Seattle Mystery Bookshop: Newzine

November 15, 2014

Newzine 11.14.14

Small Business Saturday (Nov. 29^th)

We’re joining in with Pioneer Square to wheel and deal and have great things going on! And we’re working on getting extra staff (as in local authors Urban Waite and Jeanne Matthews) to help us sell books, along with Bernadette Pajer, who will be here signing her latest novel!

Holiday Calander:

For future reference, our calendar of holidays and our hours as we head toward the end of the year:

Thurs, Nov 27 – Thanksgiving:Closed

Fri, Nov 28 – Black Friday:Open regular hours (Sorry NOT midnight…)

Tues, Dec 16 – Chanukah Begins: Open

Sun, Dec 21 – Winter Solstice: Open

Wed, Dec 24 – Christmas Eve:Closing at 2pm

Thurs, Dec 25 – Christmas Day:Closed

Fri, Dec 26 – Boxing Day, Kwanza Begins: Open

Wed, Dec 31 – New Year’s Eve:Closing at 2pm

Thurs, Jan 1 – New Year’s Day:Closed

We’ve been looking at our Facebook numbers, and we’re considering putting the page on hold – out of over 2000 people who are our friends, the number of people our posts reach are only in the double digits. If you’d like us to keep posting there, let us know. Otherwise at the first of the year, we’ll be cutting back our time there. Thanks!

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 -they make great stocking stuffers!

Links of Interest:

The webisphere has been active this week with news of mystery-related TV items:

~ cancelled by A&E, “Longmire” is said to be coming to Netflix for season 4

~ Joe R. Lansdale’s Hap & Leonard are coming to Sundance for a six-episode season. Funny and dark ‘southern noir’ set in West Texas in the 80s.

It’s nice to know that politicians all around the world have questionable histories, and that some – or at least one, MP Phineas Devenish Phibbs – has been memorialized in a plaque!

Of interest to book collectors in general: A lawsuit over Maurice Sendak’s Estate rests on the question of the collectability of Children’s Books

This, too, is a bit off-topic but how can we pass it up:

Ladies and Gentlemen – the 2014 Bad Sex Writing Nominees (you’ll recognize at least a couple of the authors)

And it is time for the Biennial “Pulp Fiction Contest” at the New York Times!

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., Dec 13, noon -Waverly Curtis signs The Chihuahua Always Sniffs Twice (Kensington pbo, $7.99). 4^th with PI Geri Sullivan and her talking companion Pepe. The estate of wealthy widow Lucille Carpenter was left entirely to her beloved dogs and now someone is poisoning them. As you might imagine, this makes Pepecaliente under the collar. “Waverly Curtis” is the local writing team ofWaverly Fitzgerald and Curt Colbert.

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.

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

Tessa Arlen, Jan 24

Yasmine Galenorn, Jan 31

Yasmine Galenorn, Jan 31, noon

Burt Weissbourd, Jan 31 at 3:00pm

Cara Black, Mar 2

Glen Erik Hamilton, Mar 3

C.S. Harris, Mar 7

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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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

connive (v.) c.1600, from Latin connivere, also conivere "to wink," hence, "to wink at (a crime), be secretly privy," fromcom- "together" (see com-) + base akin to nictare "to wink," from PIE root*kneigwh- (see nictitate). Related: Connived; conniving. (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: 17th Century Playwrights, Sin & Ethics

JB Recommends:

At the time of the release of A Walk Among the Tombstones in the theatres, I thought I should re-read it before I saw it. After all, it’d been a couple of decades since I had.

When I began working with Bill back in 1990, he was forever horrified by the authors I’d not yet read – Loren Estleman, Richard Stark, Jon Jackson, the list was long – but the one that shocked him the most was that I’d never read Lawrence Block. Hard to say he forced me to read a Scudder - let’s say he avidly encouraged me to. He handed me When the Sacred Ginmill Closes and I’ve been hooked ever since.

Ginmill is actually the 6^th in his timeless Matt Scudder series.Tombstones is #10. The Scudder series is solidly in the Hammett school of writing – true noir with a smooth narrative drive, without ‘happy endings’ though with justice served. Scudder was a NYC cop for a dozen years but left the force a couple of years before the series begins. He’s left his wife and sons, too, and moved into a cheap hotel near Columbus Circle in Manhattan. Mostly what he does is read the papers and drink bourbon-laced coffee. And he occasionally does favors for people and they pay him for his time. Favors = investigations. He’s not a licensed private eye and he doesn’t do anything normal like writing reports or keep track of expenses. He’s dogged and smart and always figures out what happened and always, somehow, effects justice.

The books are inventive, witty, with a dark, dim view of humanity and life. It isn’t that Scudder has quit living, but he’s scaled back to the very basics. One of his basics is that murder cannot be tolerated. The plots are inventive, quirky, the characters lively and, like Hammet’s, true to life – Elaine, Mick Ballou, Danny Boy.

The first three books were released within the same year. The 4^th came out a year or so later. They can be read in any order. But read them before you read the 5^th,Eight Million Ways to Die. At the end of that book, Block had gotten Scudder to a point where he thought he had finished the series. Luckily for us, he was wrong. Ginmill is the 6^th – that’s the one Bill had me read first and you can, as it is told as a flashback to the days of the earlier books. Past that, though, there are things in Scudder’s life that progress and it would be better to read them in order.

These are thoughtful books, meditative upon the choices and questions of life and justice, fair in that you have all of the clues Scudder has but the way they come together is both logical and surprising. You never know what it is that is going to trip the facts into the right line-up and give Scudder the picture. They’re not particularly bloody but they are, at times, violent. Scudder is a man of his time, as are the stories. He’s cynical and sedate until moved to action. Hardboiled, sure – but all of the women Scudder meets find him to be a ‘sweet man’.

It was over 20 years ago that I first read the Scudders. Bill was right, of course, they’re some of the finest myteries every written. Yesterday morning on the bus to work I finished re-reading the 10^th straight Scudder book. I can’t say I remembered much of the plots from the first time, so it was like reading them for the first time –a great treat!

By the way, I never did get to see “A Walk Among the Tombstones”. But I will someday.

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

Nov 17, 1876 – birth of early mystery writer Hesketh Prichard, born in India

Nov 17, 1910 – Edgar award-winner Jean Potts was born in St. Paul, NE

Nov 17, 1939 –Another Thin Man – the third and last movie in the series based on something Hammett wrote was released

Nov 17, 1942 – Martin Scorsese was born in Queens, NY. Do we need to list the great movies?NO.

Nov 17, 1966 – Sam Sheppard was acquitted in the second murder trial over the death of his wife. The case would become the basis for the long-running series ‘The Fugitive’.

Nov 17, 1973 – President Richard Nixon declared to a reporter “Well, I am not a crook.”

Nov 18, 1933 – future ‘Man from U.N.C.L.E.’agent and ‘NCIS’ coroner David McCallum was born in Glasglow

Nov 18, 1940 – the “Mad Bomber” sets off his first device in NYC

Nov 18, 1948 - Frances Fyfield was born Frances Hagarty in (1948, Derbyshire), Nancy Livingston (1935, County Durham) and Sheila Robinson was born in Cogenhoe, Northamptonshire in 1928. She would write the DCI Quantrill series as Sheila Radley

Nov 18, 1978 – in an act of astonishing madness that still defies sense, the residents of Jonestown self-destruct

Nov 19, 1889 – actor Clifton Webb was born Webb Parmelee Hollenbeck in Indianapolis

Nov 19, 1904 – Nathan Leopold was born in Chicago. Born an intellectual prodigy, he spoke his first words at four months, graduated college Phi Beta Kappa, was an expert ornithologist and was attending law school at 19. In the classic sense, this was all tragic as he and another fellow – another young genius – viewed themselves to be ‘supermen’ and decided they could get away with murder. In 1924, he and Richard Loeb kidnapped and murdered Bobby Franks. Life would again be imitated by art when Hitchcock used the gist of the story for his movieRope in 1948

Nov 19, 1920 – Gene Tierney was born in Brooklyn, 31 years after herLaura costar Webb

Nov 19, 1940 – the “Mad Bomber” – George Metesky – planted his first bomb

Nov 19, 1943 - Doug Hornig was born in NYC

Nov 19, 1963 – Jodie Foster was born Alicia Christian Foster in LA. In 1976, when she was just 12, she’d be in fellow-November-birthday-celebrator Scorsese’sTaxi Driver. In 1991 cameThe Silence of the Lambs

Nov 19, 1963 – Portland mystery writer Bill Cameron was born in Cincinnati

Nov 20, 1900 – future cartoonist Chester Gould was born in Pawnee, OK. ‘Dick Tracy’ is first published in 1931

Nov 20, 1920 - Dulcie Winifred Catherine Bailey Denison was born in Kuala Lumpur. She not only wrote theatrical mysteries under the as Dulcie Gray, she was a stage actress who once played Miss Marple!

Nov 20, 1921 - future District Attorney and Judge Jim Garrison was born in Denison, IA

Nov 20, 1922 – noir writer Gil Brewer was born in Cauandaigua, NY

Nov 20, 1925 - future Attorney General and Senator Robert F Kennedy was born in Brookline, MA

Nov 20, 1926 – British espionage writer John Gardner was born in Northumberland

Nov 20, 1936 – novelist Don DeLillo was born in NYC

Nov 20, 1943 – Veronica Hamel was born in Philadelphia. 38 years later she will co-star in the landmark series “Hill Street Blues” as defense attorney Joyce Davenport. She had such an erotic way of saying ‘pizza man’.

Nov 21, 1860 - lawman, regulator, one-time Pinkerton Agent, “range detective”, gunman Tom Horn was born in Scotland County, MO. A man of many abilities, as a scout with the Army he acted as the interpreter for Geronimo’s surrender

Nov 21, 1873 – Vernon George Waldegrave Kell was born in Great Yarmouth, England. In 1909, he would be appointed head of the Secret Intelligence Bureau, the government’s first espionage agency. In 1911, it would be split into domestic and foreign sections and Kell headed the domestic section, what would become MI5

Nov 21, 1920 - future actor Ralph Meeker was born in Minneapolis, the first actor to play Mike Hammer

Nov 21, 1927 - the Columbine Mine Massacre took place

Nov 21, 1931 – courtroom writer William Harrington was born in Marietta, OH

Nov 21, 1948 – local writer Martin Limón was born in LA Happy Early Birthday!

And Have a Relaxing and Book-Filled Weekend!

Posted at 10:32 AM in Newzine | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 08, 2014

Newzine 11.7.14

With the holidays approaching, plan to be here for Small Business Saturday (Nov. 29^th). We’re joining in with Pioneer Square to wheel and deal and have great things going on! And we’ve got extra staff (as in local authors Urban Waite and Jeanne Matthews) to help us sell books, along with Bernadette Pajer, who will be here signing her latest novel!

Diana Renn gave the shop a great shout out as well a wonderful compliment to Amber! (Amber's a bit behind on her blog reading)

We have another small collection that is going into the shelves. All hardcovers, most signed – authors such as Cole, Crais, Spencer-Fleming, Blunt, Swierczynski, and Rosenfelt. If you’d like to see the list, let us know.

Holiday Calander:

For future reference, our calendar of holidays and our hours as we head toward the end of the year:

Tues, Nov 11 – Veteran’s Day: Open

Thurs, Nov 27 – Thanksgiving:Closed

Tues, Dec 16 – Chanukah Begins: Open

Sun, Dec 21 – Winter Solstice: Open

Wed, Dec 24 – Christmas Eve:Closing at 2pm

Thurs, Dec 25 – Christmas Day:Closed

Fri, Dec 26 – Boxing Day, Kwanza Begins: Open

Wed, Dec 31 – New Year’s Eve:Closing at 2pm

Thurs, Jan 1 – New Year’s Day:Closed

Gift Certificates:

Links of Interest:

Did Sam Spade and Phillip Marlowe have their roots in a real-life African-American PI in 1930’s LA, Samuel Marlowe?

First Editions, Second Thoughts: On December 2, Christie's will auction 75 first-edition books, each of which is a unique object that has been annotated with words and/or illustrations by its author. Proceeds from the auction will benefit PEN American Center. [Authors include Connelly, Cornwell, Flynn and Grafton]

Michael Connelly talks to Esquire about Raymond Chandler and what he’s reading now.

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 24, noon,Tessa Arlen signs Death of a Dishonorable Gentleman (Minotaur hc, $25.99) Debut by a local author set in 1912 London. The class system is rigid in Edwardian England but Lady Monfort needs the help of her trusted housekeeper, Mrs. Jackson. The Countess’s annual costume extravaganza is in danger due to scandal and crime. Her nephew – an embarrassment to the family, to be sure - has been murdered and suspicion has fallen on her own son. Preposterous! If the social event of the season is to be rescued, the two women must cross those sharp class lines and find the culprit.

Sat, Jan 31,Yasmine Galenorn drops by to sign Panther Prowling (Jove pbo, $7.99). Delilah has reopened her private investigation firm, and her first client turns out to be the sisters’ cousin, Daniel. It turns out that Daniel, who’s a top-flight cat burglar, has stolen a sword, and now he’s being chased. However, his pursuers are not necessarily of this Earth, and the sword is more than just a simple weapon.

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

Cara Black, Mar 2

Glen Erik Hamilton, Mar 3

C.S. Harris, Mar 7

And there are always more on the way!

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Wish List

Word of the Week

Scheme (n): From the 1550s, "figure of speech," from Medieval Latinschema "shape, figure, form, appearance; figure of speech; posture in dancing," from Greek skhema (genitive skhematos) "figure, appearance, the nature of a thing," related toskhein "to get," and ekhein "to have," from PIE root*segh- "to hold, to hold in one's power, to have" (cognates: Sanskritsahate "he masters, overcomes,"sahah "power, victory;" Avestanhazah "power, victory;" Greekekhein "to have, hold;" Gothicsigis, Old High German sigu, Old Norsesigr, Old Englishsige "victory").
The sense "program of action" first is attested 1640s. Unfavorable overtones (selfish, devious) began to creep in early 18^th C. Meaning "complex unity of coordinated component elements" is from 1736. Color scheme is attested from 1884. (thanks to etymonline.com)

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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: Hotels and Unsubstantiated Claims

Fran Recommends:

One of the best things about Young Adult writing today is how very intelligent it is. Punches aren't pulled, bad things happen, and it's not sugar-coated or incredibly sweet. Well, certainly not the best YA writing - you know, the kinds of books that kids actually read, not what their parents think they're reading.

Holly Black's upcoming YA book, The Darkest Part of the Forest (Little Brown, $18.00 hc, Jan. 13, 2015) takes on all kinds of powerful issues facing teenagers today: racism, isolation, gender identity, parental neglect - and she does it in a compelling, easily readable, highly relateable way.

Teenage siblings, Hazel and her brother, Benjamin, have lived in Fairfold most of their lives. Fairfold is a unique small town in that all the residents, child and adult alike, are aware that the fae are real. There have been fae folk around, well, since Fairfold was established, and there's an unspoken agreement: the fae will leave Fairfold's citizens alone (tourists are fair game) and Fairfold's people will respect the fae, leaving gifts and respecting the fae's rules.

At the heart of the town's tourism trade is a crystal coffin in the woods. Inside is a young man, with ears as pointed as knives and horns curling gently out of his head and curving down behind those pointy ears. He's been there for as long as people can remember. There have been numerous attempts to break the crystal, but all have failed, and the more serious attempts have left those humans who have tried badly injured. Hazel and Ben both love the boy in the coffin, whom they call "their prince".

But the prince in the coffin isn't the only fae they know. Ben's best friend, Jack, is a changeling. He was left in place of a baby named Carter, and when Carter's mother noticed the switch (which was pretty much immediately), she did what was necessary to get Carter back. But instead of returning Jack to his fae mother, Carter's mom defiantly kept both boys, raising them as brothers.

When the crystal coffin is shattered and the horned boy vanishes, everything changes.

Holly Black's books are not for people, young or old alike, who are not willing to look at the darkness that exists in everyone. She understands that everyone has secrets, some more dangerous than others, and that some of the most awful lies are the ones we tell ourselves. When I was a teacher, I often saw the disparity between what parents thought their kids were up to and what said kids actually did; it wasn't always pretty. Holly Black lets us see some of the bleaker sides of being a teenager, and how an inability to communicate easily can make a situation tumble from bad to worse in a heartbeat.

She also challenges her readers to accept situations they may not be comfortable with. Hazel's defiance of gender stereotyping by her need to be the knight, Ben's gayness, Jack's "otherness" that sets him apart, Hazel and Ben's parents' bohemian lifestyle that sounds like fun but had very dark repercussions, and all the messy relationships that happen simply because people are people, these are all the things that Ms. Black handles deftly and compassionately without being condescending or preachy, both of which are unfortunately easy to do.

Last year, Amber and Yasmine Galenorn both insisted that I read Holly Black's book The Coldest Girl in Coldtown (Little Brown, $10.00), and that got me hooked. Holly Black tells one heck of a good story, and The Darkest Part of the Forest is every bit as good. I know I didn't want it to end!

