Bibliomysteries: Stories of Crime in the World of Books and Bookstores

Mysterious Press editor and bookshop proprietor Penzler has done it again, calling on a formidable cadre of authors to contribute short book-related mysteries. There's not a bad one among the 15, though some shine more brightly. Nazis and the Holocaust figure in several selections, including Reed Farrel Coleman's wry and dry "The Book of Ghosts," C.J. Box's "Pronghorns of the Third Reich," "What's in a Name?" by Thomas H. Cook, and Peter Blauner's "The Final Testament," with a dying Sigmund Freud. TV detective Columbo pesters a murderous nephew in William Link's "Death Leaves a Bookmark," while Laura Lippman's PI Tess Monaghan solves a bookstore theft in "The Book Thing." Jeffery Deaver provides plenty of twists in "An Acceptable Sacrifice," about a wealthy Mexican book collector, and Nelson DeMille's "The Book Case" is a perfect miniature of murder. The best story is the one about a library. John Connolly's prize-winning entry, "The Caxton Lending Library & Book Depository," has touches of magic and a large cast of characters.