Fast Company
American Mystery Classics: (Penzler)
New York: 312 pp
First printing, Hardcover, New in dust jacket,
233 pp.
“Joel Crisp knows the dark side of the rare book market. A private detective for an insurer of valuable tomes, he makes his living (and his own book allowance) hunting down pilfered volumes and exposing the dealers that traffic them. But when one of the most reviled of these unscrupulous salesmen is found bludgeoned with a bust of Dante and suspicion falls on an innocent kid, Joel finds himself investigating his first murder. Aided by his clever wife Garda, Joel is led on a perilous tour of a bookish underworld, a place of forbidden texts, contraband, and desire; a place with secrets to die for. If he's going to survive, he'll need quick wit and a whole lot of literary expertise to interpret the clues and discover whodunit.” #77023
Price: $27.95