The Book of the Lion by Elizabeth Daly

Paul Bradlock had been a writer who had lived in Paris during the exciting years of the twenties when the city was the center of literary and artistic achievement. Paul was a writer but not a great one. He had published a volume of poetry, married Vera Larkin, and returned to New York in 1930. He had then written plays but only one had been produced. Paul gave up writing and lapsed into a life of drinking. He had been murdered in a park two years before the story in this book began.

Henry Gamadge,a consultant on old books and autographs, and an amateur detective, was contacted by Avery Bradlock, Paul's brother. Avery wondered if Gamadge would look over Paul's letters because Avery had heard that people would pay for letters of writers. Gamadge told him that he did not purchase letters, but that he would look over the letters to see if they had any value. He joined Avery and his family for dinner that evening. Vera Bradlock, Paul's wife surprised every one by announcing that she had already agreed to sell the letters to a friend of hers, Hilliard Iverson. At dinner that evening, Iverson wrote out the check and presented it to Vera, and took a box containing the letters away with him.

Gamadge suspected that something was suspicious about this whole transaction, and a little investigation would prove him right. He talked to Vera and Iverson and was told that Paul Bradlock had purchased a copy of a missing book by Geoffrey Chaucer in a used book store in Paris, and that they had sold this copy of The Book of the Lion for a large sum of money. Then, it would seem,  the book had been destroyed. Gamage realized that he was dealing with some type of forgery ring, and that he would need to find who and how the forgeries were done.

Elizabeth Daly published this book in 1948. Ms. Daly did not find success as a mystery writer until she was 62 when her book Unexpected Night was published. She wrote fifteen more mystery novels after this. It is said that she was Agatha Christie's favorite mystery author. The Book of the Lion is currently available as a paperback and as an e-book.