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

On This Date

Nov 10, 1878 – Dora Amy Elles was born in Mussoorie, Uttarakhand, India. We include her for her 32 mystery novels featuring Miss Silver written under the name Patricia Wentworth

Nov 10, 1889 – Claude Rains was born in London

Nov 10, 1893 – John P. Marquand, creator of Mr. Moto, was born in Wilmington, DE

Nov 10, 1932 –I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang, with Paul Muni, premiered, and Roy Scheider was born in Orange, NJ

Nov 11, 1846 – one of American’s first female mystery writers, Anna Katherine Green, was born in Brooklyn. Though she’s now considered passé due to the “had I but known…” premise to her books, they featured innovative plotting and characters

Nov 11, 1859 – Belle Gunness was born in Norway. In America, she’s thought to have killed over 40 people – mostly her family members – for the insurance money

Nov 11, 1864 – Maurice Leblanc was born in Rouen, France. His first story with Arsene Lupin would be published in 1905

Nov 11, 1901 - F. Van Wyck Mason was born in Boston

Nov 11, 1909 – the great actor Robert Ryan was born in Chicago

Nov 11, 1914 – novelist Howard Fast was born in NYC. Blacklisted during the McCarthy era, he wrote a series of mysteries with LA cop Masao Masuto under the name E.V. Cunningham

Nov 11 – two from Hollywood were born: Demi Moore was born in Roswell, NM (1962) and Leonardo DiCaprio was born in LA (1974)

Nov 12, 1922 – a true lady in every sense of the word, Charlotte MacLeod was born in New Brunswick, Canada

Nov 12, 1929 – Grace Kelly was born in Philadelphia. Her three great Hitchcock movies were all released within 367 days:Rear Window, Aug 1, 1954;Dial M for Murder, May 29, 1954;To Catch a Thief, Aug 3, 1955

Nov 12, 1934 – future lunatic cult leader Charles Manson was born in Cincinnatti

Nov 12, 1961 – financial thriller writer Christopher Reich was born in Tokyo

Nov 13, 1002 – King Etheired of England ordered the death of Danes in England. It would become known to history as the St. Brice’s Day massacre

Nov 13, 1851 – the Denny Party lands at Alki Point and become the first WHITE settlers living in what will become Seattle (yeah – not directly related but we have to note it…)

Nov 13, 1850 – Robert Louis Stevenson was born in Edinburgh

Nov 13, 1877 – Harvey J. O’Higgins, born in Ontario, would write the books that first seriously employ psychological deduction

Nov 13, 1899 – Vera Caspary was born in Chicago.Laura was published in 1943. The movie came out the following year

Nov 13, 1926 – actor Don Gordon was born in LA (he played Delgetti inBullitt)

Nov 13, 1939 – attorney and novelist George V. Higgins was born in Brockton, MA

Nov 13, 1947 – the film noir classicOut of the Past premiered

Nov 13, 1974 – Karen Silkwood died under strange circumstances and, in a little town on Long Island, the DeFeo family was massacred. A year later, the Lutz family moved into the house but left after a month, a story that becomes known as “The Amityville Horror”

Nov 13, 1995 – Goldeneye, the 1st Bond with Pierce Brosnan, premiered in NYC

Nov 14 – two from Hollywood: Dick Powell (1909, Mountain View, AR) and Veronica Lake (born Constance Frances Marie Ockelman, 1919, Brooklyn)

Nov 14, 1941 – Hitchock’sSuspicion premiered

Nov 14 – two mistresses of mystery were born: Inger Frimansson (1944, Stockholm), and Cara Black (1951)

Nov 14, 1957 – state police raid the Appalachian meeting, capturing most of the nation’s Mafia bosses when Hoover and the Feds say no such organization existed

Nov 14, 1995 – US premiere of Scorsese’sCasino

Nov 14, 2006 – London premiere ofCasino Royale, the 1st Bond with Daniel Craig

And Have a Relaxing and Book-Filled Weekend!

Posted at 03:06 PM in Newzine | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 04, 2014

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:

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!

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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)

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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

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September 20, 2014

Newzine 09.19.14

Elmore Leonard Wrote Great Opening Lines. Here Are All Of Them.

Well, hell of a way to start a weekend!

Overnight, the coffee boiler above us in Starbucks exploded, sending water down into our new space. A fine HowDoYouDo! Luckily, no books appear to have been damaged – not that we’ve found yet. The majority of the fluid came down in what is now our office and some by the front counter. The building guys got some carpet people in first thing to suck up the water and we’re left with fans on medium to help evaporate what’s left and some ugly, sagging ceiling tiles. We were VERY lucky as the major leak was right next to one of the locked cases of collectible books and near the shelf where we put books on hold for pickup. No books in either case appear to have been affected, as far as we can tell.

Whew…

Gift Certificates:

Links of Interest:

From NPR: “A ‘Lasciviously LA’ Lunch with Crime NovelistJames Ellroy”

From the Sunday NYTimes Book Review,Sara Paretsky answers The Questions

The Best Place to Hide a Body? Just Ask WriterTod Goldberg (brother of Lee)

An Infamous Art Forger on His Most Convincing Works

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, Nov 19, noon - F. Paul Wilson signs Fear City (Tor hc, $25.99). 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 tropubleshooter. 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.

Sat, Jan 10, noon,Tracy Weber signs A Killer Retreat (Midnight Ink tpo, $14.99). Taking her boyfriend and German shepherd along to a ‘working vacation’ at a retreat, Kate Davidson’s yoga classes go well enough. It is her angry encounter with another guest and her yippi terrier that turns the weekend toward trouble. When that rude woman is found dead, Kate is the prime suspect.

Neil Low, Sept 20

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

Bernadette Pajer, Nov 29

Phillip Margolin, Dec 11

Jayne Ann Krentz, Jan 6

Pamela Christie, Jan 17

Yasmine Galenorn, Jan 31

Burt Weissbourd, Jan 31 at 3:00pm

And there are always more on the way!

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Wish List

Word of the Week

ravage (v.) From the 1610s, from Frenchravager "lay waste, devastate," from Old Frenchravage "destruction,"especially by flood (14c.), fromravir "to take away hastily" (see ravish). Related: Ravaged; ravaging. (thanks to etymonline.com)

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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: Cranes, Crackers & Deja Vu

JB Recommends:

I’ve always thought that an inherent problem with the Jack Reacher series is that, as it goes on, Reacher becomes more known to ‘The Authorities’. The Army already knows all about him. But over course of the books, he’s worked with the Secret Service, CIA, and other outfits and it becomes unbelievable that they wouldn’t call on him for help in situations suited to his talents because his talents have been proven time and again. By this time in the history of the books, everyone’s files on Reacher should scream “IF HE’S INVOLVED – GOOD”

In Personal,Lee Child takes the story right out of the middle of that paradox. Picking up a copy of “The Stars and Stripes” abandoned on a bus, he sees an ad aimed directly at him, from someone he can’t say no to.

And we’re off – East Coast, Paris, London, English and Serbian crime gangs, snipers (the American is from Arkansas, a nod to Bob Lee Swagger?), US, British and Russian operatives and a young CIA agent detailed to the State Department named Casey Nice (a bit of Ian Fleming in that) who has Reacher as a guide into his world of acting fast and thinking faster.

As many have said to us, the Reacher series has felt stale of late, with many fans feeling that61 Hours hit a logic wall from which the series couldn’t recover. I’m happy to report that Child seems to be taking Reacher out of his rut and back out into the world where he should operate – with the professionals, the Big Boys and Girls, and into an international arena where he can loose his sense of justice on who could not possibly have experienced anything like him.

But, having said all of that, the book falls apart at the very end. The ‘solution’ (the who and why) felt rushed and half-assed, as if he got to the end, didn’t know how to end it and didn’t really give a damn, and, in a book and a series that is based on reason, cobbled together one that was unreasonable and unbelievable.

A huge disappointment.

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

On This Date

Sept 21, 1866 – H.G. Wells was born in Bromley, Kent

Sept 21, 1912 – Charles Martin Jones was born in Spokane. We love ‘Chuck’ for his cartons and include him for his spoofs of sleuths

Sept 21, 1924 – future writer of San Francisco cop novels Collin Watson was born in Detroit

Sept 21, 1937 –The Hobbit is published (ok, it isn’t a mystery but how can wenot include it?)

Sept 21, 1941 – Marilyn Wallace was born in Brooklyn

Sept 21, 1957 – “Perry Mason” premiered on TV. [We’d submit that it also became the first of the truly great theme songs in TV history]

Sept 21, 1968 – “Adam-12” premiered. In 1993, so would “NYPD Blue”

Sept 21, 1990 – Coen Brothers’Miller’s Crossing premiered. This is also Ethan’s birthday (1957, St. Louis Park, MN)

Sept 22, 1776 – Col. Nathan Hale was hanged by the British for being anAmerican spy

Sept 22, 1903 – Joe Valachi was born in Naples

Sept 22, 1943 – Dutch action movie director Jan de Bont was born

Sept 22 – a day of TV premieres: “Peter Gunn” (1958), “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” (1961 - extra credit if you can remember what U.N.C.L.E. stood for) and “Charlie’s Angels” (1976)

Sept 22, 1975 – 17 days after Squeaky Fromme tried to assassinate President Ford, Sara Jane Moore tried

Sept 22, 1989 – Ridley Scott’sBlack Rain premiered

Sept 23, 1865 – Baroness Emma Orczy was born in Tarna-Ors, Hungary. In 1910, herLady Molly of the Scotland Yard becomes one of the very first mysteries to feature a female sleuth

Sept 23, 1909 – the first part ofThe Phantom of the Opera is published in a Parisian newspaper.

Sept 23, 1935 – first two of the victims eventually accredited to the “Torso Killer” or the “Mad Butcher of Cleveland” were found. Eliot Ness will try to crack the case but it has never been solved

Sept 23, 1986 – “Matlock” premiered

Sept 23, 1994 –Pulp Fiction premiered in NYC

Sept 23, 1972 - Phillipine opposition leader Benigno Aquino was assassinated as he was being escorted from his jet upon returning to Manilla

Sept 23, 2009 – thieves used a stolen Bell helicopter to rob a G4S cash depot in Stockholm and got away

Sept 24, 1896 – F. Scott Fitzgerald was born in St. Paul. His first piece of fiction is “The Mystery of the Raymond Mortgage”, written at the age of 13

Sept 24, 1909 – hardboiled pulp writer Donald Wandrei was born in St. Paul

Sept 24, 1941 – prolific cozy mystery writer Rhys Bowen was born Janet Quinn-Harkin in Bath

Sept 24, 1968 – “Mod Squad” went on the air

Sept 24, 1975 –Three Days of the Condor premiered

Sept 25, 1897 – William Faulkner was born in New Albany, MI

Sept 25, 1898 – Richard Lockridge was born in St. Joe, MO. With his wife Frances, they’ll publish the first of their Mr. & Mrs. North stories in 1937

Sept 25, 1920 – Akimitsu Takagi was born in Aomori, Japan

Sept 25, 1934 – Martin Russell was born in Bromley, Kent

Sept 25, 1935 – half of the writing team that created the first bestselling Swedish mystery series, Maj Sjöwall, was born in Stockholm

Sept 25, 1944 – actor and producer Michael Douglas was born in New Brusnwick, NJ, and, in 1969, his wife, Catherine Zeta Jones, was born in Swansea, Wales

Sept 25, 1957 – great good guy and great bad guy Michael Madsen was born in Chicago

Sept 25, 1964 – Spanish writer and composer Carlos Ruiz Zafón was born in Barcelona

Sept 25, 1965 – ‘The New Yorker’ published the first of four serialized sections of Capote’sIn Cold Blood. The book would be published the next year

Sept 25, 1973 – the TV anthology “Police Story” premiered

Sept 26, 1895 – tough-guy actor George Raft was born. Was it just an act?

Sept 26, 1902 – Umberto (later changed to Albert) Anastasia was born in Calbira

Sept 26, 1907 – Anthony Blunt – one of the Cambridge 5 spy ring – was born

Sept 26, 19?? –Early Happy Birthday to one of our treasured customers who, heartbreakingly, can no longer read – the wonderful Pat Burg. We miss you!

Sept 26 – birthdays of Robert Richardson (1940, Manchester), and mistresses of mystery Minette Walters (1946, Bishop’s Stortford) and Wendy Hornsby (1947, LA)

Sept 26, 1964 –Happy Early Birthday to twins Kathy & Karen Dawson

And Have a Relaxing and Book-Filled Weekend!

Posted at 04:51 PM in Newzine | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 03, 2014

Newzine 9.28.14

That’s right – there was no newzine last week. A wrinkle came up in the move and we wanted to make sure it was ironed out before we sent this newzine. It was,the move is on and here’s the final newzine of August 2014!

Due to the Move:

- Remember that we’re closed Friday the 29^th – Monday the 1^st, all of Labor Day weekend for the move.

- Phone and computers will be out of commission at times as they’re unconnected and moved. Don’t be surprised if we don’t return your call or message until early next month!

- The Autumn 2014 Newsletter will most likely be late in going out.

And don't forget:

Once again, we had a large number of bounce-backs week-before last – newzines that were sent back with ‘fatal errors’. If you did not get a newzine on the 15th, let us know and we’ll try to re-send it to you (next week).

Rest In Peace

Jeremiah Healy died Thursday, August 14^th. A retired sheriff’s officer, as well as a retired military police lieutenant, Healy had a law degree from Harvard and wrote a huge body of fiction – 18 novels and over 60 short stories.

He was born in New Jersey on May 15, 1948. With his law degree, he practiced as a trial attorney and spent 18 years teaching at the New England School of Law.

His most well known novels dealt with Boston private eye John Francis Cuddy. The first of those,Blunt Darts, was published in 1984. The second in the series,The Staked Goat, won the Shamus Award for the Best Private Eye novel published in 1986. He would go on to write 13 Cuddy novels, and be nominated four other times for the Shamus Best Novel.

He wrote of his work:“Through my experiences in law enforcement and law practice, I realized that some matters simply fell between the cracks in the system. Given the opportunity to teach, leaving my summers free, I decided to explore those cracks in novels.”

He served on boards within the mystery world, was often present at conventions, and seemed to be a cheerful guy. But Healy had long battled chronic depression. Combined with alcohol, it all got the better of him and he took his life in Fort Lauderdale, where he’d been living.

Actor, producer, and director Richard Attenborough died on August 24^th. Though his crime and mystery films were but a tiny fraction of his prodigious output (Brighton Rock, 1947, Séance on a Wet Afternoon, 1964, 10 Rillington Place, 1971, Brannigan, 1975, Magic, 1978) we include him and salute him for his body of work: The Great Escape, The Sand Pebbles, The Flight of the Phoenix, Jurassic Park, Ghandi, Chaplin, Cry Freedom – a long, long list of films, in front of the camera and behind it.

Knighted in 1976, Sir Richard was born on August 29, 1923, in Cambridge, the eldest of three boys. (His younger brother David is the noted naturalist with the recognizable face and voice.) He left school at 16 and began acting. He served in the Royal Air Force during the war and returned to acting. He played the detective in the first staging of “The Mousetrap”. He spent twenty years trying to get his movie about Ghandi made. As no one would finance it, he did it all himself. He won the Academy Award for Best Director and the movie won seven others.

William Goldman, novelist and screenwriter and someone very knowledgable about Hollywood and its denizens once said Attenborough was “’by far the finest, most decent human being’ he had ever met in the movie business.”

Sir Richard Attenborough was 90 at the time of his death.

Thanks, gentlemen, and R.I.P.

Gift Certificates:

Links of Interest:

Federal judges award Leslie Klinger $30,000 in fees stemming from the suit regarding Sherlock Holmes.

A cab driver in Tehran is also a mobile reading room and lending library. Clever!

What’s it like to be married to a mystery writer? The spouses of Jan Burke, Margaret Maron, Harlan Coben, Jan Burke and Dorothy Cannell spill the nitty-gritty.

NPR’s “Crime in the City” series goes to Istanbul and the books of Selçuk Altun

And while still in NPR land, here’s an interview with Louise Penny

For all of you who wonder what life is like on this side of the sales counter: 11 Things You Learn Your First Month As A Bookseller

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, Nov 15, noon, local author Maia Chance signs her debut Snow White Red-Handed (Berkley pbo, $7.99). In 1867, a frustrated American actress talks her way into a job as lady’s maid to a millionaire’s bride. What she didn’t anticipate is that the happy couple would leave for his storybook castle in Germany. Soon, a series of bad things take place: the ruins of Snow White’s cottage are found with the remains of a dwarf inside and the new groom is murdered via poisoned apple. Everyone looks at Ophelia the actress with suspicion and she’s in a Grimm spot of trouble.

Thus, Dec 11, noon, Phillip Margolin signs Woman with a Gun (Harper hc, $26.99). Fiction based on a real photograph that has haunted the author for years. Aspiring writer Stacey Kim sees a photo in a museum retrospective and is entranced. It shows a woman in a wedding dress, on a beach, looking out into the distance, and holding a revolver behind her back. Stacey wants to know the story. Her curiosity will lead her to an unsolved murder and the one person who might be able to crack the case isn’t talking – the photographer.The photo that Phil saw will adorn the dust jacket.

