Robin Agnew
I realize that the essay that follows is a giant generalization, but after 17 years of dealing with the public, I can tell you that it's pretty true. I have a customer - we'll call him "X" - who has been shopping here practically since we opened. I've introduced him to many, many writers, mostly because he kept buying the same Robert B. Parker book again and again and obviously needed some help.
So thanks to me he's read Michael Connelly, Robert Crais, Harlan Coben, David Housewright, Kent Krueger, Steve Hamiliton and many more. Do you sense a pattern here? I'm even aware of it. A few weeks ago he was in, soon after we'd had S.J. Rozan here to sign books, and I was feeling enthusiastic as I'd devoured 5 or 6 Rozan books before her visit. Anyway, I sold him a copy of Winter and Night and thought no more about it.
I saw him again two weeks later when he was in to buy the latest Marcus Sakey paperback. We chit chatted a bit - his kids are a smidge older than mine, and one of his elementary school buddies taught both my kids 5th grade. Anyway, he then looked a little sheepish, and he said, "You sold me a book by a woman." I seriously couldn't remember which book I'd last sold him, though I did have a memory of it being a good choice.
He then said "I read it right through and then I saw her picture!" By this time I had twigged that it was the Rozan book. I said, "Yeah, and you loved it, didn't you?" He refused to admit it, and mentioned that his wife was still laughing at him. He then said there was something "not quite right" about the whole book. There was no way I could get him to admit that Rozan was every bit as good as his favorite guys.
The thing is, X isn't alone. He has many companions, many of whom are actually horrified by our front table full of cozies. For them a guy who writes dark or funny is all they want, and it's foolish to try and sell them anything else. I'm still getting over the guy who told me Val McDermid was "girly". (Excuse me, but what???) I've fooled a few of them with PJ Parrish, I'll admit. Including X. I'm still not sure I can ever bring myself to tell him the truth about the Parrish sisters. Between you and me, shhh!
