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Just got this newsletter from my favourite bookshop in the world, it’s closing down..and its even sadder that i won’t be there at it’s closing party.. the one place which became the necessary visit everytime i visited NewYork..one of the last few that remain in the world which really is only about the books i love.. somebody who can be there, pl be there and raise a toast to one of the last surviving treasurehouse of mystery, pulp and whatnot on my behalf..it’s the BLACK ORCHID bookshop on 303 EAST 81 ST, NYC 10028 TELE: 212 734-5980; FAX: 212 288-5918
WEBSITE: www.ageneralstore.com
HOURS: MON: CLOSED; TUES-FRI: 12noon—7PM
SAT:11AM—6PM; SUN: CLOSED

What follows is the newsletter..

Announcement
With mixed emotions we will be closing The Black Orchid Bookshop this September for both personal and business reasons. Playing in the background at such an announcement, you would expect such songs of sentimental defiance as Sinatra’s My Way or Piaf’s Non, je ne regrette rien or even such bittersweet up tempo songs as Springsteen’s Glory Days or Fred Astaire’s They Can’t Take That Away From Me. But no sad songs for us. We have a different play list in mind.
Only The Beatles will do for our friends & family because we would not have lasted 13 minutes much less 13 years without a little help from them. First and foremost, our families were always the first to lend a hand, an ear or any kind of support that we needed; we are blessed with them. Carol & Coyne, Sue, Susan, Marilyn & Wendy all helped us put the shop together in the summer of 1994. When the doors were open, Don Tullsen, our antiquarian expert, and Jane & the incomparable westie Murphy, a sales team without peer, joined us. And every Thursday Harvey recommended great traditional mysteries and dispensed baseball wisdom. For over two years Maxine was indispensable, doing everything around the shop. Recently Barbara and Russell have been our mainstays and have preserved our sanity. (We are sorry that we can’t put Russell’s next book in our window.) Throughout the years we have also been helped by Janet, Jonathan, Paul, Margery, Kathleen, Don P., John, Tom and Steve. The list goes on & on & on. As the Divine Miss M says, you gotta have friends.
How better to remember all the crime authors who visited us but to have Sinatra do a Rogers & Hart tune I Could Write A Book. Or maybe have Elvis Costello, who had been “watching the detectives,” reflect on their work ethic with his own Everyday I Write The Book. Their talent touched our minds. But the very special ones touched our hearts with their friendship. Far too many to mention by name but there is always time to remember Evan Hunter.
Nothing made us happier than to dance for our customers to our own version of Frank Loesser’s Fugue from Guys & Dolls. “We got the book right here. Its name is . . .” The Black Echo. Or In A Dry Season. Or The Ax. Or Bootlegger’s Daughter. Or The Guards. Or Voodoo River. Or Every Dead Thing. Or A Place of Execution. Or Bad Blood. Or Mallory’s Oracle. We introduced so many people to books that we loved and which they loved in turn. As the great Durante once said “Make someone happy . . . and you will be happy too.” We will miss that most of all. Thanks to all those customers who bought our books, who shared their enthusiasm for the books with us and their fellow customers and who simply made us smile when they walked in the door.
Even though we may no longer have a brick and mortar presence in the mystery community, we still plan to be around. So, for our song, may be we follow the lead of another large-sized albeit fictional Italian, put some money in the jukebox, and play Journey. We won’t stop believing and just hold on to the feeling.
Anniversary Party
ON THURSDAY AUGUST 16 BEGINNING AT 6PM, we will celebrate our lucky 13th anniversary with our usual street-filling bash. It is always a good time and it is the last one. So don’t miss it.
New Signed Books in Stock
SONGS OF INNOCENCE BY RICHARD ALEAS (PBO $6.99) The sequel to the Edgar nominated Little Girl Lost ($6.99) is noir at its darkest and finest, as if David Goodis decided to write a private eye novel.
THE MARK BY JASON PINTER (PBO $7.99) This debut is great fun, introducing reporter Henry Parker who stumbles on a murder and must run from the cops, the FBI and the mob.
CRUEL POETRY BY VICKI HENDRICKS (PBO $15) The author of the noir masterpiece MIAMI PURITY ($16) returns with the juicy tale of an alluring call girl and the persons captivated by her fatal charms.
THE CLEANER BY BRETT BATTLES ($22) As if Lee Child or Daniel Silva rewrote Six (only 3 for movie buffs) Days of the Condor. This debut introduces Jonathan Quinn, who “cleans” crime scenes of evidence and who must run for his life when his organization is attacked. Super airplane read.
THE SLEEPING DOLL BY JEFFERY DEAVER ($27) Cop Kathryn Dance, introduced in last year’s The Cold Moon ($10), returns to hunt an elusive killer nicknamed “Son of Manson.” Russell recommends this twisty tale.
THE CHRYSALIS BY HEATHER TERRELL ($22) Death and danger is part of the provenance of a 17th century painting in this debut thriller.
COMING SOON: FIRST AMONG SEQUELS BY JASPER FFORDE ($25) A new Thursday Next novel. (7/23) The Fourth Bear ($14) in paper.
BEYOND REACH BY KARIN SLAUGHTER ($25) A new Grant County crime novel. (8/1). Tryptych ($7.99) in paper.
News
SALES:We are preparing a number of sidewalk, basement & other sales. Schedule to be announced.
AUGUST HOURS: Because we are planning these events, we may need to deviate from our normal hours. Please call first if you decide to come early or late. Thanks.

