Golden Age Bibliomysteries, edited by Otto Penzler, is a carefully curated anthology featuring fourteen mysteries revolving around libraries, librarians, rare manuscripts, antiquarian books and much more. I appreciated the structure of the anthology and that each story is preceded by a brief introduction on the author, the publication history, and screen adaptations if any. Most of these authors were new to me and I enjoyed getting to know more about them.

The Jorgenson Plates by Frederick Irving Anderson (1922) : This wasn’t quite a “bibliomystery” in the true sense of the term but I did the central theme of a conman and his wife getting their comeuppance. (3)
The Aldine Folio Murders by Lawrence G. Blochman (1940): Several individuals express interest in a rare manuscript soon to be auctioned off. What follows is a sequence of events including, theft, murder, and deception. (4)
Death Walks In Marble Halls by Lawrence G. Blochman (1942): The murder of a Trustee at a Public Library has the library closed off as the police investigate several suspects. This is one of my favorites in the collection. (5)
QL 696 .C9 by Anthony Boucher (1942) A librarian is murdered and the probable suspects include her coworkers and one of the patrons. (4)
Foot In It by James Gould Cozzens (1935) The proprietor of a bookstore is confronted by a relative of a deceased customer over a hefty unpaid invoice. (3.5)
The Missing Shakespeare Manuscript by Lilian de la Torre (1946) During the Stratford Jubilee, 1769 after the rare manuscript of a previously unknown work of the bard goes missing the thief demands a hefty ransom. (3)
State Faír Murder by Frank Gruber (1939) The scion of a publishing house is murdered in public.(3.5)
The Episode of the Codex’ Curse by C. Daly King (1935)An Aztec Codex is stolen from a locked room in a museum. (3)
The Adventure of the Three R’s by Ellery Queen (1946) A college professor and aspiring author goes missing and the details of the case are eerily familiar to the story featured in his new manuscript. (4)
The Unique Hamlet by Vincent Starrett (1920) A Sherlock Holmes pastiche revolving around a missing rare signed Hamlet quarto. (4)
A Volume of Poe by Vincent Starrett (1929) A rare volume of poems leads to murder and mayhem. (4)
The Shakespeare Title-Page Mystery Carolyn Wells (1940) Rare books and a lot of “jiggery-pokery”!(3)
The Book That Squealed Cornell Woolrich (1939) Another favorite of mine featuring a resourceful librarian who follows clues she deciphers from the missing pages of a library book to solve a kidnapping! (5)
The final segment is a puzzle, The Stolen Endymion by Lassiter Wren & Randle McKay, from The Baffle Book, published in 1930.(3.5)

Most of the stories are not too complicated and I could guess a few of the endings. The stories vary in length and pacing. As with most anthologies, some stories were more appealing than others but overall, I found it to be an entertaining read. Those who enjoy mysteries set in libraries and/or bookstores would find this collection interesting in that you can get a historical perspective of the sub-genre. Many thanks to the publisher for granting access to the DRC via Edelweiss+. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Please note that few (not all) stories feature terminology, and/or dialogue and/or characters that do sound offensive (racist/sexist) if viewed from a contemporary perspective. However, as mysteries, these stories do make for interesting reading, if you can accept that these stories were written in a different time period.

Average Rating: 3.7?arc-edelweiss-plus77 s Sarah-Hope1,198 137

A good collection of mystery stories is a lovely thing. One can get the reward of "finishing" on a regular basis—and if one story doesn't suit, the next one may. Golden Age Bibliomysteries, collected and edited by Otto Penzler, is just such a collection. These mysteries featured stories of stolen books or documents, investigations by librarians, and clues only a bibliophile could interpret so the police can stay on the trail.

I had doubts about this collection at the beginning. The first story, The Jorgenson Plates, was not, as far as I could tell, a bibliomystery. One character was twice referred to as reading a book, but the book made no appearance in the story beyond those two mentions, and the mystery centered around plates for forging currancy. I'm dubious about Penzler's choice of the second story in this collection, The Aldine Folio Murders, which was unbearably long and full of sexism in exchanges between male and female characters. Sexism and racism are scattered through these stories, and readers will have to decide for themselves whether these are off-putting or understandable within their historical context.

After those two, I almost put Golden Age Bibliomysteries down, but I didn't, and I'm glad of that. My favorite stories were those dealing with rare documents/books: a purportedly "new" Shakespeare play and an investigation into its authenticity by Samuel Johnson; the disappearance of a rare early edition of Hamlet investigated by Sherlock Holmes. I also enjoyed the tale of a plucky librarian attempting to support the war effort by keeping an eye on borrowers of suspicious books.

Golden Age Bibliomysteries will please readers of mysteries, especially those interested in the history of the genre. With fourteen stories in the book, readers can skip the stories that don't engage and jump ahead to those that do (and these will be different for every reader). I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via Edelweiss; the opinions are my own.2023 edelweissplus5 s Howard264 8

14 short stories from the golden age of noir (1920s - 1940s) all with a biblio aspect to the stories. I enjoyed the style of some less than others. Includes an excellent Sherlock Holmes pastiche. I never was able to figure out how the first story qualified as a bibliomystery, but still an enjoyable story. Includes an example of a puzzle mystery: a short mystery which the reader is asked to solve, with the answer provided in the back of the book. (I would say that I was able to solve about half the puzzle).3 s Lisa Kucharski948

So, I’ve read a lot of the GAD short story collections and I must say this is the favorite of mine so far. The focus topic of mysteries that involve books actually made the mysteries varied and interesting. The length of the stories in general are longer short stories.

