Meet McKenna Jordan of Murder By The Book

Today we’d like to introduce you to McKenna Jordan.

McKenna, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Murder By The Book is one of the nation’s oldest and largest mystery specialty bookstores, established in 1980 by Martha Farrington. I began working at MBTB in January of 2003, as a part-time sales assistant, and by the summer of that year I was working full-time. It’s funny… I wanted to make a little money while I was finishing my Master’s Degree in Violin Performance, and wanted to work at Barnes and Noble since they were selling books and music at the time.

Unfortunately, I was told that I was over-qualified, and promptly dismissed. Thankfully MBTB had the opening, and the rest, as they say, is history. A few years later I was promoted to manager and book buyer, and in January of 2009, when Martha wanted to retire, I purchased the store. It’s been both incredibly challenging and rewarding, and I’ve been fortunate enough to find a family of staff that are capable, charming and who hold themselves to the highest standard in customer service.

The store stocks over 25,000 books — new & used, hardbacks & paperbacks, first editions, collectibles, gift items, mystery magazines, and more. We host over 200 of the hottest mystery, crime, and fantasy authors for book signing events every year. We’ve had everyone from Dick Francis to P.D. James, Sue Grafton to Robert Crais, Michael Connelly to Patricia Cornwell, and James Lee Burke to Daniel Silva.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
To say that owning the bookstore has not been a smooth road is an understatement. The biggest hurdle, and one which we still deal with, was the sudden loss of the store’s long-time manager and event coordinator, David Thompson – who was also my husband.

While I bought the store as a sole owner, in reality it was assumed that I would run the store with David, who had been at MBTB 20 years, and who died unexpectedly right after our second anniversary in September 2010. It was a challenge to even be in the building without him, much less keep business running as normal. We had customers who were friends of his who have never returned, and those who didn’t come back in for years. Obviously that was an incredibly difficult time, and one that I would never wish on anyone. We’ve also faced the challenges of the rise of e-books, and their proliferation within the mystery genre.

Fortunately, we are seeing the return to print books, and the future is bright. Our most recent challenge has been Hurricane Harvey. While the store came through the storm relatively unscathed, we have certainly felt the general dirge of Houston retail since the city suffered the traumatic event. Like everyone, we’re hoping for a continual recovery for the city, its people, and its businesses.

Murder By The Book – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Murder By The Book is the country’s largest crime fiction bookstore. We specialize in a high level of customer service – recommendations based on reading taste, knowing our regular customer’s favorite authors, getting books signed and inscribed by authors, and hosting events. I love the fact that we’re like “Cheers” for the mystery-reading community.

The majority of our customers are greeted by name when they walk in, and enthusiastically recommended a book that we think they’ll love. We also are fortunate to host over 200 authors each year – many of whom are NY Times best-sellers, and provide our community the chance to meet and interact with their favorite authors. I’m proud that we were here, in store, on the Monday after Harvey, providing coffee, refreshments, power and wi-fi to anyone who needed it.

I’m proud that we work with local schools to donate books to their summer reading programs. I’m proud that we frequently take a percentage of our event sales and donate them to a local cause that the author supports. We try very hard to acknowledge that this bookstore is supported by a community and we, in turn, need to support the community too.

Since Harvey, we’ve also created a non-profit company, Book Lovers Care, which we’ve used to raise almost $10,000 for national disaster relief, and will continue to use frequently for charitable causes. We are always accepting donations of collectible books to be auctioned off for charity. Please email bookloverscare@gmail.com with questions or to inquire about a donation.

What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
In 2015, I was hired by Minotaur Books, a crime fiction imprint of Macmillan Books, to work for them as a consultant. I am still working with them, and take great pride at their trust in my experience as a bookseller and reader. As far as I know, I’m the only bookseller who has been hired for a position like this – one that was created specifically for me, and I enjoy the challenges of the job with them every day.

Contact Info:

• Address: 2342 Bissonnet St. Houston, TX 77005
• Website: www.murderbooks.com
• Phone: 713-524-8597
• Email: order@murderbooks.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/murderbooks/
• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Murder-by-the-Book/243815711002?ref=ts
• Twitter: http://twitter.com/murderbooks

Image Credit:
Tracy Carlson, John Kwiatkowski

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