Biblio Mysteries

Transcript

Speaker: Welcome to Clued Mystery. I'm Sarah. And I'm Brooke, and we both love mystery. Brooke. Hi, Sarah. It's so great to be talking to you again.

Speaker: but Before we get into our episode, we have some exciting news to share. That's right. Later this fall, Sarah and I are going to be releasing our very first collaborative mystery that we wrote together.

Speaker: I'm super excited about this, Brooke. ah And we will, I'm sure, talk more about it in future episodes. But we just wanted to put that on everybody's radar that that'll be coming soon.

Speaker: That's right. And, you know, our newsletter subscribers to the Cluedin Chronicle will be getting the first peek at the cover and the title. So you definitely want to subscribe over there to stay clued in.

Speaker: So Brooke, do you have a favorite setting for a mystery? I really love anything like in a big old historic building or a historic town. Both of those really, you know, like intrigue me.

Speaker: And those are excellent settings for bookshops or libraries. And for mystery fan, a mystery set in one of those locations or a mystery about books can feel like the best possible combination.

Speaker: We have previously discussed authors as sleuths, but today we will focus more on mysteries set in libraries or bookshops or where books, not just the people who write them, play an important role.

Speaker: Like the entire mystery genre, biblio mysteries can encompass several sub-genres. According to Otto Penzler of Mysterious Press and the Mysterious Bookshop, biblio mysteries are either set primarily in libraries or bookshops or the crime involves books.

Speaker: A mystery featuring an author isn't necessarily a bibliomystery, but he does say that if the nature of their work brings them into a mystery or the books or their books are a vital clue in the solution, they probably make the cut.

Speaker: His bookshop commissions short stories from authors and each story features books or those who write them, buy them, read them, collect them, sell them, or are in some way involved with them.

Speaker: And I've read one of his collections and it was such a delight. But Mysterious Press is not the only publisher of mysteries set in the book world. So Brooke, let's discuss some of our favorites. Thanks, Sarah. Oh, I can't wait.

Speaker: I love that he has these collections of biblio mysteries. Otto Penzler is such a influential person in the mystery space. We've learned so much from him and here he here he is again.

Speaker: I was looking through my Goodreads and like just trying to get a handle on how many books I have read that have some connection to books or the book industry. And it's a lot.

Speaker: like There are a lot of books in this industry. subgenre. And one that came to mind is um Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz. So the sleuth is an editor.

Speaker: There's a mysterious death of an author. There's clues in the books that the author wrote. ah It is, I think, a great example of a bibliomystery.

Speaker: Oh, first of all, I think that was a genius move to go to Goodreads because I was just kind of trying to think back to all the books. And and I did review, I keep a spreadsheet of books that I've read per year. And so I went back a couple of years, but Goodreads, that was a great idea. And I agree. Magpie Murders is a fantastic example.

Speaker: Maybe one of the most creative ways to tell one of these stories because it is a story within a story. And those can be just so much fun. Well, and and that's a great point, Brooke, because I think a lot of examples of bibliomysteries, particularly if they ah center around a book, will end up being books within books because there's some clue or some insight that you the you as the reader and the sleuth in the story is meant to get from reading this other book.

Speaker: Exactly. And for bookish people, it's just like so satisfying to you know need to flip through the pages and find the clues.

Speaker: I think that this a subgenre also lends itself really well to what we call the unusual format book, because many times you get pieces and parts of that diary or old book within the text.

Speaker: Exactly. Yeah, another book within a book story that um that I thought of was The Plot by Gene Hunt for Corlitz, which is about an author becoming very, very successful, but after having um stolen the work of another author, I really enjoyed it when I read it.

Speaker: So it came out in 2021. And I probably read it in either late that year in 2022.

Speaker: um But yeah, that that book within a book trope, I think works super well. Another one that is a book within a book is The Woman in the Library from Solari Gentile. It's this author ah who's writing a book, but there's some clues in that book that that she's writing and she's writing it in the library and hears this um really distressing sound and and the the story kicks off from there. i highly recommend it.

