Mysterious Press: making money from mayhem.(News)(Company Profile)

CAN A SMALL, specialized imprint find a secure and happy home in an overwhelmingly large corporate environment? The answer, in the case of Mysterious Press, the crime fiction line at Warner Books, seems to be very much in the affirmative.

It's a time of anniversaries for Mysterious, which was launched by Otto Penzler in a back room at his Mysterious Bookshop 20 years ago, became a co-publishing partner with Warner nine years later and was wholly acquired by the bigger company in the spring of 1990. It has been a rapid evolution, from a tiny company that began with small printings, coupling regular editions with limited collectors' editions, to one that now, according to …