The Mystery Bookstore

Celebrate the publication of MOCKINGJAY, the third book in the Hunger Games series by SUZANNE COLLINS!
EMILY'S FAVORITE
Scholastic, $17.99 (unsigned first edition)
Join us at 9:00 a.m. for breakfast, games and prizes before purchasing your book at 10:00 a.m.! Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games trilogy comes to a triumphant conclusion with this third and final book. Katniss Everdeen made it through The Hunger Games and Catching Fire, but her survival has upset the order of the Capitol, and someone will have to pay – and not only Katniss, but her family, friends and the people of District 12.
Please contact us directly to purchase this title. You may email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or telephone us on our toll–free number, (800) 821-9017.

The Mystery Bookstore is as excited as you are to find out what happens. Will the mysteries of District 13 finally be solved? We've been dashing down possibilities about what will happen to Katniss and her friends. In their honor, we invite you to participate in a Mystery Bookstore Contest. How do you think Mockingjay will open? We're looking for the most creative, the most humorous, and the most accurate opening paragraphs. Winners will be announced at the Pre–Launch Celebration on August 24. Submission details are below!

Mockingjay Contest Details!!!

Please submit your entries to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Put your entries in the body of the text of your email. Please, no attachments.

Your subject should read "Mockingjay Contest Entry". The Contest will be open for submissions at 10AM August 1st. Entries must be received by 9 a.m. August 24th PST. You may bring an entry to the Pre–Launch Celebration, but you must hand it in at 9 a.m.

Please write your name and email address in the email. You do not have to be present to win.

Anyone is welcome to enter the contest.

There is no limit on the number of entries. There is no purchase necessary. Mockingjay, the third book in the Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins, goes on sale in The Mystery Bookstore 10 a.m. on August 24th. Customers who have pre–ordered the book will have priority in line.

MARK HASKELL SMITH discusses and signs BAKED
Grove Press, $14.00 (trade paperback original)
Botanist Miro Basinas is on top of the world. He's just won the Cannabis Cup in Amsterdam for his designer marijuana, which tastes like mangoes. When someone shoots him and steals his plant, he'll do almost anything to get it back, following a trail that leads to encounters with aging starlets, sexually frustrated Mormon missionaries, kinky paramedics and an Irish–Salvadoran drug dealer with a hapless crew. We agree with our friend Lisa Lutz: "Murder, mayhem, marijuana and Mormons – what more could you ask for in a crime novel?"
Please contact us directly to purchase this title. You may email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or telephone us on our toll–free number, (800) 821-9017.

Saturday, August 21 around 3:00 p.m.
DAVID ROSENFELT drops in to sign DOG TAGS
Grand Central Publishing, $24.99
STEPHEN'S FAVORITE and PAM W'S FAVORITE

Lawyer and dog lover Andy Carpenter does his friend a favor and represents Milo, a German Shepherd that was an accomplice during a robbery and murder. As Andy proceeds to get the dog out from protected custody, he finds that the dog's owner, an ex–cop and Iraq war vet, is mixed up in a bigger game of chess than anyone imagined. As Andy unravels layer and layer of cover–ups from New Jersey to Iraq, he protects Milo from would–be assassins and finds that if he's to uncover the whole truth, he has to bond with the dog. Rosenfelt weaves a nice complex story, with humor sprinkled throughout.
Please contact us directly to purchase this title. You may email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or telephone us on our toll–free number, (800) 821-9017.

HENRY PEREZ discusses and signs MOURN THE LIVING
Pinnacle, $6.99 (paperback original)

In this sequel to Perez's acclaimed debut, KILLING RED, Chicago reporter Alex Chapa must cancel his vacation plans after his colleague, Jim Chakowski, is killed in a mysterious explosion. Looking over Chakowski's notes, Alex finds evidence that links city council members to a string of unsolved murders. Someone was willing to kill to keep Chakowski's story out of print, and now Alex is a target as well. Publishers Weekly said this thriller "keeps the adrenaline pumping right through the ending."
Please contact us directly to purchase this title. You may email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or telephone us on our toll–free number, (800) 821-9017.

