In this collection of Golden Age mysteries, crime strikes in the world of books...

‘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

Of crime fiction's many sub-genres, none is as intriguing as the "bibliomystery": stories that involve crimes set in the world of books.

In these fourteen tales from the Golden Age of mystery fiction, a bookseller is murdered, a detective tracks the disappearance of a local author, and a killer stalks the shelves of the New York Public Library.

Collated by Edgar-Award-winning anthologist Otto Penzler, this volume features well-remembered authors such as Cornell Woolrich and Anthony Boucher, as well as stories from those that are lesser-known today. A love letter to books and to the mystery genre, this collection is guaranteed to entertain.

'A real treat for bibliophiles.' Kirkus

"A real treat for bibliophiles." * Kirkus *

Otto Penzler (Author)
Otto Penzler owns The Mysterious Bookshop in New York City and founded the Mysterious Press and Otto Penzler Books. He has written and edited several books, including the Edgar Award-winning Encyclopaedia of Mystery and Detection, and is the series editor of the annual Best American Mystery Stories of the Year.

C. Daly King (Contributor)
C. Daly King (1895-1963) was an American psychologist and detective story writer. He was born in New York City and educated at Yale University. After fighting in World War I, he worked in textiles and in advertising before returning to school to study psychology, with a particular focus on sleep and consciousness. In the 1930s, King published nine books that quickly established him as a master of the Golden Age mystery, but ceased writing fiction with the advent of World War II.

Vincent Starrett (Contributor)
Vincent Starrett (1886–1974) was a Chicago journalist who became one of the world’s foremost experts on Sherlock Holmes. A books columnist for the Chicago Tribune, he also wrote biographies of authors such as Robert Louis Stevenson and Ambrose Bierce, various books on books and book collecting, plus Sherlockian pastiches and numerous short stories and novels. A founding member of the Baker Street Irregulars, he is perhaps known best today for The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, an imaginative biography of the great detective.

Cornell Woolrich (Contributor)
Cornell Woolrich (1903-68) was one of the most admired and influential of all 20th century American crime writers. His work inspired many films, including most famously Rear Window, The Leopard Man, Phantom Lady, The Bride Wore Black, Mississippi Mermaid and Union City. He led a strange and often very unhappy life, latterly as a recluse in a Manhattan hotel.