Today is National Independent Bookstore Day. I'm a big patron on Indie Bookstores. I love visiting them in towns I visit, and, of course, at home here in Berkeley. That being said, I also love mysteries about books aka Bibliomysteries. Here's a random and totally incomplete but fun list of Bookstore Mysteries for Bookstore Day. There are so many mysteries set in bookstores that I couldn't include them all, but I invite you to comment below with your favorite titles, and I'll add them.
Mystery Readers Journal has had several issues dedicated to Bibliomysteries that have included Bookstore Mysteries. They are still available. Check out the Tables of Content:
BiblioMysteries: Volume 30:4 (2014)
Bibliomysteries: Volume 21: 3 (2005)
And don't forget to buy a book (or two or ten) at your local bookstore today!
BOOKSTORE MYSTERIES
Kathy Aarons: Chocolate Covered Mystery Series: Death is Like a Box of Chocolates
Victoria Abbott: The Christie Curse
Ellery Adams: The Secret, Book & Scone Society Series
Laura Alden: Murder at the PTA; Plotting at the PTA, Foul Play at the PTA, Curse of the PTA, Poison at the PTA
Ellie Alexander: A Very Novel Murder
Garrison Allen: Desert Cat, Roayl Cat, Stable Cat, Baseball Cat, Dinosaur Cat
Esmahan Aykol: Hotel Bosphorus, Baksheesh, Divorce Turkish Style
Jemma Bard: Cafe Prose Series: Prose & Poison
Lorna Barrett: Booktown Mystery Series: Murder on the Half Shelf, Murder is Binding, Bookmarked for Death, Bookplate Special, Chapter and Hearse, Sentenced to Death, Not the Killing Type, Book Clubbed, A Fatal Chapter, Title Wave, A Just Cause
Isabella Bassett: Old Bookstore Mysteries, Volumes 1-3: Out of Print, Murderous Misprint, Suspicious Small Print
Tamra Baumann: A Novel Way to Die
Mikkel Birkegaard: The Library of Shadows
Laura Gail Black: Antique Bookshop Series: For Whom the Book Tolls
Olivia Blacke: Brooklyn Murder Mystery Series: Killer Content
Maggie Blackburn: Little Bookshop of Murder
Elizabeth Blake: Jane Austen Society Mystery Series: Pride, Prejudice and Poison
Lawrence Block: Burglars Can't be Choosers, The Burglar in the Closet, The Burglar Who Liked to Quote Kipling, The Burglar Who Studied Spinoza, The Burglar Who Painted Like Mondrian, The Burglar Who Traded Ted Williams, The Burglar Who Thought He was Bogart, The Burglar in the Library, The Burglar in the Rye, The Burglar on the Prowl, The Burglar Who Counted the Spoons
Michael Bowen: Washington Deceased, Faithfully Executed, Corruptly Procured, Worst Case Scenario, Collateral Damage
Ali Brandon: Double Booked for Death, A Novel Way to Die, Words with Fiends, Literally Murder, Plot Boiler, Twice Told Tail
Jon Breen: The Gathering Place, Touch of the Past
V. M. Burns: The Plot is Murder; Read Herring Hunt, The Novel Art of Murder; Wed, Read and Dead; Murder from A to Z
Lynn Cahoon: Tourist Trap Mystery Series: Guidebook to Murder
Liam Callanan: Paris by the Book
Kate Carlisle: Bibliophile Mystery Series: Homicide in Hardcover
Erica Chase: A Killer Read
Abby Collette: Body and Soul Food
John Connolly: The Museum of Literary Soul
Laurence Cosse: A Novel Bookstore
Cleo Coyle: Haunted Bookshop Mystery Series, including The Ghost and Mrs. McClure; The Ghost and the Dead, and more.
