The fine folks at Ann Arbor’s Aunt Agatha’s Mystery Bookshop will, on October 3rd, celebrate 20 years of business. To celebrate this amazing occasion, they will be having an open house that will feature over a dozen mystery authors.
“With bookshelves from floor to ceiling, we currently have 28,000 different new and used books in stock, but multiple copies of a text are rare,” said bookstore owner, Robin Agnew. “If a book isn’t in stock and a customer wants a copy, we’ll order one. We’re such a tiny, niche bookstore, we can’t have multiple copies of books. We’ve done this for 20 years and it’s worked.”
Aunt Agatha’s Mystery Bookshop, named after the Queen of Crime Agatha Christie, is more than just a place where dedicated mystery readers can exchange and purchase new or used books. The bookshop also has a loyal book club and has transformed the shop into a community space.
“We’ve made friends with many of our customers over the years with our book clubs,” Agnew said. “For instance, one customer has been coming to our book club for 20 years… and now her daughter attends.”
With a loyal customer base that has diverse tastes, Robin and husband Jamie, provide a wide variety of mystery novels. Also, the store is a staple in the mystery bookshop community, which allows the husband and wife team to bring many different authors into the store for book signings and other events.
“Since we’ve opened our doors, we’ve had the pleasure of meeting many great authors, some at the beginning of their career,” said Robin Agnew. “These authors have returned to the store as their careers have grown and we’re excited that many of them will celebrate with us next week.”
The Anniversary Open House, which will run from 4-7 p.m., will be both a celebration and a thank you to the customers and readers who have kept the store alive during massive changes in the book industry, and a thank you to the authors who have supported the store as well.
4 PM: Alyse Carlson, Loren D. Estleman, Sharon Fiffer, Deborah Morgan, and Sarah Zettel.
5 PM: Steve Hamilton, Libby Fischer Hellmann, William Kent Krueger, and Steve Miller.
6 PM: Rick Blechta, Rhys Bowen, Vicki Delany, D.E. Johnson, Sharan Newman, Louise Penny and Julia Spencer-Fleming.
