When I retire from wrestling I'm going to open a mystery bookstore.

And later tonight, Partners & Crime, a mystery bookstore in Greenwich Village, will spoof all this serious mysteriousness with its first annual Nevermore Awards.

"It's kind of a running gag," said Tom Savage, a writer and employee of Murder Ink, a mystery bookstore in New York City.

"Some of these books are excellently written," says Phyllis Brown, owner of Grounds for Murder, a mystery bookstore in San Diego.

"That's just great, they've got this new toy," snaps Carol Brener, the owner of Murder Ink., a mystery bookstore on Manhattan's Upper West Side.

He has worked in book publishing for many years, which he left to open the Murder One bookshop, the UK's first specialist crime and mystery bookstore.

In 1989 she founded The Poisoned Pen, one of the world's largest mystery bookstores which has since expanded into many literary areas, doing business nationally and internationally.

By using a mystery bookstore for her background, Hart has given her characters the opportunity to talk freely about other mystery authors and books.

Meanwhile, London's independent mystery bookstore, Murder One, which closed last month, isn't dead yet; the shop will live on through its online store and weekly "collection hours" at its new offices.

To his surprise online it has been called a romance novel, and mystery bookstores are ordering copies.