| Title | : | Christmas at The Mysterious Bookshop |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1593156170 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781593156176 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 245 |
| Publication | : | First published October 12, 2010 |
Charles Ardai
Lisa Atkinson
George Baxt
Lawrence Block
Mary Higgins Clark
Thomas H. Cook
Ron Goulart
Jeremiah Healy
Edward D. Hoch
Rupert Holmes
Andrew Klavan
Michael Malone
Ed McBain
Anne Perry
S. J. Rozan
Jonathan Santlofer
Donald E. Westlake
Some of these stories are humorous, others suspenseful, and still others are tales of pure detection, but all of them together make up a charming collection and a perfect Christmas gift for all ages.
Christmas at The Mysterious Bookshop Reviews
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I liked this book. As with all anthologies, some stories are better than others. Some were more Christmas-ey than others and more were more mysterious than others. However, I found it to be a lot of fun. The only rules for these stories are that the story must take place at Christmas time and some of the action must take place at New York’s famous Mysterious Bookshop.
It was interesting to see how varied and wide reaching the different stories were. There were typical whodunits, tales of redemption, and one that was just plain funny. And of course there was one where the cat helped solve the crime. So if you like mysteries and are looking for reading that’s a little bit different this Christmas, I think it’s worth it. -
Dnf on the second story because of language
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Reason for Reading: The book was sent to me unsolicited. I read several short story collections last year but haven't been reading many, if any, this year at all and the thought of spending some time with the short story format again was enticing, the book had come at just the right time for me.
This is a collection of the stories that Otto Penzler has had commissioned to be written for his store each year beginning 1993. He then has them bound and gives them away to customers at Christmas. The little booklets have become collectible themselves and Otto decided to publish them all together in one compilation for the final enjoyment of the masses. Each story is written by a different mystery writer though I have to admit I had only heard of 7 of the 17 authors, and read even fewer. The qualifications for each story was that they must happen at Christmas and must contain at least a scene that takes place within the Mysterious Bookshop. Apart from 3 of the 17 stories, the authors chose to make the bookshop and, more often than not, Otto Penzler himself as a major character, the prime components of the story. This was fun at first but became repetetive as the book progressed. Even though the stories were different there was a cookie cutter substance to them when you knew Otto would have some mystery happen in his Bookshop each time, or a clerk would be involved in one. Now that's not to say the stories weren't good. A few of them were excellent, most of them were good and there were only a couple of duds for me. Averaging up the total ratings of each individual story came up with a 3.5/5 for the whole book which feels perfectly spot on about how I feel for the compilation as a whole. Since these stories have only ever been printed in their original special edition format, this would make a unique gift for the mystery fan you're not sure what to buy them.
1. Give Till it Hurts by Donald E. Westlake - a humorous story of a man who robs a numismatic show of a pocketful of ancient coins and while escaping seeks refuge in a poker game he stumbles upon. 3/5
2. Schemes and Variations by George Baxt - it's fabled knowledge in the rare books world that a Dashiell Hammett manuscript entitled "The Thin Woman" has surfaced and someone is determined to have it, as an assassin is killing off the world's best known rare books and manuscripts dealers trying to find it. With its bookish theme this was obviously a fun story, as was the mystery. Otto Penzler is one of the main characters. 3.5/5
3. The Theft of the Rusty Bookmark by Edward D. Hoch - another fun book-ish themed mystery. A professional burglar is hired by a man who has just sold his late brother-in-law's book collection to Otto Penzler. The burglar is to go find the boxes of four hundred books and retrieve a bookmark left inside one of them. 3.5/5
4. Murder for Dummies by Ron Goulart - A two-bit author whose career is going south as his publisher no longer wants to renew his contract for his children's mystery series goes to the dark side when an elderly fan asks him to read her manuscript, and he loves it. A great mystery with all the right elements including a twist and a surprise ending. My favourite so far. 5/5
5. As Dark As Christmas Gets by Lawrence Block - The owner of The Mysterious Bookshop (never mentioned by name, but the real owner is poked fun at) has a Christmas party, wakes the next morning to find an extremely unique Cornell Woolrich manuscript missing. He calls in a friend, a private detective, who works in the same manner as Nero Wolfe and actually believes Wolfe is a real person. The detective quickly whittles the 50 party attendees down to 7 suspects, gathers them in a room and proceeds to unravel the mystery. Loved this one, even though it crossed the line and spoke to the reader; it was done for humour. The sleuthing was classic detective style and had a great solution that perfectly fit the tone of the story. 4/5
6. The Holiday Fairy by Jeremiah Healy - Otto Penzler calls in a P.I. from out of state to question three of his close friends that he has figured out have all been in his private rooms the preceding week on the exact days that three collectible objects have disappeared and been replaced with envelopes containing the book price payment of each. The plot of Otto calling in an investigator to find stolen objects wasn't new to this collection and this story didn't have anything new to offer. The ending was quite different but didn't save it for me. 2/5
