Murder Ink, the first (and oldest) independent mystery bookstore, will shut its doors on its Upper West Side location on December 31, as will its younger sister store, Ivy's Books and Curiosities. The New York Times' Julie Bosman reports that the impending closure results from many factors: increased rent every year (to $18,000 a month at present), the nearby B&N on 82nd and Broadway, and the rise of Amazon and eBay to supplant mail-order and rare books business.

For the last few years, said owner Jay Pearsall, the store has depended on sales from nonbook items that yield larger profit margins, like greeting cards, journals and action figures of Carl Jung and Rosie the Riveter. And he also noticed something even more troubling: "I used to do apartment buys," he said. "Children of people in the neighborhood who had died would sell their parents' books; lots of them immigrants, lots of them Jewish, educated, liberal, and they just had all these great books. I realized that our clientele was dying."

The New York Sun's Gary Shapiro has more on Murder Ink's closing, with quotes from all the other major mystery independents: Partners & Crime, Black Orchid Bookshop and The Mysterious Bookshop. I also have more to say at my other blog.