WALTER SATTERTHWAIT: R.I.P.

Mystery author Walter Satterthwait passed away on Sunday after a battle with COPD and congestive heart failure. He was 73. Besides being one helluva writer, Walter was a clever, funny, and quirky guy. I always enjoyed talking with him at conferences. He also contributed to Mystery Readers Journal. Although it's been awhile since I've seen him, he'll always have a place in my heart. I'll miss him.

On January 9 Walter wrote: My new (and last) short story is now available on Amazon. DOWN AND OUT THE MAGAZINE. If you'd like a signed copy, then send the thing to me (with return postage, unfortunately, and an envelope) and I'll sign it and shoot it back to you.

Thank you all again for all the help you've given me. May you be well, may you be safe, may you be happy, may you be enlightened.


You can read it, but sadly Walter won't be around to sign it for you.
I know I'll be reading and re-reading many of his books now.
***
From his friends:

Walter Satterthwait was as wickedly clever, smoothly charming, and dashingly adventurous as his unforgettable characters. 

Satterthwait authored fifteen novels, including the Joshua Croft series featuring a Santa Fe P.I., the first of which garnered a Shamus Award for Best First Novel of 1989. He also wrote mysteries starring historical figures, including two featuring Lizzie Borden; Wilde West, in which Oscar Wilde play detective on tour of the American West ; and three Pinkerton mysteries set in the first half of the 20th century featuring detectives Phil Beaumont and Jane Turner and such real-life historical figures as Harry Houdini, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, and even Hitler. Escapade, the first in the Pinkerton series earned Satterthwait a nomination for an Agatha Award for best novel of 1995, and a Prix du Roman d’Aventures in France. 

Also a master of the short story, his work was included in a variety of anthologies as well as two collections. His most recent short story was published in Down and Out Magazine in 2019. 

A complete bibliography can be found at http://stopyourekillingme.com/S_Authors/Satterthwait_Walter.html. 

Walter was born in Pennsylvania, but lived in and traveled to New York, Santa Fe, Greece, Africa, Thailand, and Europe, developing warm friendships around the world. A Buddhist, a raconteur, and a bon vivant, Satterthwait knew how to both seize the moment and let it go. We wish we could have held on to Walter for longer, but his words, in books and our conversations, live on.

***

Books and Short Stories

Joshua Croft  (P.I. in Santa Fe, NM)
1. Wall of Glass (1988)
2. At Ease With the Dead (1990)
3. A Flower in the Desert (1992)
4. The Hanged Man (1993) 
5. Accustomed to the Dark (1996)

Miss Lizzie  (Lizzie Borden)
1. Miss Lizzie (1989)
2. New York Nocturne (2016)

Escapade  (Pinkerston Agents Phil Beaumont & Jane Turner)
1. Escapade (1995)
2. Masquerade (1998)
3. Cavalcade (2005)

Non Series
Cocaine Blues (1979)
The Aegean Affair (1982)
Wilde West (1991)
Perfection (2006)
Dead Horse (2007)

Collections 
The Gold of Mayani (1995)
The Mankiller of Poojegai and Other Stories (2007)
The Sunken Sailor (2004) (with Simon Brett, Jan Burke, Dorothy Cannell, Margaret Coel, Deborah Crombie, Eileen Dreyer, Carolyn Hart, Edward Marston, Francine Mathews, Sharan Newman, Alexandra Ripley, Sarah Smith and Carolyn Wheat) 

Anthologies (Editor)
Tis the Season for Murder (1998) (with Fred Hunter and Barbara Burnett Smith)

Non fiction 
Sleight of Hand (1993) (with Ernie Bulow)

Lizzie Borden House for Sale

Hat Tip to Bill Crider that the house in Fall River, MA, where Lizzie Borden lived out her life after being acquitted of charges that she used an ax to kill her father and stepmother is on the market.

The 14-room Queen Anne Victorian home in Fall River is for sale for $650,000. It is assessed at $313,200, which doesn't take into account its historical significance.

Owner Robert Dube has owned the home known as Maplecroft since 1980 when he paid $60,000. He has put it on the market several times before, most recently three years ago when he asked $725,000.

Borden lived at Maplecroft from 1894 until her death in 1927.

But the biggest disclaimer for possible ghoulish buyers is that it's not the same house where Andrew and Abby Borden were killed in August 1892.

However, if you do want to stay at the house where the ax murders took place, the original house is now the Lizzie Borden Bed and Breakfast.

There are two two bedroom suites, Lizzie & Emma's Bedrooms, and Abby & Andrew's Bedrooms; the John Morse Guest Room, Bridget's Attic Room and two additional spacious attic bedrooms (the Jennings & Knowlton Rooms), each of which offer a double bed in a room with Victorian appointments.

Guests are treated to a breakfast similar to the one the Bordens ate on the morning of the murders, which includes bananas, jonny-cakes, sugar cookies and coffee in the addition to a meal of breakfast staples.

The interior and exterior of the home has been restored, with careful attention to making it as close to the Borden home of August, 1892 as is possible.

The owners of the home invite all to view their collection of both Fall River and Borden memorabilia at 92 Second Street.