The most depressing thing about managing a book collection is weeding. It might seems like an easy decision to get rid of a book you’ve read, but invariably, doesn’t it always seem like you want or need to refer back to that book only to find out you don’t have it anymore?
Many bibliophiles, like myself, like owning the printed word. Space, however, is quite the premium. Even if you have a dedicated library in your home, there’s only so much room. Deciding what to keep can be daunting. I will always prefer a physical copy, but ebooks are a perfect compromise for keeping titles there’s just no room to store. That, and eReaders/Tablets have an easy to use function to search for particular passages. The other bonus? The growing world of ebooks has brought back may classic mysteries and other titles that have fallen out of print or were difficult to obtain.
***
eBook Cover
On July 16, 2014, Open Road Media announced that all 21 volumes of Ellis Peters’ Chronicles of Brother Cadfael will be published as ebooks for the first time on August 5, 2014. Though the series may not have suffered the dreaded ‘out of print’ status that some have, I was nonetheless excited to hear the news.
According to Open Road Media’s press release, “The first Brother Cadfael novel, A Morbid Taste for Bones, was published in 1977 and adapted into several made-for-television movies and a successful TV series as part of PBS’s Mystery! Rich with local setting and historical details, the iconic Cadfael series portrays life during a period of conflict for the British crown, between AD 1120 and AD 1145.”
Otto Penzler, proprietor of The Mysterious Bookshop and publisher of Mysterious Press, states, “Ellis Peters has been regarded as the Queen of Historical Mystery Fiction for four decades—the British Crime Writers’ Association established their Ellis Peters Historical Award for the best historical crime novel of the year. The pinnacle of her achievements is the 21-volume series about Brother Cadfael, a medieval Benedictine monk, that combines romance and detective fiction and achieved best-seller status in both the United States and Great Britain, as well as inspiring a popular television series that starred Derek Jacobi.”
Ellis Peters is the most well-known pen name of British author Edith Pargeter (1913–1995), and arguably Brother Cadfael is her most well-known and beloved series.
These historical mysteries will be available as ebooks through a joint partnership between MysteriousPress.com and Open Road Media.
Open Road Integrated Media is a global digital publishing company that has published ebooks from such mystery and suspense authors as Lawrence Block, John Buchan, Loren D. Estleman, Stuart M. Kaminsky, Charlotte MacLeod, Stuart Palmer, Anne Perry, Ellery Queen, Ruth Rendell, Mary Roberts Rinehart, Dorothy L. Sayers, Ross Thomas, and Patricia Wentworth.
MysteriousPress.com is the digital/electronic platform for traditional print publisher, Mysterious Press, which releases mystery, crime, suspense, and espionage fiction from past and current authors.
For more information, visit openroadmedia.com or mysteriouspress.com.
***
Reference to products and/or services reviewed by The Poisoned Martini does not necessarily constitute an endorsement by this site or its author.