Cindy Daniel: Death Warmed Over...Coming Soon, A Family Affair
Vicki Delany: Body on Baker Street; Elementary, She Read, The Cat of the Baskervilles: A Curious Incident
Kathi Daley: Romeow and Juliet
Barbara Davis: The Echo of Old Books
John Dunning: Booked to Die, The Bookman's Wake, The Bookman's Promise, The Sign of the Book, The Bookwoman's Last Fling
Lauren Elliott: Beyond the Page Bookstore series: Murder by the Book; Prologue to Murder
The Sentence by Louise Erdrich
Alex Erickson: Bookstore Cafe series: Death by Coffee; Death by Tea, Death by Pumpkin Spice, Death by Vanilla Latte, Death by Eggnog, Death by Espresso
Amanda Flower: Magical Bookshop Series: Crime and Poetry; Prose and Cons; Murders and Metaphors
Sarah Fox: Literary Pub Series: Wine and Punishment
Bruce Graeme: Seven Clues in Search of a Crime, House with Crooked Walls, A Case for Solomon, Work for the Hangman, Ten Trails to Tyburn, And a Bottle of Rum, Dead Pigs at Hungry Farm
Carolyn Hart: Death on Demand Series: Death on Demand, Design for Murder, Something Wicked, Honeymoon with Murder, A Little Class on Murder, Deadly Valentine, The Christie Caper,
Southern Ghost, The Mint Julep Murder, Yankee Doodle Dead, White Elephant Dead, Sugar Plum Dead, April Fool Dead Engaged To Die, Murder Walks the Plank, Death of the Party, Dead Days of Summer, Death Walked In, Dare To Die, Laughed ’Til He Died, Dead by Midnight, Death Comes Silently; Dead, White, and Blue; Death at the Door, Don’t Go Home, Walking on My Grave, Death on Demand
Joan Hess: Strangled Prose, The Murder at the Murder at the Mimosa Inn, Dear Miss Demeanor,
A Really Cute Corpse, A Diet to Die For, Roll Over and Play Dead,
Death by the Light of the Moon, Poisoned Pins, Pickled to Death, Busy Bodies, Closely Akin to Murder;
A Holly, Jolly Murder ; A Conventional Corpse, Out on a Limb, The Goodbye Body, Damsels in Distress, Mummy Dearest, Deader Homes and Gardens, Murder as a Second Language, Pride v. Prejudice
Caroline Kepnes: You
Alice Kimberly (Cleo Coyle): The Haunted Bookshop Series: The Ghost of Mrs McClure; The Ghost and the Dead Deb, The Ghost and the Dead Man's Library; The Ghost and the Femme Fatale, The Ghost and the Haunted Mansion; The Ghost and the Bogus Bestseller,
Allison Kingsley: Mind Over Murder, A Sinister Sense, Trouble Vision, Extra Sensory Deception
Jayne Ann Krentz: The Shop on Hidden Lane
Essie Lang: Castle Bookshop Series: Trouble on the Books
Josh Lanyon: Fatal Shadows, A Dangerous Thing, The Hell You Say, Death of a Pirate King, The Dark Tide
S.A. Lelchuk: Save Me From Dangerous Men; One Got Away
Amy Lillard: Main Street Book Club Series: Can't Judge a Book by its Murder
T.C. LoTempio: Buried in a Book
Charlie Lovett: The Bookman's Tale
Marianne MacDonald: Death's Autograph,
Ghost Walk, Smoke Screen, Road Kill,
Blood Lies; Die Once, Three Monkeys, Faking It
T. J. MacGregor: The Hanged Man,
Black Water, Total Silence, Category Five, Cold as Death
Karen MacInerney: A Killer Ending
Molly MacRae: Plaid and Plagiarism, Scones and Scoundrels
Russell D. McLean: Ed's Dead
Elizabeth C. Main: Murder of the Month, No Rest for the Wicked
Christine Matthews (w/Robert Randisi); Murder is the Deal of the Day, The Masks of Auntie Laveau, Same Time, Same Murder
Sue Minix: Murder at the Bookstore (and more Bookstore Mysteries)
Judy Moore: Cozy Mysteries to Die For series: A Book Signing to Die For
Terrie Farley Moran: Well Read, Then Dead; Caught Read-Handed, Read to Death
Walter Mosley: Fearless Jones, Fear Itself, Fear of the Dark
Amy Meyerson: The Bookshop of Yesterdays
Elizabeth Penny: Chapter and Curse
Otto Penzler, ed.: Bibliomysteries (2 volumes): Short Stories
Bill Petrocelli: Through the Bookstore Window
Mark Pryor: The Bookseller series (multiple titles), The Most Mysterious Bookshop in Paris (2026)
Michael Redhill: Bellevue Square
S.A. Reeves: A Murder at the Church; A Legacy of Lies (Bookshop Mysteries)
Kym Roberts: Fatal Fiction
Paige Shelton: The Cracked Spine; Lost Books and Old Bones; A Christmas Tartan
Sheila Simonson: Larkspur, Skylark, Mudlark, Meadowlark, Malarkey
Robin Sloan: Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore
Matthew J. Sullivan: Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore
Rules for Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson
Carolyn Wells: Murder in the Bookshop
Vanessa Westermann: An Excuse for Murder
Gayle Wigglesworth: Tea is for Terror, Washington Weirdos, Intrigue in Italics, Cruisin' for a Brusin', Malice in Mexico
T.E. Wilson: Mezcalero
M.K. Wren: Curiosity Didn’t Kill the Cat; A Multitude of Sins, Oh Bury Me Not, Nothing's Certain by Death, Seasons of Death, Wake Up, Darlin’ Corey, Dead Matter,
King of the Mountain
Carlos Ruiz Zafron: The Shadow of the Wind
And a few other Bookstore Novels, not necessarily mysteries:
Jenny Colgan: The Bookshop on the Corner
Penelope Fitzgerald: The Bookshop
Nina George: The Little Paris Bookshop
Helene Hanff: 84 Charing Cross Road
Veronica Henry: How to Find Love in a Bookshop
Amy Meyerson: The Bookshop of Yesterdays
Deborah Meyler: The Bookstore
Christopher Morley: Parnassus on Wheels; The Haunted Bookshop Robin Sloan: Mr Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore
Gabrielle Zevin: The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry
YA:
Anna James: Tilly and the Bookwanderers
Let me know if I've forgotten any of your favorites.