7. I Saw Mommy Killing Santa Claus by Ed McBain - Title pretty much gives everything away but still pleasant story of a kid roaming the bookstore. Upstairs staff assumes mother is downstairs and boy tells downstairs staff mother is upstairs, but boy starts to get creepy when he starts insisting to everyone that Santa is dead. 3/5
8. The Grift of the Magi by S.J. Rozan - Otto tells two friends, separately, that he would like an extremely rare book for Christmas but knows he'll never find one. Silly little story with lots of word play. 2/5
9. My Object All Sublime by Anne Perry - Half an hour before closing a man finagles his way into seeing Otto in his private rooms and his intentions are no less than deadly. Loved this one. Grew creepier and creepier as it went along until a twist ending. My new favourite so far. 5/5
10. Christmas Spirit by Michael Malone - A chief of police from South Carolina accompanies a detective to Otto's Christmas party where the night ends with a body. The chief and a cat solve the crime. An ok story but I did enjoy the narrative voice very much. 3/5
11. The Lesson of the Season by Thomas H. Cook - A clerk has worked Saturdays all by herself in the store for ten years and every Saturday the same man has been coming in buying trashy paperback original action mysteries, with a special interest in one author. A book snob herself she finally asks him why he reads that junk and gets an answer worth far more than she was looking for. Great lead up, with a twist and satisfying end. Another favourite. 5/5
12. Yule Be Sorry by Lisa Michelle Atkinson - The unnamed owner of The Mysterious Bookstore is in dire straights: the phone's been cut, last month's mortgage is due, he's worried about the electricity, etc. He's desperately hoping one of his buyers can come up with a first edition of Hammett's second book as he already has a buyer. The book arrives the day before Christmas but as he is about to hand it over to the buyer he can't find it anywhere. That's only the first twist. Cute story. 3/5
13. The Long Winter's Nap by Rupert Holmes - A new Mysterious Bookstore has opened at another location at it's celebrating its first Christmas so O.P. hires a brass band to play out front. When the tuba player asks to use the washroom, a clerk shows him the way downstairs where they find a dead Santa in the storeroom. This story is much longer than any of the others so far, thus allows for quite a bit of a set-up and detecting as the murder is unraveled just in time, as the police arrive. Straight forward, classic mystery story. 4/5
14. Cold Reading by Charles Ardai - Just a regular day at the bookstore a few days before Christmas when a young woman walks in and starts talking to the clerk, Roger, turns out her grandmother was a highly collectible '50s author who only wrote two books before her untimely death. This woman says her father has just died and going through his stuff she's found a lot of grandma's things including a third book but it's only in manuscript form. Would he come over, she doesn't live far away, and take a look? When he arrives her apartment has been ransacked and she is missing, that is until her kidnapper calls on the phone. Quite a delightful story. You know something's up from the beginning but there's a twist and it's not what you thought it was. Fun. 3.5/5
15. The Killer Christian by Andrew Klavan - A brother and sister in the city for a while now from their more rural beginnings are leading very different lives. Holly, an aspiring actress, who currently has a part as an angel in a play, works part time in "The Mysterious Bookshop" and has been given a low rent apt. above it. Brother Steven however, has got himself mixed up with the criminal world and had Holly bail him out several times. But this time, he's in big trouble because his boss had decided to "off" him and Steven tries to stay alive, just ahead of the assassin. I really enjoyed this one. It had quite a bit of action and the characters were developed enough that I actually liked them and could imagine them outside the confines of the story. Apart from the very first story in the book, this is the only other one *not* to take place entirely in the store and use the owner as a major character. By this point in the book, I found that very refreshing! 4/5
16. The 74th Tale by Jonathan Santlofer - A young man walks into the bookstore near closing time and buys himself a Christmas present. Thinking he's getting more for his money he chooses a book with 73 stories in it. When he gets home and starts reading the stories, from his descriptions, we can tell the book is Poe. Then he comes across a story that inspires him to conduct a real life experiment he has always wanted to try. This is the creepiest story is the book! A good suspenseful tale and one of the best in the book. 5/5
17. What's in a Name by Mary Higgins Clark - Can't really give a summary of this as it slowly unravels until the end but it begins with a woman who is slowly clearing out her Nana's house after her death. For the past 20 years Nana has written mystery novels but none of them were ever accepted and her office is full of manuscripts (never having let anyone read one) , some in envelopes that have been sent and returned. Nana gave instructions to her granddaughter that upon her death, if she had never sold a book, then all her papers were to be thrown away with the promise that nobody would ever read them. This story was more cheesy and like a "Hallmark moment" than a mystery. 2.5/5 -
All of these short stories involve Otto Penzler or his staff, and the action takes place, for the most part, in his bookstore, The Mysterious Bookshop. It sounds like it could be great fun, after all what's better than being in a bookstore at Christmas time, surrounded by wonderful books with a mystery thrown in to boot?
