Read Con Lehane's guest post about setting his mystery series in the iconic 42nd Street Library, then make sure you're signed in and comment below for a chance to win a copy of Murder in the Manuscript Room!
Murder in the Manuscript Room—the second book in my 42nd Street Library series—is out today, and I’ve been asked how it came about that I set a mystery series at New York City’s public library’s main branch, the iconic Stephen A. Schwarzman Building at the corner of 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue.
The simple answer is in the mid-2000s, I’d published three mysteries—variously described as hardboiled or noir—featuring the New York City bartender and man-about-the-mean-streets, Brian McNulty. But despite some kind reviews, the sales of the books chronicling McNulty’s adventures were not what my publisher had hoped for.
When the publisher canceled the series, my editor, Marcia Markland at St. Martin’s Press, suggested I think about setting a story at the 42nd Street Library. She thought a book set in New York City with a different cast of characters and setting might work better than a book set in the city’s barrooms. I don’t remember if she suggested using a librarian as the detective. The outline she provided was sparse: “Write a book set at the 42nd Street Library.”
I’m a great admirer of libraries. They are a unique institution in the greed-driven society we live in. Can you imagine in today’s United States someone proposing setting up institutions in every city, town, and village of the nation that would provide access to books, records, movies, computers, the internet, as well as advice on how to use and get the most from all of those things—and all of it for free? Yet, the United States more-or-less invented the concept of free libraries. And folks pretty much across the political spectrum still appreciate them.
Librarians, the folks who run the libraries, are the curators of our collective knowledge and, as important, our culture. They are also—probably more than any other profession, with the possible exception of writers and other artists—the fiercest protectors of free speech in our society. I liked that my new series would have a protagonist with this pedigree of a seeker of truth and a fighter for freedom of speech.
So I created Raymond Ambler and sent him to work at the New York Public Library’s main branch. I’ve been fascinated by Carrère & Hastings’s Beaux-Arts masterpiece with the lions guarding the front entrance since I was a kid. The building is a major tourist attraction for the city, with millions of visitors passing through each year. Yet, it is also very much a working library, filled with scholars from grade-school kids checking out books from the Children’s Center on the first floor (the only circulating library in the building) to college students researching term papers, grad students writing dissertations, and Pulitzer Prize-winning authors writing books in one of the library’s study rooms. (To learn more about the building and its origins visit https://www.nypl.org/about/locations/schwarzman.)
Once I began writing the book, I felt I needed to get a better sense of the library and the work life of librarians. I’d been a bartender for a number of years—24 stints in all, many of them in New York—so in tackling the world of bars and barflies, I knew, more-or-less, whereof I spoke. But I’d never been a librarian. As much as I love libraries—and while I’ve spent time in a good many of them—I’d spent more time in bars. In order to write about a library, I needed to do more than read about it or look at it; I needed to feel it. So I started hanging out at the library.
I wrote the book and sent it to my editor. For this reason and that, she held onto the book for a while. At some point, she asked for a proposal for a second book in the series. What happened was she rejected the book I sent and gave me a contract for the proposed book, as yet unwritten, which became Murder at the 42nd Street Library.
In that first never-to-see-the-light-of-day book, Ambler was a historian and a curator in the Manuscript and Archives division of the library. For Murder at the 42nd Street Library, I changed his job to the curator of the library’s crime fiction collection. There were two things at work here: I’d made him a curator in the first place because this is the essence of the 42nd Street Library—it’s a research library, not a circulating library, with amazing collections in the Rare Books Division, the Manuscripts and Archives Division, the Berg Collection of British and American literature, and on and on.
You’ll note there’s no mention of a crime fiction collection here. That’s because I made it up, like I made up Ambler.
There’s another reason for making him specifically the curator of the crime fiction collection. Actual librarians know too much about databases and catalogs and indexes and zillions of other information sources for an interloper like me to fake it. Curators are usually subject-area specialists. They know a lot too but about a specific area. This, I figured I could fake if I used the right knowledge area, so I invented “crime fiction” as an area of expertise. I certainly don’t know as much about crime fiction as a real expert like Otto Penzler or Michael Dirda or any number of scholars or reviewers. But it’s a knowledge area I know something about, more than the guy off the street, say. I’ve read widely, and at one point I created a college course on the detective novel as literature.
Once I made Ambler the curator of the crime fiction collection, things began to roll. I went to the library whenever I could. After a while, I worked my way into a kind of sinecure. There are a few study rooms in the library (the Frederick Lewis Allen Room, the Wertheim Study, and the Shoichi Noma Reading Room) that you can apply for if you’re doing extensive library research. I had a book contract, which qualified me for the Frederick Lewis Allen Room, so I spent almost a year going to the library most days as if I worked there. And sort of by osmosis, I got a sense of what it might be like to be the curator of crime fiction.
I learned a lot about working in a library in those months—nearly a year—I spent as a reader in the Frederick Lewis Allen Room. This knowledge I passed on to Raymond Ambler. His work, which includes an abiding interest in murder, is the centerpiece of his life. He’s a thoughtful sleuth. He asks questions. He ponders. He searches out answers, often in what a murder victim might have left behind in a collection at the library.
I’m sure I missed a lot, too, of what working in a library entails. Still, I came away with abiding admiration and respect for folks who do that work, and with a character I think is a believable and honorable librarian/sleuth.
