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The audience was fairly mixed with men and woman, of all ages; fans who had come to hear Crais talk about Elvis Cole, Joe Pike and his latest novel, The First Rule.

 But during the question and answer session, a man in his mid-thirties made a comment that almost got him thrown out of the bookstore.

 “I didn’t expect to see all these old people here,” said the man who was clearly a fan. “I thought it would be more people my age and more guys. I always thought you wrote young.”

  Crais does write young. And Elvis and Joe do appeal to a young audience. They also appeal to a middle-aged audience, retirees and, well, just about anyone who can read.

 I bring up this age issue because it is a factor in the cover profile of Michael Koryta in the latest Mystery Scene, No. 115. Kevin Burton Smith captures Koryta so well.

  At age 27, Koryta is among the youngest of crime fiction authors. That he started his career at age 21 with the excellent Tonight I Said Goodbye is pretty amazing.

  Yeah, he’s a whiz kid, all right.

   But more importantly, he is an excellent writer. And the only reason his age should made a difference or even be a factor is it means that readers will have more years of enjoyment from his novels.

   We’ve already had a good taste of Koryta’s talent. His stand-alone novel Envy the Night won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. (Full disclosure, I was one of the judges that year.)

  One of the constants about crime fiction is that age, sex, race, sexual orientation and locale matter little to readers.

What crime fiction readers care about – and all they should care about – is if the story grabs them, if the characters are believable, the action realistic or, if it’s not realistic, at least makes them want to go along for the ride.

  Mystery readers are sophisticated and are willing to follow an author just about anywhere if the story is worth it.

   Sure, Koryta is young.

 But he isn’t the only author to start early and continue to write intriguing crime fiction.

Greg Rucka was 27 when Finder was published. Dennis Lehane was 29 when A Drink Before the War came out. Tom Rob Smith was 29 when Child 44 was published.

Michael Connelly was 35 when Black Echo hit the stores, the same age as Dashiell Hammett when Red Harvest was published.

And Lawrence Block was just 23 when his first novel was published; by the time his first Matthew Scudder novel, The Sins of the Fathers, came in 1976, Block was 38 years old.

Good storytelling is ageless.

Mystery Scene is distributed by Ingram Periodicals to Borders, Barnes & Noble, Waldenbooks, Books Chapters, Indigo and other major chain stores in the US and Canada.

In addition, these fine mystery bookstores also carry Mystery Scene:

UNITED STATES

Arizona

Poisoned Pen
4014 N. Goldwater #101
Scottsdale, AZ 85251-4335
Tel: 480-947-2974
sales@poisonedpen.com
http://www.poisonedpen.com/

California

M is for Mystery… and More
86 East 3rd Avenue
San Mateo CA 94401
Tel: 650-401-8077
Toll free outside the Bay Area: 888-405-8077
http://www.mformystery.com

Illinois

The Sly Fox Bookstore
123 N. Springfield St.
P.O. Box 117
Virden, IL 62690
Tel: 217-965-3641
http://www.myspace.com/slyfoxvirden

Maryland

Mystery Loves Company
202 S. Morris Street
Oxford, MD 21654
Tel: 410-226-0010
info@mysterylovescompany.com
http://www.mysterylovescompany.com

Michigan

Aunt Agatha’s Mystery Bookstore
213 S. Fourth Ave
Ann Arbor, MI 48104-2134
Tel: 734.769.1114
auntagathas@mailexcite.com
http://www.auntagathas.com

Minnesota

Uncle Edgar’s Mystery Bookstore
2864 Chicago Ave South
Minneapolis, MN 55407-1320
Tel: 612-824-9984
unclehugo@aol.com
http://www.unclehugo.com/prod

Nebraska

Mystery Bookstore
1422 South 13th Street
Omaha, NE 68108-3504
Tel: 402-342-7343
hudunit@radiks.net
http://www.mysterybookstore.ws

New Jersey

The Cloak & Dagger
349 Nassau St
Princeton, NJ 08540
Tel: (609) 688-9840
info@thecloakanddagger.com
www.thecloakanddagger.com

