#42: The Mysterious Book Shop
Conspire to check this place out
The Shop: The Mysterious Book Shop
TriBeCa, Manhattan : 58 Warren Street
Man, back in late 2019/early 2020 I had it made. I had just quit a job that was eating me alive and was stacking up freelance gigs all over town. One of my favorites was teaching puppetry after school classes (in person, remote didn’t exist yet) at PS 234, right around the corner from the Mysterious Book Shop! My first time in the store they were giving out free posters for Knives Out, one of which has adorned my wall ever since. If you haven’t guessed from the name, this store caters solely to lovers of mysteries, true crime, and all things detective-y. One of the most beautiful bookstores in the city, it feels like the library of some murdered oil baron where folks might gather for a detective to drop some major reveals. Nothing is more romantic to me than high ceilinged wooden bookshelves with a little rolly ladder thing to reach the higher shelves! There is of course a whole back wall dedicated to Sherlock Holmes, and no shortage of his descendants all over the store. From prestige to pulp, comedic to creepy, this spot has every kind of mystery book you could plot about— plus a ton of signed copies and first editions. As the staff will warn you: “nobody shoplifts from a store that knows 3,214 ways to murder someone.”
What I got:
Zagreb Cowboy
I was drawn to this mystery novel by Alen Mattich due to its unconventional setting: Yugoslavia, 1991, a country on the verge of not being a country anymore. I’ve been fascinated with this point in history ever since acting in a really bad devised theater piece about it in college. With all the chaos, shifting alliances, and warring factions of thid time and place, a whole lot of things can go disastrously wrong.
Bibliomysteries: Pronghorns of the Third Reich
Did I mention this store publishes some mysteries of their own? The store commissions its favorite mystery writers to make Bibliomysteries– pocket sized, $5 mystery books exclusive to the store. You can’t find these at Barnes and Noble, folks! I bought this purely off of the ridiculousness of its title and I will treasure it until the day I die.