Bookseller Sees the Bright Side of Publishing Noir

For 18 years, David Thompson has sold the best in mystery, crime, and thrillers to customers at one of the most celebrated mystery bookstores in the nation, Murder By the Book, in Houston, Texas. Now, Thompson, the store's assistant manager and the founder of Busted Flush Press, is the publisher of an anthology featuring a 2007 Edgar Award nominee in the Best Short Story category.

"Cranked" is written by Bill Crider and is one of 27 original stories in Damn Near Dead: An Anthology of Geezer Noir, edited by crime writer Duane Swierczynski and published by Thompson. Damn Near Dead is the first anthology of original work to be published by Busted Flush, which Thompson founded in 2005 with the intention of reissuing out-of-print favorites.

The anthology grew from an idea hatched at a Murder by the Book signing for Swierczynski. "We came up with a great idea. Most mystery anthologies have a theme," Thompson told BTW. "Some are based on a setting, like Brooklyn, or an activity like basketball or cooking. We wanted something dark, and what is darker than getting old? One of us came up with the term Geezer Noir.

"Every short story [in the anthology] had to have protagonists who were elderly men or women -- active people -- no knitters or people with cats," he noted. In addition, each was never published before. (To be considered for this year's Edgar Awards, all work must have been published initially in 2006.)

Thompson has frequent contact with mystery authors through the 100-plus signings that the 27-year-old Murder by the Book holds each year. The store itself received a Raven Award in 2005 from the Mystery Writers of America. When not selling books, Thompson is at work on a second anthology, A Hell of a Women, edited by 2006 Edgar Award nominee Megan Abbott. Books can be ordered directly from Busted Flush Press or from Baker & Taylor.

The 2007 Edgars will be presented on April 26, 2007, at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, New York City. --Nomi Schwartz