LAS VEGAS A DYING READ

So you're in the mood for some cheesecake.

Maybe Key lime, or chocolate peanut butter, or pineapple.

To find such goodies, naturally, you'll stop by a bookstore.

At least that's the hope of Pamela and Lendall Mains, the husband-and-wife founders of Cheesecake and Crime.

When the two opened the independent bookstore on South Eastern Avenue in Henderson in December, they paired about 1,200 square feet of mystery books with a counter full of gourmet cheesecakes.

The Mainses expect the baked goods to offer an advantage in Cheesecake and Crime's competition with big bookstore chains and discount warehouses.

The store is the newest independent retailer of new books to take a stab at the Las Vegas literary market. And it's a market showing softness: Mandalay Bay officials announced plans in February to close the casino mall's upscale Reading Room bookstore. A search of local members of the American Booksellers Association, a trade group of independent bookstores, turned up just six retailers, and three of those were outposts of the Deseret Books chain. The Reading Room was the fourth; Genesis Books and Gifts on West Charleston Boulevard and children's bookstore the NeverEnding Story, inside Village Square on West Sahara Avenue, were the fifth and sixth stores on the list.

Independent bookstores in Las Vegas face some of the same obstacles confronting counterparts nationwide, said Kate Whouley, an author and founder of Massachusetts-based Books in Common, a bookstore consulting firm.

They compete with major chains such as Barnes & Noble and Borders. They lose business to online merchants, including Amazon.com. And they watch as Amazon.com's Kindle and other e-book devices angle to replace traditional tomes altogether.

On top of those troubles, local independents grapple with issues specific to Las Vegas.

A shortage of high-profile universities yields a smaller cluster of book-minded intellectuals than other cities might collect, Whouley said, and locals enjoy countless other options on which to drop their entertainment dollars.

Compounding those hurdles, said Kimberly Diehm, co-founder of the NeverEnding Story, is the scarcity of independents across Southern Nevada. With so few stand-alone alternatives, many consumers just don't think about independents when they're shopping for new books, and the small number of local stores makes it tough to attract nationally known authors for signing sessions and readings.

Throw in a faltering economy, with Americans reining in discretionary spending, and the outlook dims further.

Sales at the NeverEnding Story were on a "slow, steady path upward" after the store opened in April 2006, Diehm said. At the beginning of 2008, though, business softened noticeably. Sales have fallen between 5 percent and 10 percent since January, she estimated.

But local independents remain optimistic. Their strategies for success: Focus on specific niches and genres, assemble special events and create distinctive marketing hooks.

For Pamela Mains, emphasizing mystery made the most sense. It's her favorite genre, so she knew she'd be able to give good guidance to customers looking for the best reads. It's also one of the most popular literary categories, thus ensuring a rabid fan base for the store to tap. Combining the store with her husband's gourmet cheesecakes, she believed, would give the store an extra edge.

"It's really tough for an independent bookstore to make it," Pamela Mains said. "You need a profit-maker, or you're not going to stay open."

In addition to cheesecake, Cheesecake and Crime makes and sells cheesecake-filled strawberries, cheesecake truffles and cheesecake cookies.

Cheesecake and Crime isn't stopping at food and books.

The store's special events have included a Valentine's Day murder-mystery party and a Cheesecake and Crime-branded, mystery-themed cruise. It also ships gift packages of cheesecakes and books around the country, sending boxes to Pennsylvania, New York, Colorado, California and other states. Book clubs routinely draw in 20 or more people. "Monsterpiece Theater" showcases classic horror movies such as "Dracula" and "Frankenstein," and follows with readings from the novels that inspired the flicks. They've scheduled book signings with authors Rebecca Randolph Buckley, Libby Fischer Hellman and Rhys Bowen.

The Mainses are heavily promoting the business as well. They're planning a horror-themed blood drive with a local blood bank, and they're mailing out newsletters and fliers. The message they hope consumers pick up on: Their independent store carries books from smaller publishers the major chains ignore. Plus, the luxuries at Cheesecake and Crime are affordable. For a few dollars, a customer can indulge a slice of cheesecake and a paperback crime novel.

"A book and some cheesecake won't break the bank," Pamela Mains said. "It's a nurturing thing to read and enjoy a great dessert. We're not selling furs or Ferraris."

At the NeverEnding Story, Diehm and her business partner, Jennifer Graves, concentrate on kid-centric fun.

They've mounted an art exhibit of prints from Dr. Seuss books and other popular kids' titles. They host birthday parties, as well as art classes with an instructor who shepherds kids through projects based on famous book illustrations. They have story times for school-age kids, and they've rolled out a preschool storytelling series centered on letters and numbers.

The store's biggest promotional breakthrough, though, will come Wednesday, when it hosts John Flanagan, author of the bestselling series "Ranger's Apprentice." It's the Australian writer's first U.S. tour, and it's also the first time the NeverEnding Story has managed to land a signing with a New York Times best-seller. Because they don't have other local kids' bookstores to partner with on attracting authors' tours, Diehm and Graves joined with two local schools to bring in Flanagan. They plan additional partnerships with libraries and schools to reel in other big authors, and they hope Flanagan's stopover in Las Vegas will show other major authors and publishers that the city has a solid core of book lovers worth visiting.

Whouley said the independent bookstores that survive will be the stores that zero in on the "third place" concept -- the idea that consumers want gathering places outside the home and the office.

It's a notion both Cheesecake and Crime, with its high-definition televisions and comfy chairs, and the NeverEnding Story, with its wood floors and colorful murals, are both chasing.

"People can shop for books from their living room," Whouley said. "The reason they'd choose to go to a bookstore instead is because it feels good. It has to feel like a place you want to be. Look at the success of places like Starbucks, places that have created a third place people want to visit. People can make coffee at home, but they go to Starbucks partly because of how the atmosphere there feels."

Savvy independents can also ride a growing wave of consumer sentiment toward shopping local, Whouley said.

Shoppers weary of trekking through thousands of square feet of space to find a couple of items increasingly prefer smaller spaces for cozier browsing, she said, and they're more aware of the importance of supporting hometown merchants. Being small is becoming a competitive advantage for bookstores that display finely tuned selections in specific niches.

"People will shop at a store when they know they're going to find a book they want to read, and not be overwhelmed by choices and have little guidance," she said.

The Mainses believe the combination of cheesecake, mystery books, special events and a friendly atmosphere will help them turn a profit before their first anniversary. And based on inquiries about additional locations across town and across the country, the Mainses are eyeing potential franchising once their original location is thriving.

Diehm and Graves will also weigh a second location on the opposite side of the Las Vegas Valley, in Henderson, after business picks up at their first store. Diehm said she believes the market exists for more local independents.

"We've been hearing about all the disappointment over the Reading Room closing," she said. "I think people in Las Vegas are readers, and I think they like the literary aspects of an independent bookstore. And I think it would be easier for them to find us if there were more of us."

Contact reporter Jennifer Robison at jrobison@reviewjournal.com or (702) 380-4512.