I have a confession to make. Paranormal books are not my only guilty pleasure.
I also love books about books.
Yes, I'm a bibliophile. I love books about books, ciphers, long lost manuscripts, libraries, and secret archives. The only thing better than reading books about books would be doing so while locked inside a bookstore, like this
tourist who was locked inside Waterstones bookstore last month.
Some people have all the luck.
I've been hoarding bibliomysteries (aka book mysteries, biblio-mysteries, bookish mysteries) and now it's time to share my book addiction for this fascinating subgenre of mystery books. There are so many great bibliomysteries out there. Here are the bibliomysteries that top my list.
Best Bibliomystery Books
Booked to Die by John Dunning: "Turning to his lifelong passion,
Janeway opens a small bookshop -- all the while searching for evidence
to put Newton away. But when prized volumes in a highly sought-after
collection begin to appear, so do dead bodies. Now, Janeway's life is
about to start a precarious new chapter as he attempts to find out who's
dealing death along with vintage Chandlers and Twains. " Booked to Die
is the first book in the Cliff Janeway series. Janeway is a former cop
turned bookseller and collector of rare books who stumbles onto book
heists and more.
The Club Dumas by Arturo Perez-Reverte: "When a well-known bibliophile
is found dead, leaving behind part of the original manuscript of
Alexandre Dumas's The Three Musketeers, Corso is brought in to
authenticate the fragment. He is soon drawn into a swirling plot
involving devil worship, occult practices, and swashbuckling derring-do
among a cast of characters bearing a suspicious resemblance to those of
Dumas's masterpiece." A Perez-Reverte thriller intertwined with Dumas
and The Three Musketeers. Absolutely fantastic.
Codex by Lev Grossman: "His task is to search their library stacks for a
precious medieval codex, a treasure kept sealed away for many years and
for many reasons. Enlisting the help of passionate medievalist Margaret
Napier, Edward is determined to solve the mystery of the codex-to
understand its significance to his wealthy clients, and to decipher the
seeming parallels between the legend of the codex and an obsessive
role-playing computer game that has absorbed him in the dark hours of
the night." It's been awhile since I read this, but I remember it being a thrilling read.
The Dream of Scipio by Ian Pears: "Iain Pears intertwines three
intellectual mysteries, three love stories, and three of the darkest
moments in human history. United by a classical text called "The Dream
of Scipio," three men struggle to find refuge for their hearts and minds
from the madness that surrounds them in the final days of the Roman
Empire, in the grim years of the Black Death, and in the direst hours of
World War II." This book was heart wrenching, intertwining the story
of The Dream of Scipio with all the darkness of the fall of the Roman
Empire, the bubonic plague, and World War II.
Ex-Libris by Ross King: "A cryptic summons to a remote country house
launches Isaac Inchbold, a London bookseller and antiquarian, on an
odyssey through seventeenth-century Europe. Charged with the task of
restoring a magnificent library destroyed by the war, Inchbold moves
between Prague and the Tower Bridge in London, his fortunes—and his
life—hanging on his ability to recover a missing manuscript. Yet the
lost volume is not what it seems, and his search is part of a
treacherous game of underworld spies and smugglers, ciphers, and
forgeries." At times disjointed, but overall a thrilling tale filled
with history, intrigue, conspiracies, and a book that many are willing
to kill for.
The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde: "Welcome to a surreal version of
Great Britain, circa 1985, where time travel is routine, cloning is a
reality (dodos are the resurrected pet of choice), and literature is
taken very, very seriously. England is a virtual police state where an
aunt can get lost (literally) in a Wordsworth poem, militant Baconians
heckle performances of Hamlet, and forging Byronic verse is a punishable
offense. All this is business as usual for Thursday Next, renowned
Special Operative in literary detection, until someone begins kidnapping
characters from works of literature. When Jane Eyre is plucked from the
pages of Brontë's novel, Thursday must track down the villain and enter
the novel herself to avert a heinous act of literary homicide." And
now for something completely different...no, really. I am a huge fan of
Jasper Fforde and yet his books are difficult to describe. As most
Ffordians will agree, his books must be read, though your mind will
never be quite the same once you do.
The Grand Complication by Allen Kurzweil: "A modern-day tale of
literary intrigue, deviant passions, and delicious secrets. Behind the
majestic walls of a Manhattan town house, a stylish young reference
librarian of arcane interests unravels an 18th-century mystery--who
stole Marie Antoinette's watch? The book is a grand and complicated
"timepiece," told with a devilish sense of fun." A research librarian
is tempted into accepting a side job to locate an object formerly
contained in a cabinet of curiosities. Eccentric characters and
mysteries layered upon mysteries make this a fun read.