Sat, Jan 31, 3pm,Burt Weissbourd signs Teaser (Rare Bird hc, $24.95). In this sequel toInside Passage (Rare Bird, $14.95), Corey and Abe are drawn into the ugly world where privileged private school kids, who experiment with sex and drugs, get ensnared by predators on the streets of Seattle. As they hunt one missing girl, they concoct a plan to rescue her, one that is audacious and dangerous.

James Ellroy, Sept 12

Peter May, Sept 12

Neil Low, Sept 20

Yasmine Galenorn, Oct 4

Hank Phillippi Ryan, Oct 10

Urban Waite, Oct 21

John Connolly, Nov 10

Fuminori Nakamura, Nov 12

Bernadette Pajer, Nov 29

Pamela Christie, Jan 17

Yasmine Galenorn, Jan 31

And there are always more on the way!

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Wish List

Word of the Week

proof (n.) From the early 13^th C., preove "evidence to establish the fact of (something)," from Anglo-French preove, Old French prueve "proof, test, experience" (13^th C., Modern French preuve), from Late Latin proba "a proof," a back-formation from Latin probare "to prove" (see prove)."The devocalization of v to f ensued upon the loss of final e; cf. the relation of v and f in believe, belief, relieve, relief, behove, behoof, etc.” [OED].

Meaning "act of proving" is early 14^th C. Meaning "act of testing or making trial of anything" is from late 14^th C., from influence of prove. Meaning "standard of strength of distilled liquor" is from 1705. In photography from 1855. Typographical sense of "trial impression to test type" is from c.1600. Numismatic sense of "coin struck to test a die" is from 1762; now mostly in reference to coins struck from highly polished dies, mainly for collectors.

Adjectival sense (proof against) is recorded from 1590s, from the noun in expressions such as proof of (mid-15c.), hence extended senses involving "tested power" in compounds such as fireproof (1630s), waterproof (1725), foolproof (1902), etc. Shakespeare has shame-proof. (thanks to etymonline.com)

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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: Dogs, Stashes and Names (if it hasn't been posted yet, it will be there tomorrow morning - another casualty of the move preparations!)

Fran Recommends:

When Deborah Harkness came in to sign The Book of Life (Viking, $28.95,signed copies still available), talking with her inspired me to re-read the first two, to read the completed trilogy as a whole. So I started with Discovery of Witches (Perseus, $16.00), continued with Shadow of Night (Perseus, $17.00) and finished up the trilogy four days after I started the whole journey again.

Man, are these good books!

For those who are already in love with the “All Souls” books, Ms. Harkness fulfills the promise of the first two books. Her resolutions to the various problems, including what Ashmole 782 really is and can do, and how it relates to Diana, is beautifully complex, and is completely satisfying. She’s left herself openings to continue in this world if she wants to, but if she doesn’t, that’s fine too, although I hope she does come back to it, because I really love these people.

For those who are unfamiliar with the trilogy, Diana Bishop is a professor of history focusing on alchemy. She’s also a witch, one who hates to use her magic and keeps track of any infractions she indulges in. When she “calls” a dusty old book to her for her research, Ashmole 782, Diana sets into motion events that will change more than just her life.

You see, Ashmole 782 may very well be the history of the origins – and possibly the ways to destroy – all the witches, vampires and daemons roaming the earth. Each species wants it, and will do anything to keep the others from finding it. However, Diana teams up with Matthew, a vampire with a secret. She and Matthew challenge the established order of things, and in doing so, find each other.

Deborah Harkness is herself a professor of history, so her take on the creation of Ashmole 782 and the impact a single book can have on whole populations. What happened to witches in the past, and various historical events that highlighted the vampires’ lives is brilliantly depicted and elegantly woven. You know you can trust the facts as well as her interpretation and spin on what happened. Her writing is rich and lush, and she has built a world that is completely believable and real.

But it’s her people who are at the heart of the trilogy. All the beautiful background in the world wouldn’t matter if you didn’t care about the people, and in the pages of these books. You meet some amazing, troubled, determined, and memorable characters. Even her secondary and tertiary characters are fully developed; they matter.

I enjoyed re-reading the first two, and I know without a doubt that I’ll re-read these time and time again. This is, without a doubt, one of the best trilogies I’ve ever read.

JB Recommends:

David Rosenfelt’s series with defense attorney Andy Carpenter continues to be a reliable laugh-riot. Hounded (Minotaur hc, $25.99) is the 12^th in this funny series, with Andy once again trying to avoid any work, do little else but watch sports, walk his dog Tara, dance with Laurie and meet his buddies for dinner.

This story starts out a little more seriously, or perhaps personally is the way to say it. His old friend, Pete Stanton, a police investigator with a sterling reputation, has been arrested for murder. While it is unthinkable, Andy still has to prove it in court and the circumstantial evidence is strong. Still, Andy and his team – Marcus is indispensable, of course – get moving to free Pete.

The ingenuity of the book is where the solution comes and when the center of evil is exposed. It’s a jaw-dropper!

There are major changes afoot in the series, all for the better. It’s a book filled with love and laughs. If you haven’t started reading this series, you’re missing a gem. Great for fans of Rex Stout, as Andy and Archie are cut from the same bolt of cloth.

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

On This Date [You Get Two Weeks Worth!]

Aug 23, 1572 – the St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre as a wave of Catholic mobs attack Huguenots, initiated by a series of targeted assassinations, historically believed to have been instigated by Catherine de Medici, mother of King Charles IX. In the weeks to come it is estimated that up to 30,000 may have perished

Aug 23, 1927 - Sacco and Vanzetti were electrocuted

Aug 23, 1929 – actress Vera Miles was born in Boise City, OK

Aug 23, 1936 – writer of comic capers, Australian writer Tony Kenrick was born in Sydney

Aug 23, 1943 – author Nelson DeMille was born in Jamaica, Queens

Aug 23, 1946 –The Big Sleep, with Bogart and Bacall, premiered

Aug 23, 1954 – Earlene Fowler was born in Lynwood, CA

Aug 23, 1973 – Jan-Erik “Janne” Olsson attempted to hold up Stockholm bank and took hostages. It is from this crime that the term “Stockholm Syndrome”comes - when hostages began to sympathize with their hostage taker

Aug 23, 1976 – Scott Caan – son of James and the new Danny Williams – was born in LA

Aug 24, 1456 – the printing of the Gutenberg Bible is completed. Collectors begin calling, asking if 1st printings are still available…

Aug 24, 1899 – poet, translator, essayist and short story writer (many were mysteries) Jorge Luis Borges was born in Buenos Aires

Aug 24, 1902 – future crime boss Carlo Gambino was born in Palermo

Aug 24, 1940 – future serial killer Richard Fran Biegenwald was born in New York State

Aug 24, 1948 – Professor Alexander McCall Smith (“call meSandy…”) was born Bulawayo, Rhodesia

Aug 24, 1951 - Robert J. Randisi was born in Brooklyn

Aug 24, 1963 – Icelandic writer Yrsa Sigurdardóttir was born

Aug 24, 1976 - Alex O’Loughlin, the new Steve McGarrett, was born in Canberra

Aug 25, 1819 – spy and detective Allan Pinkerton was born in Glasgow

Aug 25, 1911 – noir writer Ed Lacy was born Leonard “Len” S. Zinberg in NYC. He would win the 1958 Edgar Award forRoom to Swing, which featured Touie Moore, the “first credible African-American PI” in fiction; and short story specialist Herbert Harris was born in London

Aug 25 – Brian Moore in Belfast (1921), Lady Dorothy Dunnett was born in Dunfermline (1923), Robert Ludlum was born in New York (1927), Margaret Maron was born in Greensboro, NC (19??), and Carolyn G. Hart – the G stands for Gimpel – was born in Oklahoma City (1936)

Aug 25, 1930 – Sean Connery was born in Edinburgh

Aug 25, 1933 – Patrick McManus was born in Sandpoint, ID

Aug 25, 1938 – Frederick Forsyth was born in Kent

Aug 25, 1988 – Errol Morris’ documentaryThe Thin Blue Line opened

Aug 26, 1845 – Mary Ann Nichols was born. 43 years and 5 days later she meets Jack the Ripper

Aug 26, 1875 – author John Buchan was born in Scotland.The Thirty-Nine Steps was published in 1915

Aug 26, 1884 – future creator of Charlie Chan, Earl Derr Biggers was born in Warren, OH

Aug 26, 1925 – David Sanchez Morales, future spook and shady anti-Castro activist, was born in Arizona

Aug 27, 1906 – killer and all-around scary guy Ed Gein was born. He was the roll model for Norman Bates and a few other choice fictional loonies

Aug 27, 1929 – future Edgar-winner and father of Rosemary’s baby, Ira Levin was born in NYC

Aug 27, 1932 – future writer Antonia Fraser was born in London, as was Joan Smith (1953)

Aug 27, 1947 – Richard Widmark becomes an instant sensation as the giggling villain whenKiss of Death premiered

Aug 28, 1814 – the prolific and multi-faceted Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu was born in Dublin

Aug 28, 1899 – future Gaslight actor Charles Boyer was born in Figeac, Lot, Midi-Pyrénées

Aug 28, 1916 – the multi-disciplinary writer John Holbrook Vance was born in San Francisco

Aug 28, 1917 – one of the finest Comic Book artists and innovators ever - co-creator of Captain American, the Fantastic Four, the X-men and the Hulk - Jack Kirby, was born Jacob Kurtzberg in NYC

Aug 28, 1925 – Philip Purser was born in Hertfordshire

Aug 28 - 3 notables from Hollywood were also born that day: Ben Gazzara (1930, NYC), David Soul (1943, Chicago), and Luiz Guzmán (1956, Cayey, PR)

Aug 28, 1933 – future nun and mystery writer Sister Carol Anne O’Marie was born in San Francisco

Aug 28 –The Killers premiered (1946), as didBody Heat (1981)

Aug 28, 1978 – the great Robert Shaw died

Aug 29, 1913 – prolific hard-boiled writer Steve Fisher was born in Maine City, MI

Aug 29, 1915 – the sublime Ingrid Bergman was born in Stockholm. Also on that day, a number of other Hollywood notables: actor and director Richard Attenborough (1923, Cambridge, England), actor Charles Gray (1928, Bournemouth, England), director and screenwriter William Friedkin (1935, Chicago), Elliot Gould (1938, Brooklyn), Joel Shumacher (1937, NYC), and Carla Gugino (1971, Sarasota)

Aug 29, 1950 – former Sheriff and Green River Killer hunter Dave Reichert was born in Detroit Lakes, MN

Aug 29, 1967 – final episode of “The Fugitive” aired and the one-armed man was caught

Aug 29, 1987 –the great Lee Marvin died

Aug 30, 1889 – at a dinner at London’s Langham Hotel, Lippencott’s Monthly Magazine managing editor Joseph M. Stoddart commissioned Arthur Conan Doyle to contribute a story. That would be “The Sign of the Four” (yes, 5 words), published that next Feb. Oscar Wilde was also at the table and hisThe Picture of Dorian Gray would be published the next July

Aug 30, 1893 – future Kingfish, Huey Long was born in Winnfield, LA

Aug 30, 1908 – actor Fred McMurray was born in Kankakee, IL

Aug 30, 1946 – future member of the Mod Squad, Peggy Lipton was born in NYC

Aug 30, 1963 – actor Michael Chiklis – TV cop and Fantastic Four member – was born in Lowell, MA

Aug 30, 1967 –Point Blank, with Lee Marvin starring in the first adaptation of Stark’sThe Hunter, premiered

Aug 31, 1888 – Jack the Ripper kills Mary Ann “Polly” Nichols, his first official murder

Aug 31 – James Cobern was born in 1928 (Laurel, NE) and Richard Gere in 1949 (Philadelphia)

Aug 31, 1996 –Bound first shown at the Venice Film Festival

Sept 1, 1889 – crime journalist Herbert Ashby was born in Farmington, MO. His landmarkThe Gangs of New York would be published in 1928

Sept 1, 1890, Arthur W. Upfield was born in Gosport, Hampshire. In 1929, he unleashed Napoleon "Bony" Bonaparte, the most brilliant detective on the continent of Australia. His books would become as famous and popular due to their whodunnit plots as they would their attention to the landscape and the people of Australia. Compounding the crime is that the books are out of print

Sept 1, 1906 – Eleanor Alice Burford was born in London. She would use many pen names but the most well known was Victoria Holt

Sept 1, 1935 - con artist Victor "The Count" Lustig escaped from the Washington FBI detention center on charges that he not once, butTWICE, sold the Eiffel Tower to gullible Parisian scrap metal dealers. Treasury agents recapture him before long

Sept 1, 1936 – Roderick Thorp was born. He wroteThe Detective, made into a movie with Sinatra, andNothing Lasts Forever, a sequel toThe Detective, but made not as a movie sequel but asDie Hard

Sept 1, from Hollywood: actor, director and screenwriter Ron O’Neal (1937, Utica, NY) and surfer, stunt double and character actor Don Stroud (1943, Honolulu)

Sept 1, 1948 –Sorry, Wrong Number premiered

Sept 1, 1951 – the 1^st successful crime show, “Martin Kane, Private Eye”, premiered on NBC

Sept 2, 1847 - George B. Sims is born in London. In 1897, he'll create one of the very first fictional female detectives, Dorcas Dene, in a series of short stories.

Sept 2, 1949 –White Heat premiered

Sept 2, 1951 – football star and actor Mark Harmon was born in Burbank

Sept 2, 1955 – reformed attorney and thriller writer Steve Berry was born in Georgia

Sept 2, 1964 – Keanu Reeves was born in Beirut

Sept 3, 1913 – Alan Ladd was born in Hot Springs, AR

Sept 3, 1929 – former Boston crime boss “Whitey” Bulger was born

Sept 3, 1931 – the man convicted as The Boston Strangler, Albert DeSalvo was born in Boston

Sept 3, 1972 – the White House Plumbers first break-in: they burglarize the California office of Daniel Ellsberg’s psychiatrist to get dirt on him after he releases The Pentagon Papers

Sept 4, 1900 - Alfred Alexander Gordon Clark was born in Mickleham, Surrey. A lawyer himself, he will pen a series of classic mysteries set in England's courts under the name Cyril Hare

Sept 4, 1913 – future LA crime boss Mickey Cohen was born

Sept 4, 1924 – noted writer of children’s fiction who turned to adult mysteries and won the Edgar award in 1972, Joan Aiken was born in Sussex

Sept 4, 1933 – Richard Castellano – the great and loyal Clemenza – was born in The Bronx

Sept 4^th – Happy Father’s Day to all the Dad’s in Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, and Papa New Guinea

Sept 5, 1847 – future guerilla and outlaw Jesse James was born in Kearney, MO

Sept 5, 1904 – Philosophy professor Rudolf Hornaday Kagey was born in Tuscola, IL. Under the name Kurt Steel, he wrote a series of Hammett-styled novels with PI Hank Hyer

Sept 5 – Hollywood: William Devane was born in Albany, NY (1937), the Australian Bond George Lazenby (1939), bombshell Raquel Welch (1940, born Jo Raquel Tejada in Chicago), Michael Keaton (1951, born Michael John Douglas in Corapolis, PA) and Rose McGowan (1973, born in Florence, Italy but graduated high school in Seattle)

Sept 5, 1947 –Dark Passage premiered in NYC

Sept 5, 1972 - "Black September" terrorists attack at the Munich Olympic Games.

Sept 5, 1975 – Lynette Fromme attempts to assassinate President Gerald Ford. 17 days later Sara Jane Moore will try

Sept 5, 2000 – Christopher Nolan’s ingeniousMemento first shown, a the Venice Film Festival

And Have a Relaxing and Book-Filled Weekend!

Posted at 01:17 PM in Newzine | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 22, 2014

No Newzine Today

Due to the attendant lunacy of the impending move, a couple of hundred orders for the new Jayne Castle, and trying like mad to get the Autumn newsletter finished, there will be no newzine this week (that is, Friday, Aug 21st, 2014).

Sorry to disappoint our 8.3 trillion fans, especially those of you in the far reaches of the Milky Way, Orion Nebula, and parts yet to be charted.

In the meantime, here's a photo of the old shop (future new space) from the time it opened in 1990, with Mr. Bill at the ready. Pre-computer, we wrote up all sales by hand on that counter, on legal pads.

Goodness - look how clean the carpet was!

Posted at 03:34 PM in Inside the Shop, Newzine | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 16, 2014

Newzine 8.15.14

No Newzine on Friday Aug 29th

Rest In Peace

Cheryl Kneale was a long-time customer who supported us from our early days. She and her husband, John, helped us with our first move and, though he’s just lost the love of his life, John says he hopes to help us move back. She’d been ill for some time but we hoped against hope that she’d live for years yet. Didn’t work out that way.

Cheryl was born in late November just after WWII in Kenosha, WI. She spent her working life as a librarian at different levels (they brought rolling carts to the move in 2005 and they were VERY useful), and her free time in the needle arts and reading voraciously.

Cheryl died on August 2^nd.

Bon voyage!

Robin Williams was born in Chicago on July 21, 1951. We can spend pages and days talking about all that he did, the magnitude of his creativity and genius (an overused but apt word in this case), and the breadth of his talent. Over the last few days you’ve heard and seen much of it shown over and over.

Due to our specialty, we’ll cite two of his movies, both crime stories, in which he played the villain: Insomnia (2002) set in Alaska with Al Pacino and Hilary Swank, directed by Christopher Nolan; and One Hour Photo (also 2002) with Connie Nielsen, directed by Mark Romanek.

