Mystery Bookstores

[Lorie Ham]

Does anyone know of a current listing anywhere of mystery bookstores in the United States? Many of the ones I used to visit have sadly closed over the last 10 years.

[EDWARD C MORGAN]

Murder by the Books in Houston is first-rate. I've spent way too much money there.

I also have recently learned of one in Nashville - Mysteries & More. I've not been there yet, but will make it shortly.

[Stacy]

Clay you're from Houston? I am!

Lorie, I knew a lot when my last book came out in 2008 but I am sure a lot of those have closed because when I checked back, over half had closed. I only read ebooks these days anyway but if I do read print I've been getting my books from Amazon so I find anything I need there. If you are running out of options, have you tried Amazon for books or do you not wanna order online?

Amazon has never let me down. I tend to find anything I want there. I also google search books I want and then look them up on Amazon.

Best Wishes!

http://www.stacy-deanne.net

[EDWARD C MORGAN]

Hi Stacy.

I'm not from Houston, but I worked in Texas newspapers for some 8 years. I lived in a town called Madisonville, which is 20 miles north of Huntsville, so I made the drive down A LOT.

Also, when I lived in Corpus Christi, I often actually flew out of Houston, and made sure to spare some time for a Murder by the Book run!

A great city...I miss it.

[Lorie Ham]

I mostly use Amazon-there's really nothing in the little town I live in and I do like Amazon. There's just something fun about the atmosphere of a mystery bookstore.
Thanks

[Stacy]

Okay I understand, LOL! I'm trying to think of that mystery site that used to list all the mystery bookstores in the USA. I think it was mystery.org or something like that. I can't even remember. If I come across a listing, I'll definitely send it your way!

But you're right, a lot of mystery bookstores have closed. There are some though that are now only operating online. I remember some closed their offline stores and now just take orders like Amazon because they were making more money from online sales.

Best Wishes!

http://www.stacy-deanne.net

[John Desjarlais]

Find the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association online - they have a full list. Mystery Writers of America has a mailing list (at a modest cost) to members, although some of those on the list may be closed.

John Desjarlais
www.johndesjarlais.com

[Christine Duncan]

Hey, Lorie, good to see you here! Doesn't Mysterynet.com have a list? They used to anyway.

[Jo A Hiestand]

A terrific store is Big Sleep Books in St. Louis. 314-361-6100. They've been in business for several decades. Helen Simpson and Ed King own it and they are walking encyclopedias -- you name a book or author, they have probably heard of it. The store is crammed with books and they hold author signings there regularly. Super place and people! Jo

[Sean McNamara]

I join you in you loss. I've been all over the world, and my joy of joy is going to bookstores wherever I go for used and out of print mysteries. So many independent bookseller have closed or become e oriented. So now I look for the larger used bookstores. There are fantastic ones with great mystery selections, King's in Detroit is wonderful. There are a couple in Milwaukee that are astounding in the stock they have out-bins and shelves groaning with stuff to read, but you have to have the time to sift through everything. Pasadena, California, San Diego and Orange County have some great stores, it's a treasure hunt! Funny story, I was in Hay on Wye, in England a couple of years ago, hoping to strike it rich with all those lovely bookstores! I went into the first mystery bookstore and they were unpacking a new shipment of used books. I was talking to the owner about authors I loved to collect- English authors- and she directed me to the new shipment. I saw a couple of books by the author I loved, but knew I already had the editions, having cleaned out and given away the doubles. The 2nd book I opened was one I had given to Goodwill for there book sale a year earlier! With my pencil marks still in the book!
The owner laughed with me and said she now gets most of her English mysteries from the US!

[Jo A Hiestand]

Hi, Sean. That is too funny -- and you wouldn't dare write it that way in a novel or a movie! What are the odds of that?
Hay on Wye (Ham on Rye) is a terrific place. I, too, found a book I'd been looking for for quite a while. That's about all I read, are English mysteries. I haven't been to Hay on Wye for decades, but I still remember it with fondness. jo

[Sean McNamara]

Just getting to Hay was wicked- all the cozies ever written describing the winding lanes of hedge and stone, huge fields with views, one lane going very fast and boom your in town! The castle with the bookshelves on it's walls. Worth the ride.
I've scoured my mind for some of the California boostores, in Pasadena there is Mitchell Books and in Garden Grove, Bad Moon Books, the one plase that was exciting and daunting, because they seem to know every author personally. Wonderful people. I read to enjoy, not to collect, but seem to have amassed anyway. And all these place have that same hum about them, people who cherish, like a good read and something later to look forward too. You can tell the difference between those who read as a competitive sport- love the gore, violence and sex as part of the story, and then there is myself, who really enjoys using my imagination to fill in the blanks, and really don't need the extra written noise to enhance the story. Again it's a treasure hunt that the writer has set me on, if they capture my imagination it rings all the right bells, and I'm a fan. Wether they wrote in 1800 or 2010 it's the way the story teller writes.

[Morgan St. James]

Unfortunately this is a reflection of "progress." With so many books now being sold and purchased on the web, the independents really have a struggle to keep their heads above water. You can read the reviews from readers on line, but it's still not the same as a bookseller who's read the book literally hand-selling the ones they loved. We have no independents left in Las Vegas except for a very few specialties like a Christian bookstore and a gambler's bookstore.

That said, I'm happy to have my books represented on almost every on-line bookstore that you can think of. And happy that they're available in Kindle, e-book, and MP-3 in addition to paperback and CD since electronics really are the wave of the future.

MORGAN ST. JAMES
http://www.morganstjames-author.com
http://www.silversistersmysteries.com
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