MYSTERY LOVES COMPANY BOOKSELLERS

www.mysterylovescompany.com

DECEMBER 2007

Come experience the joy of a full-service bookstore

*Monthly newsletter & recommendations

*20% off your book clubs' books

*Frequent author signings

*Special orders

*Book gift baskets

*New and gently used books

*Listen to us Friday mornings on WCEI 96.7fm

In Oxford: 202 S. Morris Street, Oxford, MD 21654, 410-226-0010, Hours: Fri & Sat 10-6, Sun, Mon, Tues. 10-4

In Baltimore: 1730 Fleet Street, Baltimore MD 21231, 410-276-6708, 800-538-0042, Hours: Thursdays-Sat 11-5, Sunday 12-5.

HOLIDAY HOURS: We will be closed Dec 25 and January 1. Call during inclement weather since we might have trouble getting in.

REMEMBER: Our online store at www.mysterylovescompany.com is always open

UPCOMING EVENTS...

 

• CHRISTMAS ON THE CREEK IN OXFORD - DECEMBER 1 & 2 Saturday, December 1, 12:20 - 4:00 pm (OXFORD) "Christmas on the Creek" with events all over town in Oxford with Holiday Open House and author reception at Mystery Loves Company with Diane Marquette (IN OVER MY HEAD).
• Sunday December 2, 12:30 - 4:00 pm (OXFORD) Holiday Open House and author reception at Mystery Loves Company with Mary Ellen Hughes (STRING OF LIES). ($6.99) Jo's Craft Corner is finally showing signs of success when she hears of a local developer's plans that could put her out of business. Then the developer is found dead and the suspect is Jo's good friend Dan. Also available in paperback is WREATH OF DESTRUCTION ($6.99).We will have hot snacks and drinks ready as you savor our holiday goodies. Many of the Oxford shops will be hosting events, Historic House Tour and tree lighting at Town Park on Dec 2.
• LUNCH WITH SISTERS IN CRIME IN BALTIMORE - Saturday, December 8, 12:30 - 2:00 pm. (BALTIMORE) Sisters in Crime holiday party at Mystery Loves Company - Baltimore. Join your Sisters and come even if you are not a member. Lunch will be served at 12:30pm (Cost $7.00) Bring your appetite, meet some great authors and have fun holiday shopping. RSVP and select Vegetarian or Regular Lunch to mailto:mysterylovescompany@gmail.com?subject=Lunch with Sisters in Crime Check our website for directions to the store on Mapquest.
• READ BETWEEN THE WINES EVENT IN ANNAPOLIS - Sunday, December 9, 2:00 - 5:00 pm (ANNAPOLIS) Join Friends of the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra for this holiday event at Loews Annapolis Hotel, 126 West Street, Annapolis. MEET THESE GREAT AUTHORS: Donna Andrews, Ellen Crosby, Mary Ellen Hughes, Maria Lima, Clyde Linsley, Sally MacKenzie, Katherine Neville, Sandy Parshall, Mary Jo Putney, Lucia St. Clair Robson, Daniel Stashower, Marcia Talley and Tracy Anne Warren. There will be wine tasting, interviews with the authors & autographed books for sale. Tickets $19.95 in advance / $24.95 at the door or Call the ASO Box Office at 410.263.0907. Mystery Loves Company will be selling books.

MARK THOSE 2008 CALENDARS...

 

• Thursday January 12- 1:30pm (EASTON) Talbot County Free Library. Bring your lunch and eat with the author. Kathy Harig and Diane Marquette will discuss Chesapeake Mysteries.
• Tuesday, March 11, 8:00 a.m. (BALTIMORE) Spoons Restaurant, Cross Street. Have breakfast with Laura Lippman who will be signing her new Tess Monaghan mystery, ANOTHER THING TO FALL.
• March 31, 7:00 - 8:30 pm. (PIKESVILLE) Baltimore County Pikesville Library. Cara Black and Libby Fischer Hellman will lecture and sign their mysteries. MLC will be selling books.
• April 25 - 27, 2008 (CRYSTAL CITY, VA) Malice Domestic XX. Join Lindsey Davis, Charlaine Harris Daniel Stashower, and Peter Lovesey as they celebrate twenty years of the traditional mystery.
• October 9 - 12, 2008 (BALTIMORE) Bouchercon 2008. It is not too early to sign up for Bouchercon in our own Charm City. "Charmed to Death " is being run by Ruth Jordan and her team from Crimespree magazine. You can reach her at ruth@crimespreemag.com about registering and any of your concerns. The Hotel is the Sheraton Baltimore City Center. Remember there are two Sheratons. Rates are $175.00 for a single and $195.00 for a double. The hotel is located at 101 West Fayette Street Baltimore, Maryland 21201. Registration for the convention is $150.00. We have forms at our Baltimore store or we can send you one. MLC will be in the dealers' room and we plan to be fully staffed at the Fells Point store for your shopping convenience. See you there.

