“Murder by the Book” edited by Martin Edwards is the latest collection of short stories in the British Library Crime Classics series, the theme for this collection is bibliomysteries, crimes involving books (or something close to books/libraries/manuscripts/etc.). As is typical with these collections, we have a mix of well-known and obscure authors, one-off and series characters, and interesting and (unfortunately) ho-hum stories.

“A Lesson in Crime” by G.D.H and M. Cole – an author’s critic takes his criticism a bit too far in this story set on a train.
“Trent and the Ministering Angel” by E.C. Bentley – A love of rock gardens and Lewis Carroll help Trent find the lawyer’s deceased client.
“A Slice of Bad Luck” by Nicholas Blake – a murder takes place during a banquet held for mystery writers. A fun case of writers trying to solve a murder.
“The Strange Case of the Megatherium Thefts” by S.C. Roberts – missing books from a private club pull Sherlock Holmes into finding the culprit.
“Malice Domestic” by Phillip MacDonald – a husband has strange pains after eating his wife’s cooking.
“A Savage Game” by A.A. Milne – the author of Winnie-the-Pooh comes up with a great take on the murdered miserly uncle story.
“The Clue in the Book” by Julian Symons – the clue is in the book, really too simple to figure out.
“The Manuscript” by Gladys Mitchell – an author has an interesting method in getting ex-convict stories, with bad consequences.
“A Man and his Mother-in-Law” by Roy Vickers – one of the longer stories in this book, Mr. Vickers does a wonderful job of developing his characters. A book plays a key role in the murder of Aunt Agnus.
“Grey's Ghost” by Michael Innes – a ghost writer feels that he’s being cheated and gets his revenge.
“Dear Mr. Editor...” by Christianna Brand – a mad woman plots her revenge on the woman she tried to kill.
“Murder in Advance” by Marjorie Bremner - a play writer’s newest play may reveal some secrets that someone will kill to keep hidden.
“A Question of Character” by Victor Canning – a husband jealous of his wife’s success (they’re both writers) plots her demise, with unexpected results.
“The Book of Honour” by John Creasey - a friendship between an Indian bookseller and a Brit leads to tragic results.
“We Know You're Busy Writing...” by Edmund Crispin – unwanted guests interrupt a writer and take advantage of his hospitality a bit too long.
“Chapter and Verse” by Ngaio Marsh – a stranger pursuing family histories works with Inspector Alleyn’s wife until he starts getting too close to some secrets.

Having read many of these reissues (62+ and counting!), I feel qualified to comment that this collection was not the best of the bunch, but still an enjoyable way to spend some time.

I requested and received a free advanced electronic copy from Poisoned Pen Press via NetGalley. Thank you!

"With Martin Edwards as librarian and guide, delve into an irresistible stack of bibliomysteries, where "golden age - inspired puzzle masters [are] doing what they do best: bringing together readers, books, and felonies [in] perhaps the single best collection yet in this blue-chip series (Kirkus, Starred Review)."

There is no better hiding place for clues - or red herrings - than inside the pages of a book. But in this world of resentful ghost writers, indiscreet playwrights, and unscrupulous book collectors, literary prowess is often a prologue to disaster. Readers should be warned that the most riveting tales often conceal the deadliest of secrets.

Featuring much-loved Golden Age detectives Nigel Strangeways, Philip Trent, Detective Chief Inspector Roderick Alleyn, and others, a bookish puzzle threatens an eagerly awaited inheritance; a submission to a publisher recounts a murder that seems increasingly to be a work of nonfiction; an irate novelist puts a grisly end to the source of his writer's block."

Because Golden Age detection is my catnip!

