Murder One's Final Newsletter

The Murder One shop will be closing at the end of the month, sadly, but the mail-order side is set to continue. Here's the final newsletter:

It is with much sadness that this newsletter, which will also be our final one in this form, will confirm the news many of you might have already heard: Murder One will be closing its doors at the end of January; however in all likelihood we will all be working from behind closed doors packing and dismantling the shop from the 24th January.

It is not a decision that has been taken lightly. We have been making small losses for the past few years, and had actually been trying to find a buyer to coincide with Maxim's likely retirement later this year. Sadly after extensive talks with a couple of parties, these negotiations have failed due to the current economic climate which has discouraged the optimism of possible investors. In addition, the Pound Sterling's fall of 30% against the value of the US Dollar over past weeks has made the cost our American imports so much higher, thus badly affecting our future profitability.

Since our inception, we have never had bank borrowings or an overdraft and it is a fact we are particularly proud of. With the current poor prospects for retail on Britain's streets, now would not prudently be the time to go down that road, we felt.

We've survived almost 21 years which is not a bad innings in a time when chains and the Internet benefit from outrageously more favourable terms from publishers than a single independent bookshop.

When the news broke, it was covered by all the major British newspapers and television and brought heartfelt expressions of dismay from all: customers, journalists, publishers, authors. I can only say THANK YOU most sincerely (and a particular nod to the wonderful people at Orion, who also sent over complimentary champagne for the staff...).

On the positive side, two of our senior staff Tanya and Trisha have made an offer to acquire the mail order side of the business and the website, which has been accepted subject to contract and legal requirements. I sincerely hope they can keep the Murder One name alive and that you will be willing to continue doing business with them.

They will be contacting all existing and prospective customers soon with their plans.

It's been a great adventure. Thank you.

I visited Murder One when it was a small shop on Denmark Street before it moved to Charing Cross Road and was where I discovered M C Beaton and many other writers. My visits to London will not be the same.