He was only 63. He took his own life.

At times like this, the human language is inadequate to express the feelings we have.

Lauren Bacall was born Betty Jo Perske in The Bronx on Sept 16, 1924. After her parents divorced when she was when she was five, she took her a form of her mother’s maiden name: Weinstein-Bacal.

Acting lessons, time as an usher and modeling lead to a small role on Broadway and praise from Bette Davis. The wife of director Howard Hawks saw one of her modeling photos and urged him to find her a role in a movie called To Have and Have Not – and that launched her into fame, stardom and Humphrey Bogart. Key Largo, The Big Sleep, Dark Passage, Harper, Murder on the Orient Express are just some of the mystery and crime-related movies she appeared in.

She was always graceful and alluring and early on perfected the “Bacall look”.

She died from a massive stroke on Aug 12^th at the age of 89.

"You know you don't have to act with me, Steve. You don't have to say anything and you don't have to do anything. Not a thing. Oh, maybe just whistle. You know how to whistle, don't you, Steve? You just put your lips together and blow.”

Rest In Peace and thanks

Gift Certificates:

A new series has started on TNT called “Legends”. It’s based on the spy thriller by that same title by Robert Littell and stars Sean Bean. A ‘legend’ is a spycraft term for an identity taken by the agent as a different and complete person. Premiere episode was this past Wed. Check your local listings.

Links of Interest:

Alexander McCall Smith is working on the libretto for a new opera about Anthony Blunt and the Cambridge Spies

NPR’s “Crime and the City” series continued with M.L. Longworth and her series of whodunnits set in Aix-en-Provence

French film director Luc Besson: “You Can’t Imagine How Many People Ask Me for a Leon Sequel”

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

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

[Quantities of signed copies for these books will be very 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!]

Lee Child, Personal (Sept., Delacorte hc, $28.00). Reacher! He moves around, he knocks heads, he goes to Europe, he tries to stop something bad from happening – it’s a REACHER!

Michael Connelly, The Burning Room (Nov., Little Brown hc, $28.00). 19^th Harry Bosch novel. He deals with an inverted cold case. The victim has just died from a gunshot suffered long ago. There is little evidence left from the time of the shooting. Where to start the investigation?

Walter Mosley, Rose Gold (Sept., Doubleday hc, $25.95). It is the radical 60s and a black power revolutionary cell has kidnapped the daughter of an arms manufacturer, Rosemany Goldsmith. If they don’t get what they want, Rose Gold will die. The authorities come to Easy Rawlins to be an intermediary.

Louise Penny, The Long Way Home (Aug., Minotaur hc, $27.99). Now retired in Three Pines, former Chief Inspector of Homicide with the Sûreté du Québec, Armand Gamache is settling into the peaceful life that he’d barely imagined. A neighbor, Clara, comes to him for help. Her artist husband, Peter, has failed to show up for the first anniversary of their separation, something they’d planned. Unable to refuse, Gamache joins up with his former second-in-command, Jean-Guy Beauvoir, and Myrna Landers, and journeys back into the depth of Québec, and the soul of Peter Morrow, a man desperate to recapture his fame.

Martin Limón, Aug 19

Chelsea Cain, Aug 20

Kelli Stanley, Aug 21

Jayne Castle, Aug 26

James Ellroy, Sept 12

Peter May, Sept 12

Neil Low, Sept 20

Yasmine Galenorn, Oct 4

Hank Phillippi Ryan, Oct 10

Urban Waite, Oct 21

John Connolly, Nov 10

Fuminori Nakamura, Nov 12

Pamela Christie, Jan 17

And there are always more on the way!

Wish List

Word of the Week

trick (n.) From the early 15^th C., "a cheat, a mean ruse," from Old North French trique "trick, deceit, treachery, cheating," from trikier "to deceive, to cheat," variant of Old French trichier "to cheat, trick, deceive," of uncertain origin, probably from Vulgar Latin *triccare, from Latin tricari "be evasive, shuffle," from tricæ "trifles, nonsense, a tangle of difficulties," of unknown origin.

Meaning "a roguish prank" is recorded from 1580s; sense of "the art of doing something" is first attested 1610s. Meaning "prostitute's client" is first attested 1915; earlier it was U.S. slang for "a robbery" (1865). To do the trick "accomplish one's purpose" is from 1812; to miss a trick "fail to take advantage of opportunity" is from 1889; from 1872 in reference to playing the card-game of whist, which might be the original literal sense. Trick-or-treat is recorded from 1942. Trick question is from 1907. (thanks to etymonline.com)

What We’ve Been Reading

Amber Recommends:

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

This Week: Problems, Perfumes and The Flu

JB Recommends:

Granted, I’m not very objective about Martin Limón’s books. I’m a fan and I think they’re great. George and Ernie are great detectives and spending time with them is always time well spent. But his latest, The Iron Sickle (Soho hc, $26.95), is an impressive step up.

As the book starts, a Korean man has walked into the claims office of the 8^th Army and killed the official in charge with a metal sickle. It is a shocking and gory crime. It’s complicated by concerns that it might be a North Korean attack, something to unsettle the South and the US. The series is set a little over 20 years after the “end” of the Korean War and the possibility of the cold war there going hot is on everyone’s minds. But our Army CID cops, George Sueño and Ernie Bascom are at first told to stay away from the crime even though they and we know they’re best suited for the investigation. So we know they’ll investigate anyway – and it is a hummer of an investigation.

I don’t know how much the plot is based on history – I’ll have to quiz Martin – but the plot turns on war crimes during the 50s and a secret file that holds the report. Needless to say, secrets are meant to stay secrets. They’re politically explosive and people are willing to kill to expose them or keep them secret.

Martin has brought back two of his great secondary characters: Korean National Police investigator Mr. Kill and the mysterious, deadly and lovely Major Rhee of the Korean Army, a woman George distrusts as much as he trusts Mr. Kill.

The Iron Sickle is a lively story full of richly-drawn actors moving through a landscape of complicated and, at times, conflicting objectives. Past and present, American and Korean, civilians and soldiers, political and police – as always, Martin’s books are a rich mix of people clashing in an atmosphere rife with the potential for trouble. A ideal setting for a terrific series of books.

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

Aug 17, 1907 – not really a mystery deal but the oldest, continually working farmers’ market in the US opened – Seattle’s Pike Place Market

Aug 17, 1924 – Peter Chambers was born in London. One writer said “his private eye books…are as American as bourbon on the rocks.”

Aug 17, 1943 – Robert De Niro was born in NYC. No more details needed…

Aug 17 – Happy Early Birthday to Seattle Times mystery reviewer Adam Woog!

Aug 18, 1910 – David Dodge, future author of It Takes a Thief, was born in Berkley, CA

Aug 18, 1922 – filmmaker and crime writer Alain Robbe-Grillet was born in Brest

Aug 18 – a Big Day for Hollywood: Roman Polanski (1933, Paris), Robert Redford (1936, Santa Monica), Edward Norton and Christian Slater (1969, Boston and NYC respectively)

Aug 18, 1932 – cozy writer Blaize Clement was born in Fink, TX

Aug 18, 1934 – future prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi was born in Hibbing, MN

Aug 19, 1940 – future Bond Girl and Mensa Member Jill St. John was born in LA

Aug 19, 1965 - future “Closer” Kyra Sedgwick was born in NYC

Aug 20, 1890 – Howard Phillips Lovecraft – creator of weird fiction and his Cthulhu Mythos, was born in Providence

Aug 20, 1927 – what is considered to be Hollywood’s first true Gangster movie, Josef von Sternberg’s Underworld premiered. Script by Ben Hecht

Aug 20, 1935 – Francis Selwyn was born in Brighton

Aug 20, 1942 – future composer, musician and actor Isaac Hayes was born in Covington, TN

Aug 20, 1951 – future bestselling author and Seattle-area resident Greg Bear was born in San Diego

Aug 20, 1961 – veterinarian and thriller writer James Rollins was born in Chicago

Aug 21, 1863 – Quantrill’s Raid on Lawrence, KS – slaughter for slaughter’s sake

Aug 21, 1891 – George Clarence “Bugs” Moran was born in St. Paul. It was his guys gunned down on Feb 14th by Capone’s heavies. He is credited with developing the technique of spraying a rival’s headquarters with machine gun fire – what we now call the ‘drive-by shooting’

Aug 21 – authors born: M.M. Kaye (1908, Simla, India), Robert L. Fish (1912, Cleveland), John Malcolm (1936, Lancashire), and Lindsey Davis (1949, Birmingham, England)

Aug 21, 1911 – da Vinci’s Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre. It was feared lost forever but is recovered two years later in the car trunk of a former employee who thought it should be returned to Italy

Aug 21, 1911 - William Anthony Parker White is born in Oakland. Mid-century, he’ll become one of the most influential critics of mystery fiction under the name Anthony Boucher. He wrote mysteries in addition to reviewing them and the largest, annual mystery convention is named in his honor – Bouchercon

Aug 21, 1912 – two-time Edgar winner Robert L. Fish – aka Robert L. Pike – was born in Cleveland

Aug 21, 1939 – future Mod Squad member Clarence Williams III was born in NYC

Aug 21, 1940 – Trotsky murdered in Mexico City

Aug 21, 1971 – a true dame – and Edgar winner – Megan Abbott was born in Warren, MI

Aug 21, 1968 – Antonio Lo Bianco and Barbara Locci become the first victims of ‘The Monster of Florence’

Aug 22, 1925 – one-time Avenger and Bond-Babe Honor Blackman was born in London

Aug 22, 1920 – the prolific and influential Ray Bradbury was born in Waukegan, IL

And Have a Relaxing and Book-Filled Weekend!

Posted at 12:00 PM in Newzine | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 09, 2014

8.8.14 newzine

More on the move:

We get the impression that many people were unclear on what it meant that we were moving ‘back’. Our apologies for any confusion – never occurred to us that we needed to explain.

Duh… It is always the little things that trip you up (just ask Lt. Columbo).

This shop has always been in this building and on this level. We moved into our current space in 2005. For the first 15 years we were 30 yards to the east, underneath the corner of 2^nd and Cherry. It is to that space that we’re returning.

Beginning that first week of September, you will walk through the gate and come down those two steps, same as ever – you’ll just have to turn left and walk those yards to the front door. Easy enough!

No changes in our phone or mailing address, no changes in e-mail or website.

IF YOU HAVE BOOKS ON HOLD PLEASE COME GET THEM BEFORE THE MOVE OR MAKE ARRANGEMENTS TO HAVE THEM MAILED.

Oh, one more thing: because of the move, we will not be taking in any large batches of used books. A handful, maybe a dozen we might do. At any rate, please call ahead and check to make sure we have time to deal with any used books.

Rest In Peace

James Thompson, Kentucky-born and Finland-residing novelist died on Aug. 2 near his home in Lahti. There are no confirmed explanations for his death that we have seen. We’ve read various articles that refer to recent health problems, some including servere headaches. One article noted that he left home for a walk and didn’t return. That same remembrance ends by saying that “The lake in Lahti, which took Jim’s life failed to drown his spirit.”

Thompson was a man of many talents and interests. He was the lead guitarist in a Boston rock band at one point, a gifted photograher and had a master’s degree in English philology, earned from the University of Helsinki. He published 4 novels in the Inspector Vaara series and was working on a 5^th at the time of his death. He also published two novels in Finnish which have not yet been translated into English (the Vaara books were written in English). He also edited Helsinki Noir, part of the on-going Akashic city noir series and wrote a story for that collection.

He died far, far too young. He was 49.

Dorothy Salisbury Davis died this past Sunday, Aug 3^rd. Mystery Writers of America Grand Master recipient in 1984, Bouchercon Lifetime Achievement Award recipient in 1989, and co-founder of Sisters in Crime, she wrote 17 crime novels as well as other works. She had no repeating characters and admited “I am fonder of my villains, if the truth be told; and I suppose that is it; the pursuit of truth which shines best in the dark excesses of human behavior… But I should dearly love to have been able to create an Inspector Maigret, my all-time favorite among the detectives of fiction.”

She was born April 25, 1916 in Chicago and was adopted by a farming couple in Wisconsin. She graduated from college in 1938 having studied literature but found it difficult to find a job due to the Depression. She worked as a magician’s assistant (something she hated but used later in her ficiton) and in public relations for a meatpacking company. She met a theatre stage manager named Harry Davis and, a lover of the theatre herself, they married in 1946. He encouraged her writing.

Her first novel, The Judas Cat, was published by Scribner in 1949. She was most interested in morality and motivations and used those themes to underlay her intricate plots. Her last published work was in 2007. She died at her home in New York State. She was 98.

R.I.P.

Gift Certificates:

Links of Interest:

The latest in Morning Edition’s “Crime and the City” series covered Lawrence Block and his Matthew Scudder books in NYC. Nice to hear Larry’s voice! And the Scudder series is an all-time favorite of Bill and JB’s.

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)

Thurs, Aug. 21, noon, Kelli Stanley signs City of Ghosts (Minotaur hc, $25.99). It is June 1940 and the world is becoming more tense by the day. The man who helped her get her PI license comes to Miranda Corbie for help – and she can’t refuse. Her job is to tail a chemistry professor who is suspected of working for the Nazis. 3rd in this series that Fran HIGHLY recommends- see her review below.

Sat, Sept 13, time to be determined, Peter May signs The Lewis Man (Quercus hc, $26.95). Fin MacLeod has left everything in Edinburgh – his job as a Detective Inspector as well as his wife – and returned to the wind-swept outer Hebridean islands where he grew up. There he’s drawn into the discovery of a body in a peat bog who is identified as the father of his first love. Middle of the trilogy, the first of which is now in paper, The Blackhouse (Quercus, $14.95). [This will be a drop-in signing. Reserving a copy required. Older books to be signed by prior arrangement.]

Wed, Nov 12, noon, Fuminori Nakamura signs Last Winter We Parted (Soho hc, $25.00). A young writer travels to a prison to interview a man accused of a couple of grisly murders. A photographer, the accused works are disturbing. The writer is supposed to do a profile of the killer and the crimes but he begins to have doubts that the man is guilty. Now the guy’s sister – that’s someone capable of horrors! And then there is someone that the people involved in the case refer to as “The Puppeteer”.

Sat., Jan 17, noon – Pamela Christie signs Death and the Cyprian Society (Kensington tpo, $15.00). 3^rd in the Regency series with courtesan Arabella Beaumont. She has plans to turn a hotel into a social club for her fellow courtesans. To make it happen she requires a friend to repay a sizable loan made some time ago. Should not be a problem except that this friend is being blackmailed by the footman with whom she’s been dallying. Arabella steps in to end the blackmail and thereby get her money, but things turn ugly.

Kat Richardson, Aug 9

Mary Daheim, Aug 14

Martin Limón, Aug 19

Chelsea Cain, Aug 20

Jayne Castle, Aug 26

James Ellroy, Sept 12

Neil Low, Sept 20

Yasmine Galenorn, Oct 4

Hank Phillippi Ryan, Oct 10

Urban Waite, Oct 21

John Connolly, Nov 10

Bernadette Pajer, Nov 29

And there are always more on the way!

_________________________________________________________________________________

Wish List

Word of the Week

subterfuge (n.) From the 1570s, from Middle French subterfuge (14th C.) or directly from Medieval Latin subterfugium "an evasion," from Latin subterfugere "to evade, escape, flee by stealth," from subter "beneath, below;" in compounds "secretly" (from Proto-Indo-European *sup-ter-, suffixed (comparative) form of *(s)up-; see sub-) + fugere "flee" (see fugitive). (thanks to etymonline.com)

_________________________________________________________________________________________

What We’ve Been Reading

Amber Recommends:

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

This Week: It Was Bound to Happen

Anne Bishop - Written In Red (Roc mm, $7.99).

There is something you must understand about Meg Corbyn’s world: humans live at the pleasure of The Others. Elementals, werewolves, vampires, all the things we fear in our world are very real in hers and they do not trust us. We are their prey, clever prey, but prey nonetheless. Courtyards were established in larger cities, where The Others could keep an eye on their clever food, where Others who could stand (mostly) interactions with humans could live. In these courtyards human laws do not apply, they have their own laws.

Human Liaison is essentially a mail room position, an important one as even the Others need to get their mail. A human is needed to fill it, since delivery people (or people in general) get nervous around the Others and will stop delivering by contract if a human is not there for a certain amount of time. The job has been vacant for too long and Simon Wolfgard is loathed to hire Asia Crane, the only applicant for the job, as he trusts her even less than he does most humans. It is a stroke of luck when Meg Corbyn asks for the job, but Simon isn’t sure he trusts her motives either.

I’d seen this title when it came out in hardback but with my reading for the shop, it got shuffled back in my brain and I temporarily forgot about it. When I saw it again as a mass-market release (yes even us book sellers will wait for the paperback sometimes) I picked it up…..that was back in March. Again, the reading I was doing for my Christie blog makes it difficult to get other books read, so it sat on my bookshelf waiting patiently for me to pick it up.