A LAUNCH PARTY for THE QUEEN OF PATPONG by TIM HALLINAN
BOBBY'S FAVORITE
William Morrow, $24.95
Hallinan's Poke Rafferty books may be the best crime fiction series you're not reading yet, and we're excited to be hosting the first event to celebrate the fourth entry in this series. Join us for snacks, drinks, even a PowerPoint presentation! Poke Rafferty has finally settled down with Rose, a former Patpong dancer, and their adopted daughter Miaow, who had been a street child in Bangkok. A figure from Rose's past comes back into their lives, threatening everything she loves, and Poke must learn the whole truth about her former life in order to protect them all. This book deserves to be Hallinan's breakout novel; Booklist called it "Riveting, genuinely moving, and entirely plausible."
Please contact us directly to purchase this title. You may email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or telephone us on our toll–free number, (800) 821-9017.

BETTY WEBB discusses and signs THE KOALA OF DEATH
Poisoned Pen hardcover, $24.95; simultaneous trade paperback, $14.95
Betty Webb, best known for her excellent desert mysteries, visits to discuss the delightful second entry (after The Anteater of Death) in her new Zoo Mystery series. Zookeeper Teddy Bentley finds the body of her colleague, television personality Koala Kate, floating in the marina where Teddy lives. Kate didn't drown, though; she was strangled. Both the Gunn Zoo and Gunn Landing Harbor are full of likely suspects, and when Teddy takes over Koala Kate's TV gig, she finds herself at risk as well.
Please contact us directly to purchase this title. You may email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or telephone us on our toll–free number, (800) 821-9017.

KAT RICHARDSON discusses and signs LABYRINTH
Roc, $24.95
A benefit for California Ferret Legalization!

Private investigator Harper Blaine is a "greywalker," someone who lives in the realm between life and death. In this, her fifth adventure, she's back on the trail of the man – alive or dead – who killed her for two minutes, making her a greywalker. Harper's father is missing, and she's convinced that her attacker knows the truth behind this as well. Harper's constant companion is her ferret, Chaos; Richardson, a ferret owner herself, has pledged all her royalties from this signing to the movement to legalize ferrets as pets in California. For more information about this cause, visit http://www.legalizeferrets.org/.
Please contact us directly to purchase this title. You may email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or telephone us on our toll–free number, (800) 821-9017.

LEE GOLDBERG discusses and signs MR. MONK IS CLEANED OUT, TOD GOLDBERG discusses and signs BURN NOTICE: THE GIVEAWAY, and WILLIAM RABKIN discusses and signs PSYCH: A FATAL FRAME OF MIND

A visit from Messrs. Goldberg, Goldberg and Rabkin is an automatic party, and the best show in town. Don't miss this chance to meet these three masters of the tie-in novel. Lee Goldberg and Bill Rabkin, in addition to their novel work, are veteran television screenwriters and showrunners; Tod Goldberg is an award-winning literary novelist whose most recent book was OTHER RESORT CITIES, a collection of short stories.


NAL, $22.95. In the latest Mr. Monk book, the obsessive–compulsive detective is out of work after a round of cost–cutting at the San Francisco Police Department. His savings should be enough to live on, but Natalie discovers that Monk has been the victim of a Bernie Madoff–style fraud. When the prime witness against Monk's financial adviser is killed, Mr. Monk takes it personally.
Please contact us directly to purchase this title. You may email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or telephone us on our toll–free number, (800) 821-9017.


Signet, $6.99 (paperback original). BURN NOTICE: THE GIVEAWAY finds ex-spy Michael Weston paying off favors to the local money launderer, Barry. Barry's friend, Bruce, is a retired gentleman thief who has had to return to his old ways to support their ailing mother. Unfortunately, Bruce stole something from the Ghouls motorcycle gang, and they're out for revenge unless Michael can talk them out of it. Please contact us directly to purchase this title. You may email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or telephone us on our toll–free number, (800) 821-9017.