Speaker: I remember when that one was kind of hot off the press and how and how its title harkens back to a golden age biblio mystery, The Body in the Library, which of course is a Agatha Christie from 1942.

Speaker: um So I thought that was really great to be to be able to make that connection to the golden age because really we've been enjoying biblio mysteries since the very beginning. That's right.

Speaker: And that reminds me of a book that I read relatively recently called The Christie Curse, which is the start of, I believe, of ah of a cozy series.

Speaker: um And that book centers around a researcher who's been tasked with finding what is meant to be a previously unknown Agatha Christie play.

Speaker: And so there's a lot of, you know, um visiting old booksellers and and trying to track this down. And there's, you know, a whole whole mystery around it. um And it was it yeah it was it was quite a ah cozy read.

Speaker: Yeah, I've read that one too. And i that's one of the things we find in Biblio Mysteries is a lot of times they're searching for this object, this book.

Speaker: So it makes it a little bit of a treasure hunt feel many times. And and you know that just adds that layer of kind of adventure to the mystery. And you know that can be really satisfying as well.

Speaker: I just started listening to a middle grade novel called The Lost Library. So a little free library appears in this little boy's town. And he chooses two books and discovers that there's some real mystery behind them and mystery behind this little free library. And i think it's just such a fun premise.

Speaker: And so it's written by Rebecca Stead and Wendy Mauss. They've co-authored it. Oh, that sounds fantastic. I happen to have my own little library in the town that I live in.

Speaker: My writing partners and I put one up outside of the coffee shop that we often visit and ah registered it. And so little libraries are near and dear to my heart. So I wonder if ours is magical. That sounds really fun.

Speaker: Well, one just um over the summer came up ah in our neighborhood and I love walking by it. I go, I walk by it almost every day and it's so fun to see the books entering and leaving. And sometimes there's books in there that I think like who on earth is going to want to read this? And then when I come by, even if it's 20 minutes later, the book is gone. so There is somebody on earth who wants to read that. And so there's, they are such a wonderful idea.

Speaker: They are so fun. And I would agree with that completely. i will think, oh my gosh, we're going to have to change these books out. And no, they circulate and people love them. And I think they're a wonderful addition to a neighborhood.

Speaker: So again, when I was, you know, searching through my through my Goodreads, Brooke, I thought of this series by Ellie Griffiths. um One of the books is the Postscript Murders.

Speaker: But I think most of the books in that series that I've read have something to do with authors or writing or books. Does that am I am I making that up?

Speaker: No, I think you're right. To be honest, I've only read one in that series, but it's definitely on my radar and I enjoyed it completely. In fact, I think you and I both said, why haven't we read more Ellie Griffiths?

Speaker: But I love that she uses that series to maybe like really savor that love that we all have, the idea of the mystery based around the books and the people who write them.

Speaker: One book that I know both of us read recently is Your Italy Invited. would you consider that to be a bibliomystery? It has authors.

Speaker: um It's more of a um domestic thriller or more of a thriller type setup. But I don't know.

Speaker: i don't know if I would put it in this category. Yeah, I'm not sure that it completely meets Mr. Penzler's criteria, but it's definitely on the edge of that. And part of why I loved that book so much is the fact that these all these authors get together and.

Speaker: And there there are lots of little references to writing or writer's block and things like that that made the story really fun for somebody who is also an author but a book lover.

Speaker: So another cozy series is the Beyond the Page Mysteries written by Lauren Elliott. And the first book in that series is Murder by the Book. And sad news, over the summer, we learned that Lauren Elliott actually died.

Speaker: um But we can all enjoy her books still. That is something wonderful about art in any form is that we can still honor those people who created it. So that's a wonderful suggestion, Sarah.

Speaker: Well, one series that I've recently decided that I want to reread is the Cliff Janoway novels by John Dunning. And the first one in that series is Booked to Die. it released in 1992.

