937 – Gilbert Francis Lani Damian Kauhi was born – better known by his nickname from high school as Zulu - he was part of McGarrit’s original 5-0 team

Oct 17, 1968 –Bullitt premiered

Oct 17, 1969 – actor Wood Harris was born in Chicago

And Have a Relaxing and Book-Filled Weekend!

Did You See What's Coming?

A New Erik Larson! Coming Out March 10, 2015!

Reserve Your Copy Today!

The Catalogue Blurb:

On May 1, 1915, a luxury ocean liner as richly appointed as an English country house sailed out of New York, bound for Liverpool, carrying a record number of children and infants. The passengers were anxious. Germany had declared the seas around Britain to be a war zone, and for months, its U-boats had brought terror to the North Atlantic. But the Lusitania was one of the era’s great transatlantic “Greyhounds” and her captain, William Thomas Turner, placed tremendous faith in the gentlemanly strictures of warfare that for a century had kept civilian ships safe from attack. He knew, moreover, that his ship—the fastest then in service—could outrun any threat.

Germany, however, was determined to change the rules of the game, and Walther Schwieger, the captain of Unterseeboot-20, was happy to oblige. Meanwhile, an ultra-secret British intelligence unit tracked Schwieger’s U-boat, but told no one. As U-20 and the Lusitania made their way toward Liverpool, an array of forces both grand and achingly small—hubris, a chance fog, a closely guarded secret, and more—all converged to produce one of the great disasters of history.

It is a story that many of us think we know but don’t, and Erik Larson tells it thrillingly, switching between hunter and hunted while painting a larger portrait of America at the height of the Progressive Era. Full of glamour, mystery, and real-life suspense, Dead Wake brings to life a cast of evocative characters, from famed Boston bookseller Charles Lauriat to pioneering female architect Theodate Pope Riddle to President Wilson, a man lost to grief, dreading the widening war but also captivated by the prospect of new love. Gripping and important, Dead Wake captures the sheer drama and emotional power of a disaster that helped place America on the road to war.

Charlie Lovett and Jane Austen

September Mass Market Bestsellers

1 – Jayne Castle - The Hot Zone (Jove)

2 – Louise Penny - Still Life (Minotaur)

3 - tie

        C.J. Box - The Highway (Minotaur)

        Gail Carriger - Soulless (Orbit)

        Cleo Coyle - Billionaire Blend (Berkley)

        Leslie Budewitz - Death al Dente (Berkley)

        Leslie Budewitz - Crime Rib (Berkley)

8 - tie

        Greg Rucka - Alpha (Mulholland)

        Victoria Abbott - The Wolfe Widow (Berkley)

        Terrie Farley Moran - Well Read,Then Dead (Berkley)

        Sue Grafton - W is for Wasted (Berkley)

        Ridley Pearson - Choke Point (Jove)

        Gillian Flynn - Gone Girl (Broadway)

        Hank Phillippii Ryan - The Wrong Girl (Forge)

September Trade Paperback Bestsellers

1 – Neil Low - Theatre of the Crime (Tigress) - Signed Copies Available

2 – tie

        Dennis Lehane - The Drop (Morrow)

        Maurzio de Giovanni - I Will Have Vengeance (Europa)

4 – Peter Spiegelman - Thick as Thieves (Vintage)

5 – Neil Low - Thick as Thieves (Tigress)- Signed Copies Available

6 – tie

        Jo Nesbø - The Redeemer (Vintage)

        Louise Penny - How the Light Gets In (Minotaur)

        Ben H. Winters - The Last Policeman (Quirk)

        Hazel Holt - Gone Away (Coffee Town Press)

        Marco Malvaldi - Three-Card Monte (Europa)

        Pierre Lemaitre - Alex (MacLehose)

September Hardcover Bestsellers

1 – Lee Child - Personal (Delacorte)

2 – Louise Penny - The Long Way Home (Minotaur) - Signed Copies Available

3 – James Ellroy - Perfidia (Knopf) - Signed Copies Available

4 – Tana French - The Secret Place (Viking)

5 – Peter May - The Lewis Man (Quercus)

6 – Jussi Adler-Olsen - The Marco Effect (Dutton)

7 – Walter Mosely - Rose Gold (Doulbeday)

8 – Tied:

        J.A. Jance - Remains of Innocence (Morrow) - Signed Copies Available

        Kat Richardson - Revenant (Roc)

        Sophie Hannah - The Monogram Murders (Morrow)

Newzine 10.03.14

Welcome to October

We’ve not been here long and we’re already moving things around!