Moonstone Mystery Book Store
12 Bloomfield Ave.
Flemington, NJ 08822
(908) 788-9094
henderson@embarqmail.com

Pennsylvania

Mystery Lovers Bookshop
514 Allegheny River Blvd.
Oakmont, PA 15139-1617
Tel: 412-828-4877
info@mysterylovers.com
http://www.mysterylovers.com

Texas

Murder By The Book
2342 Bissonnet St
Houston, TX 77005-1512
Tel: 713-524-8597
murderbk@swbell.net
http://www.murderbooks.com

UNITED KINGDOM

Murder One [Online Store only]
Mailing Address:
Office 004, Kings Cross Business Centre
180-186 Kings Cross Road
London WC1X 9DE
Tel: +44 020 7520 2642
http://www.murderone.co.uk

I am talking about the food references that often crop up in mysteries. After all, a detective has to eat, too.
A line in Sue Grafton’s U Is for Undertow about Kinsey Milhone eating a peanut butter and pickle sandwich recently sparked myriad posts on DorothyL.

What kind of pickles? What kind of peanut butter? What does it taste like? Has anyone ever had this before?

  I have to admit, I also wondered when I read about Kinsey’s gourmet meal. But I figured it had to be crunchy peanut butter and bread and butter pickles (which some call hamburger pickles, others sliced dill pickles and still others just pickles, depending on where you are from.)

   After all, this is one of those  horrible meals just about everyone has probably tried, especially when you’re in college, rushing from test to class and have forgotten that your mother doesn’t live with you and hasn’t stocked the fridge. I’m just saying, that’s how I saw it.

    But all the DorothyL discussion on Kinsey’s dietary habits just reinforced how we readers are so connected to the characters who inhabit the mysteries we read.

  Mysteries are filled with food references and I am not talking about just the culinary mysteries, or the wonderful meals Robert B. Parker’s Spencer used to make or Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe, a gourmand and a gourmet with an oenophile’s knowledge of wine and brandy.

   Does anyone remember the wonderful sandwiches that Lawrence Sanders’ New York Chief of Detectives Edward X. Delaney made in the “Sins” series?  Delaney knew that a well-made sandwich is a thing of beauty. I can still visualize him leaning over the sink to eat his “wet” sandwiches, even hear the snap of a raw onion. And I am so ready for lunch.

   While reading “Deep Shadow,” the latest novel from  Randy Wayne White,  left, I had an overwhelming craving for red snapper with peanut sauce. Maybe that’s because White’s character, Doc Ford, was making a dinner of red snapper with peanut gravy. That’s about the only thing White and I didn’t talk about in the cover story of the Mystery Scene. (By the way, the recipe is on page 39 of “Deep Shadow.”

  And I have to admit I recently bought a jar of Nutell, mainly because I had just read “212”, the latest novel by Alafair Burke. Her character Ellie Hatcher often snacks on Nutella. The last time I bought Nutella was after I had read a previous novel by Burke.

And who wouldn’t want that delicious sounding fish dinner that is prepared for Roxy Abruzzo in Nancy Martin’s clever and funny Our Lady of Immaculate Deception. The sexy chef helps, too.

I’m hungry again.

Hi everyone!

Of the hundreds of books that arrive in our office every season only a few inspire mad, hair-pulling scrambles—and Lisa Lutz’s Spellman mysteries are among the most hotly contested. Funny, hip, unpredictable, with a trace of melancholy beneath all the wisecracking—these books are true pleasures. And as Cheryl Solimini’s profile reveals, Lisa Lutz is just as much fun as her chaotic family of private eyes.

Brian and I are planning a trip to Europe this fall. Originally we were going to Amsterdam but after reading Tom Nolan’s interview with Cara Black, we’re seriously considering Paris instead. Take a look and maybe we’ll see you in Paris, too!

Also in this issue, Ed Gorman talks with Karen Berger, the founder of the famed Vertigo line of graphic novels and Charles L.P. Silet picks terrific gangster movies for your next movie night at home.
In addition to being two of the most celebrated crime writers of their generation, Larry Block and Don Westlake were lifelong friends. In his latest column, Larry ponders the literary road Don didn’t take—and discusses the publication of a long lost manuscript that shows an unexpected facet of Don’s talent.

