Books P

Packard, Frank L. The Locked Book. Toronto, Copp, Clark, 1924 1st U.S., New York, George H. Doran, 1924 A mysteriously locked book, with a clasp in the shape of the dragon, could hold the solution to a Rajah's missing treasure. The plot involves a yachting party whose boat strays off course, and into a mystery.
Page, Katherine Hall. The Body in the Bookcase : A Faith Fairchild Mystery. New York, Morrow, 1998. Ninth in series. Minister's wife and professional chef Faith Fairchild discovers the body of Sarah Winslow, the town librarian and a collector of antique books, and so begins a mystery about stolen antiques. The author also includes tantalizing recipes along with the quirky story.
Page, Marco. (pseudonym for Harry Kurnitz) Fast Company. New York, Dodd, 1938 A classic Biblio murder mystery about a book dealer turned sleuth. $1,000 Red Badge Prize Mystery for 1938
Paige, Robin. Death At Rottingdean. Berkley Prime Crime, 1999 Lord Charles and Kathryn Ardleigh solve a murder in the smugglers's town of Rottingdean, with the help of Rudyard Kipling.
Palliser, Charles. The Unburied. London, Phoenix House, 1999 Three tales of murder and duplicity intertwine in a mystery involving an academic pursuing an 11th century manuscript, and with an old ghost story thrown in.
Palmer, Stuart. Murder on Wheels. New York, Tudor Publs., 1933 Murder on the steps of the New York Public Library Series character: Hildegard Withers, part-time criminologist and full-time schoolteacher.
Palmer, William J. The Detective and Mr. Dickens. New York, St. Martins, 1990 The novel, based on a series of real events in the life of Charles Dickens concerning the 1851 'Macbeth murders' is presented in the form of a secret journal kept by Dickens' friend and protege, Wilkie Collins. 1st in the series. The Highwayman and Mr. Dickens. New York, St. Martins, 1992 An account of the strange events of the Medusa murders. With guest appearances by Sir Richard Francis Burton, Dr. Henry Jekyll and other eminent Victorians. Second of the Wilkie Collins, Dickens journals. The Hoydens and Mr. Dickens. New York, St. Martins, 1997 Set in Victorian England, the case is a steamy one with Dickens' lover, actress Ellen Ternan, accused of the murder of a Women's Emancipation Society leader. The two novelists, Collins and Dickens, must consider revealing their own secrets to prove her innocence. Includes such characters as and Marian Evans and Florence Nightingale. Third in Series. Series characters: Wilkie Collins and Charles Dickens
Papazoglou, Oriana. Sweet, Savage Death. New York, Doubleday, 1984 The Third Annual Conference of the American Writers of Romance &endash; and a few stray corpses, including the one of its most famous attendee. Series character: writer Patience Campbell McKenna Wicked Loving Murder. New York, Doubleday, 1985 On her first day on the job at 'Writer' magazine, McKenna has a man fall into her arms - out of a closet - and he's dead. Series character: Patience Campbell McKenna Rich, Radiant Slaughter. New York, Doubleday Crime Club, 1988 Murder among the literary
Parker, Robert B. The Godwulf Manuscript. London: Andre Deutsch, 1974; 1st U.S., New York, Houghton Mifflin, 1974 Spenser is hired to recover a stolen manuscript belonging to a university library A Catskill Eagle. New York, Delacorte/Lawrence, 1985 When Hawk is jailed on murder charges and Susan Silverman disappears with the man who framed Hawk, Spenser breaks Hawk out of jail & they begin a desperate search for Susan. Features librarian as central character Stardust. New York, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1990 Spenser attempts to protect a temperamental and hysterical movie Actress and uses the Boston Public Library for some needed research.
Paton Walsh, Jill. The Wyndham Case. London, Hodder and Stoughton 1993; 1st U.S., New York, St. Martin's, 1993 Student is murdered in college library. The heroine, Imogen Quy, is a college nurse at Cambridge and makes her series debut in this novel.
Pease, Howard. Mystery at Thunderbolt House. New York, Scholastic, 1973 Theft of books from house
Peden, William. Twilight at Monticello. Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1973 Includes a "beautiful and amoral archivist"
Pedley, Katharine Greenleaf. Moriarty in the Stacks. Berkley, CA, Peacock Press, 1966. Thomas J. Wise, London book dealer and forger of 19th century pamphlets, was also Sherlock Holmes' nemesis, the nefarious Moriarty. Fiction, neatly presented as verifiable fact, complete with frontispiece photo of Wise.
Pedneau, Dave. A.K.A. New York, Ballantine, 1990 Assistant librarian bludgeoned to death
Perez-Reverte, Arturo. The Dumas Club. London, Harvill, 1996; 1st U.S., Titled: The Club Dumas. New York, Harcourt Brace, 1996 Plot involves a manuscript section of Alexandre Dumas's The Three Musketeers
Perkins, Frederic B. Scrope, or The Lost Library. Boston, Roberts Brothers, 1874 Early bibliomystery with a bookstore modeled on Gowans, one of the most famous of its time.
