An uneven mix but worth the price of the book for "The Caxton Lending Library & Book Depository"by John Connolly. ( )

I almost quit reading this collection of short stories. I didn't care for the first four, and one other later, but after those five, the quality picked up a lot. The stories got better and better until the last two which were the best in the book. ( )

Bibliomysteries: Stories of Crime in the World of Books and Bookstores is just what it says it is: 15 short stories, specially commissioned by Otto Penzler of the Mysterious Bookshop in New York, dealing specifically with murders committed in, by, for and/or because of books and bookstores. There’s a wide range of authors here, and like any such anthology each reader will prefer some stories to others. My favourites here include “An Acceptable Sacrifice,” by Jeffery Deaver, a clever tale involving a Mexican businessman who loves books - or is he a drug lord instead?; the chilling “The Book of Ghosts,” by Reed Farrel Coleman, about one aftermath of the Holocaust; Loren D. Estleman’s “Book Club,” in which a book collector in small-town Arizona is murdered for a rare book; the whimsical “The Book Thing” by Laura Lippman; a touching tale of fathers and sons by David Bell, “Rides a Stranger”; and the brilliant, Edgar Award winning “The Caxton Library and Book Depository,” by John Connolly, which sort of takes an inside-out, upside-down swing at a premise I first read in Jasper Fforde’s “The Eyre Affair.” The whole book is easily worth it for that last story alone, but the others mentioned here are all stand-outs too, and even the ones that I didn’t like were still quite good. Perfect for fans of short mystery fiction and of books (and bookstores!); recommended! ( )

When Halloween Bingo was kicking off, and we had to submit the seven squares we didn't want included on our card, I was a little bit flummoxed, because there were 9 squares on my list. I knew I wouldn't be able to convince Moonlight Reader to just give me three cozy mystery squares instead, so I had to pick the 2 lesser evils. Classic Noir was one of them. I'm generally not a fan of the sub-genre as it's all a bit too 'dame' and 'broad' for me; the slang wears on my nerves after awhile and feels too affected.

But I'd just received Bibliomysteries: Stories of Crime in the World of Books and Bookstores; it's the (presumably) first collection of the Bibliomysteries Otto Penzler commissions from authors each year, which he then publishes to offer first as gifts to his good customers, then to sell to the general public. One of the stories is It's in the Book; originally started by Mickey Spillane before his death, it was found amongst his papers and Max Allan Collins finished it for Penzler. I don't know if Spillane meant for it to be a short story, but it certainly works beautifully as one.

Hammer is hired, first by the NYPD, then by the mafia. Both want the same book: a ledger allegedly used by a recently passed Don to record every nefarious deed and transaction he ever undertook. Names are named and nobody wants it to see the light of day, although a few would kill to use it themselves.

It was a lot of fun riding along with Hammer as he makes short work of finding the book, and while the noir was thick, it wasn't overdone (perhaps by virtue of being a short story). The ending is purposefully foreshadowed early on, making me think that it was more about the action and savoir-faire than about the conclusion of the 'mystery' itself. Collins did offer up a slight, pretty comical twist at the end, and it had me smiling as I closed the book last night.

I won't rush out to read more noir, but I definitely had a good time with this one! ( )

A somewhat uneven collection, some of which only just barely could be termed bibliomysteries. But there are enough good stories in here to make the volume worth a read if you like the genre. ( )