Signet, $6.99 (paperback original). PSYCH: A FATAL FRAME OF MIND starts at the Santa Barbara art museum, where Shawn and Gus are attending a reception to celebrate the museum's latest acquisition: a long-lost masterpiece by poet–painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti. When the unveiling reveals not only the painting but the dead body of the museum curator, Shawn and Gus have a new case.
Please contact us directly to purchase this title. You may email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or telephone us on our toll–free number, (800) 821-9017.

JOEL FOX discusses and signs LINCOLN’S HAND
Echelon, $15.99 (trade paperback original)
Veteran political consultant Joel Fox visits to talk about his first novel, which introduces Senior FBI Special Agent Zane Rigby. Rigby's efforts to capture the Monument Bomber have failed, so he's assigned to a strange new case: someone claims that Abraham Lincoln's body isn't in his grave. It would be dismissed as a crank case, but DNA from a hand found with a blackmail note traced back to 1901 matches the DNA from a bone taken at Lincoln's autopsy. In Springfield, IL to search for the truth, Rigby finds even more complex secrets: a Congressman with a past, a mad doctor, an old flame that could be revived – and the dead body of a young woman, right next to Lincoln's tomb.
Please contact us directly to purchase this title. You may email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or telephone us on our toll–free number, (800) 821-9017.

ALEX DRYDEN discusses and signs MOSCOW STING
Ecco, $24.95
AUGUST CRIME CLUB SELECTION
Another fantastic spy novel from the pseudonymous author of last year's RED TO BLACK, MOSCOW STING picks up where the earlier book left off. Years ago Anna, a KGB colonel, betrayed her country for the love of Finn, a British secret agent. Now a widow, Anna is on the run with her child, with information many would kill to get – including the identity of the Russian double agent known as Mikhail. Finn's old boss, Adrian, the head of MI6, wants vengeance for Finn's death, and needs to know what Anna knows. Whether Anna lives or dies depends on which organization – the KGB, MI6, the CIA or the American private intelligence group known as Cougar – gets to her first. In addition to the new book, we will have a limited number of first editions of Dryden's first novel, RED TO BLACK (Ecco, $25.99), available for signing and purchase.
Please contact us directly to purchase this title. You may email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or telephone us on our toll–free number, (800) 821-9017.

Saturday, August 7 at 12:00 noon to 1:00 p.m. only
SARA PARETSKY discusses and signs HARDBALL
Signet Select paperback, $9.99 (paperback reprint).
CLAIR'S FAVORITE
We are beyond excited about this visit from the legendary Sara Paretsky, who has only an hour to spend with us in celebration of the paperback release of HARDBALL, the 13th V.I. Warshawski novel. We're also hoping she’ll give us some clues about the 14th, BODY WORK, which hits stores at the end of this month. HARDBALL, which made both Linda and Clair's Best of 2009 lists, starts with a cold, cold case: the disappearance of a man on the South Side of Chicago in 1967. Things turn hot again when Vic's questioning rattles old skeletons. Some of those may be in the Warshawski family closet, as Vic's investigation turns up hints that her own father might have been a sleazy cop.
Please contact us directly to purchase this title. You may email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or telephone us on our toll–free number, (800) 821-9017.

We know many of you have already purchased the hardcover edition of HARDBALL from The Mystery Bookstore. We ask you to consider purchasing a paperback copy to be donated to Adult Literacy Services Program of the Los Angeles Public Library. Alternatively, we will be collecting monetary donations to this program at this event. Donations are not mandatory, but this cause is near and dear to Ms. Paretsky, and any donation is much appreciated.

JOHN RECTOR discusses and signs THE COLD KISS
Forge, $24.99
Fans of the hardboiled won't want to miss this tense first novel. Nate and Sara, expecting their first child, are driving from Minnesota to Reno, Nevada to get married. At a highway rest stop in Nebraska, a man offers them $500 for a ride to Omaha. It's a stroke of unexpected good luck, but within hours, the man is dead, and a blizzard forces Nate and Sara to take shelter in a run–down motel off the highway. Looking through their passenger's belongings, Nate and Sara find two million dollars in cash, setting off a series of decisions that put the young couple's relationship and very lives at stake.
Please contact us directly to purchase this title. You may email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or telephone us on our toll–free number, (800) 821-9017.