Mystery Bookstores

[Will Parish]

I was fortunate enough to visit Murder By The Book in Houston, Texas today. What a great place!! I have shopped at many mystery bookstores over the years, but this was the best.

What is your favorite mystery bookstore?

Will

[Donna Moore]

I love Murder By The Book too. David and McKenna and the rest of the staff are so supportive of crime fiction writers, so friendly, and so lovely. I did my very first (and probably only ever!) event there last year and I was soooooooo nervous.Everyone was just throroughly welcoming and nice and David and McKenna even let me stay with them. Plus I spent a good few hours just going round the bookstore and finding books that I had wanted to read for ages, or ones that were totally new to me. I bought LOADS. And then McKenna packed them all into a box and shipped them to me. It was bliss. Plus I got to do an event with Jason Starr and Joe Lansdale. I could have died and gone to heaven :o)

[Toni McGee Causey]

I very much want to visit Murder by the Book. I have to also highly recommend the Seattle Mystery Bookshop where we visited while at LCC -- very cool place and terrific staff. Also, I loved Tattered Covers in Denver (esp. the one on Colfax) which I was able to visit recently.

[DADavenport]

The is a Murder By The Book in Denver that I covet...serious daydreams of winning the lotto, walking in and buying it lock, sotck amd barrel, moving in and never leaving the neighborhood. There is also a used bookstore called Rosemary's Baby in a stripmall west of Denver that has a huge and fabulous Mystery/Crime/Thriller section. My mom bought me a $50.00 gift certificate for my birthday and I walked with 14 books after the owner and Mom swore it would last a couple of trips...HAH! But hands-down, Tattered Cover is the place I actually lose time in. I go there and forget that family, friends and food exist! That is one Fab store.

[Barbara Fister]

There are two terrific (and quite different) mystery bookstores in Minneapolis. Uncle Edgar's (which shares a big, shambling building with Uncle Hugo's - so known as The Uncles to locals) is vast and has books towering to a high ceiling. New and used and lots and lots of it. They do quite a lot of mail order business, but the real fun is in being there, as you can see.

The other store is one of my very favorite places on earth, Once Upon a Crime. It's smaller than the Edgar's but every book is lovingly picked by hand by two of the most wonderful people on earth, Pat and Gary. If you get Pat on the phone, chances are you'll think she's a man because of her wonderful, deep, husky voice. The two of them are treasures in their own right. I expect they have more knowledge of Minnesota crime fiction than anyone else on the planet.

[Jordan Dane]

I got to meet David and McKenna of MBTB at the MWA annual conf for the SW chapter in Dallas this past June. They were AMAZING!! So supportive of crime fiction. I want to do a book launch there so we're talking.

Good post, Will.

[L. A. Starks]

David & McKenna are very supportive of authors and know well their readers' tastes. I appreciated the chance to do a joint signing at Murder by the Book last December.

L.. A. Starks

[I. J. Parker]

At the moment it's POISONED PEN. But there have been others that have been kind to me.

[Charles Kelly]

The Poisoned Pen Mystery Bookstore in Scottsdale, Arizona, has been my favorite mystery bookstore for years, not only because it's my hometown store, but because of its incredible stock of books, great visting-author events, mystery conferences, and discussion groups. Patrick Millikin, a bookseller there for years, has tremendous knowledge of the mystery field, particularly hardboiled and noir fiction. Several years ago he started and still leads the Hard-Boiled Discussion Group at the store. I've been a member from the beginning, and the group has introduced me to dozens of fascinating writers.

[LJ Roberts]

I have three. Locally--San Francisco Bay Area--Dark Carnival is a delight. From the front it looks tiny but inside it goes back and up and on forever filled with Mystery, SciFi, Fantasy and some of the most unusual toys you'll fine. Jack Rems, the owner, has kindly allowed the East Bay Mystery Readers' Group to meet there the first Tuesday of each month for the past several years. "M" is for Mystery...and More is across the Bay in San Mateo and is another great bookstore with Ed, the owner, being very knowledgeable. They are a very good source for signed, both US and UK, first editions. However, because I evaluate manuscripts for them, I order most of my 1st editions, again both US and UK, from Poisoned Pen in Scottsdale, Arizona. Great staff, lovely store and thank heaven I don't live close enough to drop in because I'd now be living under a bridge with tons of books.

[Rebecca26]

Murder by the Book in Houston rocks! I love to attend author signings there. I missed Donna's signing, but I heard some very good things about it. I am excited about next week's signing with Carolyn Haines, Dean James and Mary Saums!

[Bill Crider]

Too bad you missed Donna's signing, but I posted a short video of her at MBTB here. There's also a brief video of her panel with Jason Starr and Joe Lansdale posted here.

[Ali]

Bookstores.....hmmmm I spend my life in them

Dublin Ireland's Murder Ink is kindda special to me :-

http://therapsheet.blogspot.com/2007/01/stand-up-booksellers-and-pr...

Ali