Photograph by Michael DeFilippo
I was leaning back, feet propped on the desk. Just when I thought the action was as dead as Rick Ankiel’s career, she walked in, dressed all in black, looking at me like she was hungry. She was bad news.
“What’s your name, doll?” I tried.
Pouting coquettishly, she whispered, “They call me… The Recession.”
I grabbed for the bottle of rotgut whiskey and took a gulp.
The Recession had laid claim to so many jobs already. With arts and entertainment fields feeling the heat first, it was no mystery why some comics joints and record shops closed their doors. So the continued survival of the Central West End’s Big Sleep Books (314-361-6100)—a 22-year-old independent bookstore specializing in mysteries, thrillers, and true crime—seems all the more miraculous.
“The big thing that makes us different is that people know they’re going to get personal service here,” says co-owner Ed King, who runs the small store with Helen Simpson. “A lot of my customers have become my friends, and you can’t get that at Amazon, Borders, or Barnes & Noble, really. ”
A new wave of popular noir titles doesn’t hurt either. “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo has really become a phenomenon,” says King. “And it makes sense—the recession brings people to noir. The stories are often about an underdog, and something dark and evil and grimy is going on.”
