Bodies in a Bookshop

When botanist Max Boyle ventures into a little shop around the corner from London's Tottenham Court Road, he's delighted by the bibliophile treasures he finds. But he's less charmed by the two corpses he stumbles upon in a back room. Boyle summons "The Bishop," Chief Inspector Reginald F. Bishop of Scotland Yard, who in turn calls in Professor John Stubbs, a rotund amateur criminologist. The pipe-smoking, beer-drinking professor, the skeptical, world-weary Bishop, and the protesting Boyle — who would rather be basking in the sun on the Isles of Scilly — soon discover a web of skulduggery and dark deeds. Fueled as much by the friction between their personalities as their enthusiasm, the crime-solving trio threads a maze through the city's book and print emporia, grappling with a puzzle likely to baffle even the most astute armchair detectives. Bodies in a Bookshop is loaded with amusing sallies of wit, quaint and pungent observations, and droll characters. Crisp dialogue keeps the plot moving at top speed. A treat for mystery lovers and those who appreciate a rummage through musty bookshops, this novel is as exuberantly readable as it was upon its original publication in 1946.