Bodies in a Bookshop by R. T. Campbell: a review

Botanist Max Boyle is spending an afternoon browsing in bookshops. He thinks "The trouble with bookshops is that they are as bad as pubs. You start with one and then you drift to another, and before you know where you are you are on a gigantic book-binge." He decides on just one more shop before he goes home. It is a small, very dusty shop. The proprietor does not seem to be around, but Max browses and finds several books that he wants to buy. He goes to pay in the small office at the back of the shop where he finds the door locked from the outside and smells a strong odor of gas. He forces the lock open and enters the room to find the proprietor and another man dead on the floor. Their death may have resulted from breathing the gas, but both had been knocked on the head and they were probably still alive when the gas was turned on.

Max calls the police and his employer Dr. John Stubbs who is an old, rotund biologist and amateur criminologist. Max, Dr. Stubbs, and police Chief Inspector Reginald F. Bishop find from papers in the office that the book seller, Allen Leslie, was engaged in sale of stolen books and pornography. The other dead man Cecil Baird would be revealed to be a professional blackmailer. Their search for the murderer would lead them to the investigation of the trade in stolen books, drawings, and pornography in London. They would also encounter Allen Leslie's eccentric niece, Miss Wright, who appears to be older than Leslie. Indeed, most of the characters in this book are eccentric and are enjoyable for this trait.

Dr. Stubbs solves the murders through solving the problem of how two men could allow themselves to be hit over the back of the head without somehow fighting back. This book was published in 1946. Modern readers may wonder at the freedom that Max and Dr. Stubbs have in conducting their investigation. They interview suspects, and investigate the home of Allen Leslie, and the police to not seem to object. Indeed, the police do not seem to have thought of doing these things.

This is enjoyable read especially if the reader is a committed book buyer or a lover of bibliomysteries. The reader can only lament that so many second hand book stores have gone out of business in this modern age.

R. T. Campbell was the pen name of Ruthven Todd who wrote many books beside detective stories. He wrote poetry, novels, literary criticism, and a series of children's books, the Space Cat stories. Bodies in a Bookshop is out of print, but it is possible to find used copies of a Dover publication of this book (1984).