Otto Penzler
founded
The Mysterious Press
and is the proprietor of
Manhattan’s Mysterious
Bookshop, now the oldest and
largest mystery specialty store in
the world. Mr. Penzler is
also a well-known American publisher
and editor of numerous anthologies,
including the annual Best
American Mystery Stories
and has an imprint,
Otto Penzler
Books, at Houghton Mifflin
Harcourt. He wrote a wildly
wicked weekly ‘Crime Scene’
column for the New York Sun
before the newspaper folded , but we
are extremely fortunate to get a
‘deadly’ interview from the master
himself…
JB: What are some of the mysteries that are set in interesting locales ?
OP: Donna Leon's excellent novels are set in Venice, Cara Black has set each of her nine novels in a different arrondissement of Paris. Ian Rankin's John Rebus books are an insider's look at Edinburgh. Ken Bruen shows us Galway in the Jack Taylor novels. John Burdett writes about the real Bangkok.
JB: Are there any mysteries that seem to capture a location so vividly (or accurately) that you feel you have to visit that destination ?
If you have visited that location, did it live up to your expectations ?
OP: All of the books noted above capture the locations vividly. TOO vividly in the case of Rankin and Bruen, whose depiction of the underside of their native cities would keep you away rather than lure you. I've been to Venice six times, and Donna Leon (who has lived there for about 30 years) gets it right. I can't stand reading those books because they make me sorry I'm not sitting with a Bellini at Cipriani's. I don't know Paris as well, but I'd be pretty happy in any part of Paris of which Cara Black has written. If I were 21 and single and crazy, I'd go to Burdett's Thailand in a flash. I'm not, so I doubt that I will.
JB:
Name your top 3 books (or writers) where the location is central to the book’s success.
OP: Alexander McCall Smith's immeasurably charming tales about Precious Ramotswe are set in Botswana, a place few people know about, and his descriptions of the country are as important as his delicious, if slight, stories. Colin Dexter has always said that Oxford serves as a major figure in his books about Inspector Morse, and he's right. Although they were set in the medieval era, Ellis Peters' mysteries about Brother Cadfael are so evocative of Shropshire that there are organized walking tours of "Cadfael's Country," and there's a book with that title as well.
JB:
If you are going on a long
plane ride, what is one of your
favorite mysteries you would take to
pass the time?
OP:
I don't have time in my life to reread books, so I can't say I'd bring a favorite book, but I would certainly bring the latest book by one of my favorite authors: Michael Connelly, Thomas H. Cook, Robert Crais, Charles McCarry, Alan Furst, Thomas Perry, Joyce Carol Oates.
JB:
What do you think of the Kindle ?
OP: As a bookseller, I have no problem with the kindle, except that I'd like to see the inventor slaughtered, everyone who uses one to develop a serious skin rash, and every one of the damned machines burst into flames.
The Mysterious Bookshop
58 Warren Street
New York, NY 10007
Tel: 212-587-1011
Email:
info@mysteriousbookshop.com
