Otto Penzler writes the introduction for this anthology, outlining what a bibliomystery is, as well as providing a list of recommended bibliomystery novels. How many have you read?
- The Smiling Corpse (1935) by “Anonymous” (I was wondering if this is the same novel written by Philip Wiley and Bernard A. Bergman)
- The Gutenberg Murders (1931) by Gwen Bristow and Bruce Manning
- The Big Sleep (1939) by Raymond Chandler
- The Man from Tibet (1938) by Clyde B. Clason
- Murders in Volume 2 (1941) by Elizabeth Daly
- Dr. Sam: Johnson, Detector (1946) by Lilian de la Torre
- Halo for Satan (1948) by John Evans
- The Big Clock (1946) by Kenneth Fearing
- Three Thirds of a Ghost (1941) by Timothy Fuller
- The Buffalo Box (1942) by Frank Gruber
- The Widening Stain (1942) by W. Bolingbroke Johnson
- The Sharkskin Book (1941) by Harry Stephen Keeler
- Murder Within Murder (1946) by Frances and Richard Lockridge
- The Haunted Bookshop (1919) by Christopher Morley
- Fast Company (1938) by Marco Page
- Drury Lane’s Last Case (1933) by Barnaby Ross
- The Case of Mr Cassidy (1939) by William Targ and Lewis Herman
- Going, Going, Gone (1943) by Phoebe Atwood Taylor
- Beginning with a Bash (1937) by Alice Tilton
- Murder in the Bookshop (1936) by Carolyn Wells
- The Hidden Portal (1946) by Garnett West
I’ve only read four of them.
Story No. 1: ‘The Jorgenson Plates’ (1922) by Frederick Irving Anderson
Anderson was the ‘creator of Sophie Lang, the charming and creative jewel thief’. She ‘appeared in a single volume, The Notorious Sophie Lang’ and ‘much of her fame derives from a series of 1930s Paramount films recounting her adventures. She was portrayed by Gertrude Michael in all three.’ This story first appeared in the Evening Post.
Llewellyn Sissingham and his wife run out of petrol in a rural area, outside a large estate. They are eventually able to attract the attention of a man walking on the property, to ask him to bring them some fuel. Fortunately for Llewellyn it is an old acquaintance called Mullet and this makes Llewellyn change his plans. He surreptitiously disables his car, so Mullet will have to offer them a bed for the night. At this stage it is hard to say who will regret this decision the most.
The reader is not encouraged to like the Sissingham couple, as they act very snobbishly towards their host:
‘Sissy, warm within and without, and happily convinced of his diplomacy, explained that the wonder was not so much that these Americans possessed drawing rooms, as that they knew how to enter them at all, even on all fours. They had come up so recently from nothing.’
It is not too long after this that we learn why the Sissinghams were so keen to stay the night. I like how the author upends conventions at the denouement, but I am baffled as to why this story is considered a bibliomystery, since it does not seem to fulfil the criteria set out in the introduction. Personally, I don’t think it should have been included in the collection. Fortunately, the remaining stories in this anthology clearly fit the remit.
Story No. 2: ‘The Aldine Folio Murders (1940) by Lawrence G. Blochman
This tale was originally published in The Dolphin and Blochman was the fourth president of the Mystery Writers of America, between 1948 and 1949. He started out studying forensic pathology, before taking his career in a different direction. Paul Mordant, was one of Blochman’s series detectives and is a French policeman who specialised in cases involving fine art.
This story is unsurprisingly set in Paris and the provinces, before the outbreak of WW2. This is referenced at the start of the narrative:
‘You may not remember the Café Grolier. It belonged to a Paris of another day – ten thousand years ago, it seems – before the steel monsters clanked obscenely down the Champs-Elysées, and the heavy boots of Heinrich Himmler’s Gestapo began tramping upon the souls of men who such a short time before thought there was importance in first editions and the bouquet of an old burgundy.’
An American named Bender has come to France, to bid and hopefully buy on his company’s behalf, the Aldine folio. Before travelling to the auction he bumps into his old friend, Inspector Mordant, who mentions that Emil Daur, a famous thief, has recently been released from prison. René François is the current owner of the folio, having inherited it from his uncle. His plans to liquidate his late uncle’s literary assets is not a popular move and a relation of his named Jules puts a spoke in the wheel, threatening to hold up the releasing of estate if René does not gift him the folio, so Jules can sell it on to a friend of his, Dr Storch.
