After the death of his father, a literature professor is drawn into the murder investigation of a bookstore proprietor. Though Don and his father both love books, their tastes couldn’t be more different. Don is a scholar, and his father reads nothing but schlock. His house is full of dime paperbacks, battered thrillers, and case after case of western novels, none of which his son could ever bear to read. At his father’s funeral, Don is approached by a strange man, a rare book dealer named Lou Caledonia. Don assumes the man wants to buy his dad’s old westerns, but Lou explains that something far more important is on the line. Don finds the cramped confines of Lou’s used bookstore immensely comforting, but a surprise waits for him downstairs. Caledonia has been shot dead, and Don is in danger, too. The boy who was too smart to read pulp fiction is about to find himself trapped in a thriller of his own.
The Bibliomysteries are a series of short tales about deadly books, by top mystery authors. **
Review“One of the best of the new voices of his generation.” —Thomas F. Monteleone, author of Eyes of the Virgin “An entertaining and wicked thriller.” —Jonathan Maberry , author of The Dragon Factory , on Cemetery Girl “One of those novels that you cannot shake after it’s over. A winner on every level.” —Will Lavender, author of Dominance , on Cemetery Girl
About the AuthorDavid Bell (b. 1969) is an American author of thrillers. Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, he attended college at Indiana University, and after graduating, worked a string of odd jobs—from bartender to bookstore clerk to telemarketer—which took him all over the country. Interested in fiction from a young age, Bell enrolled in a creative writing MA program at Miami University in Ohio before completing his PhD at the University of Cincinnati. He sold his debut novel, the thriller The Condemned , in 2008. His 2012 thriller The Hiding Place , which begins with the murder of a four-year-old, was well received. His most recent book is Never Come Back (2013), a story of familial murder and deceit. Bell teaches at Western Kentucky University.