Tuesday 14 May 2019

Golden Age (15) : Murder in the Bookshop

Carolyn Wells' "Murder in the Bookshop" is about the solving of two crimes: the murder of a book collector and the theft of a valuable book. It is also a fascinating insight into the world of wealthy bibliophiles in 1930s New York, with their private libraries and insatiable needs for rare classics.

As this is a fairly typical Golden Age story the crimes committed are quite unfathomable and the police are clueless, thus private detective Fleming Stone is bought in to solve the intricate crimes.

Overall the story is a bit mundane and drags at the start however it does finally get going and even includes some kidnappings, fake deaths and mysterious goings on by a man in a cape. Though remains pretty implausible. No one committed simple crimes in the Golden Age!

The characters such as Fleming Stone are not fleshed out in any way, which is a shame and does make the story hard to love.

Decent but not great.