Before the night is out, you know a crime will be committed. There is plenty of motive for murder, as well as a missing gun. Bender, in a Had-I-But-Known style, naturally hears ominous sounds in the darkness and goes to investigate them: ‘Carefully and fearfully, my heart beating so that I was certain it raised echoes in the vaulted old corridor, I went down the stairs.’ I thought I had this case sussed, but Blochman pleasingly had me fooled.
Story No. 3: ‘Death Walks in Marble Hall’ (1942) by Lawrence G. Blochman
It’s Blochman again, but this time his story, which was first published in The American Magazine, is set in the New York Public Library. According to the introduction to this tale:
‘Blochman’s original title for the story was “Death from the Sanscrit” but’ fiction editor for The American Magazine, ‘did not like the title’ so they changed it to the one it has in this collection. ‘Six years later, it was reprinted in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine and Frederick Dannay didn’t like that title so, as he so often did, changed it to “Murder Walks in Marble Halls.” Shortly after its first appearance, Twentieth Century- Fox acquired the rights and didn’t like the title, either, so filmed it as Quiet Please, Murder (1942) […]’
Phil Manning oversees the press relations for the library, and he is waiting for one of the trustees to arrive, H. H. Dorwin, who wishes to discuss an important matter. Betty Vale, whom Phil is romantically interested in, phones him to ask if he can meet her pronto in a cigar store nearby. She refuses to come to the library, and she seems afraid to see Dorwin. Before Phil can do anything, he hears a shot, and it transpires that someone has tried to shoot Dorwin. He refuses to get the police involved, confident that the assailant can be caught by security staff. Events following this moment are temporarily confusing as it seems that a guard does and does not manage to capture the gunman. I read the relevant passage more than once and it didn’t become any clearer, but nevertheless, based on later events, I think we can take it as read that the assailant is still on the loose.
Betty who swore she could never see Dorwin, is now trying to find him, despite receiving a threatening letter to stay away from him. Naturally, being your stereotypical annoying character, she refuses to give Phil any details. Dorwin is not so lucky when a second attempt to kill him is made, this time with a catalogue spindle to the eye, which then leads to him falling over a balcony and plunging to his death. A very public way to die.
His death unleashes much irresponsible and irritating behaviour. Phil sets out to destroy or conceal evidence which may incriminate Betty, and he does his best to prevent the police from questioning her. She spends most of the story loitering in isolated random parts of the library. Furthermore, Phil does not take the police into his confidence when he finds things out. For example,
‘He did not go directly to the stacks by the stairs in the corner, because he did not want Kilkenny to know where he was going. It was foolish, perhaps, not to make Kilkenny an out-and-out ally. Now that the killer was probably in the stacks, keeping the police out might be exposing Betty Vale to needless danger. Yet Manning was determined to play his hand alone until he had found the red portfolio with the blue tapes – until he was certain that its discovery would not point a guilty finger at Betty Vale.’
Surely it would be better to be temporarily under suspicion but alive, rather than proven innocent yet very much dead. This notion does not seem to have entered Phil’s mind, and his attitude is rather irritating. Perhaps an unexpected humorous highlight is the security guard who quotes Shakespeare, but misassigns which plays the quotes come from. I think this story is frustrating to read, but could be more fun as a film, with its cat-and-mouse moment in the darkened stacks.
Story No. 4: ‘Q. L. 696. C9’ (1942) by Anthony Boucher
This unusually titled story was published in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, and it gets straight to the point in its opening line: ‘The librarian’s body had been removed from the swivel chair, but Detective Lieutenant Donald MacDonald stood beside the desk.’ There are four suspects, either patrons or workers at the Los Angeles Public Library. The detective lieutenant with the suspects, goes over their statements, which helps to fill the reader in on the sequence of events. The librarian, Miss Benson, was shot and just before her death she made a cryptic reference on a list she was writing of books which needed replacing. A search of her desk also shows she had the number for the FBI. Macdonald finds this to be a puzzling case, so he visits Nick Noble, who was drummed out of the police through a false scandal. His wife subsequently died, and he became an alcoholic:
“Sherry’s all that life has left for him – that, and the ability to make the toughest problem come crystal clear. Somewhere in the back of that wino’s mind is a precision machine that sorts the screwiest facts into the one inevitable pattern. He’s the court of last appeal on a case that’s nuts […] Screwball Division, L. A. P. D., the boys call him.”