The British Library's crime anthologies are very nearly uniformly excellent, but even among that august company this is a stand out. Consisting of mysteries primarily from the Golden Age that all have to do with books and writing, the stories in this anthology take some very entertaining twists, with the best being Christianna Brand's <i>Dear Mr. Editor...</i>, which has a twist that we <i>should</i> see coming but somehow can still be surprised by. Similarly Edmund Crispin's <i>We Know You're Busy Writing...</i> plays with the process of creating a crime story and has some very engaging metafictional elements that make it delightfully dark. But even the stories whose titles don't involve ellipses are very strong, and each is capably introduced by Edwards in a way that gives context and an idea of what to expect without giving anything away. This is, simply put, an excellent collection, and really worth it for the Brand and Crispin stories alone.

What a gem of a collection. Edwards has done an outstanding job of curating some of the best shorts stories from the pens of masters of the Golden Age of authors. Almost every story is exquisite. This is a book to be savored and this reader will delight in rereading it.

Some of my favorite Golden Age writers have stories in this “bibliomystery” collection, including Ngaio Marsh, Edmund Crispin, Christianna Brand, Michael Innes, Nicholas Blake, and Victor Canning. (Though I actually came to enjoy Canning because of his non-mystery Mr Finchley comic novels.)

As I read, I began to notice that the book connection with several of these stories is slight. But I decided I didn’t care, for the simple reason that quite a few of the stories in this book are very entertaining, and not just the ones by the big names in mystery. Many are in the bad-guy-outsmarts-himself vein, which I’ve always enjoyed.

If you like Golden Age of Mystery tales and you enjoy short stories, this is a good choice.

Sixteen wondrous British Library Crime Classics short stories written by a range of well known and lesser known Golden Age authors are contained in this brilliant anthology. Most were written between 1890 and 1960, my favourite era to read, and this book brought me such joy! This time the theme is bibliomysteries, mysteries about all things books from readers to sellers to collectors to publishers to writers and even bookcases. As always, interesting biographies of the writers are fabulous introductions to the stories. Though most were familiar and beloved to me, others were not and have steered me down several happy rabbit holes!

My favourites include A Question of Character by Victor Canning, cunning and humorous; E. C. Bentley's Trent and the Ministering Angel with botanical Latin clues; the clever Sherlockian The Strange Case of the Megatherium Thefts by S. C. Roberts; Malice Domestic by Philip MacDonald with a surprise; A Savage Game by A. A. Milne with its awesome plan; Julian Symon's clever puzzle in The Clue in the Book; witty A Man and His Mother-in-Law by Ray Vickers; Dear Mr. Editor by Christianna Brand featuring trickery and Murder in Advance by Marjorie Bremner with a special ending. Oh, how I loved the stories! I cannot wait to read the next selection.

Golden Age readers and those who enjoy short story whodunits ought to add this volume to their lists. A few stories are not believable but others are truly difficult to figure out. All have merit and should be enjoyed for what they are.

My sincere thank you to Poisoned Pen Press for the absolute privilege of reading this incredible book and also to Martin Edwards for reviving these and other stories, highlighting the value of the classics.

My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher Poison Pen Press for an advanced copy of this mystery anthology featuring books people are willing to kill for.

Short story collections can be tricky book to read, especially ones with numerous writers from across eras. Stories have different writing styles, varying points of view, some go on too long, others don't seem long enough. A common theme does help though, and this collection features stories with dealing with books, either manic collectors, fans who go to far, codes hidden in books, libraries or bookstores. Martin Edwards is the complier of this collection, known for his own mysteries, his editing of many collections and reissues, and as a mystery historian with a deep knowledge of the subject.

The stories feature mysteries a plenty, rare books, obsessive collectors, crafty murderers and some who get away with murder. Sherlock Holmes, Philip Trent, Roderick Alleyn are some of the professional detectives featured, though many amateurs do their best to close the book on nefarious ne'er- do- wells. Churchyards, moving trains, libraries and gardens with an Alice in Wonderland theme are some of the settings, even the streets of India in a standout story by master of the locked room writer John Creasey. The stories play fair, red herrings are littered among the real clues and a little bit of bibliomania will be helpful.

