Max Boyle, a botanist, Professor John Stubbs, and Chief Inspector Reginald F. Bish of Scotland Yard work together to solve a mysterious double murder

Bodies in a Bookshop

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Campbell, R.T.

Mystery

Dover Publications

First Dover Edition. 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" trade paperback is in near fine condition. Rubs to the book's corners and a faint, 1" diagonal crease at the rear wrapper's lower right corner.

Unholy Dying

Dover `

When botanist Max Boyle ventures into a little shop around the corner from London's Tottenham Court Road, he's delighted by the bibliophile treasures he finds. But he's less charmed by the two corpses he stumbles upon in a back room. Boyle summons "The Bishop," Chief Inspector Reginald F. Bishop of Scotland Yard, who in turn calls in Professor John Stubbs, a rotund amateur criminologist. The pipe-smoking, beer-drinking professor, the skeptical, world-weary Bishop, and the protesting Boyle — who would rather be basking in the sun on the Isles of Scilly — soon discover a web of skulduggery and dark deeds. Fueled as much by the friction between their personalities as their enthusiasm, the crime-solving trio threads a maze through the city's book and print emporia, grappling with a puzzle likely to baffle even the most astute armchair detectives. Bodies in a Bookshop is loaded with amusing sallies of wit, quaint and pungent observations, and droll characters. Crisp dialogue keeps the plot moving at top speed. A treat for mystery lovers and those who appreciate a rummage through musty bookshops, this novel is as exuberantly readable as it was upon its original publication in 1946.

Bodies in a Bookshop (Dover Literature: Crime/Mystery/Thriller)

Humor & Entertainment

Humor

This rare 1945 thriller offers a delightful example of detective fiction at its very best. Using the pen name R. T. Campbell, the eminent art critic, poet, and fantasy novelist Ruthven Campbell Todd wrote a series of mysteries featuring a unique hero, the inimitable amateur sleuth Professor John Stubbs. A blustering old botanist from Scotland, Stubbs employs humorously unconventional methods in his investigations. In this, one of Stubbs's first adventures, an infamous fraud is poisoned at a gathering of geneticists and the possible killer includes a dozen vindictive former assistants and humiliated colleagues. The gallery of suspects ranges from a brash American, Dr. Swartz, and the victim's sniveling associate, Professor Silver, to a lovely young genetics student, Miss Mary Lewis, and even Stubbs's nephew, a reporter covering the convention. The novel's brisk pace, witty dialogue, and flavorful re-creation of English university life during the mid-twentieth century combine to form an exciting and amusing page-turner.

Unholy Dying: A Prof. John Stubbs Mystery

"There's always a good murder around if ye know where to look for it," declares Professor John Stubbs. "It may be masqueradin' as accidental death or suicide," he solemnly adds, "but once ye start rootin' around ye'll find that it's murder." And murder it is, on public display in London's controversial new modern art museum. When the unveiling of a contemporary masterpiece reveals the body of a prominent art dealer dangling from a picture hook, Professor Stubbs is faced with a rogue's gallery of suspects: librarian Douglas Newsome, an aspiring poet with a desperate thirst for alcohol; Alec Carr, an avant-garde interior decorator tied to the apron strings of his gin-soaked mother; Dr. Cornelius Bellamy, a pompous windbag of an art critic; and Miss Emily Wallenstein, nervous patron of the arts. Originally published in 1946, and never before in the U.S., Swing Low, Swing Death is one of a series of seven novels featuring Professor Stubbs, the beer-swilling, pipe-smoking amateur detective. Poet and art historian Ruthven Todd, writing as R. T. Campbell, vividly recaptures the atmosphere of postwar London and his brisk, humorous narrative is brightened with many droll allusions to the works of T. S. Eliot, Kipling, Shakespeare, and other poets.

Swing Low, Swing Death (Dover Literature: Crime/Mystery/Thriller)

Max Boyle was hoping for a quiet life after the rough-and-tumble of World War II, but "my life with Professor Stubbs had been nothing more than one damned murder after another, and even in between murders I'd had no peace." As the professor/amateur detective's assistant, Max is inevitably drawn into the latest imbroglio, this one involving Stubbs's drinking buddy, an amiable lunatic known as Mr. Carr. It seems that Mr. Carr's dotty old Aunt Lottie, who ran a tawdry hotel in Notting Hill, was found strangled in her rocking chair. Each boarder is mentioned in her will — and all of their alibis are weak. Stubbs is determined to exonerate his chum, the will's chief beneficiary, so the pipe-smoking, beer-swilling sleuth forces his assistance upon the long-suffering police investigator, Chief Inspector Bishop. With his characteristic humor and poetic turns of phrase, Max recounts the professor's scrutiny of a ne'er-do-well cousin, a pair of jewel thieves, a seductive but hard-boiled chambermaid, and other seedy suspects. This edition marks the witty and atmospheric mystery's first publication in the United States.

Death for Madame: A Prof. John Stubbs Mystery

The Death Cap

Lomax Press

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