Here’s a hot tip for your summer reading list — Thrillers: 100 Must Reads, edited by David Morrell and Hank Wagner (Oceanview Publishing, July 5, $27.95). This entertaining collection starts with Lee Child’s thoughts on Theseus and the Minotaur (1500 B.C.) and ends with Steve Berry’s take on Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code (2003). In between are some thought-provoking essays by contemporary stars of the thriller field. We’re reprinting one for you in this issue, Marcus Sakey’s appreciation of Lee Child’s Killing Floor, and we’ll have another one in the next issue. You’ll have to buy the book for the other 98 essays and, take my word for it, you should.

The New Mystery Scene Website!

Brian and Teri have been slaving over the MS website—with spectacular results. It’s been months of hard work but we think you’ll enjoy all the new features and content online. For example: Tom Nolan’s article about Watchlist, the serial thriller collaboration by 21 big name authors such as Jeffery Deaver, Lisa Scottoline,  Lee Child, Joseph Finder, S.J. Rozan, and Jim Fusilli.

Other articles are from sold-out back issues: “Trixie Belden: The Girl-Next-Door Sleuth” by Judith Sears; “No Escape: Jacques Futrelle and the Titanic” by Jeff Marks; “Charlie Chan: The Case of the Reviled Detective” by Jon L. Breen; and many more.

The 1,000+ Mystery Scene Reviews Database is at the new site as well. Of course, as massive as it is, this is only a small portion of the reviews we’ve published since 2002. Audiobooks, children’s books, small press titles, etc., are being added on an ongoing basis and there are some online original reviews in the mix as well.

The website has room for interesting stuff we couldn’t fit in the magazine, too. A case in point is a complete list of Crippen & Landru’s chapbooks. Many of these little booklets, created by C&L publisher Doug Greene as gifts, constitute the first publication of stories by major writers such as Tony Hillerman, Elizabeth Peters, Joe Gores, Peter Robinson, Nancy Pickard, and Margaret Maron. As such they are of great interest to fans and  highly collectible to boot. (Oh, and all of Nate Pedersen’s articles on book collecting will be posted online, too.)

Are you reading electronically?

We’re not planning on abandoning print any time soon but we are curious to know how many of you are using a Kindle, iPad, or other electronic device for your crime fiction reading. Is it really the wave of the future?

Kate Stine
Editor-in-chief

http://bookclubs.barnesandnoble.com/t5/Mystery/MYSTERY-SCENE-MAGAZINE-rocks-B-amp-N-s-Mystery-this-week/m-p/519459/highlight/false#M15055

Randy Wayne White; photos by Bill Hirschman

I once visited a brothel.

Now that I’ve got your attention, let me explain.

My visit to this house of ill repute located on a quiet, residential street in Jackson, Miss., was because a colleague and I at the Clarion-Ledger were doing a series of articles on prostitution. The house was one of the most well-known secrets in town. I believe a police detective told us where to find it.

I remember us ringing the door-bell, stammering to the middle-aged woman who answered the door that we were doing a story on prostitution and she looking us and saying, “Well, that’s my thing, come on in.”

  So for a couple of hours, my colleague, Joe, and I sat in her spic-and-span living room decorated with pictures of her 12 children (“That one’s a teacher, that one’s a doctor, those 3 are still in college.”) as she told us about her work, showed us a photo album of the girls who worked for her and served us coffee and cookies.

  Later, for that same series, I was to meet a “working girl” at her apartment, an interview set up by her attorney. I waited outside for about an hour, but she never answered the door. Eventually – and I still don’t remember how this played out – I went in when the pest control man showed up, only to be confronted by her sleepy – and naked – pimp.

   That was also the day my parents were coming to visit and no one at the newspaper would tell them where I was. (I ended up interviewing the woman at her attorney’s office.)

  I had been working as a journalist for all of three months.

