Robin Agnew
As long as I've sold mysteries, it seems, I've been lucky enough to know Jim Huang and his wife Jennie. One of the first things we did at the store when we opened, as we had a toddler at the time, was to set up a play area in the office, and we had a little play kitchen my daughter loved. One Sunday, out of the blue, Jim & Jennie turned up, toting toddler Grace. While my husband & I talked with, and got to know a bit, Jim & Jennie, the girls plunged right in, and we could hear the shrieks of laughter from the office.
Grace is now a college sophmore and our daughter Margaret is a freshman, but all this time, we've known Jim & Jennie, and the incarnations of their stores - Deadly Passions in Kalamazoo, and The Mystery Company in Carmel, Indiana. Today is the last day for The Mystery Company, which will be closing it's doors. When we first met, Jim was still publishing The Drood Review, which is still sorely missed (I still get questions about the Drood).
Our first book signing was thanks to Jim (as were many more, Kalamazoo and Ann Arbor being a perfect distance apart). He drove over from Kalamazoo with author James Melville, a British gentleman who had been a cultural attache in Japan, and who kissed my hand. He thus ruined all future author encounters for me! We shared Kate Ross, who I sent over with a sandwich to Kalamazoo in my daughter's lunchbox; and Eileen Dreyer, whose luggage I had to send to K'zoo on the bus when she forgot it in our office. There were many more.
The day I met Steve Hamilton, Jim happened to stop by. He knew exactly who Steve was while I (as is typical) hadn't yet a clue. The day Minette Walters (a favorite of Jim's) stopped by to sign stock, Jim and I and another star struck fan got to have a lovely chat with her while she signed books. This remains, for me, a life/bookselling highlight. Jim worked the medieval congress in Kalamazoo for years - through him I met Sharan Newman, Candace Robb, Margaret Frazer and Alan Gordon, all attendees at the congress. If ever I had a question or needed a book from an odd source, Jim could answer the question or find the book.
Once Jim & Jennie even ran our book club - they picked the book and came over to run the discussion. I got questions for years about when "that nice young couple" were coming back. For years we were also lucky enough to call them neighbors, as Jim commuted to Kalamazoo and Jennie worked at the University of Michigan.
Jim was the one who founded (along with a few other bookselling heavyweights) the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association (IMBA). Jim was one of the people who came up with the idea for the Dilys award, which IMBA has presented at Left Coast Crime since 1992. Jim was the one who came up with the idea for, edited, and published one of our all time bestsellers, 100 Favorite Mysteries of the Century. In further collaboration, I have painted many of the covers for Jim's books. He has always liked what I've presented him with: he's an ideal boss.
Jim has run programming, along with Katheryn Kennison, for Magna Cum Murder in Muncie, Indiana, for many years, and this year he took on Bouchercon. (He did a great job). His knowledge of, and love for, this genre is deep. While he's not leaving bookselling - he'll be running the bookstore at my alma mater, Kenyon College, in Gambier, Ohio - he's leaving mystery specific bookselling. He will still be publishing, though. And he will still be a mystery lover. I think that's a lifetime affliction. But I will very much miss having him as a fellow myster bookseller in the trenches. Luckily he's given me a reason to actually attend a class reunion.