Man I should not have waited…

Written In Red completely captivated my attention - laundry was ignored, chores weren’t done and meals forgotten until I finished the book. Bishop’s style of writing is one I have enjoyed before and highly recommend - Daughter of Blood, Heir to the Shadows & Queen of Darkness - but previously she wrote pure fantasy which is great but not within the shop’s purview. Written In Red changed that, adding an urban fantasy element to her repertoire and obviously a mystery element to them, allowing me to finally recommend her book for the shop! And boy, do I recommend this title.

Bishop does a wonderful job of introducing a new set of characters, world and conspiracies which never falters and is always interesting. She creates a palpable sense of tension which had me reading past my bedtime because I could not put the book down. I highly recommend this book to female urban fantasy readers (or open minded males - but let it be known that the book is very female focused, not the Twilight stupid romance effect, but just female centric) looking for an engrossing read!

Seriously the more I like the book the more disjointed the review, because I want to bore you all with all the minutia from the book but have to restrain myself from doing so--as I want you to read the book so I can talk about it with you! So pick it up, read it and let’s talk!

Fran Recommends:

In Kelli Stanley’s new “Miranda Corbie” novel, City of Ghosts (Minotaur, $25.99, signing Thurs., Aug 21, noon) Miranda has just wrapped up a case - jade missing from a socialite’s house - when the man who made her license possible knocks on her door with a deal. He’ll pay her, pay her well, and he’ll get her a ticket on a freighter for London so she can track down her mother. The price? She’s got to follow a chemistry professor who may be dealing with “degenerate art”, the art confiscated by the Nazis who are rapidly taking over Europe. The State Department, for whom MacLeod works, is afraid that the professor is dealing in more than art; he has access to some high level secrets. If Miranda can verify the professor’s dealings, one way or the other, her trip to London is assured.

But then murder rears its ugly head and Miranda’s caught squarely in the crosshairs. She has to clear her name or the only place she’ll be going is the pen.

If you ever wonder about the “city” in Kelli Stanley’s Miranda Corbie books (City of Dragons, Minotaur; City of Secrets, Minotaur, City of Ghosts), she explains in City of Ghosts:

“San Francisco, built and rebuilt, wicked and always willing, forever old, forever young, smelling of sex and sin and newly minted money, guardian, lover, mentor, the cobbled streets and dim lights and salt-stained tears and wave lapped piers, the smell of fresh-baked sourdough and jook from Sam Wo’s, grappa in front of the Italian saints, quiet Victorians nodding on quiet streets, ice shaking in cocktails at the Top of the Mark.

“Lying city, dying city, Lazarus and the phoenix. Wide open and proud of it, a city built on stolen sand and abandoned ships, reclaimed by the ones that stayed and built for the ones that left. A city made by dreamers who died paupers and paupers who lived like kings, dream keeping them alive in the only way that mattered.

City of Dreams, broken or not, it didn’t matter.

No need for a City of Angels when there’s gold in the mountains and cars that climb hills and bridges that span seas.”

With a pace as fast as Miranda’s tapping stilettos and prose as lean as a street hustler, Kelli Stanley brings us into 1940’s San Francisco at a dangerous time, when cops play for keeps and everyone has secrets. If you’ve read the first two, you won’t want to miss this one. If you haven’t, now’s the time to start.

JB Recommends:

James Ellroy promises that Perfida is the start of another LA Quartet. It begins on Dec 6, 1941 and covers the events of the next three weeks. The logical assumption is that the next three books will cover the years up to The Black Dahlia.

OH BOY!

Perfida is jammed with characters from past books. It gives nothing away to say that the one of the central characters is Sgt. Dudley Smith with all his roguish and broguish charm. To an extent, having so many of his own fictional creations, as well as actual historical figures, as his actors removes a great deal of suspense. You know nothing bad happens to them as they’re in later books or really were people in LA in the 50s or 60s. But that’s not a bad thing. What you read Ellroy for is the breathtaking scope of mendacity he weaves through his novels. There’s more crime, betrayal, violence, schemes and scams, love and lust in an Ellroy novel than most writers can pack into a lifetime of books. Bennies, poisoned tea, opium pipes and barrels of alcohol, eugenics and racism, shotguns and machine guns and nitroglycerin – and satchels of cash.

“Land grabs, plastic surgery, blood libel. Rogue cops, sub attacks, a lunch-mob massacre. Pay phones. A white man in a purple sweater. Secret radios and feigned seppuku. The haughty Left and the bellicose Right. A grand alliance of war profiteers.” And nothing has changed.

Get ready for a cast of characters you think you know: Bucky, Lee and Kay, Pierce Padgett and Preston Exley, Buzz Meeks and Sid Hudgens, Bugsey Siegel and Beth Short mix it up with Bette Davis, William Parker, J Edgar Hoover and JFK. My advance reader’s copy came to 688 pages, with an additional four and a half pages of the cast, telling you what novels they appeared in or who was what in wartime LA.

It’s a masterful work, fast and hard as a sap and as dark as the Sunset Strip during a wartime blackout. I just hope it isn’t another five years before we get the next volume.

The only problem is now I think I need to re-read the original quartet.

I can see Dudley wink and say “That’s grand, lad.”

Perfida (Knopf hc, 28.95)Ellroy will be here to sign on Friday, Sept 12. This will be a stock signing, not a formal event. He’ll be here only long enough to sign what we need signed. Reserving a copy well in advance is mandatory. We can try to get earlier copies signed but can not promise that there will be time. Do not plan to be here. If you do want earlier books signed, you must buy the new one from us and get in touch with us to make arrangements. Call or e-mail first before bringing any older books to be signed.

John Connolly - The Wolf Of Winter

For the last few books in his Charlie Parker series, John Connolly has been slowly opening up a much larger view of a world of evil that underlies the world as we know it. Killers, demons, dangerous and revolting people – at first you had to wonder how much of this was in Parker’s head or imagination but it is now clear that Parker (and by extension, the rest of us) live in a world permeated by these entities. They’re very old, very powerful and they are, to one extent or another, frightened of Parker even if he himself isn’t aware of his role in this ‘other world’.

The Wolf in Winter (Oct., Atria hc, $26, signing Monday, Nov 10, noon) is ostensibly about Parker’s search for a missing young woman who is thought to have gone to a strange and disturbing town called Prosperous. This community traces its origin to England and social battles over religion. Those who founded the town brought over their church and reconstructed it and have kept to themselves ever since. Clearly, there is something wrong with this town and the folks who run it, and they react with fear and horror when Parker turns up to ask questions. Their reactions cause a violent upheaval in this ‘other world’, or at least those creatures, human or not, who dance at its edge.

This seems to be a bridge book, a story that is going to take us and Parker to a new and staggering level of awareness. Most interestingly, Parker is the center of the book but not in most of the book, and about that I can say no more.

It is a story populated by many familiar characters and some dandy new ones. It’d be nice if there was a ‘family tree’ of John’s actors, something that reminded us where and when they first appeared, with whom they were affiliated, and who was responsible for what nightmares.

The only bad thing about the book is that, as a bridge to the next chapter in Parker’s life, we have to wait so long to find out what he discovers on the other side.

Can't wait!

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

On This Date

Aug 10, 1851 – Old West gunfighter “Mysterious” Dave Mather was born in Connecticut

Aug 10 - Frances Noyes Hart was born in Silver Springs, MD (1890), Hugh Pentecost was born in Northfield, MA (1903), Dorothy B. Hughes was born in Kansas City (1904). She was one of the few women to win applause during her career for penning hard-boiled fiction. A couple of her thrillers were made into movies, including In a Lonely Place with Bogart. She was given the Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Award in ‘78

Aug 10, 1907 – Alvin “Creepy” Karpis, one of the smartest of the gangsters and the brains of the Barker Gang, was born in Montreal

Aug 10, 1913 – character actor Noah Beery was born in NYC. Most would remember him for playing Jim Rockford’s dad in the 70s

Aug 10, 1950 - Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard premiered

Aug 10, 1960 – the Rat Pack’s Ocean’s Eleven premiered

Aug 10, 1972 – actress and TV investigator Angie Harmon was born

Aug 11, 1907 – William Haggard (aka Richard Henry Michael Clayton) was born in Croydon, Surry

Aug 11, 1918 - Donald MacKenzie was born in Toronto

Aug 11, 1986 – in Miami-Dade County, 8 FBI agents and a pair of serial bank robbers shoot it out – two agents were killed, five wounded, both thieves died

Aug 12, 1876 - Mary Roberts Rinehart was born in Pittsburgh

Aug 12, 1931 – novelist and screenwriter William Goldman was born in Chicago

Aug 12, 1935 – the late great John Cazale (The Godfather, Dog Day Afternoon) was born in Boston and, in 1975, Casey Affleck was born in Falmouth, MA

Aug 12, 1963 – the award-winning thriller writer Texan Jeff Abbott was born

Aug 12, 19?? – early Happy Birthday to long-time customer and collector Kevin P. Enjoy the Game!

Aug 13, 1860 – Phoebe Ann Moses was born in North Star, OH. We remember as Annie Oakley

Aug 13, 1899 - Alfred Hitchcock was born in London. We’d like to think it was a Friday the 13th…

Aug 13, 1909 - Charles Williams was born in San Angelo, TX

Aug 14, 1851 – future dentist, gambler and gunman “Doc” Holiday was born in Griffin, GA

Aug 14, 1901 – President William McKinley died from the bullet wound received eight days before

Aug 14, 1946 – Antonio Fargus (Huggy Bear in “Starsky and Hutch”) was born in NYC

Aug 14, 1959 – a tough dame in the movies, Marcia Gay Harden was born in La Jolla

Aug 14, 1966 – future Bond Girl and Academy Award Winner Halle Berry was born in Cleveland

Aug 14, 1980 – Playmate and actress Dorothy Stratton was murdered by her estranged husband

Aug 14, 1994 – Leon: The Professional premiered in France

Aug 15, 1906 – master of magic mysteries Clayton Rawson was born Elyria, OH

Aug 15, 1912 – future intelligence worker (OSS in WWII) Julia Child was born in Pasadena

Aug 15, 1925 – future TV private eye Mannix, Mike Connors was born in Fresno

Aug 15, 1928 – the first mystery talking crime movie, The Terror, premiered. Before this, like other movies, the dialogue was shown on title cards

Aug 15, 1929 - Bill James, author of the Harpur & Iles series, was born in Wales

Aug 15, 1946 – Hitchcock’s Notorious premiered

Aug 15, 1949 – Australian writer Garry Disher born

Aug 15, 1954 – Stieg Larsson was born in Skelleftehamn, Sweden

Aug 15, 1972 – future actor and director Ben Affleck was born, four days and three years before brother Casey

Aug 15, 1986 – Michael Mann’s Manhunter premiered, Hannibal Lector’s first screen appearance adapted from Red Dragon

And Have a Relaxing and Book-Filled Weekend!

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August 03, 2014

8/1/2014 Newzine

Georges Simenon:

We recently took in a large collection of Georges Simenon books. It’s a mix of Maigrets and non-Maigrets, maybe half are paperback or hardcovers without dust jackets – nice reading copies! – and the other half are inexpensive hardcovers with dust jackets ($10 - $20), and a few are more expensive ($25 - $50). Sorry, no comprehensive list will be forthcoming. If you want something, send us a list of what you want and we’ll try to figure out, amongst the blizzard of alternate titles, if we have them. Otherwise, stop in and look ‘em over!

Gift Certificates:

Links of Interest:

Here’s a story to warm a booklover’s heart – hand-made books. From PBS’s NewsHour (what some of us still call “MacNeil/Lehrer”), a visit with the bookbinders at Arion Press in San Francisco.

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)

Monday November 10^th at Noon - John Connolly signs The Wolf in Winter

(Atria hc, $26.00). Prosperous, ME, is as wealthy as it sounds and guards itself carefully. It doesn’t accept strangers, only begrudgingly allowing tourists to come to look at the ancient church, moved there and reconstructed stone by stone, from England. But there is something ugly and morbid going on – a dead hobo and a missing girl – and PI Charlie Parker is heading their way. The results ripple far and wide. 12^th in the series by the Irishman, a series highly recommeded by JB, Fran, and Adele.[JB’s review next week!]

Saturday November 29^th at Noon - Bernadette Pajer signs Edison Effect

(Sept., Poisoned Pen tp, $14.95, hc $24.95 by special order). UW Professor Bradshaw is drawn into the controversy over electrical services. Edison wants his help but Bradshaw resists. When Edison’s device is tossed into Elliot Bay, great effort is put into finding it. Then one of the divers is found dead in a window of The Bon Marché wrapped in holiday lights powered by Edison’s gizmo and things get nasty as the holidays approach. [For anyone wanting a book earlier than Thanksgiving Weekend, let us know and Bernadette will come in to sign reserves when the book is just out.]

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

Friday Septeber 12th at Noon - James Ellroy signs Perfidia (Knopf hc, $27.95).

The story of 24 days in LA, starting on Dec 6th, 1941. 608 pages of masterful noir. The first of a new L.A. Quartet we’re promised – presumably covering ’41 – the Black Dahlia murder. Characters from earlier books grapple with massive change within their city: Dudley, Bucky, Lee, Buzz, Kay, Sid, Ward, along with historical figures – detectives, police chiefs, mayors, gangsters, studio bosses and actors. A sprawling epic of crime, paranoia, racism, violence, betrayal, narcissism and, of course, war. The hardest of noir, not a nice book but a great book – JB recommends – his review comes next week.

[Please understand – this is a stock signing. We’re told he will sign older titles as long as you buy the new book only from us. Check with us before you drop anything off as time will be limited.]

Greg Rucka, Aug 2

Kat Richardson, Aug 9

Mary Daheim, Aug 14

Martin Limón, Aug 19

Chelsea Cain, Aug 20

Jayne Castle, Aug 26

Neil Low, Sept 20

Yasmine Galenorn, Oct 4

Hank Phillippi Ryan, Oct 10

Urban Waite, Oct 21

And there are always more on the way!

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Word of the Week

scot-free (adj.) Old English scotfreo "exempt from royal tax," from scot "royal tax," from Old Norse skot "contribution," literally "a shooting, shot; thing shot, missile," from Proto-Indo-European *skeud- "to shoot, chase, throw" (see shoot (v.); the Old Norse verb form, skjota, has a secondary sense of "transfer to another; pay") + freo (see free (adj.)). First element related to Old English sceotan "to pay, contribute," Dutch schot, German Schoß "tax, contribution." French écot "share" (Old French escot) is from Germanic. (thanks to etymonline.com)

What We’ve Been Reading

Amber Recommends:

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

This Week: Hellos, Goodbyes & the Black Museum

JB Recommends:

Bravo is one of Greg Rucka’s best books to date. It is whip-smart, tense, and sets a world-record action pace. It is full of strong women and difficult decisions, questions of duty and love and is it possible to do your job and protect those close to you. And trust – trusting others, trusting yourself, trusting your ideals.

At the center of the story is Jonathan “Jad” Bell, Master Sergeant, team leader, operational agent and father. He’s pulled in many directions at once and these distractions can be dangerous to all involved. He’s chasing bad guys – really bad guys. But no one knows exactly who they are. That’s the thrill of the hunt, the sense that you’re getting close but how do you know?

The plot of Bravo continues from Alpha (Mulholland, $8) as the Americans work to find those responsible for the attack on the theme park and stop whatever they have planned next. It is almost a two-part story, or one split into consecutive books. So you might as well start with Alpha.

If I could sight one small flaw it is that, two books in, I really don’t know much about Bell as a human. I understand Reacher and Swagger and Bosch and Patrick and Angie. I understand Marlowe and Archer and even Mallory. I don’t understand Bell. He’s a blank in his own stories and I hope that as the series goes on I get to know him.

Still and all, Bravo is a crackerjack story. I was so intent on reading last night going home that I missed my bus stop and had a longer walk home. That meant, too, more time to get home so that I could finish the damn book! (Can’t read and walk at the same time – neither gets the attention they deserve…)

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

Aug 4, 1892 – somebody took an axe and gave the Bordens 40 whacks

Aug 4, 1918 – Robert Beck was born, earning a place on list by writing hard-edged urban crime novels as Iceberg Slim

Aug 4, 1950 – Sunset Boulevard and Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye premiered

Aug 4, 1964 – victims of domestic terrorism, the bodies of civil rights workers Goodman, Chaney and Schwerner are found

Aug 4, 1955 – Billy Bob Thornton was born in Hot Springs, AR

Aug 4, 1965 – Dennis Lehane was born in Dorchester, just like Angie, Patrick and Bubba

Aug 4, 1968 – Daniel Dae Kim – the new Chin Ho Kelly – was born in Pusan

Aug 4, 1972 – Super Fly premiered

Aug 4, 19?? – Early Happy Birthday to long-time customer and Film Noir informant Benjamin C.

Aug 5, 1868 – Marie Adelaide Elizabeth Rayner Lowndes was born in London. Her classic, The Lodger, was published in 1913

Aug 5, 1906 – actor and director John Huston was born in Nevada, MO

Aug 5, 1911 – Robert Taylor was born in Filley, NE

Aug 5, 1926 – Per Wahlöö was born (yes, there were internationally best-selling Swedish mystery writers before Stieg Larsson)

Aug 5, 1960 – thriller writer David Baldacci was born in Richmond, VA

Aug 5, 1962 – Marilyn Monroe died. Accident, suicide or murder?