I wondered if Noble was the darker version of Baroness Orczy’s Old Man in the Corner, as Noble equally has a usual haunt, a booth at café. This is perhaps not the sort of mystery the reader is going to solve themselves, but I had a lot of fun reading it and I thought the ending was good.
Story No. 5: ‘Foot in It’ (1935) by James Gould Cozzens
This mystery was originally published in Redbook Magazine, but it was later reprinted in 1950 in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine under the title of ‘Clerical Error’. The story has a bookshop setting and it sees Colonel Ingalls arrive to talk with Mr Joreth, the owner. The colonel has come about an invoice (threatening legal action for nonpayment) his late brother received and he claims that his brother never received such books, nor given their nature, would ever have wanted to buy them in the first place. But who is in the right? I thought this was a nice short tale which includes a good reversal of events.
Story No. 6: ‘The Missing Shakespeare Manuscript’ (1946) by Lillian de la Torre
This is my first experience of Lillian de la Torre’s Dr Johnson mystery series, and this particular tale came from the collection: Dr Sam: Johnson, Detector. It is set in Stratford-on-Avon in 1769 and as the title suggests, it involves Dr Johnson finding a missing manuscript, of a previously unknown Shakespearian tragedy – always suspicious! There is a weird bit of formatting as during the middle of a conversation the narrative switches into a playscript layout. This continues for a short while and then stops as randomly as it began. I did not find this an easy read as it was confusing at times what social event Dr Johnson and the narrator were heading to. It’s usually once they have arrived somewhere and began interacting with others that you realise where they’ve gone. Dr Johnson is an enjoyable curmudgeon though and he is entertaining when discoursing on why he sees little value in old papers:
‘In his roaring voice he tossed and gored Dr Percy for his magpie love of old documents, adverting especially to Percy’s recent publication of “The Household Book of the Earls of Northumberland.”
“Pray sir, he demanded with scorn, “of what conceivable utility to mankind can the ‘Household Book’ be supposed to be? The world now knows that a dead-and-gone Percy had beef to the value of twelve pence on a Michaelmas in 1512. Trust me, ‘twill set no beef on the table of any living Percy.”
I guessed some parts of the solution but not all.
Story No. 7: ‘State Fair Murder’ (1939) by Frank Gruber
This tale was first published in the Black Mask and ‘at the peak of his career’ Gruber ‘produced three or four full length novels a year, many about series characters Johnny Fletcher and his sidekick, Sam Cragg’ as well as ‘numerous short stories, many featuring Oliver Quade, “the Human Encyclopaedia” […]’. When writing his autobiography, Gruber also mentions his ‘formula for his mystery stories’ which includes:
‘[…] a colourful hero, a theme with information the reader is unlikely to know, a villain more powerful than the hero, a vivid background for the action, an unusual murder method or unexpected circumstances surrounding the crime, unusual variations on the common motives of greed and hate, a well-hidden clue, a trick or twist that will snatch victory form the jaws of defeat, constantly moving action, a protagonist who has personal involvement, and a smashing climax.’
Quite the standards! Do you think this formula is missing anything?
We are also told that:
‘The Oliver Quade series follows a formula in which the Human Encyclopaedia and his constant sidekick, Charlie Boston, are broke and find a new venue to sell Quade’s book, Compendium of Human Knowledge from a suitcase that the muscular Boston carries with him.’
In this story Quade is at the Minnesota State Fair, and he is having some difficulty finding a place to perform his pitch. When he does locate one, he is asked a question by a passerby on American politics. He answers it, only for the passerby to collapse and die right next to him, death by poison dart. Quade, despite police’s disapproval, decides to look into the matter. The motive for the murder is interesting, demonstrating one of the points mentioned in Gruber’s formula. Moreover, Gruber is in a position to find out the particular angle of the motive. The only annoying thing about this story is that a second dart nearly gets a random woman, but she decides not to tell the police and only tells Quade hours after the event. This didn’t feel very believable.
