Partners and reprints

Maggie Topkis, one of the founders of the mystery bookshop (and my old working haunt) Partners & Crime launched a new imprint last week at the bookstore to bring back underappreciated gems into print:

Frustrated that so many titles requested by customers were out of print, Maggie Topkis, co-owner of the 12-year-old Partners & Crime bookstore in New York’s Greenwich Village, has launched her own press, which she says is "dedicated to reviving the best in bygone mysteries."

Felony & Mayhem Press’s initial six titles were released last week, but readers will find the titles only in indie stores. "If I sold books to Barnes & Noble, they would get shunted off to Siberia, lost among a million mystery titles where no one would find them," she says. Distribution is taking place through independent reps, including many who work for Consortium.

Felony & Mayhem Press plans to publish six books every other month. The first group includes Caroline Graham’s The Killing at Badger’s Drift (the first in her Chief Inspector Barnaby series) and Lynn Hightower’s Satan’s Lambs (the 1993 Shamus Award winner), among others. Upcoming releases feature familiar names like Julian Symons, Stuart Kaminsky and Robert Barnard.

The opening list of books is of really high quality, and judging from the catalog I received, Topkis has many more goodies scheduled for re-release. I do wonder, though, if boycotting the big chains and Amazon will work out in the long run, because not all readers, alas, are discerning enough to make the trip (or make a phone call, even) to their favorite independent bookshop…