Prior to teaming with Clive Cussler on the Isaac Bell series, Justin Scott published twenty-three thrillers and mystery novels, including The Shipkiller, Normandie Triangle, A Pride of Royals, Rampage, The Widow of Desire, and The Nine Dragons.  Using the pen name of Paul Garrison, Justin wrote five bestselling sea adventures starting with Fire and Ice (1998 NY: HarperCollins).

“The partnership between Clive and Justin is like a gift to the adventure genre junkie” says John Hutchinson of Norwood Press.  “The reader is guaranteed to be taken on the ride of a lifetime with these two terrific writers.”

In The Wrecker (2009 NY: Penguin), it is 1907 and train wrecks, fires and explosions sabotage the Southern Pacific Railroad’s Cascades express line.  Desperate, the railroad hires the fabled Van Dorn Detective Agency, where top investigator Isaac Bell quickly discovers that a mysterious saboteur haunts the hobo jungles of the West.  “The Wrecker travels the American West causing damage and loss of human life, but no one knows who he is or what he wants” reports Hutchinson.  “It will keep you turning pages until the very end.”

Norwood Press is offering signed, limited lettered and numbered editions of Clive and Justin’s upcoming work The Wrecker.

Limited lettered editions are hand-signed by Clive Cussler and Justin Scott.  Lettered editions are lettered A-ZZ and come in a fully marbled slip- (more…)

A Commentary On Price Wars On Bestselling Books

We love books, we promote books, and yes, we sell books.  Our mission statement is to deliver to our customer an innovative approach to bookselling that recognizes the love of books that resides in all collectors.

Now this may seem like a trivial point, but we sell books because we love books . . . not the other way around.  From this vantage point we do not discriminate between blockbuster titles by bestselling authors and the new author delivering his or her first novel.  In fact we rely on the new author to fuel the excitement that brings our customer back to see what’s new.

This year we have brought you Abandon by Blake Crouch, Crush by Alan Jacobson, A Quiet Belief in Angels by R. J. Ellory, and The Brutal Telling by Louise Penny, just to mention a few.  These are all noteworthy books that would normally get lost in the big market stores who use their clout and buying power to push more James Patterson, John Grisham, Michael Crichton, and other mainstream titles at us in attempt to gain or secure market share.

Similarly, NY publisher editorial staffs select for publication those authors and titles that fit this limited view of “what will sell,” driving market trends rather that listening to what the reader really wants to read.  The result is a “dumbing down” of literature, and we end up with what I refer to as “airplane reads,” books that get read and thrown away.

For the record, we also rely on big selling books to provide us with the capital we need to offer a broader selection to our customers.  Sales of those big books allow us to comb through the hundreds of new titles each year and bring understated, infrequently advertised quality writing to your attention.  Michael Connelly was unknown when Little, Brown introduced us to Harry Bosch in The Black Echo, and John Grisham sold A Time To Kill from the trunk of his car to independent bookstores across the south.  We believe that tomorrow’s hottest authors are now residing in the new release flyers we send to you twice a week.

A lot of talk is spreading throughout the industry, outrage over the predatory pricing being used by Wal-mart, Amazon, and Target to gain a larger share of the market.  Unfair practices by these behemoths threaten the future of bookselling.  They can sell books either below their costs, or through backroom agreements with publishers, to bring customers to their stores to buy other products that they offer.  “Loss leaders” are not new, but this goes beyond such practices.  They are robbing the small independent bookstore of profits necessary to enable them to bring the full range of titles worthy our consideration to their shelves.

So we are asking you to refrain from buying these two or three books from the superstores.  Please buy these titles from your local independent bookseller.  Reward them with your business and they, like us, will guarantee you more to choose from in the years ahead.

All best wishes and good reading,

John

VJ Books has just received:  Vince Flynn – Pursuit of Honor and  Charles Todd – A Duty to the Dead.

John Grisham’s newest release returns the author to familiar ground, that of Ford County, Mississippi.  Originally made famous in the Grisham’s first novel, A Time to Kill, Ford County serves as the centerpiece for a collection of short stories about life in Mississippi.

Legendary writer Pat Conroy praises John Grisham as the worthy heir to William Faulkner as the defining voice in southern literature, “His short stories were a surprise to me. All of them are very good; three of them, I believe, are great. One of these stories should find its way into the anthologies of the best short stories of 2009. It might not happen, but I for one think the stories in Ford Country are that damned good.”

For the last eight years, VJ Books has been proud to offer their clients each new book released by John Grisham.  Mr. Grisham does not tour as far and wide as he once did, making VJ Books one of the few outlets for autographed copies of his works. VJ Books has become the standard for offering the finest in collectible fiction on the Internet. To preserve this reputation, they consistently inspect and grade each book using professional standards. Every dust jacket is placed in acid-free archival quality acetate. Prior to leaving their warehouse, each item is carefully prepared to ensure safe delivery.

Click to order your signed copy of  Ford County Stories by John Grisham

Another Review by Nikki of Texas!

A few years ago when I watched this film, I wondered exactly HOW an author could pen a book with such a complex plot without losing his target. I decided to read this book and much to my surprise, the storyline was rock solid, not to mention more vividly portrayed than in the film. Intertwining history and fiction, this book stabs at the heart of the one thing man has held above all else…and ideal that has been the cause of countless wars and much bloodshed throughout the millenia of time. Religion.Though this story caused much controversy, approaching it with an open mind was not hard to do. If you have any reading interests based on early histoy, puzzle-solving, symbology, and even historical art, I highly recommend this intellectual novel. Its tightly cinched plot never leaves you behind…..it leaves you thinking.
Dan Brown signed and collectible books can be found at www.vjbooks.com or click here for his biography and bibliography

Order 2009  The Lost Symbol today!

A review by Carrie from Idaho!

How would it be to win millions!  But they always say it could also be your worst nightmare.  As the Boatwrights will find out.  We already know who the bad guys are but half the fun and enjoyment for me was the interactions between the bad guys and the victims.  Shaw and Romeo aren’t all that bad.  They just get caught up in  all the drama thay have created and they pay in the end.  The book kept me saying “How dumb can these guys get!”  and telling the Boatwrights to “Run!”  I couldn’t put it down.

Order your signed copy of Ravens by George Dawes Green at www.vjbooks.com today!

See other titles reviewed by Carrie

VJ Books has just received:  Ridley Pearson and Dave Barry – Peter and the Sword of Mercy,  Louise Penny – The Brutal Telling,  David Baldacci – True Blue.

Another review by Nikki C of Texas!

What stood out the most to me in this book was the unimaginable suffering and survivor’s guilt suffered by Joe Carpenter as he tries to find reasons behind the terrible fate of his family. He not only struggles internally with all of the “what-if’s” and the “why’s”, but the inexplicable events that follow a brief visit from a complete stranger, who claims to have walked away from an unsurvivable plane crash. Desperate to find the truth, and clinging to all but nonexistent hope that his loved ones may have survived, Joe seeks out answers that could cost him his very own life. With each page of this book, the suspense is amplified because of the anguish of its characters and their need to find solace in the aftermath of tragedy.

VJ Books has an extensive backlist of signed and collectible Dean Koontz titles.  See it here.