From the Bookshelf of Reading the Detectives…

Death of a Bookseller

Bernard J. Farmer

Start date: August 1, 2023

Finish date: August 31, 2023

Discussion: Group reads

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Group reads

* November 2025 group read - Winner!
By Judy · 20 posts · 30 views

last updated Sep 17, 2025 08:43AM

* Sept 25: Lonesome Road (#3 Miss Silver Mysteries) by Patricia Wentworth
By Susan · 16 posts · 16 views

last updated 20 hours, 11 min ago

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What Members Thought

Nov 29, 2022 Tania rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery

I loved the idea of this book, a mystery set amongst rare book dealers, but it wasn't as engaging as I had hoped.

Michael Fisk is found dead, and when one of his rivals, the bad tempered Fred Hampton, tried to sell a book that has clearly come from his collection, he is arrested and tried for his murder. PC Wigan, who was a friend of Fisk's, and his heir, doesn't think they have the right man and sets out to find the real murderer, which he must do before Hampton is hanged, so it becomes a race a ...more

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Mar 05, 2023 Gina rated it liked it · review of another edition

There's a note from the publisher in the British Library Crime Classic books about how these tales were written in a different time, with different standards and language. "Death of a Bookseller" by Bernard Farmer is less problematic than some, but it was not kind in how it treated most of its few female characters. One is a sometimes violent, besotted mistress of a man who uses her. She knows this, but keeps acquiring the books he wants to prove her worth to him. Another is a woman who was abus ...more

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Mar 20, 2022 Ellen rated it did not like it

G*d - this was awful.

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Jul 28, 2023 Jill rated it really liked it

The main character in this book is a policeman, who after his shift at work is on his way home and sees a man walking along the road in an inebriated manner. He stops the man who says he isn't drunk but may have had a bit too much to drink in celebration of obtaining a valuable book. It seems the man is a bookseller of old and rare editions of books. This interests the policeman who escort the man to his house, where he is asked in and shown the books that the man has acquired over the years. Th ...more

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