In these classic mystery tales, literature is a matter of life or death.

Of crime fiction’s many sub genres, 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.