Friday, July 15, 2016

Bristow, Gwen and Bruce Manning. The Gutenberg Murders (New York: The Mystery League, 1931) 275 p.
The Muriel Sheldon Memorial Library in New Orleans acquires nine leaves from the Gutenberg Bible. The head librarian, Dr. Prentiss, is convinced the fragment is authentic while the library’s head trustee believes it to be a forgery. Soon afterward Assistant Librarian Quentin Ulman is murdered. Ulman, a handsome young professional had already published three books on book collecting. Dr. Prentiss was “tall and slender, with a droop to his shoulders that suggested much bending over a desk and long delicate hands that seemed made for caressing the crumbly pages of old books. His white hair waved back from a high, commanding forehead, and his gray eyes were at once piercing and contemplative; an odd mixture of shyness and arrogance, he looked like a man with a passion for supremacy but at the same time one who had the born aristocrat’s dislike of indiscriminate contacts.” (p. 43).

Prentiss’ secretary is Luke Dancy, a young man who speaks with a British accent but reverts to Texan when under stress.

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