NEW THIS MONTH:

 

VENETIAN BETRAYAL ($25.95) by Steve Berry. Berry continues his thread about Alexander the Great in this knuckle-biting historic thriller. Cotton Malone is back on the game. This time he leaves the relative calm of his bookstore in Copenhagen after drinks with his friend his friend Henrik Thorvaldsen to check out a museum where he and his "colleague" Cassiopea Vitt are to rendezvous the next day. Unfortunately he gets trapped inside the museum when thieves steal a rare elephant medallion and set fire to the place with something called "Greek Fire" developed from a secret formula passed down through the ages and distributed by little turtle-like robots. He is rescued in the nick of time by Cassiopea and that is only the first few pages. The going gets exceedingly rougher as the three (Cotton, Cappiopea and Henrik) and a few talented (and not-so) US government types in black suits match wits with someone who is trying to discover the final resting place of Alexander the Great for devious reasons. You'll love the character of Supreme Minister Irina Zovrastina with a female Alexander complex who is trying to take over the modern known world, one "stan" at a time. Somewhere between the Scythians, and future-modern Central Asia (with WMDs) with side trips to Venice, Cotton confronts the mysteries about the illness, death, and final resting place of the enigmatic Alexander to my delight and satisfaction, and I hope yours. Keep up the franchise, Steve!

 

TOMB OF ZEUS by Barbara Cleverly ($13.00) Cleverly, winner of the CWA Dagger Award for her historical mysteries set in India, changes gears and turns to the Island of Crete in 1928. Laetitia Talbot is in Crete and is a privileged woman and a fledgling archaeologist. She comes to stay at Villa Europa, the home of Theodore Russell, and encounters some students from her old school. But things are not as they seem. Soon a young woman is found hanged and an expensive Bugatti automobile runs off the cliff. Letty hears rumors of old romances and scandal but soon danger rears its head as the myth of the Tomb of the King of Gods becomes all too real. For lovers of Elizabeth Peters and Phyllis Whitney.

 

THE POE PAPERS by Nancy Zaroulis ($13.95) Zaroulis (Cynthia Peale) tells the tale of Mrs.Charles (Annie) Richmond to whom Edgar Allan Poe wrote "To Annie." A young scholar hears that Mrs. Richmond and her daughter Lenore have letters from "The Master." A woman of strong passions, Mrs. Richmond and her even more beguiling daughter Lenore let him believe that he will have the letters if he is prepared to play their game. But for how long is he willing to be himself, possessed?

 

BOOK OF OLD HOUSES ($22.00) by Sarah Graves. Renovator Jake Tiptree finds a mysterious old book in the basement of her old house in Maine. But why does it have her name written in it in blood? So she gives it to local antiquarian book expert Horace Robotham to investigate. Soon the book disappears and Horace lies dead. Suspects include Horace's credit card-happy daughter and a local practitioner of the magic arts. But what is really going on here? Jake and her friend put on their sleuthing clothes to discover the answer as more bodies are found. In the meantime, Jake finds time to renovate her bathroom and add on a place for her relatives. This traditional mystery series will warm you with its off-beat characters and it reminds me a lot of Charlotte Macleod's Peter Shandy stories which I have been reading lately. TRAP DOOR ($6.99) is now available in paperback.

 

SCANDINAVIAN MYSTERIES ($7.50) Volume 23, No. 3 from Mystery Readers Journal. This quarter's themed issue features the authors from Iceland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Greenland, and maybe Lapland, too. There are so many, says Janet Rudolph the editor that they had to post the ten page list on their MRJ website. In it we find essays by and about Scandinavian mystery authors including Karim Folsom, Kjell Ericksson, Henning Menkell, Peter Hoeg, Aka Edwardson, Helene Tursten, Liza Marklund, Maj Sjowall, Per Wahloo, and Arnaldur Indridason. Needless to say, "Scandinavian Crime is Hot!" So grab something warm and curl up with these great writers who really know what to do when it gets cold, Read!

 

CRIES AND WHISKERS ($23.95) by Clea Simon When a feral cat rescuer is killed and a beloved pet goes missing, "deadline" takes on a whole new meaning for journalist Thea Krakow. Her friends, her career, and even her dear pet Musetta are all at risk. The second and third Clea Simon cat mysteries are available in paperback. MEW IS FOR MURDER and CATTERY ROW ($14.95 each)

PREACHING TO THE CORPSE ($6.99) by Robera Isleib. In postcard-perfect Guilford CT, thou shalt not kill--unless it's thy neighbor seems to be the new rule, as someone is taking the joy out of the season.

 

MORE HOLIDAY IDEAS FOR CHILDREN & ADULTS

 

HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS is a big beautiful decorating, recipe, and idea book to inspire the DYI in you.

 

CHRISTMAS IN FAIRACRE ($14.95) by Miss Read. She says in her introduction "...in the grip of winter's cold...doubly precious are our domestic comforts--a blazing fire, sustaining food, the comfort of friends." For Jan Karon readers.