Aug 6, 1901 – at the Pan-American exhibition in Buffalo, NY, anarchist Leon Czolgosz shot President William McKinley

Aug 6, 1902 – Dutch Schultz (aka Arthur Flegenheimer at birth) was born in Newark

Aug 6, 1911 – novelist and prolific short story writer Gerald Kersh – born in the UK but a naturalized American – was the master of the bizarre story

Aug 6, 1917 – Robert Mitchum was born in Bridgeport, CN

Aug 6, 1930 – Judge Crater gets into a cab and was never seen again

Aug 6, 1932 – Bonnie Parker met Clyde Barrow and never left his side

Aug 6, 1962 – Michelle Yeoh was born in Malaysia

Aug 6, 2005 – a gang tunneled into the vault of the Banco Central branch in Fortaleza, Brazil and, taking the weekend, removing five contains (weighing in all about 3.5 tons) holding about $71.6 million in Brazillain cash

Aug 6, 2009 – two thieves enter Graff Diamonds on New Bond Street, London, and made off with £40 in jewelry

Aug 7, 1876 – Margaretha Geertruida ‘Grietje’ Zelle was born in Denmark. An exotic dancer by profession, the world remembers her as Mata Hari

Aug 7, 1885 – Cecil William Mercer was born in Walmer, Kent. As Dornford Yates, he would become one of the Big Three British writers between Doyle and Christie (along with Sapper and John Buchan)

Aug 7 - E. X. Giroux was born in Elmira, NY (1924) and Stephen Marlowe was born in NYC and Anthony Lejeune in London (1928)

Aug 7, 1932 – Edward Hardwicke – Watson to Brett’s Holmes – was born in London

Aug 7, 1934 – TV writer Richard Levinson was born in Philadelphia. He co-created Columbo and Mannix

Aug 7, 1947 – future Edgar-winner Thomas Perry was born in Tonawanda, NY – Jane Whitefield’s territory

Aug 7, 1952 – translator and novelist Tiina Nunnally was born in Chicago

Aug 7, 1960 – David Duchovny was born in NYC

Aug 7, 1969 – model and future bounty hunter Domino Harvey was born in London

Aug 7, 1975 – Oscar-winner Charlize Theron was born in South Africa

Aug 8, 1891 – Street and Smith begin publishing the ‘Nick Carter Library’ series of dime novels

Aug 8, 1900 – the great film noir director Robert Siodmak was born in Germany

Aug 8, 1937 – Dustin Hoffman was born in LA

Aug 8, 1963 – Britain’s “Great Train Robbery”. The bulk of the £2.6 million was never recovered. One of the gang, Ronnie Biggs was born on this day in 1929

Aug 8, 1975 – Farewell, My Lovely, with Robert Mitchum and Charlotte Rampling, premiered

And Have a Relaxing and Book-Filled Weekend!

Posted at 04:33 PM in Newzine | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 26, 2014

Newzine 7.25.14

Besides visting us – top of any weekend’s To Do List, naturally! – there’s a bazillion events going on in Seattle. Mariners’ games, the Pioneer Square Fire Festival, Saturday evening’s Torchlight Parade, the Bellevue Arts Fair, the Capitol Hill Blockparty… whew! But be sure to allow time to come down and bug Adele and Fran on Saturday, and Adele on Sunday.

ARE YOU A BOOK HOARDER? THERE’S A WORD FOR THAT

Birthday Sale - One Week Left!:

Due to POPULAR DEMAND, our Birthday Sale has been extended to run through the entire month of July! Until August 1^st, all used hardcovers will be 25% off.

Rest In Peace

You undoubtely know that James Garner died last Saturday. A few years ago, we had a new autobiography by him displayed on the front counter. Someone came in and questioned why we had that book in a mystery bookshop. We looked at them as if they were from the other side of the Neutral Zone and replied “Rockford”.

“Ohhhhhhhh……” was the reply.

But “The Rockford Files” was so small a slice of his work. He was a fine Philip Marlowe in the film adaptation of Chandler’s The Little Sister (Bruce Lee’s first US movie appearance), Marlowe. He played the smitten if confused gangster King Marchand in the wonderful Victor Victoria. He played Wyatt Earp twice (Hour of the Gun (1967), and Sunset (1988). He starred in Support Your Local Sheriff and Support Your Local Gunfighter. He played a small town sheriff in the contemporary They Only Kill Their Masters. He played an LA cop in the adaptation of Wambaugh’s The Glitter Dome.

Even when he played a bad guy he was the good guy.

James Scott Bumgarner was born in Norman, OK, on April 7, 1928. He dropped out of school at 16 and joined the Merchant Marines. During the Korean War he earned two purple hearts.He began acting in the early 50s after the war and never really stopped.

He was married to Lois Fleishman Clarke for 57 years. He was known to be a very private man. He was 86 when he died on July 19^th in LA.

Garner anchored whatever ‘show’ he was in without flash or ego and perhaps that’s why he was so likeable and durable and irreplaceable.

R.I.P.

Gift Certificates:

Links of Interest:

Following Raymond Chandler’s L.A. Footsteps on His Birthday

UK Orders New Inquiry Into Ex-KGB Spy Litvinenko’s Death

In NPR’s “Crime in the City” series, Greg Iles: Writer Plumbs ‘Nature of Evil’ In Hometown’s Violent Civil Rights Past

Adieu to a Dapper Detective: David Suchet Reflects on 20 Years of Playing Poirot

Northwestern Sues Author in Leopold and Loeb Book Dispute

For this Sunday’s New York Times’ By the Book, Dean Koontz Answers questions

The Cornish beaches where Lego keeps washing up- not a mystery but still pretty funny!

Finally, for fans of James Lee Burke:

Had a woman stop in a few days ago who has a travel website, Next Exit Travel. We somehow got onto the subject of Burke and she confessed that she’d recently gone to New Iberia, the settings for the Robicheaux series while in New Orleans for a conference. In fact, she went to the conference just so she could take a side trip east to Burke Country. She put up a report of that trip, along with photos, on the site. If you’d like to see it, go here.

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., Sept. 20, noon - Neil Low signs Theater of The Crime (Sept., Tigress tpo, $15.95). A fire at a historic Seattle theater leaves behind smoldering clues and bodies. Detectives Alan Stewart and Vera Deward once again find themselves in the midst of an international mystery. They’re frustrated by a troupe of Russian Émigrés, magicians, and dancers who may know more than they are willing to say. As the murders continue, the partners employ hard-knock detective techniques, psychic predictions, potions, and good old fashioned sleuthing to find that in the world of magic, sleight-of-hand and treachery can reach beyond the stage.

Greg Rucka, Aug 2 [see Adele’s review below!]

Kat Richardson, Aug 9

Mary Daheim, Aug 14

Martin Limón, Aug 19

Chelsea Cain, Aug 20

Jayne Castle, Aug 26

Yasmine Galenorn, Oct 4

Hank Phillippi Ryan, Oct 10

Urban Waite, Oct 21

And there are always more on the way!

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Wish List

Word of the Week

missile (n.) A "thing thrown or discharged as a weapon," is 1650s, from missile (adj.), 1610s, "capable of being thrown," chiefly in phrase missile weapon, from French missile and directly from Latin missilis "that may be thrown or hurled" (also, in plural, as a noun, "weapons that can be thrown, darts, javelins"), from missus "a throwing, hurling," past participle of mittere "to send" (see mission). Sense of "self-propelled rocket or bomb" is first recorded 1738; the modern remote guidance projectile so called from 1945. (thanks to etymonline.com)

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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: Christie, Dickens and Cheese

Jean-Pierre Alaux & Noel Balen - Treachery In Bordeaux (Le French Books, TP, $12.95)

Where to begin with this review….The uncertainty does not stem from poor quality, just the opposite in fact. This is an excellent book, one which if you like wine, science or France, I think you will enjoy.

The thing is that the book appears at first glance to be your generic themed cozy….It is anything but! Camouflaged under the name The Winemaker Detective Series is a far more interesting and complicated detective novel. Within the cozy tradition, it would be placed at the Hazel Holt end of the scale - in other words there is nothing cutesy or cloying. Benjamin Cooker is a man passionate about his calling - he writes about wine, makes it, helps suss out problems other winemakers encounter and is just a general expert in his field. And, as with any man who has a passion, it creeps into all aspects of his life and this is where we find Benjamin Cooker at the beginning of the book, a man about to turn fifty who hires himself an assistant to do the heavy lifting (i.e. very long hours and literally to lift heavy things) so he can accomplish everything he needs to.

In this first book we are introduced to Benjamin, his wife, his assistant and various friends all of whom I am sure we will see repeatedly through the 22 book series. In this first installment, Benjamin and Virgile must figure out if the contamination of some wine in a friend’s cellars was due to mismanagement or sabotage.

Sounds pretty straightforward right? Well…..that is where my uncertainty in this review comes in. This first book really is an introduction to our principal characters, wine and France. It is simply wonderful and like a wine, subtle and complex (sorry couldn’t resist the reference). The authors take their time in getting to the heart of the mystery; the crumbs were there for the audience to put it together, but the authors didn’t spell out what was happening until about halfway through the book - when the book shifts from being about the people to the mystery. It is like driving on Highway 101 - it takes you a bit longer to get where you are going but the scenery is far more interesting than if you simply took the interstate. I stuck with it because Benjamin, his apprentice, the wine and his interests are a fascinating read. What was not obvious until the end of the book is what you thought was completely irrelevant details camouflaged the motive for the crime.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a new British cozy style of mystery to read. While wine is the main focus of the mystery you don’t need to know a bunch about it to read this book, nor is the theme over done; it is worked seamlessly into the mystery. Four books have been translated so far in this series and I am looking forward to reading them all!

BTW there is a very popular TV series in France based on these books!

Adele Recommends:

Greg Rucka's second book in the Jad Bell series, Bravo (Mulholland Books hc, $26.00, signing Sat. Aug. 2 at noon) begins two days after the attack at the theme park that nearly cost him his ex-wife and his daughter – that’s in Alpha, the first Bell book. He's still recovering and is on the hunt for the principal organizer of the attack, ‘the Uzbek’. He and his team are tasked with bringing in the Uzbek but he's just the tip of the iceberg. Jad learns that another attack is going to be launched and he is off to find the mastermind of that attack know only as The Architect.

There are two beautiful women who feature into this hunt. One is in the U.S. to aid in dispatching this new attack, and the other he captures while chasing the Uzbek. Can he trust either one?

Bravo is a fast paced ride from beginning to end. If you haven't read Alpha (available now, Mulholland pb, $8.00), start with it before reading Bravo. This is a great book for lovers of a racing suspense story such as the likes of Lee Child, David Baldacci, and Vince Flynn. I loved it but then again, I've loved everything I have read of Greg Rucka's.

Come meet him next Saturday, he's a really GREAT guy.

Fran Recommends:

When Yasmine Galenorn began the "Indigo Court" series, she planned for it to end in five volumes, and that fifth and final book, Night's End (Bantam, $7.99, signed copies available) completes the story nicely.

Cicely is now the Queen of Snow and Ice, counterpoint to her cousin Rhiannon, who is Queen of Rivers and Rushes, winter and summer balanced together. But both Queendoms are in peril while Myst is still on the prowl, trying to take over and turn both lands into her own personal hunting ground.

Cicely learns that there is a spy in her midst, and she must learn what it means to be Queen, the decisions and choices that must be made to save her people, even if it costs her friendship and love. In the final battle against Myst, Cicely will have to choose between what she holds most dear and what she has to do to protect those entrusted to her. And if she can't, Myst will surely win.

One of the great things about this series, and in fact about all of Yasmine Galenorn's writing, is that she has no problems turning things around, making hard choices and dealing out surprises. If you've been reading this series (and you have, haven't you?), then I don't want to say too much because things are wrapped up. There are losses along the way, and some of the people you've come to know and love - and loathe - will have things happen that are both sad and gratifying. I know, that's cryptic, but really, once you've read it, you'll see what I mean.

While she's left the door open to revisit this world later, the series winds up in ways that are wonderful and satisfying, and it's been a fun read. I suspect now that it's completed, I'll want to sit down and read the entire series through, beginning to end, just to embrace the entire saga. But then, that's the fun of a great series, right?

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

July 27, 1902 - birthday of Daniel Mainwaring (1902, Oakland) who wrote Build My Gallows High (published in 1946) which was adapted by Jacques Tourner’s sublime and arguably the best film noir Out of the Past in ’47

July 27, 1922 – Italian actor Adolfo Celi was born. Just over 40 years later, he’ll touch immortality as Emilio Largo, SPECTRE #2, in Thunderball

July 27, 1929 – ‘Jack Higgins’ was born, but the thriller master was named Harry Patterson at birth in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England

July 27, 1940 – early Happy Birthday to Big Jim M over there in Spokane!

July 27, 1996 – Eric Robert Randolph sets off a homemade bomb at the Atlanta Summer Olympics

July 28, 1841- the body of Mary Rogers, ‘the Beautiful Cigar Girl’, is found floating in the Hudson River. The crime is a sensation and infatuates everyone, including Edgar Allan Poe. He believes he can solve the case and turns the case into the 3^rd work of mystery fiction ever written, The Murder of Marie Roget

July 28, 1959 – North by Northwest premiered

July 28, 1902 – Kenneth Fearing was born in Oak Park, IL. The Big Clock – classic book, classic movie – would be published in 1946

July 28, 1941 – Bill Crider was born in Mexia, TX

July 29, 1852 – future Old West lawman and gunfighter Commodore Perry Owens was born in Hawkins County, TN

July 29, 1864 – Confederate spy Belle Boyd was arrested by Union troops

July 29, 1892 – the urbane and amusing William Powell was born in Pittsburgh

July 29, 1900 - Italian King Umberto was assassinated by an anachist

July 29, 1909 – pioneer African-American crime writer Chester Himes was born Jefferson City, MO

July 29, 1933 – Buck Barrow died of wounds received after being with his brother and Bonnie for only 4 months

July 29, 1941 – all-around wonderful actor David Warner was born in Manchester (yes, he’s usually playing a villain but he’s always wonderful)

July 29, 1976 – 1^st ‘Son of Sam’ attack, and LA gangster Mickey Cohen died

July 29, 1984 – Claudio Stefanacci and Pia Gilda Rontini became the 13^th and 14^th victims of the Monster of Florence

July 30, 1933 – Edward Byrne Breitenberger was born. Using his stage name, Edd Byrnes, he played Gerald Lloyd “Kookie” Kookson III on “77 Sunset Strip”, one of the first private eye TV series. Kookie was a hipster and unofficial PI who helped licensed investigators Roger Smith and Efrem Zimbalist Jr. The show debuted on Oct 10th, 1958

July 30, 1945 – L.A. Morse was born in Fort Wayne. He won the 1981 Edgar Best Paperback Original for The Old Dick

July 30 – a few from Hollywood: Arnold Schwarzenegger (1947, Tai, Austria), Juan Moreno y Hererara-Jimenez (aka Jean Reno, 1948, Casablanca), Ken Olin (1954, Chicago), Laurence Fishburne (1961, Augusta, GA), Vivica Fox (1964, South Bend, IN), Simon Baker (1969 Launceston, Australia), director Christopher Nolan (1970, London), Hilary Swank (1974, Bellingham, WA)

July 30, 1950 - Archer Mayor was born in Mout Kisco, NY

July 30, 1975 – Jimmy Hoffa is last seen – as far as anyone admits – in the parking lot of the Machus Red Fox restaurant in Bloomfield Hills, MI

July 31, 1837 – future psychopathic killer and guerilla leader William Quantrill was born in Louisville

July 31, 1904 – Davis Dresser was born in Chicago. He wrote under at least nine names, the most well known was Brett Halliday

July 31, 1930 – ‘The Shadow’ premiered as a radio drama

July 31 – from Hollywood: character actor Geoffrey Lewis (1935, San Diego), action actors Michael Biehn (1956, Anniston, AL) and Wesley Snipes (1962, Orlando), TV Superman Dean Cain (1966, Mount Clemens, MI)

July 31, 1952 - Faye Kellerman was born in St. Louis

July 31, 19XX – the delightful and talented Louise Ure was born

July 31, 1965 – J.K. Rowling was born in Yate, England

July 31, 1974 – Steampunk writer Cherie Priest was born in Florida (We still haven’t forgiven her completely for deserting us here in Seattle, but we love her books!)

July 31, 1977 – 8^th and last of the Son of Sam shooting attacks

Aug 1, 1914 - William John Burley ("W.J." on the title page) was born in Cornwall

Aug 1, 1925 – Alan Geoffrey Yates, born on this day in London, will write HUNDREDS of ‘spicy’ paperback originals as Carter Brown

Aug 1, 1935 – US premiere of Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps

Aug 1, 1942 – Italian actor Giancarlo Giannini was born

Aug 1, 1947 – I, the Jury, the first Mike Hammer novel by Mickey Spillane, was published

Aug 1, 1953 – Edgar-winner Jan Burke was born in Houston

Aug 1, 1954 – Rear Window premiered

Aug 1, 1966 – Charles Whitman was shot dead after his sniper attack from the Tower at the University of Texas – he killed 16, including his wife and mother murdered before he got to the tower

And Have a Relaxing and Book-Filled Weekend!

