Dear Gentle Reader,

Pete and Keebe are just back from an exciting Bouchercon World Mystery Convention in New Orleans. We attended Craig Johnson‘s receiving of Lifetime Achievement from the conference. Pete is hard at work on next February’s CrimeScene Book Festival, and it is shaping up to be a marvel. More on this to come soon…

We are thrilled to welcome Helen Whybrow this Saturday, September 13th at 11am. Helen ws a publisher at an imprint of W. W. Norton who became a sheep farmer in the mountains of Vermont. She is also the author of one of our favorite books this summer, The Salt Stones, as not only were Sarah G. and Keebe wild about this book, but their daughters, as well, were unable to tear themselves away from its pages. So, if you are looking for some escapism these days, have we a book for you! In conversation with Helen, will be former McIntyre’s bookseller, Craig Popelars, who is currently Vice President of Marketing & Sales at Milkweed Editions.  This book will be one of our go to recommendations for the holidays, so come and see what we are crowing about.

Communities in Schools is seeking to raise $5,000 to support their work across Chatham County for over 300 youth. To learn more, check out cischatham.org. They are one of the real work horse organizations in this county. Here’s what a gift to them can do:

$50 – Supplies & materials for our Student Support Specialists
$100 – School supplies for a student for the year
$250 – Out-of-school enrichment opportunities
$500 – Sponsor a student for camp
$1,000 – Snacks & supplies for after-school programs at a school

Tickets have gone on sale for Chatham Literacy’s Fall for Literacy Luncheon on Thursday, October 30th. National columnist, award-winning journalist, popular TED Talk speaker and author Steven Petrow, with conversation partner Jill McCorkle, discuss his uplifting book, The Joy You Make. To purchase tickets, click here.

And finally, a heads up that next week, tickets also go on sale for our Book Club Events. As these events have grown in popularity, we have put together a gathering on Thursday and a different event on Friday morning. Stay tuned!

All the best from the Usual Suspects.

Pete, Johanna, Sarah G., Tyler, Amy, Sarah C. and Keebe