Back by popular demand (most of it courteous) – The Scandinavian Section.

Instead of bits and pieces of this author or that author, all of these authors’ books are now in one place. It is a larger section than the old display and we hope you will soon be in to deplete it of stock!

And since we were moving stuff around and creating holes in the shelves where the Scandinavian authors used to be, we compacted were able to make room for a larger Urban Fantasysection, back to the size it was in our just-departed space. It is now at the back of the shop, end of the regular alphabet, just to the left of the back door.

Then, since there was a big empty space where Urban Fantasy was, we moved the Bibliomysteries to that space on the back island. And since the Bibliomysteries moved, and their space was empty, we moved the Hardboiled authors to that space and then began reconstituting the Comic Crime display where the Hardboiled had been.

Whew… that’s enough for one week.

The 2014 Seattle Antiquarian Bookfair is coming up. It is the weekend of Oct 11^th and 12^th. Admission is $5, which is good for both days. It’s always fun and interesting, and worth the time and Five Spot even if you have no intention of buying anything. Ya never know what you’ll see!

Along with the move – or due to the move – there are a couple of shop fixtures with which we need to part: the street-scene sculpture, and our antique desk. Photos, details and prices are on our blog. Now’s your chance to own a significant chunk of the shop’s history, lighten the load of the move, and fund the lunacy.

Gift Certificates:

They’re available in Whatever Denomination You Want; They Don’t Expire; You can Order Them by Phone, e-mail or through the Website, and we can Mail them directly to the Recipient if you’d like. Perfect for all sorts of occasions.

Links of Interest:

The Mystery of the Missing Sherlock Holmes Manuscript solved at Last!

The Grisly History of Forensics by Val McDermid

The Ian Fleming Estate works with Anthony Horowitz to have an unpublished Bond short story expanded into a novel

From The Guardian in the UK: The Gone Girl Phenomenon – Gilliam Flynn Speaks Out:

Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn talks about her leap to fame, writing the screenplay of the new film, and why no one should read her dark books expecting to find a likable character (by the way, besides thinking all of Flynn’s books are magnificent, JB also recommends the movie – but says to read the book first!)

While we specialize in mystery and crime books, we can order virtually any new book that you might want, no matter what its topic.

New Signings (with authors who will be visiting the shop)

Tues, Nov 18, noon, Timothy Hallinan signs For the Dead (Soho hc, $25.00). The peace that has settled in on Poke Rafferty and his family is erased when his adopted daughter buys an iPhone from a street vendor and they discover that, first, it was stolen and, second, it contains photos of two murdered corrupt cops. Adele recommends this author.

See the calendar of all currently-scheduled events on our website. The website calendar contains plot synopses. At the bottom of it is the updated, complete list of signed copies that we’ll be getting from other sources. Click Here.

Yasmine Galenorn, Oct 4

Hank Phillippi Ryan, Oct 10

Urban Waite, Oct 21

John Connolly, Nov 10

Fuminori Nakamura, Nov 12

Maia Chance, Nov 15

F. Paul Wilson, Nov 19

Bernadette Pajer, Nov 29

Phillip Margolin, Dec 11

Jayne Ann Krentz, Jan 6

Tracy Weber, Jan 10

Pamela Christie, Jan 17

Yasmine Galenorn, Jan 31

Burt Weissbourd, Jan 31 at 3:00pm

And there are always more on the way!

