Otto Penzler

Collects the editor's all-time favorite holiday crime stories, including tales by such authors as Arthur Conan Doyle, Sara Paretsky, Peter Lovesey, O. Henry, Damon Runyon, Agatha Christie, and Robert Louis Stevenson.

The Big Book of Christmas Mysteries

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

Maine

Each year, for the past seventeen years, Mysterious Bookshop proprietor Otto Penzler has commissioned an original Christmas story by a leading suspense writer. These stories were then produced as pamphlets, just 1,000 copies, and given to customers of the bookstore as a Christmas present. Now, all seventeen tales have been collected in one volume, showcasing the talents of:

 * Charles Ardai
 * Lisa Atkinson
 * George Baxt
 * Lawrence Block
 * Mary Higgins Clark
 * Thomas H. Cook
 * Ron Goulart
 * Jeremiah Healy
 * Edward D. Hoch
 * Rupert Holmes
 * Andrew Klavan
 * Michael Malone
 * Ed McBain
 * Anne Perry
 * S. J. Rozan
 * Jonathan Santlofer
 * Donald E. Westlake

Some of these stories are humorous, others suspenseful, and still others are tales of pure detection, but all of them together make up a charming collection and a perfect Christmas gift for all ages.



Christmas at the Mysterious Bookshop

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Features over fifteen mystery short stories set during Christmas, with some of the action taking place at the editor's real-life Mysterious Bookshop in New York City.

Phoebe Atwood Taylor

Ex-library wirh the usual markings/stickers, but in good readable condition, appears to have had low circulation. 1st of the Asey Mayo Cape Cod Mysteries.

Minnesota

An Asey Mayo Mystery #1

When his best friend is accused of murdering Dale Sanborn, a vacationing writer, Asey Mayo is determined to solve the case, even if his only clue is a sardine can

The Cape Cod Mystery #1

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The “Codfish Sherlock Holmes” solves a whodunnit in 1930s Cape Cod Meet Asey Mayo, Cape Cod’s answer to Sherlock Holmes. Settled down from his former life as a seafaring adventurer, Asey is a Jack-of-all-trades who uses his worldly knowledge, folksy wisdom, and plain common sense to solve the most puzzling crimes to strike the peninsula. And in this, his first case, Asey finds himself embroiled in a scandal that will push his deductive powers to their limits. A massive heatwave is scorching the Northeast, and vacationers from New York and Boston flock to Cape Cod for breezy, cool respite. Then a muckraking journalist is found murdered in the cabin he’s rented for the season, and the summer holiday becomes a nightmare for the local authorities. There are abundant suspects among the out-of-towners flooding the area, but they ultimately fix their sights on beloved local businessman Bill Porter as the murderer—unless Asey Mayo can prove him innocent and find the true killer. A light whodunnit with an unforgettable amateur sleuth at its center, The Cape Cod Mystery is the first novel from one of the most beloved authors of the American Golden Age mystery. The plot is adorned with insightful historical detail and a healthy dose of Cape Cod local color, making this an enjoyable and enlightening read perfect for a beachside afternoon.

The Cape Cod Mystery

Amor Towles selects the twenty best mystery short stories of the year, including tales by Andrew Child, Jeffrey Deaver, and Michael Mallory Under the auspices of New York City's legendary mystery fiction specialty bookstore, The Mysterious Bookshop, and aided by Edgar Award-winning anthologist Otto Penzler, New York Times bestseller Amor Towles has selected the twenty most puzzling, most thrilling, and most mysterious short stories from the past year, collected now in one entertaining volume. The volume also contains a "bonus story" selected from the bookshop's rare book room, featuring a look into the history of this illustrious genre.

The Mysterious Bookshop Presents the Best Mystery Stories of the Year 2023

The greatest detectives of the Golden Age investigate the most puzzling crimes of the era


Sometimes, the police aren't the best suited to solve a crime. Depending on the case, you may find that a retired magician, a schoolteacher, a Broadway producer, or a nun have the necessary skills to suss out a killer. Or, in other cases, a blind veteran, or a publisher, or a hard-drinking attorney, or a mostly-sober attorney... or, indeed, any sort of detective you could think of might be able to best the professionals when it comes to comprehending strange and puzzling murders. 

At least, that's what the authors from the Golden Age of American mystery fiction would have you think. For decades in the middle of the twentieth century, the country's best-selling authors produced delightful tales in which all types of eccentrics used rarified knowledge to interpret confounding clues. And for even longer, in the decades that have followed, these characters have continued to entertain new audiences with every new generation that discovers them. 

