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Our sort-of, back to weekly email--Martin Luther King Day edition

Free Shipping: read all about it.

Dear %%First Name%%,

Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

No sooner do we start 2010 then we run right into the first holiday of the year--Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Jan. 18.

More importantly, today happens to be our sons' birthdays. Happy Birthday, kiddos.

This week's special--a compelling novel about a safecracker

We've got a knock-out new novel for This Week's Special. It's a thriller about young man, traumatized at an early age, a trauma that has left him mute. He has, however, developed a few special skills--like drawing and opening other people's safes. Save 20% and get free shipping on This Week's Special.

Mystery Lovers Night at City Theater January 26

If you’re looking for the best mystery book or jigsaw puzzle in the Pittsburgh area, everyone knows you go to the award-winning Mystery Lovers Bookshop in Oakmont.

It follows as night the day, therefore, that the murder mystery and puzzle within The Clockmaker, coming to the City Theater, is another must stop.

January 26, 2010 is Mystery Lovers Night at City Theater for the 7PM performance of the U.S. premier of:

The Clockmaker
By Stephen Massicotte
directed by Tracy Brigden
When Frieda brings Heinrich her husband's beloved cuckoo clock to be repaired, they embark on a madcap race against time to solve a mysterious puzzle. Part comic love story, part murder mystery, The Clockmaker was called "charming" and "a delightful shock" by Canada's Globe and Mail.  City Theatre presents the U.S. premiere of the newest play by the author of last season's hit, Mary's Wedding.

Buy one regularly priced ticket and get the second half off. Just mention Mystery Lovers Bookshop when purchasing your ticket. Meet us in the lobby before the play.

1300 Bingham Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15203-1500
(412) 431-2489

What our customers are reading - MLB Best Sellers

Up on the webiste you'll find our December MLB Best Sellers along with the Best Sellers of 2009.

Naturally, our December Best Sellers were dominated by sales for the holidays. Signed copies of Sue Grafton's U is for Undertow led the hardcover sales. We have only a couple of these left. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, the conclusion to Stieg Larsson's best-selling trilogy, stayed on the list. This British import has been a hot item since its publication in October. Lisa Scottoline hit the list with her collection of humorous columns, Why My Third Husband Will be a Dog.

Paperback's in December featured two books with local connections: Names of Pittsburgh and Paris of Appalachia by Brian O'Neill. Sandwiched inbetween was The Trader Joe's Companion: a Portable Cookbook which we couldn't keep in stock all through the holidays. Christmas mysteries took their share of spots as well including Donna Andrews's Six Geese a Slaying and Rita Mae Brown's Santa Clawed.

For the year 2009, Lisa Scottoline was the undisputed champion of hardcover sales with Look Again. Lisa will be back at MLB on March 23 to work her magic at an event to be held at the Oakmont Carnegie Library. Former Pittsburgher Jeffrey Siger also took a spot on the list along with MLB favorite Diane Davidson.

Pittsburgher Kathy Haines got all three of her Rosie Winter books onto the list for trade paperbacks. Hank Phillippi Ryan also put all three of her Charlotte McNally books on the list through a virtual signing program that she marketed aggresively.

Several authors from the Festival of Mystery posted books on the Best Sellers of 2009 including Kimberly Frost, Lorna Barrett, Louise Penny, Judi McCoy and Elaine Viets.

Be sure to take a look at our Best Sellers for December as well as our Best Sellers for 2009. You're sure to find some interesting reading.

December-January MLB News is here

The December-January issue of the MLB News is available right now on the website as a PDF download.

You can download a copy of the MLB News just like the printed version and even print it if you like. If you print remember to use the Adobe Reader print function not your browser's print button.

As with past issues I owe a debt of gratitude to my army of volunteer proofreaders--The Comma-kaze Squad--who expend extraordinary efforts to root out so many of my errors--typographical and otherwise. Thank you all for your contribution.

How we did in 2009

The month of January is never complete without a few “look-backs” upon which to reflect.

For Mystery Lovers Bookshop this was a year where sales started rather bady but finished strong leaving us with a nice increase over 2008's rather dismal results. Naturally, the recession played a major part in these developments. We pledge to continue to expand modestly, improve daily and monitor overhead costs so we can bring all that’s new and fun in reading, puzzles and children’s books.

In 2009 we presented 77 author appearances for 5 Publication parties, 8 Coffee & Crime events-in the 15th year for this Breakfast series, 4 author dinners, 1 workshop, one statewide convention, 4 Oakmont Carnegie Library events, 4 evening talks, one professional organizational banquet speaker sales, one county library fundraiser by a law firm and the 14th Festival of Mystery with 42 authors, 1806 books sold to 380 readers.

While we reorganized our online and bricks and mortar store, Mystery Lovers Bookshop also attracted the attention of an upscale mall north of Pittsburgh seeking a branch of Mystery Lovers for their customers…decided we needed to focus on the current customers and events in our original location which celebrates a 20th birthday on Halloween 2010.

In 2010 we look forward to the Fifteenth Festival of Mystery, getting our Raven award at the 65th Annual Edgar Banquet from the Mystery Writers of America and to a fulfilling relationship with readers, writers and all who work in this business. May you all have a happy and healthy 2010 and we hope to see you soon…and often. If every person who receives this email bought just one book a month we'd be sure to stay around for another year.

We're on Facebook, become a fan (240 already are)

Finally, we've put a profile up on Facebook for Mystery Lovers Bookshop. Nows the time for all you Facebook folks out there to demonstrate the power of social networking by becoming a fan of MLB. If you do, it will be another way for us to stay in touch.

We'll be using Facebook to notify fans about events in the store and perhaps to make special deals available only to fans.

All of our upcoming events are also listed and we would love for customers to post comments or photos about events that they attend.

New Arrivals

Not so very much in New Arrivals since our last Newsletter. You will find new titles by Jack Higgins, Stuart Woosd, Alys Clare and several others.

Among the new arrivals is Anthony Berkley's The Case of the Poisoned Chocolates. This is a reissue of one of the great puzzle mystery classics of England's Golden Age of crime fiction; plot involves a group of upper-crust amateur sleuths who set out to solve a murder that has baffled Scotland Yard; catnip for fans of Agatha Christie and Margery Allingham.

Check our New Arrivals for page for everything new at MLB.

Coffee & Crime series starts up in January

We've set up an exciting program of Coffee & Crime author breakfasts starting in January. Here's what's coming up:

Each of these events begins at 10 am and includes a contintental breakfast and author talk and signing. Cost is $5 and reservations are essential.

What's on the website now

Here's what you can find at www.mysterylovers.com:

Upcoming Events

Jan 16 - Sandra Ruttan - cancelled
Jan. 23 - Alan Gordon
Jan. 26 - MLB Night at City Theater
Jan. 30 - Sarah Graves
Feb. 20 - Joanne Dobson
Feb. 27 - Heather Terrell
Mar. 5 - Nancy Martin

More events...

Start off the new year right--with a book
Richard, Mary Alice and the MLB Staff

Did we mention that we won a Raven Award?

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