Murder by the Book edited by Martin Edwards

Murder by the Book by Martin Edwards (editor)
Series: British Library Crime Classics
Published by Poisoned Pen Press on September 6, 2022
Source: NetGalley
Genres: Anthology, Mystery
Pages: 301
Format: eBook
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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.

This collection of stories is tied together by books. There are crime novelists, collectors, and so forth, or sometimes it’s a case of some important information hiding within the pages of a book. It’s a good batch, some familiar authors, some not so familiar, at least to me. We have traditional detective stories and others told through the eyes of the bad guy. I enjoyed the whole thing. There wasn’t a real stand out to me, but there also weren’t any that I disliked.

And here’s the list, in case you’re interested.

A Lesson in Crime – George Douglas Howard Cole and Margaret 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
The 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