Story No. 8: ‘The Episode of the Codex Curse’ (1935) by C. Daly King
This story featuring King’s series sleuth, Trevis Tarrant, was first published in The Curious Mr Tarrant. Otto Penzler mentions that this collection ‘was selected by Ellery Queen for his Queen’s Quorum as one of the 106 most important volumes of mystery short stories of all time, where it was described as containing “the most imaginative detective short stories of our time.”’ That is quite the reputation to live up to! Nevertheless, Penzler concludes his introduction by opining that:
‘As a mystery writer, King is enigmatic, at times writing brilliantly with the verve and assurance of a master, at other times as frustrating as the club bore who tells the same stories over and over again, once inserting a fifteen-page treatise on economic theory into a detective novel for absolutely no reason.’
Trevis Tarrant is an amateur sleuth made in the Philo Vance mould, wealthy and absurdly knowledgeable in cultural matters. Unusually for a short story this tale comes with a character list. ‘The Episode of the Codex Curse’ is narrated by Jerry Phelan, who ends up staying over night at the Metropolitan Museum, due to a bet. He has to stay locked in a room which houses a 700-year-old Aztec codex, which is said to be cursed, a curse which is meant to become active on the third night. Naturally, this is going to be a smokescreen for a flesh and blood crime. Unsurprisingly, the codex is stolen, despite Tarrant having been hidden in the room the whole time inside a packing case. This is a mystery solved by theorising on Tarrant’s part, although the “who” is not too hard to guess, given the small set of suspects to work with. I think I enjoyed this story more because there was less page time with Tarrant, which is just as well, given his annoyingly snobbish behaviour at the end of the tale.
Story No. 9: ‘The Adventure of the Three R’s’ (1946) by Ellery Queen
I have already read and reviewed this title when looking at the collection: The Calendar of Crime (1952).
Story No. 10: ‘The Unique Hamlet’ (1920) by Vincent Starrett
This is the first of two stories by Starrett included in this collection and it is a Sherlock Holmes pastiche. Holmes’ latest client in this story is an oddly behaving book collector called Harrington Edwards. He borrowed, from his neighbour, a one-of-a-kind and unique Shakespeare manuscript, a Hamlet quarto, so he could complete his magnum opus on the playwright. However, before he can even get home with it, he claims that his neighbour’s servants, who were accompanying him, robbed him of the quarto. This is an easy case for the reader to solve, as the suspects are too few. Nevertheless, I love how Holmes take the culprit to task:
“Surely, you must know that in criminal cases handled by me, it is never the obvious solution that is the correct one. The mere fact that the finger of suspicion is made to point at a certain individual is sufficient to absolve that individual from guilt. Had you read the little works of my friend and colleague, here, Dr Watson, you would not have made such a mistake. Yet you claim to be a bookman!”
Story No. 11: ‘A Volume of Poe’ (1929) by Vincent Starrett
This story first appeared in Detective Tales and Mystery and in 1930 was collected in The Blue Door. The mystery takes place in Chicago and begins with Charles Allardyce visiting, late one evening, his friend, Robert De Gollyer, who runs an antique shop. When he arrives, he notices a female customer who is trying to sell De Gollyer, in a hurry, a book for $100. De Gollyer cannot afford this and suggests another seller she could try. The book she was trying to sell was a collection of Poe’s poetry, a third edition. She leaves and not long afterwards so does Allardyce. But by the next morning De Gollyer is discovered murdered. Naturally, when he is questioned by the police, Allardyce omits any mention of the woman he saw the previous evening. After all, how could such a young and beautiful woman possibly be connected to such a sordid crime? *cue eye roll* Chivalry can be so irritating in fiction at times. Since he has read some detective stories, Allardyce then decides that the only appropriate thing to do is follow up the lead of the woman himself. For the sake of his friend of course, not because he wants to see the pretty woman again… Despite fearing she will be incriminated if anyone discovers she was at the shop, Allardyce happily pours out the whole story to a bookseller. Who knew booksellers were like priests when it came to confidentiality? So Allardyce becomes inconsistent as well as annoying. I would feel sorry for the police, but one of them bizarrely lets Allardyce, who he has never met before, remove an item from the crime scene. Fortunately, it is an item which resolves the mystery, but still this seems a bit foolish. The ending is truncated and there are some loose ends that the story does not tie up.