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova: "Late one night, exploring her
father’s library, a young woman finds an ancient book and a cache of
yellowing letters addressed ominously to ‘My dear and unfortunate
successor’. Her discovery plunges her into a world she never dreamed of –
a labyrinth where the secrets of her father’s past and her mother’s
mysterious fate connect to an evil hidden in the depths of history." A
bibliomystery with vampires? Yes, please!
The Hollow by Jessica Verday: "When Abbey's best friend, Kristen,
vanishes at the bridge near Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, everyone else is all
too quick to accept that Kristen is dead and rumors fly that her death
was no accident. Abbey goes through the motions of mourning her best
friend, but privately, she refuses to believe that Kristen is really
gone. Then she meets Caspian, the gorgeous and mysterious boy who shows
up out of nowhere at Kristen's funeral, and keeps reappearing in Abbey's
life. Caspian clearly has secrets of his own, but he's the only person
who makes Abbey feel normal again...but also special. Just when Abbey
starts to feel that she might survive all this, she learns a secret that
makes her question everything she thought she knew about her best
friend. How could Kristen have kept silent about so much? And could this
secret have led to her death? As Abbey struggles to understand
Kristen's betrayal, she uncovers a frightening truth that nearly
unravels her—one that will challenge her emerging love for Caspian, as
well as her own sanity." A YA paranormal romance that ensures you'll
never read The Legend of Sleepy Hollow the same way ever again.
Interred with Their Bones by Jennifer Lee Carrol: "On the eve of the
Globe’s production of Hamlet, Shakespeare scholar and theater director
Kate Stanley’s eccentric mentor Rosalind Howard gives her a mysterious
box, claiming to have made a groundbreaking discovery. But before she
can reveal it to Kate, the Globe burns to the ground and Roz is found
dead - murdered precisely in the manner of Hamlet’s father. Inside the
box Kate finds the first piece in a Shakespearean puzzle, setting her on
a deadly, high-stakes treasure hunt. From London to Harvard to the
American West, Kate races to evade a killer and decipher a tantalizing
string of clues, hidden in the words of Shakespeare, that may unlock
literary history’s greatest secret." A theater director and former
Shakespearean scholar becomes embroiled in a deadly search, a search
that leaves a trail of dead bodies. This is the first book in the Kate
Stanley series.
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco: "The year is 1327. Franciscans in a
wealthy Italian abbey are suspected of heresy, and Brother William of
Baskerville arrives to investigate. When his delicate mission is
suddenly overshadowed by seven bizarre deaths, Brother William turns
detective. His tools are the logic of Aristotle, the theology of
Aquinas, the empirical insights of Roger Bacon—all sharpened to a
glistening edge by wry humor and a ferocious curiosity. He collects
evidence, deciphers secret symbols and coded manuscripts, and digs into
the eerie labyrinth of the abbey, where “the most interesting things
happen at night.”" You may know this book from the film of the same
name, starring Sean Connery and Christian Slater...featuring Ron Perlman
in one of his weirdest roles ever. Eco weaves a tangled web of
mystery, murder, and secret knowledge within a labyrinthine library at
the heart of an Italian monastery. A bibliomystery masterpiece!
Nevermore by Kelly Creagh: "Soon, Isobel finds herself making excuses
to be with Varen. Steadily pulled away from her friends and her
possessive boyfriend, Isobel ventures deeper and deeper into the dream
world Varen has created through the pages of his notebook, a realm where
the terrifying stories of Edgar Allan Poe come to life. As her world
begins to unravel around her, Isobel discovers that dreams, like words,
hold more power than she ever imagined, and that the most frightening
realities are those of the mind. Now she must find a way to reach Varen
before he is consumed by the shadows of his own nightmares." A young
adult paranormal book with supernatural ties to the writings of Edgar
Allan Poe. Nevermore is the first book in the Nevermore series.
The Oxford Murders by Guillermo Martinez: "It begins on a summer day in
Oxford, when a young Argentine graduate student finds his landlady-an
elderly woman who helped crack the Enigma Code during World War II
-murdered in cold blood. Meanwhile, a renowned Oxford logician receives
an anonymous note bearing a circle and the words "the first of a
series." As the murders begin to pile up and more symbols are revealed,
it is up to this unlikely pair to decipher the pattern before the killer
strikes again." An Oxford professor and a graduate student must solve a
series of complex murders in this thrilling novel. Full of twists and
turns that will keep you guessing.
The Secret History by Donna Tartt: "Richard Papen arrived at Hampden
College in New England and was quickly seduced by an elite group of five
students, all Greek scholars, all worldly, self-assured, and, at first
glance, all highly unapproachable. As Richard is drawn into their inner
circle, he learns a terrifying secret that binds them to one another...a
secret about an incident in the woods in the dead of night where an
ancient rite was brought to brutal life...and led to a gruesome death.