Pesetsky, Bette. Author from a Savage People. London, The Bodley Head, 1982; 1st U.S., New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1983 Protagonist is a ghostwriter. One of her clients is about to collect the Nobel Prize for Literature until blackmail and murder intervene.
Peters, Elizabeth. (Pseudonym of Barbara Mertz.) The Seventh Sinner. New York, Mysterious Press, 1986 For vibrant, lovely Jean Suttman, the fellowship to study in Rome was the culmination of all her dreamsuntil she undertook an innocent expedition to the ancient subterranean Temple of Mithra. From the moment she stepped into the pagan darkness and discovered the corpse of the repulsive Albert, one of her fellow students, she was afraid. Not even the comforting presence of the perceptive and practical Jacqueline Kirby could erase the fear which was nourished by one small accident after another. Accidents which come dreadfully close to killing her. The Murders of Richard III. New York, Mysterious Press, 1986 When attractive American Jacqueline Kirby is invited to an English country mansion for a weekend costume affair, she experts only one mystery. Since the hosts and guests are all fanatic devotees of King Richard III, they hope to clear his name of the 500-year old accusation that he killed the little princess in the Tower of London. Jacqueline is amused at the group's eccentricities until history begins to repeat itself. A dangerous practical joker recreates famous fifteenth-century murder methods - beheading, poisoning, smothering, and even drowning in a butt of malmsey. As the jokes become more and more macabre, one at last proves fatal. Die for Love. New York, Congdon & Weed, 1984; New York, Tor, 1987 Jacqueline Kirby decides to get away from the weather and doldrums at Coldwater College in Nebraska. A trip to New York will be ideal and, since she is the assistant head librarian at the college, she can take the trip as tax-deductible professional expense and attend the convention of the Historical Romance Writers of the World. The visit is everything that Jacqueline thought it would be and more. Much more. First, Dubretta Duberstein, the scandal columnist, dies under mysterious circumstances. She did have a bad heart, of course, but... Then, one of the most popular of the writers at the convention, Valerie Valentine, asks Jacqueline for help. Someone, it seems, is threatening to kill the novelist. Naked Once More. New York, Warner Books, 1989 Once a librarian, now a best-selling author, Jacqueline Kirby is trying to land a contract to write the sequel to a blockbusting novel. Her efforts take her to the original author's hometown, where she is inexorably drawn into the mystery surrounding the young woman's death. Agatha for Best Novel & American Mystery Award winner Series character: Jacqueline Kirby, librarian turned author/detective
Peterson, Bernard. The Caravaggio Books. New York, Worldwide, 1997 An art professor is stabbed to death in the Kingsford University library and student at exclusive University must be a killer.
Philbrick, W.R. Shadow Kills. New York, Beaufort, 1985 Mystery author, wheelchair-bound Jack Hawkins, searches for a serial killer who uses the plots of his books for his murders. Series character: J.D. Hawkins.
Phillips, Stella. The Hidden Wrath. London, Hale, 1968; New York, Walker, 1982 Four librarians volunteer to catalog a new college's library. The head cataloger lets the others know that she knows their secrets, so it's not a surprise when she is murdered.
Philmore, R. (pseudonym of Herbert Edmund Howard) The Good Books. London, Gollancz, 1936 Professor is murdered while working on a bibliography
Pinkerton, Allan. The Model Town and the Detective. New York, G.W. Carleton, 1876 Lord Byron as a detective.
Platt, Kin. Dead as They Come. New York, Random House, 1972 Few people mourn the death of Donald Lawson, a successful mystery writer and all-around despicable human being. When his editor goes looking for the murderer, she finds that Lawson had abandoned his wife, double-crossed most o his colleagues, and betrayed his friends, so there was no end of suspects.
Porter, Anna. Hidden Agenda. New York, Dutton, 1985 A pair of publishing insiders follow the trail of a manuscript that may, or may not save the world
Potter, Jeremy. The Dance of Death. London, Constable & Co., 1968; 1st U.S., New York, Walker, 1968 Someone is stealing prints from the world's great libraries
Price, Anthony. Our Man in Camelot. London, Gollancz, 1975; 1st U.S., Garden City, Doubleday, 1976 Links between a stolen Air Force jet and Russian libraries
Priestley, J.B. Salt is Leaving. New York, Harper & Row, 1966 A missing bookstore owner is suspected of murder.
Pulver, Mary Monica. Original Sin. New York, Walker, 1990 Country mansion in American Midwest at Christmas, isolated by a snowstorm with a dead body in the library. 4th in series with horse breeder Kori Brighter and husband police detective Peter Brighter.
Purtill, Richard. Murdercon. Garden City, Doubleday, 1982 A legendary writer, his lost manuscript and murder at a science fiction convention

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