I grew up reading Agatha Christie, and mysteries remain my weakness–in a good way. But I’m not generally shelved on in the mystery section, so it was with complete surprise and absolute delight that I heard The Poisoned Pen Bookstore–an incredible mystery-focused bookstore in Scottsdale, Arizona which I have long know about–chose The Wednesday Daughters for their British Crime Club July pick, and were inviting me to read at the store.
This absolutely marvelous store is the brainchild of Barbara Peters, who hails from roughly the same suburban Chicago area I more or less grew up in. She’s from Evanston and Winnetka, while I lived in Wheeling, Palatine, and Northbrook. She went to Standford–a mile walk from where I live now. And she got a masters in library science in Tennessee, where I lived before we moved back to California. So we have a few points of connection even before you get to the part where we both adore mysteries and Britain, and British mysteries.
Barbara is so dang successful in the mystery book world that she even publishes mysteries. And if that’s not enough, she’s an Edgar-award nominated author for AZ Murder Goes…Classic, for which she was both an author and an editor. I know. I know. She makes me feel like a piker, too.
Barbara was there to welcome me for my reading–and no, I have no idea how she finds time to do this herself on a rainy Thursday night. She greeted me with a HUGE stack of books to sign. Is there anything better to put an author in a good mood than books to sign? My Aunt Jackie and my cousin Molly arrived while I was signing (so of course we had to pause for hugs and the like).
And the event was sort of a cross between a chat and an interview, which was really lovely. She was so thoughtful in her reading of the book, and careful not to give things away for those who hadn’t yet read it–which was most everyone but her, since it has only been out for days.
Those of you in Scottsdale–lucky you! This is one terrific store! – Meg
