Mystery Lovers Readies for 20th Anniversary

After 20 years, Mystery Lovers Bookshop is still Western Pennsylvania's go-to place for crime and mystery fiction. Spouses Richard Goldman and Mary Alice Gorman opened the bookstore on October 31, 1990, with the hopes of catering to a popular niche.

“We opened up because this was a category of fiction that was extremely popular,” said Gorman. “We intended to intensify in the genre and be competitive with other bookstores no matter how big they got. And I think our success has been a testament to that.”

The owners like to point out that when Mystery Lovers opened, “Amazon was just a river.” Since then, however, in addition to the challenges presented by online book retailers, many chain bookstores have opened in the area and Mystery Lovers continues to thrive.

The shop is the sponsor of seven book clubs that meet at the store to read and discuss mystery and crime novels. For 16 years, Mystery Lovers has hosted “Coffee and Crime,” an author's breakfast that has brought hundreds of the genre's authors to the area.

“Over the years, you build a community,” said Gorman. “The readers are our backbone, and we’re grateful to have them.”

In addition to serving a core of regular customers, Mystery Lovers continues to see new readers, and the owners credit their active schedule of events and ongoing commitment to mystery authors for bringing in traffic.

“We always have fresh new programming and are constantly introducing our readers to new writers,” said Gorman.

Mystery Lovers is well-known for hosting the May Festival of Mystery, the largest one-day festival of mystery in the country.

“People come from all over,” said Gorman. “And mega-readers can come and talk to one another and buy new books, and it's just huge. Last year, people were standing on line, waiting to get in, and we sold a book every 16 seconds!”

On October 31, in addition to marking Mystery Lovers’ 20th anniversary, Goldman and Gorman will be celebrating the Raven Award presented to them in April by the Mystery Writers of America in recognition of their outstanding achievement and contributions in the mystery field. The Halloween festivities from noon to 6:00 p.m. will include Pittsburgh writers, a ten-cent book sale, along with other surprises.