Bookseller reports the very sad news that owner/author Maxim Jakubowski's legendary Murder One bookstore on Charing Cross Road in London is closing down, a victim of plunging sales.
"Over the last few years our sales have deterioriated," he said. "I was planning to retire this year, but this is earlier than expected. For the benefit of staff, publishers and suppliers, I would rather close the shop now and go out voluntarily with my head held high and no debts."
It was a great store with a knowledgeable, mystery-loving staff. I visited the store whenever I happened to be in London, which was every two or three years (though I managed to stop in three or four times in 2006-2007). I always left with an armful of books. I discovered a lot of great authors there over the years…and not just U.K. folks like Val McDermid, Ian Rankin, and Derek Raymond. My introduction to U.S. author Daniel Woodrell's work was a UK edition of THE ONES YOU DO that Maxim recommended to me. London isn't going to be the same for me without Murder One.
You can find lots of tributes to the store at Sarah Weinman's site.
Maxim’s hit-rate with recommendations is very high. He put me onto Marc Behm’s EYE OF THE BEHOLDER and it instantly joined my list of all-time favourites.
He’s a canny editor and anthologist, too.
I’m really sorry to hear that. I love that store.
Gosh, I’m so depressed about this. When I was posted in London in the years before Amazon and the like, I haunted that bookstore. It’s the type of bookstore I plan to open if I ever win the lottery. Has the three main types of fiction I read: Mystery, Science Fiction and Romance. It’s such a shame.
No! That was the best place to find books out of print (or impossible to find) in the USA. 95% of the stuff I don’t declare to the customs guy comes from there! (The other 5% being British DVDs of my movies that I can not play on my DVD player – but I like the cover art).
– Bill