Unfortunately I found most of these stories to be poorly written with predictable outcomes. I realize that it is difficult to pen an intriguing story when every story must have a similar setting & characters.
I quickly became bored with the store setting and characters. I felt that the authors were "kissing up" to Otto just a little too much (after all, he does push their books in his real store), by never showing Otto in a bad light, or making him a villan. He and his store were just a little too perfect for my taste in these cozy tales.
I did enjoy one of the stories; My Object All Sublime (Anne Perry). I found this one to be a nice surprise, well written and interesting.
Two other tales were passable; The Lesson of the Season (Thomas H Cook) & Christmas Spirit (Michael Malone), which included a terrific cat as part of the plot. I'm always a sucker for a story that includes animals, although not talking ones! My 2 star rating is given only because of these three stories.
I had to read this for my bookclub, it's their Christmas pick this year. I probably would not have finished this book, were it not for the club.
If you must, borrow this from the library, read the 3 stories mentioned above, skipping the rest of the poorly written drivel with their silly plots. -
A great book for Christmas season. I have several books of short stories that were collected by Otto Penzler and never really knew who he was. I do now!
Every year Penzler, the owner of the real Mysterious Bookshop in NYC, asks mystery authors to write a short story that he then publishes (usually for friends and customers). The restrictions are that it somehow concern the bookshop (even if only as an employee, customer, etc.) and that it be set around Christmas.
Some of the authors are ones I know well - Donald Westlake, Lawrence Block, Thomas Cook - and some I didn't know at all. I could tell the writers I knew primarily, even without looking at their names, by the quality of the writing. Not to say the others weren't good writers; they just don't have the sophistication of the others.
The stories involve all sorts of incidents from a man whose manuscript was turned down by Penzler and who now wants revenge, to the murder of a man whom a young boy thinks is Santa Claus.
My favorite "mystery" character - John Dortmunder by Donald Westlake - makes an appearance as a "distinguised writer" due to a poker game.
Anyone who likes mysteries and Christmas will enjoy this. Actually it would make a great book to read on Christmas, after the presents are opened and life begins to settle down again, on a comfy sofa, with a cup of eggnog (with brandy of course), and a dog or cat curled up with you while the snow silently drifts down....
(or for you Aussies, while the sun burns so hot that you can't go outside, so you HAVE to stay inside and read!) -
Decided to read a Christmas story this year..ended up being an anthology. All the tales take place at times in the Bookshop, and Otto is in them also. With some of the big guns in the mystery genre, this was a nice cozy mystery collection of who-dun-it's, during the holidays.
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Despite all of the 5 stars, this was 3.11 for me. Most likely due to the Anne Perry I refused to read and rated at 0 stars. Some of the stories in this were simply AMAZING and others were...ok or worse. The 5 stars made this entire book worth reading.
My favs:
1) As Dark as Christmas Gets by Lawrence Block
2) The Holiday Fairy by Jeremiah Healy
3) The Lesson of the Season by Thomas H Cook (my top fav of this book by far)
4) The Killer Christian by Andrew Klavan
5) What's in a Name? by Mary Higgins Clark
So five amazing stories out of 17. Not bad. Definitely recommended if you enjoy mysteries and short stories. Christmas wasn't always apparent in all of the stories, but it was the in best ones. Only one of the top five has a murder in it. I'm not big on people hurting others, so the ones that involved murder didn't do much for me. Different strokes and all that. 3 stars with all of the stories averaged out and 5 stars for my top five listed above.
