Murder One, RIP

From the Bookseller Online. Never the same after they lost the SF and moved across the road to pokier premises. I first became aware of them with their splendid press ads in Time Out for signings - "Incident Report - Ian Rankin @ Murder One", that sort of thing. This must have been shortly after they opened, because I only read Time Out with any consistency during lunch breaks from the Tertiary College in '87 and '88.

A day out in the 90s to London had to include Forbidden Planet in New Oxford Street, a film at the Curzon in Shaftesbury Avenue, the Vintage Magazine Shop in Brewer Street, and then, side by side, Comic Showcase and Murder One in Charing Cross Road. I bought most of my Edmund Crispin collection second-hand from the table at the back of the shop, browsed the complete but pricey House of Stratus range of re-issues (mainly for Michael Innes' Inspector Appleby series) and bought American crime imports (Elmore Leonard, Randy Wayne White) as birthday presents for Dad. I could easily wile away an hour contemplating the Sherlockiana, the 'not for resale' proof copies and ponder which US SF import I should take a chance on (Nancy Kress' Beggars in Spain and Connie Willis' To Say Nothing of the Dog were the two standouts).

In October 2000 I made a trip up to London specifically to snag an early release copy of The Amber Spyglass; this was a mistake, because I lost my wallet on the train (and somebody found it and used the card inside to buy booze and fags and an Indian takeaway in Brighton.) As it turned out they did indeed have pre-embargo copies on sale - the American hardback edition.

I never spoke to or was served by Maxim at the till, but was usually only a few feet away from him during my visits because his desk at the back was pretty much on top of the second-hand paperback table, which I used to scour for Green Penguin editions of Innes, Crispin and Nicholas Blake.

I'm off this weekend and I'll try and pop in one last time - that second hand copy of Glimpses of the Moon may finally have surfaced in the basement.