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July 19, 2014

Newzine 7.18.14

As we’ve noted in the last few newzines, we’ve been having lots of trouble getting the out to folks. Spam filters and different sorts of limits have played havoc. Just this week we got some pointers from our server folks and we’ve taken their advice and we hope – HOPE- that they’ll all reach everyone who has asked to receive it. If you’re reading this and realizing you hadn’t gotten the last five or six week’s worth of newzines, that’s why. We’ve taken to posting the newzine on our blog, just in case.

Birthday Sale:

Due to POPULAR DEMAND, our Birthday Sale has been extended to run through the entire month of July! Until August 1^st, all used hardcovers will be 25% off.

Rest In Peace

This sad news from The Guardian:

“The long-running comic book character Archie Andrews, 74, died on Wednesday. He was shot at Pop Tate’s restaurant in Riverdale while protecting his friend Kevin Keller, a newly-elected senator and a campaigner for gay rights and gun control, from an assassin’s bullet.

He is survived by his wife, Veronica; his wife, Betty; and his teenage self, twice over, who lives on in two separate comic universes.”

R.I.P.

Gift Certificates:

Links of Interest:

Elmore Leonard’s Unpublished Short Stories to be Published Next Year. The small press Weidenfeld & Nicolson will release “The Unpublished Stories in the Fall of 2015. “They were mostly written while Leonard was working as a copywriter in a Detroit advertising agency in the 1950s, mainly writing car ads.”

Val McDermid is having a great honor bestowed upon her – the University of Dundee is naming their mortuary after her!

JK Rowling Tells Harrogate: 'More than Seven' Galbraiths

Conan Doyle Estate Appeals Copyright Case to Supreme Court

And, while we’re on the subject –

19 Pieces of timeless wisdom from Sherlock Holmes

From CBS, Author Daniel Silva Sparks Interest in Art Theft Novel

Here’s a movie review that sounds intriguing: If You Love Mob Movies, You Must See Whitey

Christian Bale in talks to star as Travis McGee in adaptation of The Deep Blue Goodbye. First draft of the script was by Dennis Lehane.

And a case of PERFECT casting: Just one more film … Mark Ruffalo keen to play Columbo

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

Warren C. Easley, July 19

J.A. Jance, July 22

Greg Rucka, Aug 2

Kat Richardson, Aug 9

Mary Daheim, Aug 14

Martin Limón, Aug 19

Chelsea Cain, Aug 20

Jayne Castle, Aug 26

Yasmine Galenorn, Oct 4

Hank Phillippi Ryan, Oct 10

Urban Waite, Oct 21

And there are always more on the way!

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Word of the Week

fiasco (n.) From 1855, theater slang for "a failure," by 1862 acquired the general sense of any dismal flop, on or off the stage. Via French phrase fiare fiasco "turn out a failure" (19c.), from Italian far fiasco "suffer a complete breakdown in performance," literally "make a bottle," from fiasco "bottle," from Late Latin flasco, flasconem (see flask).
The reason for all this is utterly obscure today, but "the usual range of fanciful theories has been advanced" [Ayto]. Weekley finds it utterly mysterious and compares French ramasser un pelle "to come a cropper (in bicycling), literally to pick up a shovel." OED makes nebulous reference to "alleged incidents in Italian theatrical history." Klein suggests Venetian glass-crafters tossing aside imperfect pieces to be made later into common flasks. But according to an Italian dictionary, fare il fiasco used to mean "to play a game so that the one that loses will pay the fiasco," in other words, he will buy the next bottle (of wine). That plausibly connects the word with the notion of "a costly mistake."

(thanks to etymonline.com)

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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: Cyanide

This coming Sunday, we’ll post Amber’s interview with Sophie Hannah about writing the new Hercule Poirot and other aspects of writing. As they say, “Watch This Space”

Fran Recommends:

I was looking for something a little different to read, so I picked up Sean Pidgeon's Finding Camlann(Norton, $15.95 published in softcover last Jan, hardcover at the beginning of 2013) because it had things I'm interested in - archaeology, linguistics, Arthurian legend, Wales. And it was wonderful.

Archeologist Donald Gladstone knows there's no actual proof of Arthur's existence but believes there has to be some truth behind the myth. A find in a barrow near Stonehenge begins a quest that will take Donald, and linguist Julia Llewellyn, in search of an ancient Welsh battle poem, and will force them both to examine their lives.

This is a quiet, well-written story. There are no car chases, no gun fights, and no high tension. There's no definitive time frame for it. There are cars and telephones, but no cell phones or computers. It's reminiscent of a book written in the 60's or 70's. I found myself comparing it to Charlotte Armstrong's writing, actually. It's intelligent, complex and - to me - fascinating. I needed to pay close attention to the various time periods discussed, and my knowledge of Welsh history is sadly lacking (along with my ability to pronounce much of the language), but the people and their overwhelming need to know what happened caught my interest and didn't let go.

There's no single mystery, per se. Of course, the biggest question is whether or not the bodies found in the barrow are Arthur and Guinevere, but there's the question of an explosion in the recent past and whether or not it was an accident or sabotage, what role Julia's husband might have played in that explosion, and there is a death, so there are mysterious elements, but I'm not entirely sure you can classify Finding Camlann as a true whodunnit.

Whatever you call it, it was a thoughtful, restful break from the more action-packed adventures I normally indulge in, and I was pleased to have spent time in the Welsh mountains, exploring the history of the area and the origins of the Arthurian legend.

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

July 20, 1938 – future Dame and sex symbol Diana Rigg was born in Doncaster, England. Mrs. Peel, you’re always needed.

July 20, 1944 – as part of the Valkyrie plot, a bomb was placed near Hitler who, unfortunately, survived the assassination attempt

July 20, 1954 - the head of the West German secret service, Otto John, defects to East Germany

July 20, 1965 – future Edgar-winner and National Book Award Nominee – and all-around great writer and droll wit – Jess Walter was born Early Happy Birthday, Jess

July 20, 1975 – future Edgar-winner Theresa Schwegal was born in Algonquin, IL

July 20, 1973 - Bruce Lee died far too young, in Hong Kong, at the age of 32. He's buried here in Seattle, next to his son Brandon

July 20, 1977 – under a Freedom of Information request, the CIA releases documents that detail their experiments in mind control

July 20, 2012 – a man dressed in SWAT clothes shot up a midnight showing of The Dark Knight Rises in Aurora, CO

July 21, 1865 – Matthew Phipps Shiel – who published both as M.P. Shiel and Gordon Holmes – was born on Montserrat Island in the West Indies

July 21, 1865 – in what is generally considered to be the first real Western showdown, Wild Bill Hickok shoots and kills Davis Tutt in the Springfield, MO, market square. No word if it was high noon

July 21, 1873 – the James/Younger Gang commit their first train robbery

July 21, 1924 – while he may have not been very effective, Barney Fife was still an officer of the law and Don Knotts was born on this day

July 21, 1942 - Michael Z. Lewin was born in Springfield, MA

July 21, 1946 – Timothy Harris, creator of PI Thomas Kyd, was born in LA

July 21, 1956 - future Edgar-winner – and all-around great writer and nice guy – Michael Connelly was born in Philadelphia Happy Birthday, Michael!

July 21, 1967 – Basil Rathbone died in NYC

July 21, 1979 – first child vanished in what will become known as the Atlanta Child Killer case

July 22, 1873 - one of the most powerful and corrupt 'bosses' in American history was born: Tom Pendergast. We have him to thank for Kansas City jazz and Harry Truman

July 22, 1902 – novelist and screenwriter Daniel Mainwaring was born in Dunlap, CA. He’s best remembered for his last novel, published in 1946 under the pseudonym Geoffrey Homes, Build My Gallows High. That became the basis for the 1947 film noir classic Out of the Past

July 22, 1934 – John Dillinger was shot down in Chicago – beware the woman in red…

July 22, 1936 – 5^th of the dozen victims credited to the Cleveland Torso Murderer found. She would never be identified

July 22, 1943 – Bartholomew Gill, future writer of Irish mysteries, was born in Holyoke, MA

July 22, 1947 – Crossfire premiered

July 22, 1939 – Terence Stamp was born in London. Tough guy but he looks nice in a dress

July 22, 1946 – Danny Glover – bad guy in this crime movie, good guy in that one – was born in San Francisco

July 22, 1955 – Willem Dafoe - bad guy in this crime movie, good guy in that one – was born in Appleton, WI

July 22, 1988 – Yippie-ki-ya…Die Hard premiered

July 22, 2011 – Anders Behring Breivik shot up a youth camp on an island off Oslo, killing 69 and wounding many more

July 23, 1775 – Eugène François Vidocq was born in Paris. He would go from criminal to criminalogist when he founds the French national police, the Sûreté, in 1811

July 23, 1888 – Raymond Chandler was born in Chicago. His first published crime story doesn’t come until 45 years later when the Dec.1933 issue of Black Mask carries “Blackmailers Don’t Shoot”. He’s 51 when his first novel, The Big Sleep, is published

July 23, 1907 - Elspeth Huxley was born in Kenya

July 23, 1937 – Think Fast, Mr. Moto, first staring Peter Lorre, premiered in France

July 24, 1821 – William Poole was born. Years later he became a member of the Bowery Boys, one of the gangs around the Five Point section of early Manhattan. He had the nickname of Bill the Butcher and was the inspiration for the Daniel Day-Lewis character in Gangs of New York

July 24, 1853 – William Gillette, the first great Sherlock Holmes actor, was born in Hartford, CT

July 24, 1905 – future critic and editor Howard Haycraft was born. His landmark Murder for Pleasure was the first serious scholarly work on detective fiction published in the US (1941)

July 24, 1905 - Mildred Nixon Gordon (the other Gordon) was born in Eureka, KS

July 24, 1916 – John D. MacDonald was born Sharon, PA. His first Travis McGee came out in 1964

July 24, 1933 – the law caught up with the Barrow gang again outside of Dexter, IA. Bonnie & Clyde escape but the mortally wounded Buck and a nearly blinded Blanche are left behind. Buck died five days later. Blanche went to prison

July 24, 1935 – one of the people most responsible for this shop existing, Edgar Award-winner Aaron Elkins, was born in Brooklyn. It was Aaron who, while signing in Philadelphia, mentioned to Bill that Seattle needed a mystery bookshop and, 24 years later, here we are

Early Happy Birthday Aaron!

July 24, 1939 – Barry Malzberg was born in NYC

July 24, 1940 – character actor Dan Hedaya was born in Brooklyn

July 24, 1941 – crime reporter and police procedural writer Roger Busby was born in Leicester

July 24, 1951 – British attorney and novelist John Burdett was born

July 25, 1841 – ‘the beautiful cigar girl’, Mary Rogers, vanished. Poe will turn the true crime into his short story “The Murder of Mary Roget”

July 25, 1896 – Josephine Tey was born Elizabeth Mackintosh in Inverness

July 25, 1910 – Kendell Foster Crossen was born in Albany, OH. You may know him by a couple of his pseudonyms, M.E. Chaber and Christopher Monig

July 25, 1941 - Emmett Till was born. His short life will be ended in murder on Aug 28, 1955 by domestic racial terrorists in Mississippi

And Have a Relaxing and Book-Filled Weekend!

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July 11, 2014

Newzine 7.11.14

Birthday Sale:

Due to POPULAR DEMAND, our Birthday Sale has been extended to run through the entire month of July! Until August 1^st, all used hardcovers will be 25% off.

Facebook

Give us a hand again, please? Since we started advertising on Facebook, our numbers havedropped. If you see a post of ours on Facebook, would you “like” and “share” again, as you did in the past? It does make a difference to our numbers, and we’d love to mess with their algorithms! Thanks!

There’s a new Jess Walter story in recent July 11^th issue of Harper’s Magazine. It is called “To the Corner”. We don’t know if there are any good crime in it but we’re confident it will be beautifully written and worth the price of admission.

Historical Changes

No, we cannot alter history, as much as we’d like to. We have changed around the historical mystery display. Because there are so many mysteries set in and around and between and during the World Wars (and because Amber was itching to ‘mess with things’), we’ve now gathered those all in one part of the historical display – Airth, Todd, Furst, MacNeal, Benn, Kerr, Cantrell and many others, both series and one-offs. Check it out!

Here’s a collection of Ama – er um – SPECTRE articles from the last month. Calls for investigations, announcments of investigations, denoucement of extorsion, reactions to proposals, gambits and counter-moves… the usual from around the planet.

Gift Certificates:

Links of Interest:

US returns stolen Matisse painting to Venezuela.

Newly released files reveal the Soviets thought the members of the Cambridge Five spy ring were hopeless drunks.

UK sent BBC’s Sherlock to North Korea in hopes of ‘encouraging change’

NPR’s Crime and the City travels to the Shetland Islands and the books of Ann Cleaves

J. A. Jance on her writing career: Thirty-three Very Good Years

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

Emma Campion (Candace Robb), July 12

Jacqueline Winspear, July 16

Warren C. Easley, July 19

J.A. Jance, July 22

Greg Rucka, Aug 2

Kat Richardson, Aug 9

Mary Daheim, Aug 14

Martin Limón, Aug 19

Chelsea Cain, Aug 20

Jayne Castle, Aug 26

Yasmine Galenorn, Oct 4

Hank Phillippi Ryan, Oct 10

Urban Waite, Oct 21

And there are always more on the way!

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Wish List

Word of the Week

Pillage: From late 14^th C., "act of plundering" (especially in war), from Old French pilage (14^th C.) "plunder," from pillier "to plunder, loot, ill-treat," possibly from Vulgar Latin *piliare "to plunder," probably from a figurative use of Latinpilare "to strip of hair," perhaps also meaning "to skin" (compare figurative extension of verbs pluck, fleece), from pilus "a hair". (thanks to etymonline.com)

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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: Cyphers and Sherlock Holmes

Connie Archer -A Roux of Revenge (Berkley mm, $7.99)

There is something delicious about reading books set in a completely different season than the one you are presently in. Especially when written in your favorite time of year (Autumn) and you read it during your least favorite (Summer)! I have been watching this series for a while now and I kept meaning to get to one of Archer’s books, but never quite managed to find the time, but whenA Roux Of Revenge was released, I decided to make time. I am glad I did.

The thing is while I love reading lighter mysteries I am hesitant about culinary mysteries; I have been burned more than once by them. I have read many overly sweet ones who focus more on the food than the mystery itself. I also worried this book would be a bit too soupy - as it is billed as “A Soup Lover’s Mystery”. Fortunately this was not the case, the book is set in a restaurant specializing in soups, which are mentioned but never steal center stage from the main plot lines of the book. Similar to the way Cleo Coyle sets her mysteries in a coffee house, the coffee is in and around the scenes but not the focus. There is soup in and about many scenes in Archer’s book, people gotta eat you know, but it never is the sole focus.

In this installment, we find Lucky Jamieson entangled in several mysteries, the first of which is who was the man killed in the van? And is there any connection to the armored car robbery several years back? And who is the man stalking her waitress at the Spoonful? And last but not least what on earth is going on with Elias (her boyfriend) and his new partner at the clinic? Sounds like a lot of questions but Archer manages to answer them all in a timely and relevant manner!

I would recommend this book to anyone who wants a nice pleasant read! I really enjoyed it and will be going back to read the first two books in the series;A Spoonful of Murder andA Broth Of Betrayal!

On a complete side note there is a small reference to Poirot on page 191 which tickled me to read!

Fran Recommends:

Rennie Airth isn't a book-a-year writer, which is frustrating for us, his fans, but the trade-off is that, when one arrives, you know you're in for a wonderful read, and his latest book, The Reckoning (Viking hc, $26.95, August 18th release) is just as good as you know it will be.

The year is 1947, John Madden is retired from the Yard and he's quietly content being a farmer and sometimes looking after retired Chief Inspector Angus Sinclair's roses while Sinclair's visiting his sister in Scotland. Then a man named Oswald Gibson is murdered, and among his papers is a letter to Scotland Yard, asking how to find John Madden. Despite Madden's phenomenal memory, he has no recollection of Gibson, and further investigation leads Madden to believe that what's happening now stems from something that happened in the Great War. With Billy Styles taking the lead, Madden is drawn into a race to catch what may be the most ruthless executioner they've ever tracked down.

Full disclosure here, I figured out whodunnit partway through. But the joy ofRennie Airth's writing is that, in a way, it took pressure off me and I could relax and enjoy the seamlessness of his writing, the beautifully crafted story that is compelling and human and a total joy to read. The Reckoning had the enviable and almost impossible to fill position of being an old friend I'd met for the first time.

If you haven't read the John Madden series, you really do need to read them in order. Begin withRiver of Darkness (Penguin, $16.00) and continue on throughThe Blood-Dimmed Tide (Penguin, $16.00) and The Dead of Winter (Penguin, $16.00) so that when The Reckoning comes out in August, you'll be ready to spend quality time with wonderful and complex people. I can't recommend this series highly enough!

