I’d like to get a bit personal today.

This time last year, I was high on a cloud because I had been selected to receive the Raven Award from the Mystery Writers of America during the Edgar banquet.

I shared the Raven honor with the lovely people from The Mysterious Galaxy in San Diego, which has been owned by Terry Gillman, Maryelizabeth Hart and Jeff Mariotte since in 1993.

It was a glorious night for The Mysterious Galaxy and myself. I also was so happy for the authors who took home Edgars that night.

The Raven remains a career highlight for me. I felt—and said so in my acceptance speech—that receiving the Raven meant my work was respected by the board and by the mystery writers.

So enough about me.

It is now time to pass the baton, or in the case, the Raven.
Figuratively, that is.

I have the Raven in a place of honor and you are not getting it back.

So I offer an extra heartfelt congratulations to Robin and James Agnew, at right, whose store Aunt Agatha’s Bookstore in Ann Arbor, Michigan, will take home this year’s Raven. I know how you’ll feel taking that little bird home with you.

The Raven as well as the Edgar Awards will be presented by the Mystery Writers of America May 1 at the Grand Hyatt in New York City. Here’s a list of all the Edgar nominees.

Aunt Agatha’s is celebrating its 22nd year in business this year, no small feat in this day of online orders. A couple of years ago I did a story on the store’s celebrating its 20th anniversary, which is linked here.

The store has stayed in business because, like other independent bookstores, its staff knows its clientele. They can intelligently recommend books that they know their customers will like. And that personal kind of service never goes out of style.

The Agnews have no plans for an anniversary party this year. They are going to wait  until “the big 25,” Robin Agnew told me in an email. ye are

“Otherwise things are chugging along as they always have though weirdly when it's busy, it's REALLY busy, and when it's slow, it's REALLY slow,” said Robin Agnew in the email last week.

“All the things we've been doing - book clubs, author visits, etc. we plan to continue.  I'm looking forward to what's next, what great writers are coming up, and what kind of work writers I already love will continue to create,” she said.

Authors who have been coming to Aunt Agatha’s for years speak highly of the store.

“There’s no one more important to an author than the bookseller. Who else will make sure that your beloved novel gets placed personally into a reader’s hand?” said William Kent Krueger, whose Ordinary Grace is up for an Edgar in the best novel category.

“Among all the fine booksellers out there, Robin and Jamie Agnew are at the top of the list.  Their store, Aunt Agatha’s, is such a splendid place, particularly in spirit. When a crowd gathers for a book event there, it’s like a little festival. I love the store, and I dearly love those two folks who own it,” Krueger added.

Needless to say, the Agnews are delighted about the Raven.

“We are unbelievably pleased to be honored by the writers whose work we love to sell and share with customers and friends,” Robin Agnew said in the email.

“Mysteries have been a touchstone for me all of my life starting with Nancy Drew and they continue to be. The friends we've made and the authors whose careers we've seen grow from specks to big success has really been a delight as well,” she added.

Congratulations to all.

This year, the Crime Writers of Canada adds a new aspect to its annual Arthur Ellis Awards—a Grand Master.

This is the inaugural year of the Crime Writers of Canada’s Grand Master Award, intended to recognize Canadian crime writers who have a substantial body of work that has garnered national and international recognition.

Howard Engel, left, the author of the award winning Benny Cooperman detective series, has the honor of being the group’s first Grand Master. In its announcement, the Crime Writers of Canada stated “A mainstay of the Canadian crime writing scene for many years, Mr. Engel helped put Canadian crime writing on the map at a time when few mysteries were set in this country.”

The Crime Writers of Canada was established by Derrick Murdoch, a prolific Canadian crime fiction reviewer, in 1982, and has sponsored the Arthur Ellis Awards for Crime and Mystery Writing for 30 years. Engel is among the group’s seven founding members.

And in case you are wondering where the name Arthur Ellis came from, here’s a bit of history. “Arthur Ellis” was the pseudonym for the man who became Canada’s hangman in 1912. Among the various categories, the organization annually awards the Unhanged Arthur Award, which recognized and promotes the careers of emerging crime writers.

All awards will be announced during the group’s annual banquet, scheduled to be June 5, 2014.

The 2014 Arthur Ellis Shortlists for Excellence in Crime Writing

Best Novel
John Brooke, Walls of a Mind, Signature Editions

Seán Haldane, The Devil’s Making, Stone Flower Press

Lee Lamothe, Presto Variations, Dundurn

Howard Shrier, Miss Montreal, Vintage Canada

Simone St. James, An Inquiry into Love and Death, Penguin Books

Best First Novel
E.R. Brown, Almost Criminal, Dundurn

A.S.A. Harrison, The Silent Wife, Penguin Books Canada

Axel Howerton, Hot Sinatra, Evolved Publishing

J. Kent Messum, Bait, Penguin Canada

S.G. Wong, Die on Your Feet, Carina Press

Best Novella
Melodie Campbell, The Goddaughter’s Revenge, Orca Books

Brenda Chapman, My Sister’s Keeper, Grassroots Press

James Heneghan, A Woman Scorned, Orca Books

Best Short Story
Donna Carrick, Watermelon Weekend, Thirteen, Carrick Publishing

Jas. R. Petrin, Under Cap Ste. Claire, Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, October 2013, Dell Magazines

Twist Phelan, Footprints in Water, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, July 2013, Dell Magazines

Sylvia Maultash Warsh, The Emerald Skull, Thirteen, Carrick Publishing

Sam Wiebe, The Third Echo, Girl Trouble: Malfeasance Occasional, MacMillan/St Martin’s Press

