Born in Hamburg, Otto Penzler founded what is now the oldest and largest crime store in the world in New York. The “King of Crime Fiction” has his own theory about the Germans’ enthusiasm for “Tatort”.
It all started with Sherlock Holmes. After studying, among other things, English literature in Michigan, Otto Penzler returned to New York at the end of the 1960s. “I love reading and I wanted to continue reading – but I also wanted my head to stop hurting so much. So I thought: Mystery.”
Penzler buys the collected works of the British writer Arthur Conan Doyle about the detective Sherlock Holmes – and takes them to bed with him at night. “I remember not only how much I loved the books, but also how they looked and how they felt,” says the now 81-year-old. “I had goosebumps, the hairs on my arms stood up. It was unforgettable, I remember it like it was yesterday.”
Around half a century later, Penzler, who was born in Hamburg, has expanded his fascination with Sherlock Holmes into a crime empire: with around half a dozen publishers, he publishes books about mysteries, thrillers, crime novels, detectives and espionage, including, most recently, novels the former FBI chief James Comey.
Penzler’s collection of more than 60,000 antiquarian books on these topics, which was one of the largest in the world, has now been auctioned off almost entirely. Since 1979 he has also been running what is now the largest and oldest crime bookstore in the world, the “Mysterious Bookshop”, which is now located in the southwest of Manhattan. There are around 20,000 books in the main sales area alone, says Penzler. All arranged alphabetically. “I’m German. There’s no chaos for me.”
“In Germany we were always hungry”
Penzler was born in Hamburg in 1942, the son of an American mother and a German father, in the middle of the war. The father was a soldier and died in the war, the mother tried desperately to escape the bombs back to New York with Penzler and his younger brother, which they only succeeded in 1947. “Those are my first memories – coming on that ship and seeing the dining room and the food, so much food. In Germany we were always hungry. My mother even cooked tree bark in desperation.”
When the Statue of Liberty appears on the horizon, Penzler, his mother and brother cry with relief. Today he no longer feels any special connection to Germany, says Penzler. He also no longer speaks the language – “only ‘Wiener Schnitzel’ and ‘I love you'”.
From a distance, however, Penzler sees the Germans’ enthusiasm for crime thrillers – with millions of viewers for Sunday’s “Tatort,” for example, and numerous crime and mystery books on the bestseller lists. “This is a relatively new phenomenon in Germany. Detective novels can only be successful in free societies.
When a crime happens here in America, we call the police. But in Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union, for example? Police officers were among the people many people were most afraid of. So in the 19th and parts of the 20th century Great Britain, the USA and partly France were the countries where mystery could spread the most because they were among the few real democracies.”
Normality will be restored
With the “crime scene” on Sundays, the Germans virtually confirmed – at least subconsciously – their trust in the state institutions every Sunday, says Penzler. In addition, mysteries and crime novels satisfied a need for structure and normality. “Yes, there is often a murder. But – unlike in real life – the bad guy is almost always found and punished. Normality is restored – completely different to science fiction, that is anarchy.” Crime novels are a kind of “fairy tale for adults”.
His New York bookstore is now doing very well again – after a slump in sales during the corona pandemic, says Penzler. Every now and then he sells an expensive antiquarian piece, most recently a first edition of Edgar Allen Poe for $25,000 (around 23,000 euros).
Sherlock Holmes to get you started
For beginners in the genre, he recommends the Sherlock Holmes complete edition, which he was so enthusiastic about at the time, as well as authors such as Agatha Christie, Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett and Michael Connelly, as well as his absolute favorite book: the 1860 novel “The Woman in White” by the British writer Wilkie Collins. “This is just a brilliant book, crime and romance, wonderful characters.”
The 81-year-old, who has been married several times, has no children and wants to leave the shop to his employees one day, says that he now almost only reads manuscripts for planned publications. “I slowed down a bit. I used to be able to read a book a day, but I can’t do that anymore.”
The 81-year-old rarely even stands at the checkout himself, but he still comes to his office in the basement of the bookstore every day and attends every author reading in the store. “I really enjoy spending time with authors. As a publisher and book seller, I admire what authors can do. Because writing a book, even a bad book, is hard. It’s very hard.” The genre is currently in a “golden age,” says the expert. “Mysteries used to be mostly about the puzzles. But today authors write about their characters in a much more believable and deeper literary way.”
Penzler says he firmly believes in the future of the industry. Innovations such as artificial intelligence did not worry him. He just wants to continue as before – as long as possible. “Why should I retire? To learn golf or play shuffleboard in Florida? I’ll retire when they pull the pen out of my cold, dead hand.”