Story No. 12: ‘The Shakespeare Title- Page Mystery’ (1940) by Carolyn Wells
This story originally appeared in The Dolphin and was later reprinted by Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. It was through this magazine reprint that I have already read and reviewed this tale.
Story No. 13: ‘The Book that Squeaked’ (1939) by Cornell Woolrich
This unusually titled mystery was first published in Detective Story, and it was later collected in 1978 in an anthology called Angels of Darkness. Otto Penzler describes this tale as ‘more [of] a traditional detective story, with an amateur sleuth librarian, and even a trace of romance and humour.’ Penzler further adds that: ‘It is not really a noir story, though it was written by Cornell Woolrich so it inevitably has its dark aspects.’ Having a read a few stories by this author, I love how diverse Woolrich is when it comes to this plot types and the style he writes them in.
The library Prudence Roberts works at is naturally setup as one where nothing dramatic ever happens:
‘The outside world never intruded into the sanctum where Prudence Roberts worked. Nothing violent or exciting ever happened there, or was ever likely to. Voices were never raised above a whisper, or at the most a discreet murmur. The most untoward thing that could possibly occur would be that some gentleman browser became so engrossed he forgot to remove his at and had to be tactfully reminded. Once, it is true, a car backfired violently somewhere outside in the street and the whole staff gave a nervous start, including Prudence, who dropped her date stamp all the way out in the aisle in front of her desk; but that had never happened again after that one time.’
Inevitably change and drama are on the cards for Prudence, and it all begins with a woman returning a library book. Prudence perhaps does not immediately win our sympathy at the start of the tale, with her literary snobbishness:
‘She turned up her nose with unqualified inner disapproval at first sight of the volume. Her taste was severely classical; she had nothing against light reading in itself, but to her, light reading meant Dumas, Scott, Dickens. She could tell this thing before her was trash by the title alone, and the author’s pen name: Manuela Gets Her Man, by Orchid Ollivant.’
However, Prudence is not a static character, and I think she unbends as she experiences life more over the course of the story and encounters more of the world. I think this helps her perceive things less in stereotypes, which is something she is prone to do:
‘[…] she glanced up, expecting to see one of these modern young hussies, all paint and boldness, or else a faded middle-aged blonde of the type that lounged around all day in a wrapper, reading such stuff and eating marshmallows. To her surprise the woman before her was drab, looked hardworking and anything but frivolous. She didn’t seem to go with the book at all.’
The woman returning the book mentions that there is a missing page, which results in her facing a fine for the book and a ban from the library until she pays it. Prudence, however, feels sorry for the woman, believing that she did not cause the damage herself and instead pays the fine. Yet, Prudence’s curiosity is roused. The page has been deliberately removed and there are various slits. After some puzzle solving, Prudence uncovers a secret message, a ransom note no less.
As a dutiful citizen she goes straight to the police, but she is unimpressed when they just laugh at her theory. Moreover, it is suggested in the narrative that one of the reasons she is taken less seriously is because ‘she was prim-looking and wore thick lensed glasses.’ Gender stereotypes do rather surface here, in an artificial way, so I suspect they are being used for humorous purposes. Before Prudence leaves, she briefly takes her glasses off, and suddenly Detective Murphy wishes to take her home, promising he will look in the police files.
Despite being rather unworldly (Prudence had to have a hot cup of tea when a drunk man once spoke to her) our intrepid librarian sleuth approaches the mystery logically, identifying the last people to borrow the book and then systematically goes to visit them. This activity brings out Prudence’s rigid worldview once more: ‘This place was definitely off her list too, as she had felt it would be even before the interview. People who lived in such surroundings didn’t send kidnap notes or associate with people who did.’ This example is emblematic of how little Prudence knows of the real world. Nevertheless, her hard work does pay off and she gets on the trail of something. Dramatic rescue is certainly on the cards, and I could imagine this plotline being suitable for adaptation for TV or film.
Story No. 14: ‘The Stolen Endymion’ by Lassiter Wren and Randle McKay
This tale is one of the puzzles these two authors created for The Baffle Book. Would-be puzzle solvers must read the story first, which concerns the theft of a valuable first edition by Keats, and then answer two questions. These puzzles often came with illustrations, pertinent to the case and in this instance the illustration is a set of fingerprints.
Rating: 4/5
Source: Review Copy (American Mystery Classics)