Martin Edwards is a master compiler and all his stories, which is rare for me in any collection, are quite enjoyable. Most of them are from the Golden Age of detective stories, but some seem dated in the fact that people are expected to think while reading these stories unlike a lot of writing today. Each story is accompanied with a brief biography on the writer, a bit about the story and more books to follow up on for people who would like to try more. Each story seems to be the perfect length, though I wish some had gone on since I enjoyed the characters and wanted to know about them.

Highly recommended for fans of mysteries and or books. This is the second book this year I have read by Martin Edwards, The Life of Crime coming out earlier this year and is a study and history of the detective story and novel. A fine companion piece to this collection. A very enjoyable collection.

This is a compilation of short crime stories written by authors in the British Library Crime Classics series.

Its my first book by this author. I loved it way more than expected. Now I can’t wait to research some of the authors featured and read their other works when I have a chance.

Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

This is book for all the bibliophile mystery lovers out there. Think Clue meets the ultimate anthology of crime classics. What a fun, whodunnit mixture of writers and storytellers. I thoroughly enjoyed this compilation of short stories!

Short stories which touch either lightly or very heavily on one particular topic are often not entirely successful for me. This book, however, edited by Martin Edwards makes good connections for me, probably because the field is so wide for authors to choose from. Each of the short stories contained in this collection leads to a book or a segment of the book production industry. Sometimes it is a little bit of a stretch, but they all get there in the end. Edwards calls this a "sub-branch" of the genre and this collection is packed with a wide variety of plots and crimes that engaged my attention all the way through. Many of my favorite authors have one of their works included and each story was new to me. As is usual with an anthology of this type there is a short biographical feature of each author at the beginning of their contribution as well as information for when and where the story first appeared. The following is a list of titles and authors included.

A Lesson in Crime - George Douglas Howard Cole and Margaret Cole
Trent and the Ministering Angel - E. C. Bentley
A Slice of Bad Luck - Nicholas Blake
The Strange Case of the Megatherium Thefts - S. C. Roberts
Malice Domestic - Philip MacDonald
A Savage Game - A. A. Milne
The Clue in the Book - Julian Symons
The Manuscript - Gladys Mitchell
A Man and His Mother-in-Law - Roy Vickers
Grey's Ghost - Michael Innes
Dear Mr. Editor... - Christianna Brand
Murder in Advance - Marjorie Bremner
A Question of Character - Victor Canning
The Book of Honour - John Creasey
We Know You're Busy Writing, - Edmund Crispin
Chapter and Verse - Ngaio Marsh

This collection holds a lot of good stories, pretty much something for everyone who enjoys the "classic" type of crime detection stories. Many of my favorite authors are included and some of their contributions were surprising to me regarding how different this story was from their well-known primary detective novels. This is one of the best anthology compilations I've seen from Martin Edwards in quite a while. I really liked it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for an e-galley of this anthology.

Very enjoyable, thank you for this ARC! This is a third collection by British Crime Classics that I read, and didn't disappoint.

Great collection of short murder mysteries. Bibliophiles will love how each story is related to books in some way. The introductions really add to the reader's enjoyment and understanding of the context of each mystery. The format makes it easy for busy readers to quickly get through this collection. Martin Edwards is one of my favorites and this one doesn't disappoint. I highly recommend reading Murder by the Book!

This was a very interesting book, part short story, part bibliography, it was informative and entertaining. I normally don’t like short stories especially mysteries as they end too soon and I figure out the murderer. However, in this case, I was pleasantly surprised by the stories where I couldn’t figure out the murderer. It was entertaining to read not only about different authors but experience the different writing styles of various authors. Each author told their story in their own unique way, some detectives were familiar, some were very unexpected. Overall, this was an enjoyable read.

Not what I thought it was. I thought it was a library mystery based on the description. The stories aren't but but just not my cup of tea.

What a delight! Expertly curated and introduced by Edwards, these book-related crime stories are entertaining and frequently surprising. I particularly appreciate the variety of crimes featured. Murder, of course, features prominently, but readers also engage with disappearances and other puzzling events. Two of my favorites, “A Man and His Mother-in -Law” and “A Question of Character,” share a snarky quasi-feminist bias. If you like traditional crime fiction or are a bibliophile/Anglophile, this collection is not to be missed.