So while I d all the stories (no small feat here.)

Loved: Death Walks the Marbled Halls by Lawrence G. Blochman
State Fair Murders by Frank Gruber, The Episode of the Codex Curse and The Book that Squealed by Cornell Woolrich.

The introductions were also well done; the introduction to the collection also gave a list of some full length stories to seek out if interested (I’ve read several on this list.)

So, if you’re a book person AND a mystery person- you should read the book if you can.

2 s1 comment Susan5,821 60

A solid--and atmore than 400-pages long, hefty--collection of mysteries about books, bookmen, librarians, and related things. (Although I personally didn't see the book-connection in the first story, "The Jorgenson Plates.") There are some little-known stories and authors, and unusually in this kind of anthology, two stories by the same author (twice!). mystery-short-stories2 s Jesse400 7

It grew on me. Some of the earlier entries are comparatively weak--I honestly can barely work out what happens in the first story, which seems to concern books only in the most tangential sense. Fortunately, some better ones arrive later: the Ellery Queen story is a hoot, the Woolrich entry is dryly funny (and its clues cleverly worked out), and the C. Daly King one excitingly exotic in its setup, though the execution is underwhelming. The NYPL one is fun as well, Vincent Starrett's two stories are better than his novels (ace Holmes pastiche), and I would read more of Frank Gruber's Oliver Quade stories (which, it turns out, you can get for about $15), even though I didn't totally get what the scheme was. But I dug the humbuggery celebrated at its core. Most of all, I glean an overwhelming sense of craft, as with the press's earlier locked-room anthology (which, also, at more than 400pp, is value for money): so many hopefuls out there in the 30s and 40s writing so assiduously, in a field stuffed with writers and magazines and publishers rushing out book after book. So of course you're going to get a subspecies of book-hooked mysteries. The other thing is the semi-terrifying, or just plain terrifying, expertise of Otto Penzler, whose asides about authors Carolyn Wells ("wrote and edited one hundred seventy books, of which eighty-two are mysteries, many of which had exceptionally ingenious plot ideas, and most of which are achingly dull") bespeak massive quantities of time spent on people nobody has heard of. His ventures into old issues of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and everywhere else have unearthed enough fun examples of the form to make this worth your while.2 s Brian Quast109 8

A solid 3-1/2 star rating! A fun read for lovers of bibliomysteries!!1 Michael Reilly596 11

Otto Penzler has done a nice job collecting American mystery stories from 1920 to 1950 that revolve around books, libraries and book collectors. For example, Cornell Woolrich, the master of dark noir, has a relatively light fun story that plays off the stereotype of the prim librarian. He includes solid stories by Ellery Queen, Anthony Boucher, and some lesser known Golen Age writers.

Several of the stories revolve around improbably rare Shakespearean volumes. Vincent Starrett has Sherlock Holmes trying to recover a first edition of "Hamlet", signed by the author! Lillian de Torre has Samuel Johnson trying to recover the manuscript of a previously unknown play by Shakespeare. Carolyn Wells has a story about a copy of Shakespeare's first publication, the poem "Venus and Adonis."

C. Daly King has an excellent story, "The Episode of the "Codex Curse". It pulls of the great short story trick of having a clever surprise twist ending that seems obvious once it is revealed.

There are a few clinkers. Surprisingly, the only author with two stories is the relatively unknown and undistinguished Lawrence G. Blochman. Neither of his stories is very good, and the second story is not very good, and the longest story in the book.

One issue in any anthology is deciding how to arrange the stories. Some editors try to vary the tone and length. Some collections are arranged chronologically by publication. Some are organized by topics or themes.

Penzler adopts the simple approach and organizes the stories alphabetically by author's last name. The problem in this book is the story by Frederick Irving Anderson is the weakest in the book. It is improbable and filled with stock characters. It is also not a bibliomystery. Nothing in the plot revolves around books. I am mystified by its inclusion. Not a great way to start what is, otherwise, a very enjoyable anthology. Robin762

Pay attention to titles! I was not fully paying attention to the title when I reserved this book at my library-- bibliomysteries (mysteries involving books), yay; golden age: 1920s-1940s, not really my decades for mystery reading. So I read two of the stories, which were pleasant, one of which included a murder, the other a sort of "you-solve-it" with questions and a solution. Both dealt with book collecting and first editions. Penzler's introductions are helpful as is his list in the intro of "bibliomystery novels."mysteries1 Beverly5,451 4

I enjoyed all of these short mystery stories. Except for the first story, each story centered around either a book, a book store, or a library. My favorite story was The Book that Squealed by Cornell Woolrich. All of the stories were from the 1920s, 1930s or 1940s, so this was a fascinating trip down memory lane. af-mystery1 Rural42 1 follower

Two (minor) complaints - I had already read a few of these (great) stories in one of the other recent Penzler anthologies, and the book overall felt it was too short (maybe because of my first complaint). Definitely worth your time however. Ron Kastner143 6

Not every story is a masterpiece; but there are some gems that it is good to have been made available again! Kevin2,339 34 Read

I just couldn't generate any interest in these stories. Too old-fashioned for my tastes. Val1,893 11

I had heard once that it takes a true genius to write a mystery short. There are a few geniuses represented in this collection, which makes the volume worth reading.mystery short-stories Jessica Lerbs362 4

There was only one I'd already read before, so that was nice. Andréa11.7k 109

Autor del comentario:
=================================