We'll
be open regular store hours this holiday weekend, except for Saturday,
when we'll close at 4 p.m. Hundreds of hardbacks will be drastically
marked down Friday-Sunday! We hope you're able to drop by &
take advantage of this sale. Regardless, please have a safe &
well-read Independence Day!
There's
Murder and Intrigue this summer at the MFAH! July
2–August 16
The season opens with a great repertory double-feature:
a rare, restored Godard and the noir that inspired it. Two 1969
classics round out the selection featuring indelible performances
by legendary actors Michel Piccoli (Dillinger is Dead)
and Yves Montand, Irene Papas, and Jean-Louis Trintignant (Z).
The
Big Sleep (Directed by Howard Hawks; USA,
1946, 114 min.)
Based on Raymond Chandler's novel,
The Big Sleep
($13.95).
Thursday, July 2, 5:00 p.m. / Friday, July 3, 5:00 p.m. / Saturday,
July 4, 3:00 p.m.
Private eye Philip Marlowe (Humphrey Bogart) is hired to protect
a rich man’s daughters (Martha Vickers and Lauren Bacall)
and ends up falling in love. “The Big Sleep is a
film noir touchstone . . . The daughters are involved in nefarious
affairs in the underworld of Los Angeles. There’s blackmail,
gambling, and quite a few dead bodies. Marlowe is called on to get
to the bottom of it all, but even co-scriptwriter William Faulkner
(yup, that William Faulkner) admits not ever figuring out who sent
the chauffeur to his watery grave.”—Washington Post
Made
in U.S.A. (Directed by Jean-Luc Godard; France,
1966, 90 min., subtitled)
Based on Richard Stark's Parker novel,
The Jugger
($14).
Thursday, July 2, 7:15 p.m. / Friday, July 3, 7:15 p.m. / Saturday,
July 4, 5:15 p.m. / Sunday, July 5, 5:00 p.m. Restored print
A young woman (Anna Karina) finds herself
caught up in murder and a Cold War conspiracy. “Godard told
an interviewer that he had been inspired to remake Howard Hawks’s
1946 version of The Big Sleep with Karina in the [Humphrey]
Bogart role. As The Big Sleep has a notoriously impenetrable
plot (even Hawks could not explain one of its numerous murders),
so Made in U.S.A. represents Godard’s most sustained
derangement of narrative convention. The key sequences are regularly
pulverized just at the point of resolution, and crucial passages
of dialogue are purposefully obscured by street noise as, alternately
seductive and indifferent, Karina’s detective goes in search
of a lover who is apparently lost, perhaps to assassination, in
a labyrinthine, never-fully-explained, international political intrigue.”—Village
Voice
“[Godard’s] Molotov cocktail
of American pulp and Parisian paranoia (fueled by the Ben Barka
affair) finally gets a proper theatrical run after years of sporadic
. . .showings.”—Time Out New York
Books available at Murder By The Book!
Go here
for more information on The Big Sleep or to purchase tickets. Go
here
for more information on Made in U.S.A. or to purchase tickets. Go
here
for MFAH's complete summer schedule.
We
have a limited number of signed & dated first editions of Katherine
Howe's acclaimed debut, The
Physick Book of Deliverance Dane
(Voice; $25.99),
which debuts at #2 on June 28th's New York Times best-seller
list!
James
Lee Burke's 2nd Hack Holland novel, Rain
Gods (Simon &
Schuster; $25.99), goes on sale July 14th, and all
of our copies will be signed first editions. Reserve
your copies now! When Hackberry Holland became sheriff
of a tiny Texas town near the Mexican border, he’d hoped to
leave certain things behind: his checkered reputation, his haunted
dreams, and his obsessive memories of the good life with his late
wife, Rie. But the discovery of the bodies of nine illegal aliens,
machine-gunned to death and buried in a shallow grave behind a church,
soon makes it clear that he won’t escape so easily.
The
1st Hack Holland, Lay Down My
Sword & Shield, is out of print in the
U.S., not to be reprinted until early 2010. Murder By The Book
is importing paperbacks from the U.K. for $15.95.
Hack Holland is a product of the South, both old and new. Hard-drinking
ex-POW and wealthy, progressive Democrat, he stands in the long
shadow cast by his ancestors. When Holland's candidacy for a congressional
seat brings him increasingly into conflict with those around him,
his almost unwitting involvement with a violent civil rights conflict
forces him to reassess his future -- and his past. One of David's
favorite JLB books!
To
order or reserve these or any other books, please call (713-524-8597
/ 888-424-2842) or e-mail
Murder By The Book.
Reed
Farrel Coleman profiled by Maureen Corrigan on NPR's
Fresh Air! Hear / read the story here.
