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Our slightly late, weekly email - Baby Shower edition

Note: Mary Alice and Richard will be in New York next week picking up their Raven Award from the Mystery Writers of America so the the Friday email news will probably go out the following Sunday.

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Dear %%First Name%%,

This week's special--a Shakespearian scholar returns

This Week's Special features a Shakespearean scholar who must solve a murder and chase down a missing version of Macbeth all while putting on a production of the play. Enjoy 20% savings with free shipping on this literary treat.

This week's kid's special--Baby Shower gifts galore

If you've got a newborn or toddler child or grandchild, know someone who does or need baby shower gifts now or in the future then This Week's Kid's Special is perfect for you. We've just the 2010 Best Books for Babies, chosen by Beginning with Books, up on our website. We're taking 20% off each and every one of the 15 titles so this week is a great time to stock up for birthdays or showers with 20% savings plus free shipping if your order is $10 or more.

Important Note: Prices on the Best Books for Babies page won't reflect the 20% discount but the reduced price will show when you put these in your shopping cart.

Check out both our Weekly Specials and save some bucks this week.

Celebrate our anniversary in style

Be the first on your block to get your hands on the spectacular new MLB 20th Anniversary/Raven Award mug. This 8 oz. beauty is spectacular in resplendent red with black and white imprinting on both sides. Side one features our regular logo and notice of our 20th Anniversary in October of 2010. On the other side, a special Raven version of our logo to mark our receiving the Raven Award from the Mystery Writers of America.

Important Note: We cannot offer free shipping on orders that include mugs. We must send these Priority Mail and will have to charge you $4.50 shipping regardless of these amount of your order.

April-May MLB News is here, for download

The MLB News April-May issue, including Festival of Mystery insert, is ready for download on the website. You don't have to wait one more minute to find out what's coming up in the next two months in the world of mystery. Plus, the four page guide to the Festival of Mystery, now in it's 15th year, is included.

Click on this link and you'll see the entire April-May News, including the Fesitval Insert, exactly as it will appear when printed. If you want a printed copy just remember to use the Adobe Reader print button not the one on your browser.

Have you got a favorite set of mysteries with a theme?

Most mystery readers have a set of favorite mysteries set in Italy or perhaps with a forensic anthropologist sleuth. You might have five favorite Roman mysteries or any other category you might enjoy.

We'd like to know what your Five Favorite... list is. You can pick any five mysteries that share some common characteristic or theme. If you send us your list we'll put it up on the website under our Five Favorite... category.

Here's how to get your Five Favorites up on the website:

  1. Pick five mysteries with a common theme: setting, sleuth, time period, etc.
  2. Check each of your favorites against the website to see if it's still around
  3. Use our Five Favorites form to tell us about each of your favorites and what it is that you like about it

Take a look at our Five Favorite... section to get an idea of what other readers have come up with.

Fifteenth Annual Festival of Mystery on May 3

Yes, Virginia, there is a Festival of Mystery. We're pulling out all the stops for our 15th Annual Festival of Mystery on Monday, May 3.

Complete details are available on the website and are in the April-May issue of the MLB News. We've got 44 authors coming this year with 15 of them here for the very first time.

Tickets are available now and can be ordered through the website.

Signed first editions: here's what's coming

We've just learned that we'll be getting signed copies of The Double Comfort Safari Club, the latest No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency novel. Expected late April.

Other books signed by popular authors that we have or expect include:

Nancy Martin - Our Lady of Immaculate Deception, here now

Lisa Scottoline - Think Twice, here now

Alafair Burke - 212, here now

Rita Mae Brown - Cat of the Century, here now

Jonathan Kellerman - Deception, here now

Anne Perry - Sheen on the Silk, here now

Elaine Viets - Half-Price Homicide, after Festival May 3

John Sandford - Storm Prey, around May 18

As always, supplies of these signed books are limited so please order early.

We're on Facebook, become a liker (640 already are)

If you're a Facebook fan then you probably know that what used to say "Become a Fan" for fan pages like ours has been changed to the ubiquitious and, to my mind, rather unenthusiastic "like." Personally, I'm not too crazy about this (rather than just not liking it) because I'd rather be a fan than a liker of something or someone. But that's just me. Anyway, we invite you to become our liker and like us on Facebook.

Please stop by our Facebook for Mystery Lovers Bookshop and become a fan. We're starting to see more posting about author events and other topics. We're happy to hear about what you're reading, authors you discovered and other mystery news.

If you've already signed up we encourage you to post your thoughts. Read a good mystery, looking for suggestions, our fan page is a great place to post.

We'll be using Facebook to notify fans about events in the store and other developments at MLB.

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

Moving toward the last week in April we're starting to see the May books arrive giving us a nice list of New Arrivals this week. Next week should see an even larger flood of May titles so check back on our New Arrivals page often.

Here's a sample:

Our signed copies of Rita Mae Brown's Cat of the Century are here.

Several interesting reissues this week including A Philosophical Investigation by Philip Kerr. This though-provoking crime novel takes place slightly in the future in a world where genetic testing can determine folks most likely to be killers. Unfortunately, someone has decided to start killing folks on the list.

Another reissue is The Leavenworth Case by Anna Katherine Green. This is one of the earliest true mysteries and certainly the first written by a woman. It introduced an American series detective, Ebenezer Gryce, nine years before publication of the first Sherlock Holmes story.

Finally, a 40th anniversary edition of The Friends of Eddie Coyle is a terrific excuse to discover this classic, gritty crime novel by former prosecutor George V. Higgins. This tale of a small-time Boston hood and his problems with the law is as vivid as it was in 1970. Incidentally, the basis of a terrific movie with a somewhat older Robert Mitchum just perfect as the title character.

Alexander McCall Smith's Precious Ramotswe has further adventures in The Double Comfort Safari Club. We had announced availability of signed copies but these have been cancelled.

Inspector Lynley is called back to duty in This Body of Death by Elizabeth George.

Sally Goldenbaum's third in the Seaside Knitters series is here, The Moonspinners.

Shaw and Katie James from The Whole Truth are reunited in a deadly duel of nerve and wits in David Baldacci's Deliver Us From Evil.

News books arrive every day check our New Arrivals page often for everything new at MLB.

What's on the website now

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

Upcoming Events

May 3 - Festival of Mystery
May 22 - Peter May

More events...

Think Spring-like thoughts
Richard, Mary Alice and the MLB Staff

Did we mention that we won a Raven Award?

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