Thanks to my friend for loaning this to me! -
As a Christmas gift to his loyal customers, Otto Penzler, owner of The Mysterious Bookshop, solicits a short story to be written and published by Penzler's publishing company; this book is a compilation of some of those short mysteries. Not so long ago all I read were mysteries, and I forgot how much I enjoyed them until I picked up this collection. Since a minimum requirement is for the story to be set at Christmas and have the bookshop as well as Penzler in them, I felt that this was enough of a connection to read from story to story nonstop. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes a quick read, especially a mystery to put you in a deadly holiday spirit.
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"If ever you see a man put his fingers in his ears and whistle Dixie to keep from hearing the truth, you assume he's a fool, but if he puts his fingers in your ears and starts whistling, then you know you're dealing with a journalist."
Andrew Klavan, The Killer Christian (2007)
It's always chancy to read a collection of stories by different authors. It's usually such a hodge-podge. In this case, this is a collection by authors who were invited by Mr Penzler to write about a general theme. The stories were written between 1993 - 2009. Very entertaining!
**I was trying to remember how this book got on my radar then I saw Andrew Klavan is one of the authors ... lightbulb moment! -
As with any anthology, some you love others meh. Once I got over the hubris of having all the stories revolve around his own store (why not just books, or Christmas), I enjoyed the store and Penzler himself being characters.
My favourite story was The Grift of the Maji. -
Like all short story anthologies, there were some fun, interesting stories and a few I didn't care for, but a solid set of stories. Loved the setting and premise.
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The origin of this book is such a wonderful piece of biblio-magic and the collection represents a decade and a half of loving contributions to readers of the mystery genre who travel from far and wide to support a specialty shop run by one of humanity's foremost experts on mystery writing. Before you even get to the stories, that's a wicked cool mark in the book's favor - - and the stories themselves very rarely disappoint. I've been introduced to a store I want to visit, and more than a dozen samples of writing that point me in the right direction when I'm choosing my next mystery novel to read.
Thank you, Otto Penzler, for this one-of-a-kind, and oh-so stinking cool, Christmas gift. -
A collection of mystery stories written over the years by famous authors. They are all about fictional crimes that occur in or near the Mysterious Bookshop, a real bookstore in New York City. I liked most of them. They were quirky and original.
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This book is short stories written by mystery writers given as Christmas gifts to the patrons of the Mysterious Bookshop in New York City. Each story has to be set at least partly at the book store, over Christmas and the owner has to be present. I particularly enjoyed these stories: “The Holiday Fairy” by Jeremiah Healy is about three successful mystery authors who . “The 74th Tale” by Jonathan Santlofer is told first- person from a reader who bought a collection of mystery short stories and used it as a how- to book. “The Grift of the Magi” by S.J. Rozan is a pun-full, rhyme-full story about Penzler setting up two gumshoes.
I read this for Messy Housekeeper’s Book Club meeting 1/28/18. I borrowed this from interlibrary loan. -
I really wanted to read the entirety of "The Black Lizard Big Book of Christmas Mysteries" before the end of the year, but it just does not look like it is going to happen. Instead, I hit upon this collection while searching at the local library for a different collection, one by Edward D. Hoch.
It all worked out since this was equally related to the holiday season & is a collection of stories commissioned annually, between 1993 and 2009, by Otto Penzler for printing on a small, limited basis to be distributed to his more loyal patrons. Wow! One of the stories, "The Killer Christian" by Andrew Klavan (2007), showed up in the larger anthology & since I had already read that entry, it saved me a little time.
As with any anthology, it would be tough to mark it as "Amazing". Still, there were many worthwhile reads, most notably Charles Ardai's "Cold Reading" (2006) with its nod to his own Hard Case Crime Series and S.J. Rozan's "The Grift of the Magi" (2000) with its punmanship.
This would be a tough ask of any writer as each story must take place in Penzler's The Mysterious Bookshop & feature Mr. Penzler as a central character. They all pulled it off, though, with some doing it better than others. -
Just a perfect selection of murderous Christmas reads. each and every story a little gem of it's own. (there was only one clunker in the bunch and boy was it a stinker!) some noir, some humorous, and some fine investigative Christmas stories by some very talented authors. you could do a lot worse.
