In the murder mystery book universe, there are so many murder mysteries set in libraries and bookstores across the subgenres from cozies to thrillers.
To take our love of books about books a step further, here is a list of murder mysteries focusing on a specific book. These are books where important books go missing for a variety of reasons—such as financial gain or to prevent harm to reputations.
Here’s a list of seven mysteries about books. The first four are published more recently and the final four are oldies but goodies.
Crime and Parchment: A Rare Books Cozy Mystery
In this Agatha-winning debut novel opens with Juniper Blume, librarian for the Library of Congress, following a lead. There’s a rumor that the covers of the famous Book of Kells that went missing centuries ago may have turned up in her hometown.
It’s a stretch but she’s got to check it out.
So she returns to Rose Mallow to an uncomfortable reunion with her sister Azalea who is struggling with her new business of turning their late grandmother’s home into a bed and breakfast and her divorce.
But the family troubles grow when Juniper finds a young woman’s dead body in the graveyard—when she was supposed to meet her sister’s ex-husband who had the lead on those covers.
Trying to balance her intellectual curiosity about those tomes and her stale relationship with her sister, Juniper has to figure out whodunnit now.
The second book in the Rare Books Cozy Mysteries named The Tell-Tale Homicide comes out in November.
The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections
Liesl Weiss has found herself amidst a fair amount of drama for a rare books department at a major university library. She’s been thrust into the role of leading the department as her boss has been hospitalized from a stroke.
But leadership isn’t her only challenge; one of the library’s prized possessions has gone missing. Then a librarian also disappears.
Are these occurrences related or is someone causing mischief in the rare department when the head of the department is out of the picture?
The Christie Curse (A Book Collector Mystery 1)
Jordan Bingham didn’t think she would find herself back at her uncles’ home, especially with their less-than-legal antiques business. But she has no choice.
Her ex has stolen her heart and her credit card. So when she gets a job offer to research and track down rare books, it’s exactly what she wanted. She can move out and restart her life—better this time.
Her first task is to find a rumored Agatha Christie play allegedly written when Christie disappeared for eleven days. But there are two problems: her boss is hated in her small town and the employee who had her job before her may have been murdered over the play Jordan has been charged to find.
Can she do her job, stay alive, and stay out of trouble (mostly)? It’s the first book of five in the Book Collector Mystery Series.
Homicide in Hardcover: A Bibliophile Mystery
Repairing books is Brooklyn Wainwright’s longtime passion, starting when she was young and one of six children living in a commune.
She’s managed to make a career for herself, even finding a mentor, Abraham Karastovsky, to help her in the business. But after a dispute with her mentor, she’s started her own book-repairing business.
All is well until her mentor shows up at an event…and she finds him dying with his final words: “Remember the Devil.” He gives her his rare copy of Goethe’s Faust which is said to be cursed.
And the curse apparently happens quickly: she’s accused of killing her former mentor and stealing the book.
Now she’s got to figure out what her mentor got himself into and restore her good name.
It’s the first of 17 books (so far) in the Bibliophile Mystery Series.
The Rule of Four: A Novel
Two Princeton students Tom Sullivan and Paul Harris have lost themselves in the study of the famous impenetrable manuscript the 1499 Italian text Hypnerotomachia Poliphili at the detriment of everything else, including romance.
But they aren’t the only ones obsessed with the text; someone has murdered a fellow researcher just as a new clue has emerged.
Now the two young men are racing to solve the text and its many clues and puzzles while evading a possible killer who wants to prevent the young scholars from figuring the manuscript out.
The Name of the Rose
While the Sign of Four focuses on a 1499 Italian text, this book takes place in 1327 Italy. This tour de force is part murder mystery, part discourse on several subjects including philosophy, religion, and linguistics.
Brother William of Baskerville and novice Adso of Melk have been sent to a wealthy Benedictine abbey for a theological debate. When they arrive, they learn that an illuminator fell to his death in their library.
The abbot asks them to investigate the death but Brother William cannot enter the library. The next day, another monk is found dead.
Brother William realizes that the abbey holds many secrets, between the monks themselves and in their own labyrinth library.
There’s also a 1986 movie starring Sean Connery as Brother William and Christian Slater as Adso.
Murder by the Book (A Nero Wolfe Mystery 19)
First published in 1951, Murder by the Book stars the reclusive genius Nero Wolfe and his brilliant sidekick and leg man Archive Goodwin.
Why would someone kill several people who knew the contents of an unpublished manuscript? That’s what Wolfe is setting out to find.
When the murder of a law clerk and the seeming hit and run of a young woman who was a reader at the publisher suggests there is a surprising tie between them, Wolfe tries to get to the bottom of these crimes.
