Sweethearts in Crime
PW’s Edward Nawotka has a great writeup this week about David Thompson and McKenna Jordan, the dynamic duo at Murder by the Book who have big plans over the next year:
Talk about being married to your job: on September 6, when
McKenna Jordan, 26, and David Thompson, 36, say “I do” at the Dryburgh
Abbey in Scotland, they will cement a bond that already has them
spending most days and nights together. Jordan and Thompson are manager
and assistant manager, respectively, of mystery bookstore Murder by the
Book in Houston, Tex., where they regularly cohost some 150 author
events a year. And on January 1, 2009, they will take over as co-owners
of the bookstore. “Technically,” says Thompson, “McKenna is the one
buying the store, so I’ll be working for her.”
The store has been owned since its 1980 inception by Martha Farrington, who will retire at the end of 2008. She told Nawotka she’d been looking for someone on staff to buy the store for many
years. “When McKenna came to the store, I saw that she was the right
person,” says Farrington. “For her age, she can handle a lot. I’m not
worried about them so much as I’m worried about the future of the book
business. I just hope they are able to carry on in the same mode.”
Owning MBTB will also give Thompson a chance to devote further energies to his publishing imprint Busted Flush Press. All told it’s pretty damn great news!