“M” is for Mystery Bookstore

“M” is for Mystery bookstore at 86 East 3rd Avenue in San Mateo, California is a lovely store just off the Bayshore Freeway, Highway 101, about halfway between San Francisco and San Jose. Owner, Ed Kaufman, loves to talk about mysteries. The store has an extensive collection of all kinds of mysteries. There is a tremendous assembly of British crime fiction. The store is as bright and uncluttered as 3rd Avenue. The store is amidst an attractive collection of little shops and restaurants.
            My wife, Sharon, older son, Jonathan, and I visited “M” in August of 2009 while on vacation in northern California. We went over to the store for an author evening with Steven Hockensmith, Jilliane Hoffman and Sophie Littlefield talking about their books and the writing of mysteries. Steven was a likeable M.C. There was a nice group of mystery lovers present for the evening. After listening to the authors we chatted further with each of them.
            As we were getting ready to leave Sophie invited us to join her and friends across the street for a beer. While there we met several other authors including Keith Raffel who gave me a business card featuring his first mystery, dot.dead. Conversation flowed easily. The Bay area has an amazing collection of mystery authors.
            Later in the week I returned again to go through more books and chat some more with Ed who turned out to be a former lawyer.
            What could be better – a neighbourhood bookstore that is a mystery bookstore.