Obituary Note: William D. Farley

Shelf Awareness

William D. Farley, founder of the Seattle Mystery Bookshop, died on Sunday, just three days before the store's 25th anniversary. He was 83.

Farley and his wife, B. Jo, owned a store in Kalamazoo, Mich., before moving to Philadelphia, where Bill worked as a bookseller at Whodunit Books. In 1989, Edgar-winning author Aaron Elkins casually mentioned that Seattle needed a mystery bookstore. The Farleys had visited a niece in the area, which they liked, and soon they moved cross country and founded Seattle Mystery Bookshop in 1990. Bill ran the store, while B. Jo continued her career in the medical world. In 1999, they sold the store to long-time manager and current owner J.B. Dickey, but Bill continued to work at the store part-time for years.

Farley wanted the Seattle Mystery Bookshop be a place where readers and writers could meet, a resource for those with questions or simply looking for a new author to read, a place for someone new to the novels as well as for serious buyers looking to expand their collections. Under his guidance, the shop presented internationally known authors as well as beginning authors who grew into internationally known authors. It was his dream and it was one he succeeded at brilliantly.

B. Jo died in 2007; the two had been married for 45 years.