Berkley Prime Crime Celebrates 20 Years!

NEW YORK, NY – March 1, 2014 – Twenty years ago, in March 1994, Berkley Books introduced Berkley Prime Crime, a mass market mystery imprint that included five launch authors.  This year, Berkley celebrates the 20^th anniversary of Prime Crime with special author events and promotional giveaways.

In its first year, Berkley Prime Crime (BPC) published approximately forty titles, all mass market.  In 2013, the imprint published 150 titles, including mass market originals, trade paperbacks, and hardcovers.  Every year, BPC launches approximately 25-30 new series, including several house-owned franchises that editors have developed from idea to execution.  In the past year, BPC debuted sixteen titles on the New York Times Bestsellers List (printed and extended lists combined), which comes out to more than one per month!

“When we launched Berkley Prime Crime in March 1994 I believed that the audience for the traditional or ‘cozy’ mystery was still largely underserved and untapped.  Twenty years later I can say without reservation that this has proven to be correct and that Berkley Prime Crime has succeeded beyond my wildest expectations,” said Natalee Rosenstein, Vice President and Senior Executive Editor of Berkley. 

This spring Berkley Prime Crime is hosting two events at mystery bookstores that have supported Berkley Prime Crime over the years.  On March 13, Julie Hyzy, Miranda James, and Rebecca Hale will be at Murder by the Book in Houston, Texas.  On March 25 the Poisoned Pen in Phoenix will host Margaret Coel, Carolyn Hart, Earlene Fowler, and Avery Aames.

Throughout the remainder of 2014, more events and promotional giveaways are planned, in addition to Berkley Prime Crime’s annual presence at mystery conventions BoucherCon and Malice Domestic.  You can find out more about Berkley Prime Crime titles and authors at The Crime Scene, our cozy mystery Facebook page at www.facebook.com/thecrimescenebooks.

Berkley Prime Crime has been kind enough to provide a tote bag containing five (5)  cozy mysteries for one of my readers. The titles are, well, a  mystery, but they will all be Berkley Prime Crime books.   Please comment on the blog with your favorite type of cozy (food, craft, pets, etc) and don't forget to include an email address where I can contact you.

"A Memoir of Finding Love at Last"

Romance is My Day Job by Patience Bloom (Dutton hardcover, 6 February 2014).

Patience Smith discovered romance novels as a sophomore in high school. Not too young and naive to realize that they're generally not realistic, she nevertheless imagines herself as the heroine, and her crush-of-the-moment as the well-endowed (whatever that means!) hero. 

After a relationship with a Bad Boy in her second year at Oberlin, she escapes to do her junior year at SUNY in Paris, deciding to avoid relationships while she's there.

Once she returns, still reading romances, her relationships are nothing like those in the books (or her fantasies).  She graduates, spends a few years doing temp work, but eventually gets a job teaching French in Albuquerque.  She lives there for several years, until she realizes that's not how she wants to spend her life, and moves back in with her parents in New Jersey.

After sending her resume to every New York publishing house she can think of, she finally gets a temp job doing publiciity at Simon and Schuster, though she knows it's not her ultimate goal.  She hasn't been there for long when she gets a call from Harlequin asking her to temp for them.  Thankfully, it's not in publicity, but even though she's only working as an editorial assistant, she knows this is where she wants to be, and eventually gets a permanent position there. 

Though she moves up the ladder and meets some of the authors she's idolized for years her own love life is going nowhere.  Out of the blue, she gets a Facebook message from Sam, an old friend from high school, and she thinks they may have A Connection. 

Though it reads like fiction, this is a charming memoir about a woman who, despite having a job laden with romance, has almost giving up on finding true love herself, but takes a leap of faith that proves worthwhile.  For those of us who found  Prince Charming later in life, though our circumstances were probably very different, it feels somewhat familiar.

This is the perfect book to dive into on Valentine's Day, whether you are in a relationship  or not.  
If you're not, it will give you hope. 
And those of us who (like Patience) found Prince Charming later in life will definitely feel  sense of kinship with her.

Image credit: studiobarcelona / 123RF Stock Photo