BESTSELLERS & BEST FRIENDS
My book publishing blog, with murder mysteries woven through it.
If this is your first visit, be sure to start with “1. Let’s do it!”
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I again Googled Barbara Franks.
And again news of her death came up in the Boston Globe, the Vineyard Gazette, and the book publishing journals.
Because Barbara had a former husband who was influential in regional and national bookseller associations, and a vibrant bookstore with customers including celebrities, politicians, authors and book publishers (like gentleman George Gibson), her death had not gone unnoticed, except by me, too busy with family and cocktails in Los Angeles at the time of her killing.
I Googled Laurie and Second Chapter Books. There are a few articles in a few western Pennsylvania newspapers, then nothing. And nothing in the book publishing journals. Nobody in the New York biz even knew, and sadly, probably didn’t even care about Laurie’s death. Hers is just a small bookstore, with a limited inventory of new and used books, in a small out of the way town of 1,500. She wasn’t newsworthy. (That breaks my heart.)
Then I Googled using key words like “bookseller, bookstore, killed, killing, murder.” And holy shit, two more bookstore owners had recently been killed. One in New Hampshire, one in Maine. They were stores that Alan and I had called on decades ago. These stores were also small, like Laurie’s. And thus, also not newsworthy except for a bit of local media. Those killings barely made it beyond the local police report.
There was of course no mention of tossed books written by old white guys or a mysterious manuscript found at the murder scene. I’d have to call Ligonier Police Chief Jim to see if he could check about that stuff with the police in those communities.
I printed out a map of the country’s Northeastern states. And like a TV detective, I noted where each killing took place. Then using a ruler, drew lines that connected the location of the four bookseller murders. It wasn’t neat and tidy or telling. Unless the lines indicated that a well-read serial killer lived in a Waterbury (CT) backyard.
Ligonier, way out west in Pennsylvania, was the outlier, throwing everything off. The other three killings were sort of Boston-centric. Damn it, I hadn’t discovered a thing.
I’m stumped.
For now, I better pause on this murder stuff. You know, let it settle, maybe a pause will allow me to think more clearly.
So back to the publishing stuff.
Oh, and the first comment on my Lawyers & Other Reptiles posting the other day was:
Surprised you didn’t title it “Einstein & Other Reptiles.” I want MY royalties.
Tomorrow: Robert Parker, Stephen King, and me