  I tell you this story because that was the only unusual thing that happened to me while I was conducting interviews for a story.

  That is until I interviewed Randy Wayne White, which is the lead story for this issue of Mystery Scene.

  And just what does my story more than 30 years ago have to do with Florida author Randy Wayne White?

   My interview with Randy will be one of those I will long remember, and with more fondness.

  Never before has a person I was to interview asked me to bring towels, a hat and some water to the interview.

   Randy, as my Mystery Scene story says, was going to swim across Tampa Bay with the Navy SEALS as a fund-raiser. I was to meet him at the end of the swim and, because he was unsure if his wife would be able to get this car over to the finish in time, I was to meet him with the towels to keep him warm after the swim.

   So, at 7:30 a.m. Jan. 2, 2010, on one of the coldest mornings Tampa has seen, my husband, Bill Hirschman, and I waited at the park where the SEALS were to land. We were the only ones there and began to wonder if we were in the wrong place. Around 9 a.m. a swoosh of cars drove up, many with SEAL decals, and we knew were in the right place. (The swim had gotten started late.)

  I was able to connect with his wife, the singer Wendy Webb who has a lovely voice, and we waited on the beach for the swimmers to stop all that foolishness and land. Because of the tide, they landed about a half-mile from where they were supposed to.

   It was an amazing sight and no could help but be moved by watching these hearty men and women come ashore, freezing, but happy and knowing they had just raised money for a SEAL who had been disabled fighting for our country.

   Bill took photographs of Randy when he came out of the water – one of those pictures accompanies my story. We lent him some towels and he sat in our car while his wife went to get their car. (We finally vacuumed the sand out a few days ago.)

   We also had brought some snacks in case he was hungry. (I also brought along a tape recorder and a notebook, but those were for me.)

  Randy’s swim plays a prominent part in my profile of him. I hope the story gives you Mystery Scene readers a different view of this author whose latest book is Deep Shadow, his 17^th novel about Doc Ford, a marine biologist and former government op who lives on Florida’s Sanibel Island.

   The swim certainly gave me a different view….and it beats my visit to the brothel by a mile.

2010 Winter Issue #113

Hi everyone!

Putting together this issue has been something of a trip down memory lane. One of the first detectives I came across in my early reading was Father Brown. Steven Steinbock makes an interesting case that the debut of G.K. Chesterton’s little Catholic priest in 1910 brought a moral and spiritual depth to the mystery genre that it had previously lacked and often still does. Chesterton’s other great strength was the quality of his prose. Even as a child, I was struck by the beauty of the scene in the garden between Father Brown and the fleeing thief in “The Falling Stars.” Read it yourself and see if you agree.

Seeing that the topic of Larry Block’s latest column was Ross Thomas, I immediately dropped everything to read it—with much delight. Then I had to re-read bits of Briarpatch, one of my all-time favorite novels, and remember a visit with Ross and his wife Rosalie in the early 1990s. Several of us from Mysterious Press travelled to their jewel box of a house in Malibu overlooking the Pacific. Over lunch, Ross recalled a meeting he had with some Beltway types who were repeatedly dropping then-president George H.W. Bush’s name into the conversation. Ross, who never confirmed or denied his rumored Company past, one-upped them with a laconic, “Oh, do you mean Prescott’s boy?”

When Oline Cogdill proposed an interview with Randy Wayne White, whose Doc Ford novels are set on the beautiful Sanibel Island off Florida’s Gulf Coast, Brian and I were delighted to relive a wonderful vacation and learn more about one of contemporary crime fiction’s most intriguing writers at the same time.

Even closer to our hearts is the topic of Twist Phelan’s article “Romancing the Con.” Twist talks to four couples who found true love at mystery fan conventions—including Mystery Scene’s current publishers at the 1996 Magna cum Murder Convention held in Muncie, Indiana.

G.M. Malliet has her own reasons to be grateful for mystery conventions. She studied the cozy novel at Malice Domestic for several years, started writing and ultimately won an Agatha Award for Best First Novel. Get the whole story in our interview.