Speaker: And these a very detective feel because ah Cliff Jannaway is our a detective who ends up leaving the force to become a rare and collectible book dealer. And all the i believe there are five books in the series, and all of the stories revolve around and locating some mysterious or collectible rare book. And again, we talked about the clues that are within the text and they're just really fantastic. And as I said, I've i've reread Booked to Die and I'm going to work my way through this series.

Speaker: Oh, that sounds really fun, Brooke. um And I also think it's great to mention the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop series by Vicki Delaney. She is, of course, a past guest.

Speaker: And this is going to meet the criteria because it's set in the bookstore. All the mysteries don't necessarily have to do with books, but you're in this...

Speaker: bookstore that you and I both said, man, I wish that was a real place. It's the Sherlock Holmes bookshop in Emporium. They have like the connected cafe that what is Mrs. Hudson's cafe, I believe, where they have, you know, bakery goods. And yeah Vicki Delaney just creates this little world that I think we would all love to live in But her sleuth is Gemma Doyle. and who she might be related to Arthur Conan Doyle himself. So just a wonderful connection to to those older stories and a really fun series.

Speaker: That's right, Brooke. And that's a ah great example of BiblioMysteries. And absolutely, I would love to visit that shop if it existed.

Speaker: Well, I found a couple of books to add to my TBR while I was researching this week. And one of them is the Blue Ridge Library Mysteries, which are written by Victoria Gilbert.

Speaker: And they feature librarian Amy Weber solving crimes connected to, again, books, rare documents, and the library she manages in a small town. So that's going to be a cozy book.

Speaker: read for me. And then that is called a Biblio Noir. i think this sounds so good. The first book in this series is Murder at the 42nd Street Library. This is by Con Lahane, and it's a contemporary murder mystery series.

Speaker: rooted in the New York Public Library system. And the cover features, you know, those great lion statues on ah at the front of the New York Public Library. So as I mentioned at the top of the show, I'm a sucker for those big old buildings and especially library.

Speaker: I love that idea of a um noir set ah the at the New York Public Library. I also recently read The Library Game, which was published this year, 2025, Pandian.

Speaker: It's a locked room and closed circle mystery. It's, I think, third or fourth in her series. um And I hadn't read the um the earlier books, but I was able to figure out who was who.

Speaker: um she does a good job of kind of catching the reader up. Um, and, uh, it's all set in this library, this old house that, uh, the owner has recently died and in his will instructed that his extensive book collection be made available as a library.

Speaker: and um, he loved puzzles and so wanted it to be, um, you know, kind of filled with, hidden, um hidden mysteries within the library. And it was it was i really enjoyed the book. It was quite clever.

Speaker: Oh, that sounds fantastic. I love the idea of somebody who has built this, you know, personal library, then sharing it with the world. It's a little bit like the concept of the little free library, just on a grander scale.

Speaker: Exactly. And what a great legacy to leave for your community, you know, if you had amassed this collection of books, and, you know, they wouldn't, they didn't need to build a new facility because it was his his home that was being turned into this library.

Speaker: Yeah, that's great. Maybe it's an excuse to have a gigantic book collection so that you can say, well, hey, one of these days, I'm just going to let everybody come and share in on this.

Speaker: Yeah, I think that's a great idea. and And that will be the reason that I justify future book purchases is that I'm just, this is this is part of my legacy.

Speaker: That's right. We're just building a legacy. Well, thank you, Brooke, for this conversation. It's always fun to talk about mystery. It's especially fun to talk about mysteries about books.

Speaker: Thanks, Sarah. It has been so great. And until next time, everyone, thank you for joining us on Clued in Mystery. I'm Brooke. And I'm Sarah.

Speaker: And we both love mystery. Clued in Mystery is written and produced by Brooke Peterson and Sarah M. Stephen. Music is by Shane Ivers. If you liked what you heard, please consider telling a friend, leaving a review, or subscribing with your favorite podcast listening app.

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