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really good short christmas mysteries, easy read
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good idea but poorly written, in my opinion
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I thoroughly enjoyed the stories in this book. Having been in the bookshop several times probably increased my level of enjoyment. If you love mysteries & have the opportunity to go to NYC, the Mysterious Bookshop must be on your itinerary.
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Otto Penzler is the proprietor of The Mysterious Bookshop, an iconic New York City store for decades now; certainly if I ever get to NYC, it's the first, and fourth, and ninth place I'll check out. Some 17 years ago, he began commissioning authors to write a short story for Christmas, which he gave in bound copies to longstanding customers; Christmas at The Mysterious Bookshop is a hardcover collection bringing those stories, from 1993 to 2009, together in one volume. The requirements were that the story had to be set at Christmas, had to include a mystery and had to have at least some of the action take place in the real store. Stories by Donald E. Westlake, George Baxt, Edward D. Hoch, Ron Goulart, Lawrence Block, Jeremiah Healy, Ed McBain, S.J. Rozan, Anne Perry, Michael Malone, Thomas H. Cook, Lisa Michelle Atkinson, Rupert Holmes, Charles Ardai, Andrew Klavan, Jonathan Santlofer and Mary Higgins Clark are included; as always with such collections, I liked some stories more than others, but all of them were professional and well-written, and most of them were quite funny too. Mr. Penzler himself figures in almost all of the stories, so much so that in his introduction he felt compelled to note that while he is himself a real person, the characters bearing his name in these various stories are not. This is a quick read, perfect for Christmas holiday evenings (by the fire if you have one, which alas I don't) when you're up for a few short and murderous outings in your reading life. My only quibble is that no biographies of the authors are provided; although I know most of these names, some of them are unfamiliar to me and it would have been nice to learn a little bit about them in addition to reading their contributions to this very wonderful tradition - I wish other bookstores would do the same for their customers! Recommended.
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This was a fun "theme" book of short stories all about mysteryies set in the Christmas season, with at least part of the action taking place in The Mysterious Bookshop.
The Mysterious Bookshop of the title is actually a real bookstore in the Tribeca area of Manhattan. The owner of the store is the editor of the book containing the short stories, all of which he commissioned through the years from famous mystery authors, one each year as a gift for loyal customers of the store for Christmas. He decided to consolidate and publish them in book form which this book is the result.
Although I am not usually a short-story fan, there were some clever, entertaining stories in the book. There were a handful that either the style or the subject matter just was not interesting to me, but overall the book was a good read and a clever concept. If you like short stories and mysteries, this may be worth your time in checking out. -
This was the December selection for the mystery book club to which I belong.
Otto Penzler owns The Mysterious Bookshop in New York. He commissions a Christmas story each year from an author, publishes it, and gives it out as a holiday gift to customers. The bookshop has to play some role in the story.
Seventeen of the stories are in this book. It was an amusing read. There is a story for every type of mystery reader.
Now, I have a new place to check out for hard-to-find mysteries! -
Surprisingly enjoyable Christmas book of short mystery tales which revolve around the Mysterious Bookshop. I found myself engaged in all the stories except one, which was OK but didn't have the same pizazz as the rest. Good, solid efforts from a wide variety of authors which made me want to seek out longer works by some of the authors. It was nice to get a feel for the authors' writing styes and characters from their book series. Well worth checking out!
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17 short stories by bestselling authors all set at Christmastime in and around the Mysterious Bookshop in NYC. Ranges from kind of goofy to sweet. Overall, as to be expected from this caliber of contributors, the quality of the stories is impressive. Well worth the read, may become a tradition for re-reading at Christmastime.
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I enjoyed this collection much better than I thought I would. Most of the stories are very entertaining and for once they are actually short enough to be read in one sitting. Man alive, did it make me want to be in this bookstore at Christmas (especially the old location). Overall, 3.5 stars.
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Short stories make me feel like I read fast! ;)
Some were good, some not so much and some were just average. But it was a fun little read....I chose 8 or so. That's all I'm doing. For book discussion...and cookie exchange...really looking forward to that! -
The idea behind this collection of short stories is great. I am a huge fan of door stoppers and series, so sometimes short stories can be a bit of a challenge. There was a wide variety stories, and while I didn't love all of them, it was a good Christmas read.
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Lots of amusing stories featuring The Mysterious Bookshop of New York City. I finished a higher percentage of the stories in this book than I usually would in a collection of short stories.
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I liked the title, but I was in the wrong mood to be reading short stories.
