“I started The Maltese Falcon on its way to you by express last Friday, the fourteenth. I’m fairly confident that it is the best thing I’ve done so far.”
—Dashiell Hammett’s June 16, 1929, letter to his editor at Alfred Knopf, Harry Block.
"Agatha Christie was an early presence in my life, thanks to my grandmother... a fanatical reader."
Maureen Jennings 19th-century science-minded 'tec on the big and small screen
"The first book I remember choosing for myself was the first book in the Vicki Barr mystery series by Helen Wells, Silver Wings for Vicki."
Dilys Winn, the pioneering mystery bookseller, editor died on February 5, 2016, in Asheville, North Carolina. Winn opened Murder Ink, the very first bookstore devoted solely to mystery fiction, in New York City in 1972.
Leslie Charteris and The Saint the first in an ongoing series about classic sleuths reappearing in new media formats
“One particular book in my library has special pride of place, because it is the first one that I ever earned."
"I like to be surprised. I like to feel off-balance. I like to see humor used to undercut—but never eradicate—darkness."
Reading was an adventure then: pirate ships, mad scientists, shipwreck survivors, and—my very favorite—a family of four sisters becoming women in the 1860s, Louisa May Alcott's Little Women.
Whether you are a devoted reader or a world-class novelist, you probably enjoy a good “cuppa” from time to time. And if you enjoy British cozies, the odds are spot on that you’ll recognize your favorite brew (everything from Ceylon to Darjeeling) in your reading.
