Of crime fiction's many subgenres, none is so reflexive and so
intriguing as the "bibliomystery." These are stories that involve crimes
set, somehow, in the world of books -- stories that feature a book scout
as a sleuth, for example, or that find a literary heir killing to
preserve an estate. Perhaps because it deals with a subject that authors
know well, this type of plot comes up throughout the history of the
genre.
This volume collects the finest of such stories written by American
authors during the Golden Age of mystery -- the decades between the two
World Wars. It includes works by household names such as Cornell
Woolrich and John Dickson Carr, and less-remembered writers such as
James Gould Cozzens and Lawrence Blochman.