Mystery, Inc.

Joyce Carol Oates

Apr 2015 · Bibliomysteries Book 26 · Open Road Media

About this ebook

A book lover’s lust for acquisition drives him to murder in this short tale from the New York Times–bestselling author of Beautiful Days.

Identified only by the hastily—and clumsily—chosen alias Charles Brockden, the narrator of this story finds a bookstore that instantly piques his desire. He must call it his own; he must add it to his already-extensive collection of bookstores. But surely the owner of such a fine shop wouldn’t easily part with it. Brockden forms a plan to acquire the store in such a way that no one would ever suspect foul play: untraceable murder. And he knows he will be successful—because he has done it before.

The Bibliomysteries are a series of short tales about deadly books, by top mystery authors.

Ratings and reviews

Mystery, Inc. is a delightful tale about a specialty bookshop owner who has made a habit of acquiring competing stores, not by purchasing them, but by murdering their owners and then buying the stores at bargain basement prices from the grieving heirs. As the title suggests, the bookshops at issue specialize in mysteries, and our villain, though an enthusiast of the genre, has not read enough of his own stock. Not surprisingly, his scheme does not work out quite the way he planned when he comes up against Aaron Neuhaus, the proprietor of Mystery, Inc. What is even more satisfying than the resolution of our narrator's encounter with Mr. Neuhaus, however, is the store's gruesome history and the ambiguity of Mr. Neuhaus's own acquisition of it. As Mr. Neuhaus says, "If you are an aficionado of mystery-detective-crime fiction, you know that someone, in fact many people, and many of them ‘innocent,’ must die for the sake of the art — for mystery’s sake. That is the bedrock of our business: Mystery, Inc. Some of us are booksellers, and some of us are consumers, or are consumed. But all of us have our place in the noble trade." I received a free copy of Mystery, Inc. through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

About the author

Joyce Carol Oates is the author of over seventy books encompassing novels, poetry, criticism, story collections, plays, and essays. Her novel Them won the National Book Award in Fiction in 1970. Oates has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters for more than three decades and currently holds the Roger S. Berlind Distinguished Professorship at Princeton University.