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Our between vacations not quite weekly email

Note: As promised, there was no email last Friday since we were out of town on a very nice tour of museums and gardens in Philadelphlia and Wilmington. This email is a bit of catchup since there will again be no email this Friday because Grandpa (otherwise known as Richard) will be in California visiting the grandchildren and their parents. Once I'm back the beginning of next week we plan to get back to a Friday weekly email schedule.

Free Shipping: read all about it.

Dear %%First Name%%,

Nancy Pickard and Sophie Hannah on Wednesday

We're so pleased to have Nancy Pickard and Sophie Hannah visiting with on Wednesday evening, June 23 at 7 pm. Both of these talented authors write mysteries that verge on being straight novels with plenty of suspense, character development, psychological complexity and insight into character.

Nancy is a familiar visitor to MLB--she was last here with her novel The Virgin of Small Plains. This time she'll be here with The Scent of Rain and Lightning. This is a complex novel, set in the cattle ranching part of rural Kansas, a setting familiar to Nancy from her own childhood. The focus of the novel is on the daughter of a well-to-do ranching family, the only survivor of the murder of her family. As the novel open the man convicted of that murder is about to have a retrial--reopening all the imperfectly healed wounds of that distant event.

Sophie Hannah is a British writer making her first appearance at MLB. She writes a psychologically astute series of novels that feature a pair of Scottish cops but her books go far beyond the police procedural genre. In each of her novels the reader is drawn into a genuine puzzle--a man confesses to a murder in which the victim is still very much alive, for instance--which leads to an astute investigation of the motives and psychology of each participant. We're thrilled to have Sophie join us during her brief US tour and to have the opportunity to introduce her to a wider US audience.

Please let us know if you're able to join us for this unique event on Wednesday, June 23 at 7 pm.

June-July MLB News, ready for download

The June-July issue of the MLB News is up on the website and ready for download. You'll need Adobe Acrobat to download this PDF file. You may view the News on the screen or print it out. Just remember to use the Adobe Acrobat print button to get the best results.

Incidentally, if you have an iPad you'll find that you can download a beautiful copy of the MLB News for easy reading. Just go the the website using the Safari browser and tap the link for the MLB News.

Greek Food Festival - this weekend in Oakmont

The Greek Food Festival at the Oakmont Greek Orthodox Church opens up Friday night, 5 to 11 at the Church Hall at 12 Washington Ave. Many of you will know the spot as the site of a somewhat different festival, The Festival of Mystery.

The Greek Food Festival continues through Saturday (4 to 11) and Sunday (2 to 11) with a magnificent assorment of main courses. Especially wonderful are the desserts which are so extensive that they have their own building.

You'll find complete details as well as menus on their website.

Signed copies of The Whisper by Carla Neggers plus $2 off coupon

Through arrangements with the author and with Harlequin books we're pleased to offer signed copies of Carla Negger's The Whisper. From June 29 through July 6 you can get an additional $2 off the regular price of the book by using coupon code carla when you check out.

See the website for full details.

May MLB Best Sellers reflect Festival success

We've just compiled our May MLB Best Sellers and, no surpise, most of the books reflect sales from the Festival of Mystery. What is a bit surprising--and gratifying--is the number of books on the list that are the first book in an author's series rather than the most recent book. I think this reflects the extent to which the Festival is pulling readers who are discovering new authors at the event.

Among the non-Festival best sellers is our number 1 hardcover, Murder on Lexington Avenue by Victoria Thompson. These sales are largely a result of our "Virtual Signing" event with the author in which she ships us signed books which she then promotes through her email list. We've done this quite successfully with Vicky for several years now. If you're an author and interested in doing this with us, please get in touch.

Other bestsellers include The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson. This conclusion to the Lisbeth Salander story actually sold-out the very day that it went on sale.

Among trade paperbacks, number 1 was By Fire, By Water by local writer Mitchell Kaplan. This historical novel debut is set during the Spanish Inquisition.

Laurie R. King made the list three times with her new hardcover, The God of the Hive, her new paperback, The Language of Bees and the first book in the Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series: The Beekeeper's Apprentice.

Take a look at our May Best Sellers and see what our customers are reading.