Remember, too, that while it is always fun to come in and meet the author in person, that isn’t always possible. So reserve a signed copy to be mailed to you or for you to pick up later. Those who reserve in advance get the copies in the best condition!

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Word of the Week

spy (v.) From the mid-13^th C., "to watch stealthily," from Old French espiier "observe, watch closely, spy on, find out," probably from Frankish *spehon or some other Germanic source, from Proto-Germanic *spehon- (cognates: Old High German *spehon "to look out for, scout, spy," German spähen "to spy," Middle Dutch spien), the Germanic survivals of the productive Proto-Indo-European root *spek- "to look, observe" (see scope (n.1)). Old English had spyrian "make a track, go, pursue; ask about, investigate," also a noun spyrigend "investigator, inquirer." Italian spiare, Spanish espiar also are Germanic loan-words. Meaning "to catch sight of" is from c.1300. Children's game I spy so called by 1946. [spy, used as a noun, originated in the same time period.] (thanks to etymonline.com)

You can browse our collectable and hard-to-find books, as well as signed copies from earlier author events, on Biblio.com. You do not have to place an order through them, especially if you’re a long-time customer and we have your ordering info. Just email us to order.

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What We’ve Been Reading                      

Amber Recommends:

Amber’s project for 2014: My 52 Weeks of Agatha Christie. Here’s her explanation.

This Week: Sunset Boulevard, Avatar & Fika

Fran Recommends:

In some ways, I think the new "Charlie Parker" book by John Connolly, The Wolf in Winter (Emily Bestler Books, $26.00, signing Nov. 10, noon) is a transition book. And that's not a bad thing by any stretch of the imagination!

The small Maine town of Prosperous has lived up to its name. For the most part, financial hard times have passed it by and its people are thriving, almost as if the town itself is guarding them. So a missing girl and the death of a homeless man in Portland shouldn't have an impact on Prosperous, and neither event should attract the attention of Charlie Parker, and yet they do. The secret that Prosperous is hiding is one that they'll do anything to keep. What's one lone detective against that?

The events that unfold in The Wolf in Winter tell us a lot about Charlie, make for some interesting and unexpected bedfellows, and are keep-you-up-at-night intense. There are some things I saw coming, some I didn't see at all (which is always great!), and by the end, I was left wanting the next book because I can't wait to see what happens next.

And it's all about the people. Not just Charlie, who is the bedrock of the series, but all those around him, from the folks at the Bear - and I'm thinking specifically of the Fulcis, who both reassure and terrify me - Ronald Straydeer, and Angel and Louis, but others as well, including The Collector. Even the baddest of the bad guys are three dimensional and complex, and I'm always interested to see who the new players will be. The folks of Prosperous, including the board of selectmen, are all fascinating, and while some may not be the kinds of folks you'd want to hang out with, their sense of duty and dedication is inspiring, if creepy.

That's what keeps me coming back to John Connolly's books, the people. And his ability to tell a first-class story!

We have three Tumblr blogs, in addition to our regular shop blog:

Books and Decay, maintained by Amber – interesting photos with literary quotes to match

Hardboiled, maintained by JB – pulp covers, film noir and other images of crime and mystery

On This Date

Oct 5, 1892 – the Dalton Gang was shot to pieces in Coffeyville, KS

Oct 5, 1915 – first true ‘pulp’ magazine was released – Detective Story hits the stands

Oct 5, 1934 – Angelo Buono, Jr, half of the Hillside Stranglers team, was born in Rochester, NY

Oct 5, 1962 – world premiere, in London, of Dr. No

Oct 5 – Donald Pleasence was born in Nottinghamshire (1919), and Australian actor Guy Pearce was born in England (1967)

Oct 6, 1866 – 1st train robbery, in Indiana (not quite the Wild West, but….)