Edgar Award-winning anthologist Otto Penzler selects some of the greatest American short stories from era. With authors including Ellery Queen, Mary Roberts Rinehart, Cornell Woolrich, Erle Stanley Gardner, and Anthony Boucher, this collection is a treat for those who know and love this celebrated period in literary history, and a great introduction to its best writers for the uninitiated.

Includes discussion guide questions for use in book clubs.

Golden Age Detective Stories

Very good condition ex library copy.

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Heavy Hardcover (2 to 4 lbs)

Indiana

"Including stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, Laurie R. King, Colin Dexter, Anthony Burgess, Anne Perry, Stephen King, P.G Wodehouse, Neil Gaiman, Kingsley Amis, and many, many more"--Jacket.

The Big Book of Sherlock Holmes Stories

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Here, Otto Penzler collects eighty-three wonderful stories about Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson, published over a span of more than a hundred years.

John Dickson Carr

Michigan

A murdered man in a top hat leads Dr. Gideon Fell to a killer with a sick sense of humor At the hand of an outrageous prankster, top hats are going missing all over London, snatched from the heads of some of the city’s most powerful people—but is the hat thief the same as the person responsible for stealing a lost story by Edgar Allan Poe, the manuscript of which has just disappeared from the collection of Sir William Bitton? Unlike the manuscript, the hats don’t stay stolen for long, each one reappearing in unexpected and conspicuous places shortly after being taken: on the top of a Trafalgar Square statue, hanging from a Scotland Yard lamppost, and now, in the foggy depths of the Tower of London, on the head of a corpse with a crossbow bolt through the heart. Amateur detective and lexicographer Dr. Gideon Fell is on the case, and when the dead man is identified as the nephew of the collector, he discovers that the connections underlying the bizarre and puzzling crimes may be more intimate than initially expected. Reprinted for the first time in thirty years, the second novel in the Dr. Gideon Fell series, which need not be read in any order, finds the iconic character investigating one of the most extraordinary murders of his career. A baffling whodunnit with menace at every turn, The Mad Hatter Mystery proves that Carr is the “unexcelled master of creepy erudition, swift-moving excitement and suspense through atmosphere” (New York Times).

The Mad Hatter Mystery

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Washington

The Vampire Archives, Volume 2

Presents an anthology of twenty works about vampires, including contributions by H.P. Lovecraft, Anne Rice, Richard Laymon, and Clive Barker.

Fangs

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Mississippi

The Vampire Archives, Volume 1

The Vampire Archives is the scariest, hungriest, undeadliest collection of vampire stories ever assembled. Dark, stormy, and delicious, once you're in its clutches there's no escape. From the first to last bite, it's a bloody good read.

Including Stephen King, Tanith Lee, Dan Simmons, Bram Stoker, and Many Many More

Featuring:

·nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; The macabre dens of the immortal
·nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; Unexpected guests
·nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; Shadowy figures
·nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; Ancient mysteries

Bloodsuckers

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California

Sara Paretsky selects the twenty best mystery short stories of the year, including tales by Michael Connelly, Jo Nesbo, Joyce Carol Oates, Colson Whitehead, and more!


Under the auspices of New York City's legendary mystery fiction specialty bookstore, The Mysterious Bookshop, and aided by Edgar Award-winning anthologist Otto Penzler, international bestseller and MWA Grandmaster Sara Paretsky has selected the twenty most puzzling, most thrilling, and most mysterious short stories from the past year, collected now in one entertaining volume.

Includes stories by:

 * Doug Allyn
 * Colin Barrett
 * Jerome Charyn
 * Michael Connelly
 * Susan Frith
 * Tom Larsen
 * Sean Marciniak
 * Stefon Mears
 * Kieth Lee Morris
 * Gwen Mullins
 * Jo Nesbo
 * Joyce Carol Oates
 * Annie Reed
 * Kristen Kathryn Rusch
 * Anna Scotti
 * Ginny Swart
 * Ellen Tremiti
 * Joseph S. Walker
 * Colson Whitehead
 * Michael Wiley

Plus a bonus vintage story from the annals of mystery fiction, written over a century in the past.

The Mysterious Bookshop Presents the Best Mystery Stories of the Year 2022

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Idaho

An anthology of the best mystery short stories published in 2017 selected by best-selling author Louise Penny.