Also in this issue, Rupert Holmes returns to center stage with his upcoming adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Witness for the Prosecution; Nate Pedersen continues his invaluable series on book collecting by explaining the terms used to describe book condition; and P.D. James becomes the latest in a distinguished group of crime writers to turn critic with her Talking About Detective Fiction.

If you’re going to Malice Domestic this spring be sure to come to Mystery Scene’s “Meet the New Authors” Breakfast. It’s a great chance to learn about terrific new writers and their work. We’ll save a chair and some Danish for you!

Kate Stine
Editor-in-chief

Let me say right up front that each nominee is indeed a winner.

It takes an excellent book to receive a nomination, to rise above the literally thousands of mysteries published each year. 

 I know, because I am one of the judges of the L.A. Times Book Prize’s mystery/thriller category along with my colleagues Sarah Weinman and Dick Adler.

So here’s the Agatha nominees, followed by the L.A. Times nominees.

The 2010 Agatha Awards are for works published in 2009. The winners will be announced during Malice Domestic, April 30 to May 2 in Arlington, VA.

 Mystery Scene’s annual “Meet the New Authors” Breakfast will be held on Saturday, May 1st. All attendees of Malice Domestic are invited to attend and meet this year’s talented crop of new novelists. Mystery Scene Contributing Editor Cheryl Solimini will host.

AGATHA NOMINEESSwan for the Money, Donna Andrews, St. Martin’s Minotaur
Bookplate Special, Lorna Barrett, Berkley Prime Crime
Royal Flush, Rhys Bowen, Berkley Prime Crime
A Brutal Telling, Louise Penny, Minotaur Books
Air Time, Hank Phillippi Ryan, MIRA

Best Novel

Best First Novel
For Better For Murder, Lisa Bork, Midnight Ink
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, Alan Bradley, Delacorte Press
Posed for Murder, Meredith Cole, St. Martin’s Minotaur
The Cold Light of Mourning, Elizabeth Duncan, St. Martin’s Press
In the Shadow of Gotham, Stefanie Pintoff, Minotaur Books

Best Nonfiction
Duchess of Death, Richard Hack, Phoenix Books
Talking About Detective Fiction, P.D. James, Knopf
Blood on the Stage, 1925 – 1950, Amnon Kabatchnik, Scarecrow Press
Dame Agatha’s Shorts, Elena Santangelo, Bella Rosa Books
The Talented Miss Highsmith, Joan Schenkar, St. Martin’s Press

Best Short Story
“Femme Sole,” Dana Cameron, Boston Noir, Akashic Books
“Handbaskets, Drawers and Killer Cold,” Kaye George, Crooked
“The Worst Noel,” Barb Goffman, The Gift of Murder, Wolfmont Press
“On the House,” Hank Phillippi Ryan, Quarry, Level Best Books
“Death Will Trim Your Tree,” Elizabeth Zelvin, The Gift of Murder, Wolfmont Press

Best Children’s/Young Adult Novel
The Morgue and Me, John C. Ford, Viking Juvenile
The Hanging Hill, Chris Grabenstein, Random House
The Case of the Poisoned Pig, Lewis B. Montgomery, Kane Press
The Other Side of Blue, Valerie O. Patterson, Clarion Books
The Case of the Cryptic Crinoline, Nancy Springer, Philomel

And here are the nominees in the mystery/thriller category for the L.A. Times Book Prize. The site contains the nominees for the other categories, but, frankly, the mystery/thriller category is the most important, right?

The prizes will be awarded in an invitation-only ceremony in connection with the 15th annual LA Times Festival of Books, which takes place April 24-25. Last year, more than 130,000 people attended the festival, which is held at UCLA; many of the book prize finalists will participate in panels, discussions and book signings.

It was an honor to serve as a judge with Sarah and Dick.

L.A. Times Book Prize
Mystery/thriller category

Mystery/Thriller
“Bury Me Deep” by Megan Abbott
“The Hidden Man” by David Ellis
“Black Water Rising” by Attica Locke
“A Darker Domain” by Val McDermid
“The Ghosts of Belfast” by Stuart Neville