Oct 6, 1876 – the American Library Association was founded

Oct 6, 1889 – Edison showed the 1st ‘moving picture’, and H.F. Heard – best known for A Taste for Honey featuring Mycroft - was born in London

Oct 6, 1916 – future Edgar-winner Stanley Ellin was born in Brooklyn

Oct 6, 1942 – Swedish acrtress and singer Britt Eklund was born in Stockholm. In 29 years, she’d play Michael Cain’s girlfriend in the original Get Carter. In 32 years, she’ll be the “Bond Girl” in The Man with the Golden Gun

Oct 6, 1952 – Agatha Christie’s “The Mousetrap” premiered on the London stage and is the longest continuously running play in history (although not with the original cast!)

Oct 6, 1958 – thriller novelist Joseph Finder was born in Chicago

Oct 6, 1976 – Flight 455 from Cuba is blown out of the air by two bombs put on board by two terrorists who had ties to the CIA. All 73 people onboard died. In 2005, CIA documents were released that showed the Agency knew in advance about such plots and did nothing. The            mastermind of the attack lives freely in the US

Oct 6, 1981 – Egyptian President Anwar Sadat was assassinated

Oct 6, 2000 – the first and original “CSI” premiered

Oct 7, 1849 – Poe died at the age of 40

Oct 7, 1907 - espionage and thriller writer Helen MacInnes was born in Glasgow

Oct 7, 1927 – singer Al Martino was born Jasper Cini in Philadelphia. We remember him here for his portrayal of Johnny Fontane in The Godfather

Oct 7, 1938 – Hitchcock’s The Lady Vanishes premiered in the UK

Oct 7, 1943 – multi-lingual translator Steven T. Murray was born, as was future center-of-attention and center-of-intrigue Oliver North

Oct 7, 1951 – Japanese crime writer Natsuo Kirino was born

Oct 7, 1952 – Mary Badham was born in Birmingham, AL. 10 years later she’d play Scout Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird and become the youngest actress to ever win the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress

Oct 8, 1850 – early Irish mystery writer M. McDonnell Bodkin was born in Dublin

Oct 8, 1873 – Kate “Ma” Barker was born Arizona Donnie Clark in Ash Grove, MO

Oct 8, 1948 – birth of Pedro Alonso López in Santa Isabel, Colombia. By the time he was apprehended in 1980, “The Monster of the Andes” confessed that he’d killed over 300 young girls. The authorities disbelieved him until a flash flood uncovered one of his graveyards.

Oct 8, 1953 – British actor Nigel Bruce – most well known as Watson to Rathbone’s Holmes – died in Santa Monica

Oct 8 - destined for Hollywood: Stephanie Zimbalist (1956, NYC), Emily Proctor (1968, Raleigh, NC) and Matt Damon (1970, Cambridge, MA), and Marathon Man premiered (1976) making everyone just that more scared of dental drills

Oct 9, 1918 - spook and spook writer E. Howard Hunt was born in Hamburg, NY

Oct 9, 1939 - South African mystery writer James McClure was born in Johannesburg

Oct 9, 1942 – Dr. Michael Palmer, penner of medical thrillers, was born in Springfield, MA

Oct 9, 1947 – Nightmare Alley premiered

Oct 9, 1953 - Tony Shaloub was born (go wash your hands) in Green Bay, WI

Oct 9, 2002 – female serial killer Aileen Wuornos was executed

Oct 9, 2009 – the prolific Stuart Kaminsky died

Oct 10, 1926 – reliable character actor Richard Jaeckel was born in Long Beach, NY

Oct 10, 1928 – what becomes known as the first great battle over control of American organized crime – The Catellammarrese War – begins when Joe Masseria whacks Salvatore “Tata”   D’Aquila

Oct 10, 1929 – espionage/thriller writer Derek Lambert was born in London

Oct 10, 1949 – Jules Dassin’s Thieve’s Highway, with Richard Conte and Lee J. Cobb, premiered

Oct 10, 1950 - Nora Roberts and JD Robb were born at the exact same time and place in Silver Spring, MD

Oct 10, 1958 – “77 Sunset Strip” premiered

Oct 10, 1965 – the late, great Chris Penn was born in LA