On sale now!
We have signed first editions of
JAMES LEE BURKE's new Dave Robicheaux novel, Swan Peak (Simon & Schuster; $25.95). All of our copies are signed on the title page, not tipped-in pages like some stores may have. Much beloved Louisiana lawman Dave Robicheaux is back again, this time in the brand new setting of the rugged Montana mountains (as with Burke's Edgar Award-winning Black Cherry Blues).

FYI: Burke's daughter, acclaimed crime writer Alafair Burke, will sign & discuss her second Ellie Haskell novel, Angel's Tip (HarperCollins; $23.95), Saturday, August 23, 5:00 p.m.

Please call or e-mail to order signed copies.

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.

Available now ! The new Houston-set bridge club mystery by MBTB employee Dean James (writing as Honor Hartman).

An Unkindest Cut (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. Signed/inscribed copies available on request.

ALSO AVAILABLE: On the Slam (Signet; paperback original; $6.99) Emma Diamond is a novice bridge player, recent widow, and the kind of person who never leaves her grocery cart sitting in the parking lot. And now, after a vile woman in her new neighborhood in Houston is poisoned during a bridge game, Emma has a new identity: amateur detective.

Dean will sign with Carolyn Haines and Mary Saums, Saturday, July 12, 4:30 p.m.

2008 Edgar Award nominee Reed Farrel Coleman
We stock all of Reed's Moe Prager private eye novels, including signed first editions of THE JAMES DEANS, which is presently out-of-print:

WALKING THE PERFECT SQUARE (hardback first edition, $26; paperback, $13)
REDEMPTION STREET (paperback, $13)
THE JAMES DEANS (signed first paperback original, $13) Nominated for 6 awards (including the Edgar), winner of the Shamus, Anthony, and Barry!
SOUL PATCH (hardback, $24; paperback, $14.95) Nominated for the 2008 Edgar, Barry, and Macavity Awards for Best Novel!
EMPTY EVER AFTER (hardback, $24.95; paperback, $14.95; limited edition, $45)

Read a FREE .pdf of Texas crime writer Bill Crider's Edgar Award-nominated short story, "Cranked" (from Busted Flush Press's Damn Near Dead: An Anthology of Geezer Noir) here.

Find the book at Murder By The Book!

A Murder By The Book near-exclusive!

Brilliant (by Marne Davis Kellogg; St. Martin's; $6.99)
Our best-selling book of the last 2 years -- nearly 1,000 copies sold! -- has now gone out of print. However, we were able to purchase all remaining copies from the publisher, so we're just about the only place that will continue to stock this wonderful book. Brilliant is the first in a series featuring 50-something retired jewel thief Kick Keswick. Highly recommended by all Murder By The Book employees! Only 10 copies remaining!

"Kellogg's sophisticated and lavishly fun tale of greed and daring in the high-stakes auction house world presents a full-figured, tough, and atypical heroine readers will cheer for." -- Booklist

Please e-mail or call (713-524-8597 / 888-424-2842) to order this or any other mystery.

If you like Marne Davis Kellogg, also try:
Jane Stanton Hitchcock / Kerry Greenwood / Cynthia Smith / Nancy Martin.

Murder By The Book has been selected for Frommer's upcoming shopping guide, Where to Buy the Best of Everything: The Outspoken Guide for World Travelers & Online Shoppers. On sale now, this is a guide to the best shopping in the world!

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.

Issue #64 (October / November / December) of our store magazine, The Dead Beat, is now available! Plus, award-winning crime novelist Colin Cotterill has done the cover artwork. Go here for more information.

Murder By the Book is the proud recipient of
Mystery Writers of America's Raven Award and Houston Press's Best Bookstore 2006

Watch our video:
Murder By The Book former manager (and award-winning mystery writer) Dean James talks about the store, how it's laid out and what makes us a special place to visit.
Real Media or Windows Media formats.

Who are we?
MURDER BY THE BOOK is one of the nation's oldest & largest mystery specialty bookstores, established in 1980 by Martha Farrington. The store stocks over 25,000 books -- new & used, hardbacks & paperbacks, first editions, collectibles, gift items, mystery magazines, and more. We host dozens of the hottest mystery and crime authors for book signing events every year (we've had everyone from Dick Francis to P. D. James, Sue Grafton to Robert Crais, Michael Connelly to Patricia Cornwell, James Lee Burke to Daniel Silva).

Where are we?
MURDER BY THE BOOK is located in Houston, Texas, within five minutes of the Texas Medical Center & Rice University, and ten minutes from the Galleria. Off U.S.-59, take the Greenbriar exit; head south on Greenbriar; one light from 59 is Bissonnet St.; turn right on Bissonnet; we're ahead on the right (2342 Bissonnet), between Kirby & Greenbriar. View Map