Paperback Parade

JULY TITLES
TOUGH GUYS: Darkness & Light By John Harvey ($14) (Frank Elder); The Messenger by Daniel Silva ($9.99) (Gabriel Allon), The Secret Servant ($26) out later this month; The Next Time You Die by Harry Hunsicker ($6.99) (Dallas PI Lee Henry Oswald); Snow Blind by P.J. Tracy ($7.99) (4th Monkeewrench mystery)
COZY: Bye Bye Black Sheep by Ayelet Waldman ($7.99) (A Mommy-Track mystery); Decaffeinated Corpse by Cleo Coyle ($6.99) (5th Clare Cosi coffeehouse mystery); Dark Tort by Diane Mott Davidson ($7.99) (Goldy Bear); Sins & Needles by Monica Ferris ($6.99) (A Needlecraft mystery)
NOIR: Bronx Noir ed. by S.J. Rozan ($15) Stories from many favorites including Lawrence Block, Thomas Adcock; Steven Torres, Kevin Baker & Jerome Charyn.
AUGUST TITLES
TOUGH GUYS & GALS: Echo Park by Michael Connelly ($7.99) (Harry Bosch); Dying Light by Stuart MacBride ($6.99) (2nd DS Logan MacRae); Under Orders by Dick Francis ($9.99) (Sid Halley); The Hard Way by Carol Lea Benjamin ($6.99) (PI Rachel Alexander & Dash); Terror Town by Stuart Kaminsky ($6.99) (Chicago cop Abe Lieberman); The Afghan by Frederick Forsyth ($9.99) (international intrigue); Never Go Back by Robert Goddard (PBO $12) (Harry Barnett from Into The Blue)
HARDBOILED: The Night Gardener by George Pelacanos ($7.99) (DC cops hunt a child killer); The Concrete Maze by Steven Torres (PBO $7.99) (Bronx crime story from the author of the Precinct Puerto Rico novels); Fright by Cornell Woolrich ($6.99) (Hard Case Crime Reprint); A Secret Rage by Charlaine Harris ($7.99) (Back in print, novel of violence sweeping a college town)
COZY: Gun Shy by Donna Ball ($6.99) (3rd Raine Stockton Dog mystery); Winter’s Child by Margaret Maron ($6.99) (Deborah Knott); A Play of Lords by Margaret Frazer ($7.99) (A Joliffe medieval actors mystery); Prey for a Miracle by The Thurlos ($6.99) (Sister Agatha)

All you who breathe in NY, Do pay a visit to this place before it gives way to God knows what monstrosity ..
Fuck me that i can’t visit it one last time, neck deep in postproduction..