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

On This Date

July 12, 1912 – Shelley Smith (born Nancy Hermione Courlander Bodington) was born in Richmond, Surrey

July 12, 1916 – Gil North – pen name for Geoffrey Horne – was born in Skipton

July 12, 1927 – birth of half of the team that wrote as Emma Lathen and R.B. Dominic, Mary J. Latsis was born in Forest Park, IL [we cannot find a birthdate for her writing partner, Martha Henissart]

July 12, 1933 – birthday of Brooklynite Donald E. Westlake, the late, great creator of Dortmunder and Parker, of comedic crime and serious heists

July 12, 1937 – actor, comedian and humanitarian Bill Cosby was born. First African-American to co-star in a network TV Show (‘I Spy’). And don’t forgetHickey and Boggs, either

July 12, 1979 – former mafia underboss Carmine Galante was gunned down at Joe & Mary’s Italian restaurant in Brooklyn

July 12, 1987 – the Knightsbridge Security Deposit robbery, as thieves crack into safe deposit boxes and made off with an estimated £60 million

July 12, 2002 – “Monk” premiered

July 13, 1893 – Dorothy L. Sayers was born in Oxford. Lord Peter Wimsey was born in 1923 inWhose Body? (in case you need to win a trivia contest, the L stands for Leigh)

July 13 – actors Robert Forster (1941, Rochester, NY) and Harrison Ford (1942, Chicago)

July 13, 1951 - Orania Papazoglou was born in Bethel, CT and publishes, mostly, as Jane Haddam

July 13, 1973 –Cleopatra Jones premiered

July 14, 1798 – ‘The Sedition Act’ is passed into law, making it a federal crime to write, publish or make false or malicious statements about the US Government. And somehow that doesn’t conflict with the Bill of Rights

July 14, 1814 – what would become the Italian national police for both the military and civilian population, the Carabinieri, was founded as the original police force for the Kingdom of Sardinia by King Victor Emmanuel I of Savoy

July 14, 1854 – birth of future outlaw Dave Rudabaugh, born in Fulton County, IL. He is said to be the only figure in the Old West to have crossed paths with Pat Garrett, Billy the Kid, Bat Masterson, Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday. He was the guy who taught Holliday how to handle a pistol and Doc taught him how to gamble

July 14, 1881 – Pat Garrett shot Billy the Kid

July 14, 1908 – Chaim Raphael was born in Middlesbrough, Yorkshire and will write a series about Oxford don Ambrose Usher under the pen name Jocelyn Davey

July 14, 1923 – Raymond Harold Sawkins was born in London. He would gain great success writing thrillers under the name Colin Forbes

July 14, 1966 – Hitchock’sTorn Curtain premiered in Boston

July 14, 2003 – someone commits treason by giving the name of an undercover CIA agent to a journalist who then publishes it: Valerie Plame outted by Robert Novak in his column

July 15, 1905 – gentleman thief and detective Arsene Lupin makes his first appearance, in the magazine ‘Je Sais Tout’. Maurice Leblanc would go on to write 21 novels or collections of short stories about Lupin

July 15- Hammond Innes, writer of adventure thrillers, was born in Horsham, England (1913), and contemporary writer of modern thrillers Clive Cussler (1931, Aurora, IL)

July 15, 1988 –Die Hard premiered (yipi-ki-yay)

July 16, 1907, Ruby Stevens was born in Brooklyn. As Barbara Stanwyck, she’d star in many mystery and crime films, most notablyDouble Indemnity, screenplay by Raymond Chandler

July 16, 1927 – Theodore Shackley, Jr. - better known as Ted Shackley, black ops chief in the 60s and 70s – was born in Florida

July 16, 1929 – born in Colorado, Sheri Tepper would go on to write science fiction, horror and mysteries – those under the names A.J. Orde and B.J. Oliphant

July 16, 1940 - William G. Tapply was born in Waltham, MA

July 16, 1948 –Key Largo, directed by John Huston and staring Bogart and Bacall, premiered

July 16, 1973 – Presidential assistant Alexander Butterfield, in answer to a question posed by Watergate Hearings Chief Minority Counsel Fred Thompson (yes, future actor and Senator), revealed that Nixon had a recording system in the Oval Office, which led to the fight over access to the tapes and Nixon’s resignation

July 16, 1976 – over the long Bastille Day weekend, a gang of thieves tunneled into the Société Générale bank in Nice and raided the safe deposit boxes to steal an estimated 60 million francs worth of money, securities and valuables

July 17, 1889 – one of the most prolific and bestselling mystery writers of all time, Erle Stanley Gardner, was born in Malden, MA. In fact, it is a great day for mystery writers, as Caroline Graham was born on this date in 1913 (Nuneaton, England) and jack-of-all-trades-writer Michael Gilbert was born in 1929 in Billinghay, Lincolnshire. He wrote novels of all sorts of crime and mystery stories. He was by day a London solicitor (Chandler was one of his clients) and would be named Grand Master of Mysteries by MWA in 1987

July 17, 1899 – James Cagney, one of the greatest of tough-guy actors, was born in NYC. Hellova hoofer, too

July 17, 1935 – Donald McNicol Sutherland was born, and in addition to a long and distinguished career in movies, he’s also given us his son, Kiefer William Fredrick Dempsey George Rufus Sutherland

July 17, 1942 - Stephen Greenleaf was born in DC

July 17, 1959 – Hitchcock’s North by Northwest premiers

July 18, 1888 – early prolific thriller writer Sidney Horler was born in Essex

July 18, 1895 – George Barnes was born in Memphis. Doesn’t ring a bell? You know him as “Machine Gun Kelly”

July 18, 1901 - Shakespearean scholar Alfred Bennett Harbage - who wrote a series of tough mysteries in the 1940s under the name Thomas Kyd - was born in Philadelphia

July 18, 1937 – multi-talented Les Roberts was born in Chicago

July 18, 1967 – Mark Sinclair Vincent was born in NYC – we know him as Hollywood tough-guy Vin Diesel

July 18 –Happy Early Birthday to Carrie, who keeps us stocked with bookmarks and newsletters!

And Have a Relaxing and Book-Filled Weekend!

Posted at 08:40 PM in Bookselling These Days, Newzine | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 28, 2014

Newzine 6.27.14

Happy Birthday to US!

July 1^st is the day we traditionally take as our birthday. This year will mark 24 years since Bill started this outfit. To celebrate and reward you loyal supporters, we’re giving you the present: for the first half of the month, July 1^st through 15^th, all used hardcovers will be 25% off. Whether they’re $5 reader copies or $55 million copies of the Gutenburg phone book, they’ll all be 25% cheaper to buy for the first half of the month.

And while we’re on the subject of birthday – we’re going to be initiating some changes, in addition to what we’ve already been doing. Here’s an explanation.

And that leads neatly into the beginning of July:

We’ll be closed on Friday, July 4^th.

That means next week’s newzine will be a day early. Back to regular hours on the 5^th.

Rest In Peace

The great Eli Wallach died this week. For the last six decades, he’s been in everything – TV, stage, movies – and played all sorts of characters, both good and bad, both elegant and grubby. A list of his roles would take up all the space we have, so let’s limit it to crime entertainment: The Lineup, The Moon-Spinners, The Two Jakes, The Deep, Mystic River, The Godfather III, “Alfred Hitchcock Presents”,”Kojak”, “Murder, She Wrote”, “Batman”, “L.A. Law”, “Law & Order”, to name just a few. He began acting on TV when it was almost all live, and continued up until 2009. He appeared in movies from 1956 to 2010! He won a Tony award in 1951.

Studying at the University of Texas, he met and acted with future governor John Connally and future anchorman Walter Cronkite, who became a life-long friend.

While he’s probably most well known for his role of Tuco in The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly, he related that he received more fan mail for appearing as Mr Freeze in “Batman” than anything else he’d done.

With Wallach’s death, only Robert Vaughn is left alive from the stars of The Magnificent Seven.

Eli Herschel Wallach was born in Red Hook, Brooklyn, on Dec 7, 1915, and grew up the only Jewish kid in a neighborhood full of Italians. His parents owned a local candy story – Bertha’s. . He served in the Army medical corps during WWII. In 1948, he married fellow actor Anne Jackson and spent the next 66 years with her – three children, 5 grandchildren and many great-grandchildren

He kept his perspective on things to the end. “Having the critics praise you is like having the hangman say you've got a pretty neck.”

Mr. Wallach died in his native New York City on June 24^th. He was 98.

Vayos con dios!
R.I.P.

Gift Certificates:

Links of Interest:

Raymond Chandler is being honored with a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame (love to hear his reaction to that – it’d probably be, shall we say… acidic)

How the CIA secretly published Dr Zhivago

Italian police 'solve' the 1909 Petrosino Mafia murder.

Inside Job: 10 Crime Writers Turned Detective

NPR is starting their Summer Mystery series, “Crime in the City”. First up, Julia Keller: In Mystery Series’s W.Va. River Town, There’s No Escape from Terror

Pure fun: time-lapse video of the huge London bookseller Foyle’s moving half a million books 100 meters away to a new location.

The Strange Case of the Poisoned Pen Letters: John Mullan explores one of the inner demons of parochial England.

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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, July 16, Jacqueline Winspear drops by to sign The Care and Management of Lies (Harper hc, $26.99).

A nonmystery novel of The Great War. Kezia and Thea have been best friends nearly all their lives. But the relationship has been tested by Thea’s politicization from the suffrage movement and Kezia’s romance with Thea’s brother. Kezia does marry Tom and they move to the family’s farm in the summer of 1914 as War looms. Tom is soon off to war and the women are left to try to stitch their relationship back together as the world descends into madness and death. [Please note: this will not be a scheduled time. She’s coming in as a favor to us while on tour. We HIGHLY recommend reserving a signed copy now so that we know how many copies to have for her to sign and so that you are assured of a copy for later pick-up or to be mailed.]

Fri, Oct 10, noon – Hank Phillippi Ryan signs Truth Be Told (Forge hc, $24.99)

Truth Be Told is part of the bestselling Jane Ryland and Jake Brogan series. It begins with tragedy: a middle-class family evicted from their suburban home. In digging up the facts on this heartbreaking story—and on other foreclosures— reporter Ryland soon learns the truth behind a big-bucks scheme and the surprising players who will stop at nothing, including murder, to keep their goal a secret. Turns out, there’s more than one way to rob a bank. Boston police detective Jake Brogan has a liar on his hands. A man has just confessed to the famous twenty-year-old Lilac Sunday killing, and while Jake’s colleagues take him at his word, Jake is not so sure. But he has personal reasons for hoping they’ve finally solved the cold case.

Jennifer Murphy, June 28

Burt Weissbourd, June 28 (please note 3:00pm)

Ingrid Thoft, July 2

Mike Lawson, July 3

Yasmine Galenorn, July 5

Diana Renn, July 7

Leslie Budewitz, July 11

Emma Campion (Candace Robb), July 12

Warren C. Easley, July 19

J.A. Jance, July 22

Greg Rucka, Aug 2

Kat Richardson, Aug 9

Mary Daheim, Aug 14

Martin Limón, Aug 19

Chelsea Cain, Aug 20

Jayne Castle, Aug 26

Yasmine Galenorn, Oct 4

Urban Waite, Oct 21

And there are always more on the way!

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Wish List

Word of the Week (in honor of July 4^th)

bang (v.): From the 1540s, "to strike hard with a loud blow," from a Scandinavian source akin to Old Norse banga "to pound, hammer" of echoic origin. Slang meaning "have sexual intercourse with" first recorded 1937. Bang-up "excellent, first-rate," 1820, probably shortened from phrase bang up to the mark. The noun is recorded from late 16^th C. (thanks to etymonline.com)

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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: Telephone & Tangled

Fran Recommends:

Generally, I enjoy novels over short stories. I like being lost in someone's world for long stretches.

But sometimes short stories hit the spot, especially when they're set in a favorite world, so I really enjoyed Craig Johnson's Wait for Signs(Oct., Viking hc, $22.00, no idea if we'll have signed copies, but fingers crossed). For years, Craig has gifted his friends with stories at Christmas, and this anthology has brought them together for the first time as a book, along with one entirely new story - you'll love Petunia! - and it's a nice dip into Walt Longmire's world.

I think they'll be a great sampler for folks who want to get to know what Craig Johnson's writing is like, but as someone who's familiar with Absaroka County, I found these little snippets of time spent with favorite characters was like a little vacation, a series of short visits with old friends.

Sometimes funny, sometimes touching, and always entertaining, Wait for Signs is a complete delight. With an introduction by Lou Diamond Phillips, who plays Henry Standing Bear in the television series, this is a short story collection you're not going to want to miss!

[JB concurs and says that the story “Messenger” is one of the funniest things he’s read in ages!]

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

June 28, 1891 – birth of serial killer, arsonist and burglar Carl Panzram. He confessed to killing 21 around the country and died in Leavenworth

June 28, 1909 – future thriller-writer and Edgar-winner Eric Ambler was born in London

June 28, 1926 – funnyman, writer, director, actor and producer Mel Brooks was born in Brooklyn

June 28, 1947 – writer of stories for kids of all ages Peter Abrahams was born in Boston. Co-incidentally, at that same instant, Spenser Quinn was born, too!

June 28, 1966 - Åsa Larsson (Uppsala, Sweden) and John Cusack (Evanston, IL) were born

June 28, 1970 – future author of the Spenser series Ace Atkins was born

June 28, 1971 - Joe Columbo, head of the Columbo crime family, was shot

June 29, 1908 – pulp and paperback original writer Bruno Fischer was born in Berlin

June 29, 1924 – future Black Dahlia and murder victim Elizabeth Short was born in Boston

June 29, 1930 – producer Robert Evans was born in NYC and we thank him for The Godfather and Chinatown

June 29 –from Hollywood: Slim Pickens (1919, born Louis Burton Lindley, Jr. in Kingsburg, CA), Ian Bannen (1928, Airdrie, Scotland), and Gary Busey (1944, Goose Creek, TX)

June 29, 1945 – Quintin Jardine, Scottish crime writer and creator of Skinner and Blackstone, was born

June 29 – birthday of two of the shop’s favorite people: Pat Lee and cookie-lady Gina Williams. Early Happy Birthday to you both!

June 29, 1987 – The Living Daylights, the first Bond movie with Timothy Dalton, premiered in London

June 30, 1901 – future bank robber and prison-escapee Willie Sutton was born in Greenpoint, Brooklyn

June 30, 1951 – Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train premiered

June 30, 1959 – Vincent D’Onofrio, star of silver and TV screen, was born in Brooklyn

June 30, 1966 – Margery Allingham died

June 30, 1970 – novelist and screenwriter Derek Haas was born in Houston Happy Birthday, Derek!

June 30, 1997 – Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was published and a phenomenal publishing and entertainment empire began

July 1 – noir master James M. Cain was born in Annapolis, MD (1892), William DeAndrea was born in Port Chester, NY (1952), the delightful and talented Lisa Scottoline was born in Philadelphia (1955)

July 1 - from Hollywood: Charles Laughton (1899, Scarborough, England), Harold Sakata (1920, Honolulu – immortality as Oddjob), Dan Ackroyd (1952, Ottawa) and Andre Braugher (1962, Chicago)

July 1, 1949 – Mankiewicz’s House of Strangers, with Edward G. Robinson, Susan Hayward and Richard Conte premiered

July 1, 1957 – “Richard Diamond, Private Eye”, staring David Janssen, premiered

July 1, 1981 – the Wonderland Murders took place

July 2, 1864 – William Le Queux was born. A member of the British Secret Service at the end of the 19th C., he turned to writing thrillers based on his experiences. He needed the income to finance his intelligence efforts. They weren’t funded by the government. His stories help lay the foundations of the espionage novel

July 2, 1881 – President James Garfield was shot

July 2, 1927 – rumbly-basso Brock Peters was born George Fisher in NYC. You don’t think of To Kill a Mockingbird as a crime story, but it is – courtroom drama of the highest order

July 2, 1931 – German child murderer Peter Kurten is executed. His case was the inspiration for the great Peter Lorre film M (1931)

July 2, 1971 – Shaft premiered

July 3, 1906 – the debonair George Sanders was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia

July 3, 1908 – award-winning French mystery writer Pierre Ayraud (aka Thomas Narcejac) was born in Rochefort-sur-Mer

July 3 - William Ard was born in Brooklyn (1922), Evelyn Anthony was born in London (1928) and Gwen Moffat was born in Sussex (1924)

July 3, 1947 – funnyman, columnist and novelist Dave Barry was born in Armonk, NY

July 3, 1945 – future Mod Squad member Michael Cole was born in Madison

July 3, 1961 – future serial killer Westley Allan Dodd was born in Toppenish, WA

July 3, 1962 – Tom Cruise was born Thomas Cruise Mapother IV in Syracuse

July 4, 1776 – a bunch of old white guys put their names to a document that made them all guilty of treason

July 4: two of the biggest mobsters in American history: Meyer Lansky was born in 1902 and Johnny Roselli was born in 1905. Patriotism and crime, skipping hand-in-hand through the 20^th Century

July 4 – Scotsman Gavin Black was born in Tokyo (1913), Anthony Oliver was born in Abersychan, Wales (1922), Sébastien Japrisot in Marseille (1931) and Edgar-winner Kay Nolte Smith was born in Eveleth, MN (1932)

July 4, 19XX – Charlotte Elkins was born

July 4, 1969 – 2nd ‘official’ Zodiak attack

And Have a Relaxing and Book-Filled Weekend!

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Seattle Mystery Bookshop

Mysteries for those who know what they like and for those who haven't a clue...

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