The Best American Mystery Stories 2018

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New York

Presents a collection of mystery stories selected from magazines in the United States and Canada

The Best American Mystery Stories 2009

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Comprehensive compendium of classic cannibals. Sorry, don’t know why I made that alliterative. Anyways if you like zombies and zombie stuff we got everything you need. *slaps hood of book* Poe and Lovecraft and King and Ellison…among some other schmucks fascinated by people eating people. Check it out!

Heavy Paperback (2 to 4 lbs)

Maryland

Zombies! Zombies! Zombies! is the darkest, the living-deadliest, scariest--and dare we say most tasteful--collection of zombie stories ever assembled. It’s so good, it's a no-brainer. There is never a dull moment in the world of zombies. They are superstars of horror and they are everywhere, storming the world of print and visual media. Their endless march will never be stopped. It's the Zombie Zeitgeist! Now, with his wide sweep of knowledge and keen eye for great storytelling, Otto Penzler offers a remarkable catalog of zombie literature. Including unstoppable tales from world-renowned authors like Stephen King, Joe R. Lansdale, Robert McCammon, Robert E. Howard, and Richard Matheson to the writer who started it all, W.B. Seabrook, Zombies! Zombies! Zombies! will delight and devour horror fans from coast to coast. Featuring: • Deadly bites • Satanic Pigeons • A parade of corpses • Zombies, zombies, and more zombies

Zombies! Zombies! Zombies!

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Thirteen festive crime stories set in New York City's beloved mystery bookstore

Christmas Crimes at the Mysterious Bookshop

Vincent Starrett

A 1920s cruise ship is destined for destruction in this cozy mystery by the author of The Great Hotel Murder. For the passengers aboard the Latakia, the transatlantic journey from New York to Cherbourg promises weeks of rest and relaxation, no matter what class of ticket they have. But after an Italian baroness is found strangled in her cabin, the situation on board becomes more tense. The main suspect soon goes overboard, creating more questions than answers: Did a guilty conscience spur a suicidal act, or was he a witness silenced by the true killer, still at large on the luxury liner. Enter former intelligence officer Walter Ghost, tapped by the ship’s captain to play detective and solve the murder. He’s joined by his friend Dunsten Mollock, a novelist whose experience with mystery stories gives him helpful insights into the case. With clues including an amateur film, a doll, and a card from Memphis, Tennessee, it seems the duo have plenty to work with. But will they be able to solve the crime before word of the murder makes it into the steamship’s rumor mill, surely sending any guilty persons even deeper into hiding? Originally published in 1929 and out of print for nearly a century, Murder on “B” Deck is a puzzling-yet-humorous whodunnit set in the Golden Age of transatlantic travel. Includes discussion guide questions for use in book clubs.

Murder on B Deck

Edgar Award winner Otto Penzler--"detective fiction's best editor and champion" (The Washington Post)--returns with a new anthology of exhilarating mysteries, assembling Victorian society's lords and ladies and most miserable miscreants.

Behind the velvet curtains of horsedrawn carriages and amid the soft glow of the gaslights are the detectives and bobbies sniffing out the safecrackers and petty purloiners who plague everything from the soot-covered side streets of London to the opulent manors of the countryside. With his latest title in the Big Book series, Otto Penzler is cracking cases and serving up the most thrilling, suspenseful Victorian mysteries.

This collection brings together incredible stories from Arthur Conan Doyle, Thomas Hardy, Oscar Wilde, Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, and Guy de Maupassant among other legendary writers of the grand era of the British Empire. So brush off your dinner jackets and straighten out your ball gowns for these exciting, glitzy mysteries.

The Big Book of Victorian Mysteries

Specially commissioned by the Mysterious Bookshop, the "bibliomysteries" in this unique collection feature original stories by the genre's most distinguished authors: Ian Rankin, Thomas Perry, Joyce Carol Oates, Megan Abbott, and Elizabeth George.

If you like mysteries and you like books, what could be better than combining both worlds, with mysteries set against a background involving books?

This collection of crime for bibliophiles includes stories about rare books, bookshops, libraries, manuscripts, magical books, collectors--in short, the wonderful universe that makes this precious object we all love so important and priceless. Ian Rankin sets his tale of the lost original manuscript of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in the legendary Paris bookshop Shakespeare & Co., while F. Paul Wilson offers a book with remarkable powers. Joyce Carol Oates portrays an overly ambitious dealer in mystery fiction, while James Grady has the "Condor" working in the Library of Congress. Ste- phen Hunter tells a previously unknown story of Alan Turing set during World War I--involving a book that could change the history of the world--and Peter Lovesey writes about a box full of Agatha Christie titles that just may be priceless. Carolyn Hart's story is about an astonishing inscription in a book, while Megan Abbott and Denise Mina add their Edgar-nominated stories to this stellar collection.

