Murder by the book : mysteries for bibliophiles

Murder by the book Mysteries for bibliophiles

Book - 2022

"With Martin Edwards as librarian and guide, delve into an irresistible stack of bibliomysteries, perfect for every booklover and armchair sleuth, featuring much-loved Golden Age detectives Nigel Strangeways, Philip Trent, Detective Chief Inspector Roderick Alleyn, and others. But readers should be warned that the most riveting tales often conceal the deadliest of secrets ... "If much of the action is set in a bookshop or a library, it is a bibliomystery, just as it is if a major character is a bookseller or a librarian." -Otto Penzler A bookish puzzle threatens an eagerly awaited inheritance; a submission to a publisher recounts a murder that seems increasingly to be a work of nonfiction; an irate novelist puts a grisly end ...to the source of his writer's block. There is no better hiding place for clues-or red herrings-than inside the pages of a book. But in this world of resentful ghost writers, indiscreet playwrights, and unscrupulous book collectors, literary prowess is often a prologue to disaster"--

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Subjects
Murder > Fiction.
Detective and mystery fiction.
Short stories.
Genres
Detective and mystery fiction
Short stories
Published
Naperville, Illinois : Poisoned Pen Press [2022]
Language
English
Other Authors
G. D. H. (George Douglas Howard) Cole, 1889-1959 (-), Margaret Cole, 1893-1980, E. C. (Edmund Clerihew) Bentley, 1875-1956, Nicholas Blake, 1904-1972, S. C. (Sydney Castle) Roberts, 1887-1966, Philip MacDonald, A. A. (Alan Alexander) Milne, 1882-1956, Julian Symons, 1912-1994, Gladys Mitchell, 1901-1983, Roy Vickers, Michael Innes, 1906-1994, Christianna Brand, 1907-1988, Marjorie Bremner, 1916-, Victor Canning, John Creasey, Edmund Crispin, 1921-1978, Ngaio Marsh, 1895-1982
Physical Description
xiv, 288 pages ; 21 cm
ISBN
9781728261157
  • Introduction A lesson in crime / G. D. H. and M. Cole
  • Trent and the ministering angel / E. C. Bentley
  • A slice of bad luck / Nicholas Blake
  • The strange case of the Megatherium thefts / S. C. Roberts
  • Malice domestic / Philip MacDonald
  • A savage game / A. A. Milne
  • A clue in the book / Julian Symons
  • The manuscript / Gladys Mitchell
  • A man and his mother-in-law / Roy Vickers
  • Grey's ghost / Michael Innes
  • Dear Mr. Editor ... / Christianna Brand
  • Murder in advance / Marjorie Bremner
  • A question of character / Victor Canning
  • The book of honour / John Creasey
  • We know you're busy writing... / Edmund Crispin
  • Chapter and verse / Ngaio Marsh.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

This excellent reprint anthology from Edwards (Guilty Creatures: A Menagerie of Mysteries) features "an assortment of mysteries linked by a literary theme of one kind or another." The 16 entries include a superior pastiche by S.C. Roberts, "The Strange Case of the Megatherium Thefts," in which Sherlock Holmes is consulted about the disappearances of volumes from a lending library. Christianna Brand's ingenious "Dear Mr. Editor..." is framed as a response to an editor's request for her to contribute to an anthology. Instead of her own work, Brand offers a document found in the hand of a dead woman intended for the same editor's consideration. A.A. Milne cleverly plays with genre conventions in "A Savage Game," in which an author named Coleby asserts that he's qualified to do police work, because mystery writers routinely invent "a story which accounts for all the facts and suspicions and discrepancies which the case presents." Coleby goes on to try to solve a real murder at a police officer's invitation with unexpected consequences. Edwards's exhaustive research and genre expertise yield another stellar volume for the British Library Crime Classics series. (Sept.)

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Review by Kirkus Book Review

Sixteen reprints from 1933 to 1973 showing golden age--inspired puzzle masters doing what they do best: bringing together readers, books, and felonies. Even more than in other entries in the British Library Crime Classics, the hallmarks here are urbane literacy and unfettered conceptual invention. There's a pleasing variety in the ways books make it into the stories. G.D.H. and M. Cole, Nicholas Blake, Gladys Mitchell, and Marjorie Bremner present writers who become victims of homicide; the writers in the stories by Philip MacDonald, Michael Innes, Victor Canning, and Edmund Crispin take on a more active role. Thirty-seven books go missing in S.C. Roberts' superior Sherlock-ian pastiche; a smaller number of books provide pivotal clues in the stories by E.C. Bentley, A.A. Milne, Roy Vickers, and Ngaio Marsh. John Creasey leaves London for a tale of family trauma set in India; Julian Symons shows detective Francis Quarles picking up on a dying message whose import will be shudderingly obvious to every red-blooded American reader; and Christianna Brand's "Dear Mr. Editor…" turns an editor's routine request to one Christianna Brand for a contribution to a new collection into a fiendishly twisty tale of plot and counterplot. Although the stories naturally vary in quality, they all pull their weight; editor Edwards, avoiding obvious contributions like G.K. Chesterton's "The Blast of the Book," mixes well-known and more obscure authors and resurrects at least several unjustly forgotten titles along the way; and the best of them, by Roberts, Vickers, Innes, and especially Brand, are cause enough for joy even among bibliophobes. Perhaps the single best collection yet in this blue-chip series. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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