Anthony Award nominees announced

The Bouchercon committee has announced the nominees for the 2010 Anthony Award. Winners will be announced on Oct. 17 during the Bouchercon convention in San Francisco.

If you've been following the award season you'll find a number of familiar names including John Hart for The Lost Child, The Brutal Telling by Louise Penny, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley, Air Time by Hank Phillippi Ryan and A Bad Day for Sorry by Sophie Littlefield.

Among the more unusual choices made by the convention attendees are Charlie Huston's The Mystic Art of Erasing All Signs of Death, Shanghai Moon by S.J. Rozan and Stuart Neville's Ghosts of Belfast.

Congatulations to all the nominees. You'll find the complete list of nominees on our Anthony Award 2010 page.

June Staff Picks point the way to summer reading

Memorial Day is gone so summer is officially here--holiday-wise if not according to solstices and equinoxes and stuff like that.

Summer is prime time for reading and our June Staff Picks are a great way to start your search for books to take on vacation or simply curl up with on the porch with a glass of iced tea.

You'll find more serious books like Nancy Pickard's Scent of Rain and Lightning, a humorous caper book by Donald Westlake or a cheap trip to Brazil.

Why not take a look at our June Staff Picks and while you're there, check out the archive of prior picks that you'll find on the left-hand side of the page.

Hammett Prize announced

The North American branch of the International Association of Crime Writers has announced that The Manual of Detection: A Novel by Jedediah Berry is this year's winner of the Hammett Prize for a work of literary excellence in the field of crime writing.

Here's what our reviewer, Lynne Maxwell, had to say about the book:

For a new taste of literary mystery fiction, get your hands on The Manual of Detection. This new voice in the genre is one we’ll all want to hear from again soon. With his MFA from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Berry has published short fiction in literary journals and, in fact, was published in Best New American Voices 2008. Impressive? Wait until you read the book—or, rather, don’t wait! In The Manual of Detection Berry introduces Charles Unwin, a reluctant sleuth whose aid is enlisted when his mentor is mysteriously murdered. Even worse than this deployment, Unwin discovers that he needs to reopen many of the cases that were previously deemed closed. Proceeding by the book—The Manual of Detection within The Manual of Detection, that is—Unwin embarks upon the strangest journey of his life. Fortunately, The Manual of Detection is the best handbook to arrive since Precious Ramotswe’s beloved Principles of Private Detection by Clovis Andersen, a staple of Alexander McCall Smith’s No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series. Don’t miss this refreshing new literary mystery. [LM]

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.

Signed first editions: here's what's coming

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

Carla Neggers - The Whisper, available June 29 with special $2 off deal.

Elaine Viets - Half-Price Homicide, here now

John Sandford - Storm Prey, here now

Victoria Thompson - Murder on Lexington Avenue available now

Jeffery Deaver - The Burning Wire available now

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

Access to our Facebook page, now even easier

We're now the proud owners of a username on Facebook. That means that you can get to our page just by going to:

www.facebook.com/mysterylovers

Yes, it's as easy as that.

Once your there, click on the Like button and you can join the other 729 folks who like us.

New Arrivals

A little burst of late June New Arrivals enlivens our shelves this week. You can expect a large number of July books starting in about a week. Among this week's notables:

Janet Evanovich fans will find new books this week: Sizzling Sixteen in hardcover and Finger Lickin' Fifteen in paper.

Sharyn McCrumb returns to her Ballad series with Devil Amongst the Lawyers featuring a young Norah Bonesteel in this story set in the 1930's.

Karin Slaughter does a masterful job of pulling together the various characters in her series with Broken in which Sara Linton returns to Grant County for the first time since the death of her husband.

Margaret Truman's last book, Murder Inside the Beltway, is here in paperback.

Alan Furst takes his WW II series of books to Balkan Greece in Spies of the Balkans.

What says "Beach Book" more that Swimsuit, the latest from James Patterson and Maxine Paetro.

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


June 23 - Sophie Hannah and Nancy Pickard
June 30 - Karin Slaughter book club dinner
July 16 - Lisa Gardner and Tess Gerritsen

More events...

Get ready for summer reading
Richard, Mary Alice and the MLB Staff

Did we mention that we won a Raven Award?

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