Whether your taste is for the traditional mystery, something a little more hard-boiled, or the bizarre and humorous tale, you will find exactly your cup of tea in this outstanding collection of fifteen stories by the most distinguished mystery writers working today.

Including stories by: Peter Lovesey, F. Paul Wilson, Lyndsay Faye, Bradford Morrow, R. L. Stine, Joyce Carol Oates, Thomas Perry, Elizabeth George, Carolyn Hart, Megan Abbott, Stephen Hunter, Denise Mina, James Grady, Ian Rankin, and James W. Hall.

Bibliomysteries

Edgar Award-winning editor Otto Penzler's new anthology brings together the most cunning, resourceful, and brilliant female sleuths in mystery fiction. A Vintage Crime/Black Lizard Original.

For the first time ever, Otto Penzler gathers the most iconic women of the detective canon over the past 150 years, captivating and surprising readers in equal measure. The 74 handpicked stories in this collection introduce us to the most determined of gumshoe gals, from debutant detectives like Anna Katharine Green's Violet Strange to spinster sleuths like Mary Roberts Rinehart's Hilda Adams, from groundbreaking female cops like Baroness Orczy's Lady Molly to contemporary crime-fighting P.I.s like Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone, and include indelible tales from Agatha Christie, Carolyn Wells, Edgar Wallace, L. T. Meade and Robert Eustace, Sara Paretsky, Nevada Barr, Linda Barnes, Laura Lippman, and many more.

The Big Book of Female Detectives

Mystery, Crime, and Suspense Stories by African-American Writers

The best mystery and crime fiction ever produced by African-American writers.

Black Noir

Ellery Queen

Paperback (1 to 2 lbs)

Ellery Queen takes refuge from a wildfire at a remote mountain house — and arrives just before the owner is murdered... When Ellery Queen and his father encounter a raging forest fire during a mountain drive, the only direction to go is up — up a winding dirt road that leads to an isolated hillside manor, inhabited by a secretive surgeon and his diverse cast of guests. Trapped by the fire, the Queens settle into the uneasy atmosphere of their surroundings. Things become even more tense the following morning when the doctor is discovered dead, apparently shot down while playing solitaire the night before. The only clue is a torn six of spades. The suspects include a society beauty, a suspicious valet, and a pair of conjoined twins. When another murder follows, the killer inside the house becomes as threatening as the mortal flames outside its walls. Faced with a complex set of alibis, motives, and evidence, Ellery Queen must rely on his powers of deduction and logic to uncover the murderer’s identity — but can he solve this whodunnit before the fire devours its subjects? Featuring bizarre circumstances, eerie atmosphere, and a dazzling solution, The Siamese Twin Mystery is a fair play mystery in which the reader has all the necessary information needed to solve the puzzle. The seventh Ellery Queen novel (which can be read in any order), it finds the legendary sleuth facing one of the most memorable cases of his career.

The Siamese Twin Mystery

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Carl Hiaasen

Nevada

The best-selling author Carl Hiaasen takes the reins for the eleventh edition of this series, featuring twenty of the past year's most distinguished tales of mystery, crime, and suspense.

Laura Lippman introduces us to a suburban soccer mom who moonlights as a call girl and who has a fateful encounter with a former client at her son's soccer game. Ridley Pearson traces a famous author of horror tales who becomes trapped in a real one after his wife vanishes while jogging. Joyce Carol Oates travels to a New Jersey racetrack where the animals that break down are of the two-legged type. Lawrence Block tells the story of Keller, a hitman for hire who happens to live in Greenwich Village, loves spicy food, and collects stamps as a hobby. And Scott Wolven plunges us into the world of an ex-con who takes a job at a private and very illegal Nevada racetrack where each day millions are won and lost. Mostly lost.

As Carl Hiaasen notes in his introduction, "The stories in this collection would do honor to any anthology of short literature. More than transcending the genre of crime, they blow away its nebulous boundaries." The Best American Mystery Stories 2007 is a powerful collection certain to delight mystery aficionados and all lovers of great fiction.