Best Book in French
Chrystine Brouillet, Saccages, La courte échelle

Jacques Côté, Et à l'heure de votre mort, éditions Alire

Maureen Martineau, L’enfant promis, La courte échelle

Jacques Savoie, Le fils emprunté, Éditions Libre Expression

Best Juvenile/YA
Karen Autio, Sabotage, Sono Nis Press

Gail Gallant, Apparition, Doubleday Canada

Elizabeth MacLeod, Bones Never Lie: How Forensics Helps Solve History’s Mysteries, Annick Press

Ted Staunton, Who I’m Not, Orca Books

Unhanged Arthur
L.J. Gordon, Death at the Iron House Lodge

Rachel Greenaway, Cold Girl

Charlotte Morganti, The Snow Job

Kristina Stanley, Descent

Kevin Thornton, Coiled

This year Berkley Prime Crime is turning 20 years, and that is cause for celebration.

Now other publishing imprints have been around just as long if not longer. But I especially want to praise Berkley Prime Crime for not just publishing cozy mysteries but for allowing this category of the genre to thrive.

When it started in 1994, the imprint released 40 mass market paperbacks. In 2013, Berkley Prime Crime published 150 novels, which were a combination of mass market originals, trade paperbacks, and hardcovers.

The imprint has shown readers that there is room in the genre for all kinds of voices, even those on the softer side.

What I admire about Berkley Prime Crime’s editors is that they know the traditional mystery—a term I have increasingly preferred to cozy—can open windows into new worlds for readers.

The Miss Marples of yesterday have morphed into the wonderful Carolyn Hart with her many series, including the novels about ghost Bailey Ruth Raeburn and bookstore owner Annie Darling. Hart's latest novel is Dead, White, and Blue.

We have Maggie Sefton and her knitter Kelly Flynn; Monica Ferris and her Betsy Devonshire, owner of the Crewel World needlework shop; Laura Childs who writes about a tea shop owner, a scrapbooker and the restaurateurs who have an egg-themed café in three separate series.

Julie Hyzy adds a soupcon of politics into her lovely series about White House chef Olivia Paras.

Stephanie Jaye Evans shows the challenges of being a man of faith in a secular world.

For historicals, there are Victoria Thompson’s tales about 19th-century New York, midwife Sarah Brandt and Detective Sergeant Frank Malloy; Carol K. Carr’s espionage novels set in Victorian London where India Black makes spying an art.

Joanna Campbell Slan's Jane Eyre Chronicles pick up where Bronte left off.

And it is possible to do a traditional mystery with a harder edge such as Naomi Hirahara’s LAPD bike cop Ellie Rush or M.L Rowland’s search and rescue series about expert Grace Kinkaid.

Berkley Prime Crime had a couple of celebrations last month. But the real celebration of the traditional mystery comes every year at the Malice Domestic conference. This year it will be May 2-4 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Bethesda, MD.

Not surprising that many Berkley Prime Crime authors will be there including Earlene Fowler, who is the toastmaster at Malice.

And Carolyn Hart will be honored during the Edgar Award banquet on May 1 as one of the Grand Masters selected by the Mystery Writers of America.

Once again, it’s a good year for the traditional mystery.

It’s always sad when a bookstore closes its doors.

Bookstores aren’t just brick and mortar buildings, they are readers’ living rooms. A place to meet like minded people, a place to discuss favorite books and discover new novels, a place to meet your favorite author.

So the news that Book'em Mysteries in South Pasadena, California, will close on April 30 is a time to mourn its passing but also to praise its 24 years of being in business. That’s 24 years of introducing a couple of generations of readers to books and authors.

Book'em Mysteries’ owners Mary Riley, 82, and Barry Martin,75, have been quoted in a couple of newspaper articles as saying it is time to close.

You reach a point in your life when you feel you’ve accomplished something,” Martin, a retired TV producer, told the Pasadena Star-News.

And they certainly have accomplished a lot.

Just last month the bookstore was named No. 6 in LA Weekly’s list of “10 Best Independent Bookstores in L.A.”

Book’em Mysteries almost didn’t make it to its first year. The store opened in October, 1990, a block and a half from its present location in South Pasadena. In the pre-dawn hours of Aug. 9, 1991, just 10 months later, an arsonist destroyed the building where the first bookstore was located.

Riley and Martin lost everything and had to start over. And they did. Just 10 days short of three months later, Book’em Mysteries reopened in its current 1,500-square foot location. The arsonist has never been caught.

Count me as one of the fans of Book’em Mysteries. Any time I am in a city in which there is a mystery bookstore, I make a point of visiting. I usually don’t say anything to the staff, just wander the aisles. And I try to always buy something, even it is just a cup of coffee or a canvas bag or a hat.

When Riley and Martin opened Book’em in 1990, there were no mystery bookstores on the east side of greater Los Angeles. They had met several years earlier through their children—his two were in the high school band, her daughter participated in tall flags. They were both widowed. After 20 years as partners, they married at Book’em.

Until the couple shuts the doors for the final time, they will be heavily discounting the books they have in stock and offering for sale the furniture and fixtures. Meanwhile, they have been greeting and reminiscing with long-time customers and authors.

In an interview with the Pasadena Star-News, Martin perfectly summed up most people’s feelings on what an independent bookstore offers its customers: “A sense of community; a place where you can go and not be judged; a place where you can go and have a conversation outside of politics or whatever is going on. A place where people can come and talk about books. Our emphasis has always been books and people,” he told the newspaper.

And he’s exactly right.

Mystery Scene wishes Martin and Riley the best of luck, and thanks for the memories.