Thanks to PoisonedPress and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this anthology of bibliomysteries. The 16 entries have been collected by Martin Edwards. Edwards is a crime fiction critic and historian as well as an author .Each story has been included because it deals with some aspect of literature. Among the characters in the stories there are book sellers, playwrights, novelists, librarians and collectors. In one a author is killed because he's a bad writer. A Conan Doyle story features an obsessive book collector as it's main character. Among the authors included are Innes, Marsh, Symons, Creasey and even Milne of Winnie the Pooh fame. The works were produced between 1890 and 1970 are representative of Golden Age mysteries. There are ghost stories, puzzles and locked room murders. Characteristic of the genre, the focus is on solving the crime rather than the personal life of the detective.
This is a fun anthology for Golden Age fans and an excellent introduction to those who are curious or new to them.

3.75 stars

A stellar collection of bookish related short stories mostly from the Golden Age of detective fiction. Charmingly eccentric and puzzlingly clever, these are a delight for fans of vintage mysteries. The characters and plots feature booksellers, family Bibles, writers, and plays and are a pleasure.

Thanks to the publisher and to Net Galley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Martin Edwards has brought together a wonderful collection of short stories of detective fiction from the golden age of detective writing. I found this to be a wonderfully entertaining collection of short fiction tied together by the through line of a love for books.

As with almost all collections of short stories, I found some stories more entertaining than others but on the whole, I really loved this arrangement. I read this one story at a time over several weeks whenever I was in the mood for a quick tale and I had a great experience.

While I haven’t finished this book, it’s great so far! Engaging short stories full of crime and mystery, and the great thing is you can finish a tale in one sitting. I found I quite enjoyed the ability to put down the book and open it up again to new stories and plots.

Murder by the Book – Mysteries for Bibliophiles (British Library Crime Classics) is a superb anthology of sixteen deadly bibliomysteries from the golden age of mystery and specifically from the British Library Crime Classics series (1890s to the 1960s). The engrossing Introduction by Martin Edwards could well stand alone. Not only is it chockful of historical facts, bibliographies, and biographies, but it explores what may qualify as a bibliomystery. The obvious criteria include bookshops and booksellers, libraries and librarians, authors, editors, playwrights, publishers, readers, and plots leaking into the real world. A wide world of literary mischief.

Next, the sixteen stories to die for. Each has brief, fascinating author information and relevant era notes. Again, excellent footing to step into the stories of another time. Most authors may not be read now, or even known, but this is a path to become acquainted with them. The often-urbane characters in cultured settings reside in the collection, fueled with runaway obsessions and outright madness - all tethered to the literary world.

“Trent and the Ministering Angel” by E. C. Bentley stood out with the classic drawing room/club smoking-room set up and the murder of an elderly, scholarly, Greek-reading, Lewis Carroll fan. The delightful inclusion of “The Hunting of the Snark” is inventive and memorable.

Then there is A. A. Milne’s “A Savage Game” with a small handful of possible perpetrators, some related to the victim. The opening conversation between a writer and a chief constable about the case sets the stage, as to who can solve a case better - a writer or a constable. Milne wrote few mysteries, but this one is a treat.

Lastly, Christianna Brand’s “Dear Mr. Editor” provides a whole new definition to dysfunctional family mayhem. Two sisters - one mad as a hatter, one literary story to be submitted, and one murder straight ahead. As chilling as any modern-day thriller.

Each of the sixteen stories carries its weight in this anthology, and the whole is splendid and varied. The format and background information are excellent. Curl up with this book, have a cup of tea, lock the doors and windows, and enjoy every page. This is a perfect gift for other mystery readers or a unique, entertaining addition to one’s own library. Just don’t forget to lock those doors.

I am grateful to NetGalley, Poison Pen Press, and the editor Martin Edwards for the opportunity to read Murder by the Book. My opinion is all my own.