The Traitor

The passion of book collectors might be termed “a gentle madness” by some, but the affliction is, in truth, not always so gentle. This is the case with Felix de Lisle, a wealthy man rumored to have dealings with the mob, whose collection of espionage writer Simon Verity exhibits a dangerous obsession. When de Lisle discovers that there might have been a variant dust jacket, destroyed by the publisher, for his favorite of Verity’s titles, he becomes fixated on owning a copy. And he hires book scout Benny Morgan to track it down.

On the hunt for information, Benny calls upon an array of rare book dealers and collectors — and the bag of cash supplied by de Lisle helps find answers from sources who might be reluctant to share their knowledge. But the search soon takes a dark turn, uncovering a dark trail of betrayal, desire, and destruction that leads to the missing jacket art — and to a secret too terrible to be ignored. Ultimately, Benny will have to confront a deadly choice: loyalty to de Lisle, or to his own personal moral code.

The Bibliomystery Series is published for and by the legendary Mysterious Bookshop in New York. These short stories feature books and those who write them, buy them, read them, collect them, sell them or are in some way involved with them. The individual books are small format pocket sized (ca. 10cm x 17cm).

Gumshoe Books is able to offer the Bibliomysteries exclusively in the UK.