The Best American Mystery Stories 2007

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Clean and tight paperback no highlighting no notes great collection of mysteries 

Best-selling author Lawrence Block is one of the mystery genre's most prolific authors, with more than fifty books to his name, including Hit List, published in 2000. Block's selections for The Best American Mystery Stories 2001 include stories by such luminaries as Joyce Carol Oates, T. Jefferson Parker, Russell Banks, and Peter Robinson.


The Best American Mystery Stories 2001

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A topsy-turvy crime scene sends a detective on a puzzling quest for the truth. The offices of foreign literature publisher and renowned stamp collector Donald Kirk are often host to strange activities, but the most recent occurrence­—the murder of an unknown caller, found dead in an empty waiting room—is unlike any that has come before. Nobody, it seems, entered or exited the room, and yet the crime scene clearly has been manipulated, leaving everything in the room turned backwards and upside down. Stuck through the back of the corpse’s shirt are two long spears—and a tangerine is missing from the fruit bowl. Enter amateur sleuth Ellery Queen, who arrives just in time to witness the discovery of the body, only to be immediately drawn into a complex case in which no clue is too minor or too glaring to warrant careful consideration. Reprinted for the first time in over thirty years, The Chinese Orange Mystery is revered to this day for its challenging conceit and inventive solution. The book is a “fair-play” mystery in which readers have all the clues needed to solve the crime. In 1981, the novel was selected as one of the top ten locked room mysteries of all time by a panel of mystery-world luminaries that included Julian Symons, Edward D. Hoch, Howard Haycraft, and Otto Penzler.

The Chinese Orange Mystery

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Erle Stanley Gardner

New Jersey

In one of Perry Mason’s most memorable cases ever, the character who inspired the HBO limited series risks his freedom to prove the innocence of an unidentified client. The bait is half of a $10,000 bill, delivered to Perry Mason by a man who promises the second half of the note should his companion, a silent masked woman, ever require the lawyer’s services. When a dead body is discovered soon after, Mason feels the hook—but how can one prove the innocence of a person whose identity is unknown? Suspecting that he’s been set-up, but curious nonetheless, Perry sets out to solve the mystery from the ground up, beginning with the face behind the veil. The more he learns, the more complex his investigation becomes. Uncovering a convoluted case of stock fraud, divorce, and inheritance, Mason’s nearly left reeling—that is until, with the help of Della Street and Paul Drake, he pulls off one of his most daring gambits ever to finally cast light on the killer. Filled with memorable characters, a multitude of motives, and just a few red herrings, The Case of the Baited Hook is classic Perry Mason, showcasing the character’s brilliance and pizazz with a plot that pushes his powers into overdrive. As puzzling as it is entertaining, the book exemplifies the style that made Erle Stanley Gardner one of the most popular authors of the twentieth century. “Millions of Americans never seem to tire of Gardner’s thrillers.” —The New York Times DON’T MISS THE NEW HBO ORIGINAL SERIES PERRY MASON, BASED ON CHARACTERS FROM ERLE STANLEY GARDNER’S NOVELS, STARRING EMMY AWARD WINNER MATTHEW RHYS

Browse by categories

Otto Penzler

The Big Book of Christmas Mysteries

Otto Penzler

Christmas at the Mysterious Bookshop

Phoebe Atwood Taylor

The Cape Cod Mystery

Otto Penzler

The Mysterious Bookshop Presents the Best Mystery Stories of the Year 2023

Otto Penzler

Golden Age Detective Stories

Otto Penzler

The Big Book of Sherlock Holmes Stories

John Dickson Carr

The Mad Hatter Mystery

Otto Penzler

Fangs

Otto Penzler

Bloodsuckers

Otto Penzler

The Mysterious Bookshop Presents the Best Mystery Stories of the Year 2022

Otto Penzler

The Best American Mystery Stories 2018

Otto Penzler

The Best American Mystery Stories 2009

Otto Penzler

Zombies! Zombies! Zombies!

Otto Penzler

Christmas Crimes at the Mysterious Bookshop

Vincent Starrett

Murder on B Deck

Otto Penzler

The Big Book of Victorian Mysteries

Otto Penzler

Bibliomysteries

Otto Penzler

The Big Book of Female Detectives

Otto Penzler

Black Noir

Ellery Queen

The Siamese Twin Mystery

Otto Penzler

The Best American Mystery Stories 2007

Otto Penzler

The Best American Mystery Stories 2001

Ellery Queen

The Chinese Orange Mystery

Erle Stanley Gardner

The Case of the Baited Hook