And that was just the beginning." A psychological book about comradery
and murder.
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon: "Barcelona, 1945: A city
slowly heals in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, and Daniel, an
antiquarian book dealer’s son who mourns the loss of his mother, finds
solace in a mysterious book entitled The Shadow of the Wind, by one
Julián Carax. But when he sets out to find the author’s other works, he
makes a shocking discovery: someone has been systematically destroying
every copy of every book Carax has written. In fact, Daniel may have the
last of Carax’s books in existence. Soon Daniel’s seemingly innocent
quest opens a door into one of Barcelona’s darkest secrets--an epic
story of murder, madness, and doomed love." This many layered mystery
is dreamlike, melancholy, and poetic. The first novel in The Cemetery
of Forgotten Books series.
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield: "Biographer Margaret Lea
returns one night to her apartment above her father’s antiquarian
bookshop. On her steps she finds a letter. It is a hand-written request
from one of Britain’s most prolific and well-loved novelists. Vida
Winter, gravely ill, wants to recount her life story before it is too
late, and she wants Margaret to be the one to capture her history. The
request takes Margaret by surprise — she doesn’t know the author, nor
has she read any of Miss Winter’s dozens of novels. Late one night
while pondering whether to accept the task of recording Miss Winter’s
personal story, Margaret begins to read her father’s rare copy of Miss
Winter’s Thirteen Tales of Change and Desperation. She is spellbound by
the stories and confused when she realizes the book only contains twelve
stories. Where is the thirteenth tale? Intrigued, Margaret agrees to
meet Miss Winter and act as her biographer." This one is on my towering
TBR pile waiting to be read.
The Unburied by Charles Palliser: "In Victorian England, Dr. Courtine
is invited to spend the days before Christmas with Austin, a friend from
his youth, in the Cathedral Close of Thurchester. Courtine hopes to
research an unsolved mystery at the cathedral library, but when Austin
captivates him with the story of the town ghost -- a macabre tale of
murder and deception dating back two centuries -- Courtine finds himself
drawn instead into a haunting world of avarice, skullduggery, and
exceptional evil. Daring, unpredictable, atmospheric, The Unburied is a
dazzling entry in the canon of classic Victorian masterpieces of
suspense." Beginning within a memoir, we have a man who has come to
unearth a manuscript, but ends up trying to solve multiple cases of
murder when he is told a local ghost story.
Unsolicited by Julie Kaewert: "London's Plumtree Press has a world-class
bestseller of a novel. And the sequel is earmarked to get this old
family firm out of the red. But its anonymous author, known to Plumtree
only as "Arthur," has apparently vanished, leaving the crucial last five
chapters undelivered. Alex already knows they reveal the identity of
the characters who smuggled British children to America during World War
II. But, of course, this is fiction. So when a lead critic previews the
book as a nonfiction exposé, Alex is shocked. Even more so when the
critic is murdered...and Alex finds himself the target of a ruthless
hunt for the manuscript and bizarre attempts on his life. " The first
novel in A Booklover's Mystery series. This is a fun, cozy mystery
series about a young man who runs a small, family owned publishing house
and his penchant for rare books and reluctant sleuthing. Warning: This book will make you crave tea and toast. You have been warned.
Additional Reading
The above list is not an exhaustive list of bibliomysteries. I could go on...and on....and on. For the sake of space, I am adding these titles here for your enjoyment. Why did they not make my list of Best Bibliomystery Books? Truthfully, many of these I read so long ago that I can't remember them fully. The ones that are most memorable, or that I've read more than once, I've listed above.
Don't miss these bibliomystery books:
- The Bookman's Tale by Charlie Lovett
- The Book of Air and Shadows by Michael Gruber
- The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl
- Death by the Book by Lenny Bartulin
- Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco
- The Intelligencer by Leslie Silbert
- The Library of Shadows by Mikkel Birkegaard
- Real Murders by Charlaine Harris
- The Rule of Four by Ian Caldwell
- The Secret of Lost Things by Sheridan Hay
About the Author:
E.J. Stevens is the author of the
Spirit Guide young adult paranormal series, the
Hunters' Guild urban fantasy series, and the bestselling
Ivy Granger urban fantasy series. Due to her love for bibliomysteries, her books are peppered with secret archives, libraries, books, documents, grimoires, and words of power.
Her new novel
Hunting in Bruges teams up Jenna Lehane,
a Hunter with a troubled past, a proficiency with weapons, and an intolerance for monsters who target the innocent, with a number of quirky characters, including Hunters' Guild archivist Darryl Lambert. In a race against time, they must delve into both the Guild's and the city's history--centuries of blood, secrets, Templars, kings, and the supernatural predators that threaten the human inhabitants of Bruges.
Have you read any great bibliomysteries lately?
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