 

THE RED TENT- GIFT EDITION ($16.95) by Anita Diamant. This bestseller tells the story from the book of Genesis of Dinah the daughter of Jacob who is loved and taken care of by the women around her as they sustain her through life's tragedies and triumphs.

 

BLUE CHRISTMAS ($14.95) by Mary Kay Andrews. Funny, sassy and sexy this new edition contains recipes. Andrews is the pseudonym of Kathy Hogan Trochek,

 

CHRISTMAS MYSTERY IN PROVENCE By Mary Jane Deeb. I've only a few left, but if you haven't grabbed up this one before, you should. The second in her series set in Provence featuring newspaper woman Chrissy de Medici.

 

THE FARRINGFORD CADENZA ($15.95) by Robert D. Sutherland is a merry romp through Baltimore and New York. A piece of sheet music written by a famous musician disappears after he is found dead in a passenger compartment in Penn Station in Baltimore. Passions, desires, and greed as well as down-right fun prevail as Baltimore sites, especially Mt. Vernon, are featured.

 

YOU'RE A GOOD DOG, CARL ($29.95) by Alexander Day. Carl is a very large Rottweiler who has six different doggy adventures. All were published as separate books, but this one puts them all together. There are no words, so everyone can enjoy the fun! A delight for children and all who take care of them.

 

DO RABBITS HAVE CHRISTMAS? ($16.95) by Aileen Fisher. A great book of poetry for the season.

 

COOKIE ANGEL ($16.95) by Bethany Roberts. On Christmas eve at midnight the presents come alive and there is a ruckus in the house. Can Cookie Angel stop the racket to keep the children from waking up?

 

SANTA CLAWS: The Christmas Crab ($10.50) by Priscilla Cummings. The Christmas Crab decorates with things he finds in the Bay and guides a lost Santa with "I can show you the Way! I know every inch of the Chesapeake Bay!"

 

TALKING WITH MY MOUTH FULL: Crab Cakes, Bundt Cakes and other Kitchen Stories ($13.95) by NPR contributor and Washington DC resident Bonnie Wolf. Wisdom and recipes for those special holiday times and every day times as well. Signed copies.

 

THE DARING BOOK FOR GIRLS and THE DANGEROUS BOOK FOR BOYS ($24.95 each) "For every girl with an independent spirit and a nose for trouble here is the no-boys-allowed guide to adventure." Everything you forgot you loved about being a child, in time to share it with that special girl or in the case of the latter book, that special boy. From reading tide charts to rules for hopscotch and jacks; from ancient heroines to modern woman spies. From campfire songs to every girl's tool box, it's got it all.

 

CHRISTMAS BEGINNING ($17.95) by Anne Perry featuring Superintendent Runcorn of Scotland Yard, this time on holiday on Anglesey.

 

KISSING CHRISTMAS GOODBYE ($23.95) by M.C. Beaton has the romance-hungry but slightly bored Agatha Raisin finding some holiday adventure when she investigates the murder at a holiday tea.

 

JINGLE SOME BELLS WITH THESE TINY LITTLE PRESENTS....NANCY DREW'S GUIDE TO LIFE ($4.99) A colorfully tiny little illustrated book complete with tiny little magnifying glass chocked full of the great sayings of fearless Nancy. ROUGH GUIDE TO CRIME FICTION (Intro by Ian Rankin, $12.95) Concise little book with wonderful summaries of the history of Crime Fiction with emphasis on Modern and Noir. Carpet Bookmarks in iridescent jewel colors. Think carpet runner for a doll's house. Created in Turkey by little tiny carpet makers. Specify color choice ($3.00) Note cards of Fair Oxford on the Tred Avon. Four dreamy scenes (2 each) created from vintage postcards from the early 1900s. ($8.00). Quilted Eyeglass Cases ($6.00). Embroidered book covers ($10.00 paperback size; $20.00 hardback size) of Baltimore, Dogs, Cats, Flowers, Birds, Butterflies, Lighthouses & Sailing, Horses, and many more. Edward Gorey Postcard Planner 2008 ($12.99) Edward Gorey Calendar THE OTHER STATUE ($13.99). And of course Mystery Magazines such as CRIMESPREE, MYSTERY SCENE, and MYSTERY NEWS are always welcomed gifts. Finally don't forget paperbacks as stocking stuffers. At $6.99 and $7.99 you can't beat the price.

 

Don't forget, we will gift wrap your purchases at no extra cost. If you need a custom gift basket or a personalized autographed book, please get your orders in ASAP. Also please remember that the last day to ship Priority Mail is Dec 22. The deadline for regular mail is Dec 17th. Our web site is always open or call 410-226-0010 or 800-538-0042.

 

 

We hope you have a blessed holiday. Kathy, Tom, Dotty, Brenda, and Nick and Nora send their very best wishes to you and those you love.