Coleman is published by MBTB asst manager David Thompson's Busted
Flush Press.
Houston
Press editors have picked Murder By The Book as
Best Bookstore in Houston (2008)! Find more local winners
here.
Nominated
for Publishers Weekly's Bookseller
of the Year
(2007, 2008, 2009)!
Follow
our Twitter! Keep up
with our signing events, used book sales, new arrivals, and more.
Thank
you for supporting independent booksellers & local businesses!
Want to find a IndieBound independent bookstore near you? Please
go here.
Or how about another independent mystery bookstore? Please go here.
Signing
soon at Murder By The Book:
David Liss, Sophie Hannah, Kat Richardson,
Megan Abbott, Mark Schweizer, Daniel Silva, Brad Thor, Ridley Pearson,
Sara
Rosett, Joe R. Lansdale, Rhys Bowen, David Morrell, James Rollins,
Peter Lovesey, James R. Benn, and many
more! Go here for a complete list.
We
have SIGNED FIRST EDITIONS of new books by:
Diane
Mott Davidson, Paul Levine, Sean Doolittle, Val McDermid, Peter
Robinson, Mary Higgins Clark, Carol Higgins Clark, Charlaine Harris,
Jonathan Stroud, and more! Go here for a complete
list.
New
from Busted Flush Press!
(BFP
is owned by MBTB assistant manager David Thompson.)
Impolite Society
(by Cynthia Smith; paperback; $13)
The second Emma Rhodes high-society mystery. For fans of Marne
Davis Kellogg, Jane Stanton Hitchcock, and Kerry Greenwood!
"You want a heroine who never takes
guff from anyone? Who does things her own way and be damned to anyone
who doesn't like it? Then sit down with this book, and enjoy the
immensely entertaining, never boring Emma Rhodes."—Dean
James, award-winning author of the Wanda Nell Culpepper mysteries
(writing as Jimmie Ruth Evans)
Just
Another Day in Paradise
(by A. E. Maxwell; paperback; $13) Back
in print, the first Fiddler & Fiora novel! One of David's
all-time favorite series! Originally published by Doubleday in 1985,
this title is now available again from David's Busted Flush Press.
For fans of John D. MacDonald, Randy Wayne White, Don Winslow, Robert
Ferrigno, and Robert Parker!
"The writing is lean and restrained,
and Fiddler, growing from book to book, gives Travis McGee a real
run for his money."—Los Angeles Times
To
order or reserve this or any other books, please call (713-524-8597
/ 888-424-2842) or e-mail
Murder By The Book.
Visit
Busted Flush Press's new blog here.
Have
you read the mysteries written by MBTB employee
Dean James?
An
Unkindest Cut (by Dean, writing as "Honor
Hartman"; Obsidian; paperback original; $6.99) Emma
Diamond, a recent widow with a passion for bridge, takes a retreat
with her friends to the Texas Hill Country, which happens to be
hosting two battling bridge instructors. These professional contenders
are infamous enemies -- and only one will survive the weekend. Includes
bridge tips.
Flamingo
Fatale (by Dean,
writing as "Jimmie Ruth Evans"; Berkley Prime Crime; paperback
original; $6.99) Meet waitress-single
mom Wanda Nell Culpepper. After a full day slinging hash at Kountry
Kitchen and then surviving the graveyard shift at Budget Mart, the
last thing Wanda Nell needs is to to find her no-account ex-husband,
Bobby Ray, flashing cash and stirring up trouble. Things can't get
much worse -- until the next day when she finds her missing pink
flamingo stuck in his very dead body.
ALSO AVAILABLE:
Murder Over Easy ($6.99)
Best Served Cold ($6.99)
Bring Your Own Poison ($6.99)
Leftover Dead ($7.99)
Posted
to Death (by Dean; Kensington; $5.99) Edgar
nominee and Agatha Award-winner Dean James offers his own delightful
take on a classic British cozy mystery...starring an attractive,
sophisticated man who just happens to be a vampire!
"A delight from start to finish. Everything
you could wish for in a British cozy." -- Dorothy Cannell
ALSO AVAILABLE:
Faked to Death ($5.99)
Decorated to Death ($5.99)
Baked to Death ($6.99)
Signed/inscribed copies of Dean's books
available on request.
Murder
By The Book wins a 2007 James Patterson PageTurner Award!
The
2007 James Patterson Awards are intended to celebrate the people,
companies, schools and other institiutions who find original and
effective ways to spread the excitement of books and reading. For
more information on the awards, please go here.
Meet
the staff of Murder
By The Book!
Read
up on Busted Flush
Press, the Edgar Award-nominated publishing venture of MBTB
employee David Thompson.


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