But month after month, a 2002 paperback mystery has been among the best-selling titles at Elliott Bay, spurring puzzlement among those who spot the little book's lofty spot in the prominent display of store best-sellers.
Mystery, in other words, surrounds the mystery.
But some sleuthing can unravel the whatdunit behind the unlikely sales success of Robert Wilson's "A Small Death in Lisbon."
Book sales can have a curious alchemy. They have been spurred by all sorts of things, such as happenings in the news or mentions on Oprah, but seldom in the history of bookdom has one title ridden to new readership all because of a T-shirt from Texas.
Specifically, it was a T-shirt from Gilley's, the famed "Urban Cowboy" roadhouse, the key clue to all that would follow, including reverberations at a New York publishing house and in bookstores across the country.
