Book Buzz

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Bibliomysteries

What do libraries, booksellers, and authors have in common? Books, books, books. This category may possibly burst our bindings; however, we are trying to limit this list to sleuths who are librarians, booksellers, and authors who solve the crime. Librarians just can’t help themselves as they investigate the clues that perplex them, and booksellers are another form of librarian that potentially makes oodles more money. Authors are included (although they would make a nifty category all on their own) because they write the books librarians loan and booksellers vend. Many of these mysteries take place in the libraries, the bookstores, and authors’ habitats; however, the crime can occur anywhere that these lovers of the written word (publication, work, writing; scroll; booklet, brochure, folder, leaflet, magazine, pamphlet; compendium, handbook, manual, monograph, textbook, tract, treatise; codex; novel; Merriam-Webster Thesaurus) happen to exist. Most of these mysteries easily fall into the Cozy category with very few exceptions.

The following is a list of authors who fit into this category. The titles in each series is given.

Jeff Abbott
Librarian, Jordan Poteet

Do Unto Others (1994)

Only Good Yankee (1995)

Distant Blood (1996)

Promises of Home (1996)

Lydia Adamson
Ex-Librarian, Lucy Wayles, Bird-watcher

Beware the Tufted Duck (1996)

Beware the Butcher Bird (1997)

Beware the Laughing Gull (1998)

Garrison Allen
Bookseller, Penelope Warren
Desert Cat (1994) NOT IN NOBLE.
Royal Cat (1995)
Stable Cat (1996)
Baseball Cat (1997)
Dinosaur Cat (1998)
Movie Cat (1999)

Isaac Asimov
Authors
Murder at the ABA: A Puzzle in Four Days and Sixty Scenes (1976)

Carlos Baker
Authors
Gay Head Conspiracy (1973)

Jen Banbury
Booksellers
Like a Hole in the Head (1998), See
review of this title.

Stephanie Barron
Jane Austen, Author
Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor (1996)
Jane and the Man of the Cloth (1997)
Jane and the Wandering Eye (1998)
Jane and the Genius of the Place (1998)
Jane and the Stillroom Maid (2000)
Jane and the Prisoner of Wool House (2001)
Jane and the Ghost of Netley (2003)

George Baxt
Authors
Dorothy Parker Murder (1989).

Lawrence Block
Authors
Burglar in the Library: A Bernie Rhodenbarr Mystery (1997)
Burglar Who Liked to Quote Kipling: A Bernie Rhodenbarr Mystery (1996)

Marshall Browne
Librarians

Inspector Anders and the Ship of Fools (2002)

Dorothy Cannell
Libraries
How to Murder the Man of Your Dreams (1995)

Lillian Stewart Carl
School Librarians
Memory and Desire (2000)

Bill Crider
Rare Books
Booked for a Hanging (1992)

Amanda Cross
Authors
James Joyce Murder (1967)

Jo Dereske
Helma Zukas, Librarian
Miss Zukas and the Library Murders (1994)
Miss Zukas and the Island Murders (1995)
Miss Zukas and the Stroke of Death (1996)
Miss Zukas and the Raven’s Dance (1996)
Out of Circulation (1997)
Final Notice (1998)
Miss Zukas in Death’s Shadow (1999)
Miss Zukas Shelves the Evidence (2001)

Charles Dickens
Author
The D. Case or the Truth about the Mystery of Edwin Drood. (1992)

Carole Nelson Douglas
Midnight Louie (Cat)
Catnap (1992)
Pussyfoot (1993)
Cat on a Blue Monday (1994)
Cat in a Crimson Haze (1995)

John Dunning
Rare Books
Booked to Die: A Mystery Introducing Cliff Janeway (1992)
Bookman’s Wake (1995)

Umberto Eco
Medieval Libraries
The Name of the Rose (1983)

Terence Faherty
Authors
The Lost Keats (1993)

Mark P. Friedlander
Authors
Shakepeare Transcripts (1993)

Bartholomew Gill
Authors
Death of an Ardent Bibliophile: A Peter McGarr Mystery (1995)
Death of a Joyce Scholar (1989)

Charles Goodrum
Crighton Jones, Librarian
Dewey Decimated (1977)
Carnage of the Realm (1979)
Best Cellar (1987)
Slip of the Tong (1992)

Joe W. Haldeman
Authors
Hemingway Hoax (1990)

David Handler
Authors
The Man Who Would be F. Scott Fitzgerald (1991)

Charlaine Harris
Librarians
A Fool and His Honey (1999)

Will Harriss
Rare Books
Bay Psalm Book Murder (1983)

Carolyn G. Hart
Booksellers
See Husband & Wife Teams for the Annie & Max Darling Series

Sam Hawke
Authors
A Mystery of Errors (2000)

Peter J. Heck
Authors
Death On the Mississippi: A Mark Twain Mystery (1995)
A Connecticut Yankee in Criminal Court (1996)
The Prince and the Prosecutor (1997)
Guilty Abroad (1999)
Mysterious Strangler (2000)
Tom’s Lawyer (2001)

Joan Hess
Booksellers
See Comic Capers for the Claire Malloy series.

Jane Stanton Hitchcock
Rare Books
Witches’ Hammer (1994)

William Hjortsberg
Authors
Nevermore (1994)

H. Paul Jeffers
Authors
Corpus Corpus: A Sergeant Bogdonavich Mystery (1998)

Ross King
Booksellers/Libraries
Ex-libris (2001)

Allen Kurzweil
Librarians
Grand Complication (2001)

Jane Langton
Authors/Rare Books
Transcendental Murder: A Homer Kelly Mystery (1964)
Emily Dickinson is Dead: A Homer Kelly Mystery (1984)
Thief of Venice: A Homer Kelly Mystery (1999)

Gaylord Larson
Authors
Dorothy and Agatha (1990)

Genevieve Lyons
Antiquarian Booksellers
Drowning of Allison Alyward: A Mark Dangerfield Detective Novel (2001)

Marianne Macdonald
Antiquarian Bookseller
Death’s Autograph: A Dido Hoare Mystery (1997)
Ghost Walk (1997)
Smoke Screen (1999)
Road Kill (2000)
Blood Lies (2002)
Die Once (2003)