Read an excerpt from Murder in the Manuscript Room while sipping on a “Bourbon in the Manuscript Room” cocktail inspired by the book!
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Con Lehane is a mystery writer who lives outside Washington, DC. He is the author of the Bartender Brian McNulty Mysteries, including What Goes Around Comes Around, and The 42nd Street Library Mysteries, including Murder at the 42nd Street Library. Over the years, he has worked as a college professor, a union organizer, a labor journalist, and has tended bar at two dozen or so drinking establishments.
Thanks (from a librarian for nearly 40 years) for the kind words about the profession, Con, and best wishes for the book.
We’re hearing today about the end of net neutrality, which I believe will send people back to libraries in greater numbers than ever.
Love a good mystery!
I enjoy mysteries and this sounds like a good one.
My favorite library…I’d love to win this. Thanks!!!
I would enjoy reading this book . I like mysteries and thrillers.
Oh, this one sounds like a book lover’s favorite. A book set in a Library? Yes please!!
I would really like to visit this library and luckily for me I can through your book!
From one former college educator (math/biology) to an0ther, I certainly would like a crack at winning your book [u]Murder in the Manuscript Room.[/u]
Love mystery, horror, and scifi books!
what a unique idea
I love reading books that take place in libraries.
I love reading books that take place in libraries.
I love the library and New York. would love to read the book!
I volunteer in a library, so will especially enjoy this book!
Loved the first in the series and am looking forward to this one. As a librarian I enjoy mysteries that feature librarians.
Love my local library and would love to win this book!
I am definitely going to check out the NYC Library system on my next visit! Congrats and thanks for sharing!
Looking forward to mixing a “Bourbon in the Library” – would love to win the book to peruse whilst sipping! 🙂
I love the libaries, sad that they closed down ours.
Burbon and books….doesn’t get much better than that!
Burbon and books….doesn’t get much better than that!
Love the library, intrigued by series. Just borrowed first book at Hoopla.
thanks for the chance to win.
This sounds like a fascinating series and I really loved reading about Con Lehane’s creation process. Thanks for the giveaway!
Would love to win!
Love a good mystery – would love to win!
I love libraries, mysteries and I have been fascinated by the NYPL for decades, as a boy and as someone who worked in NYC. Would love to win this book. We live in DC area now, nice libraries around here as well. My favorite public libraries were in Santa Clara County, CA
Every Saturday for years, I loved forward to hours in my towns little library but it was mind blowing to spend time in the New York City library as an adult. Amazing.
Every Saturday as a child, I loved spending hours in the little library in my town. Loved the New York City library as an adult.
Love libraries and a mystery within even better.
I love the concept and can’t wait to read it!
Libraries are always my favorite place to escape.
Mysteries and books,what more could a girl want.
I really enjoyed the first book in this series. I look forward to reading the newest arrival. Mysteries in a library, what a great idea for a series!
Would be nice to win this book
Love to win this captivating novel.
Who doesn’t love anything to do with a library? Thanks for the chance to win.
I love mysteries of this type and I am always looking for a new series to read. This sounds like a good one.
Great!
Please enter me in this sweepstakes.
Thanks —
I would love to read this and start a new series.
I would love to read the book.
Always like to read new authors. Any relation to Dennis?
Love libraries, love books, love mysteries, love to win.
I would love to have this book. Thank You
All libraries are characters unto themselves. Would love to explore this mystery.
Would be wonderful to win!
Sounds interesting, would love to win to read it!
I love mysteries based in/on libraries (retired librarian here). Thanks.
Hope to win , I think I would enjoy it .
Would love to add this to my personal library. As a retired librarian of 40+ years, my own personal library would love to invite him to meet is 600+ books. Movers hate me for that load.
SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!
I would Very Much like to read this one!
Love any mystery involving books and/or libraries.
Don’t know why when I searched my library’s system under mystery/library this didn’t come up. As helpful as computer searches are, they are not the Dewey decimel system.
I was almost a librarian, but in those days I loved numbers more than words. Sure do like mysteries, wherever they are set.
Books and libraries, a perfect pair. Would love to read this book.
Books and libraries, a perfect pair. Would love to read this book.
Sounds like a fun read.
This series is so for me.
This appeals to me. I love libraries and I devour mysteries. I would love to win Murder in the Manuscript Room.
I love books, libraries and mysteries. Can’t wait to read this second book in the series.
I’m always eager to read a good mystery!
A murder in the library. Sounds like a good read.
Count me in, please!
I love my library – it’s never really quiet there but I always feel a great sense of peace when I visit. Thank you for the chance to win this book!
please consider me.
Thank you for this opportunity
I’m sorry to say I haven’t read the first book in the series, but the plot sounds intriguing and I can’t wait to get started on the series. Winning book two would be great!
cool
looks like a great book
Love libraries. I had the pleasure of working in one for a couple of years while in college. A perfect setting for a book.
Libraries are wonderful places!
SSSUSH what a great place for a mystery!
SSSUSH what a great place for a mystery!
Mysteries have always been my reading choice. This one looks good.
Nice winter reading.
Nice winter reading.
What better setting for a mystery novel than a library? Love a great read!
thanks for chance
Thanks for the chance to win a copy of this book.
What an iconic building and a great setting for a novel!!
thanks book sounds good-love a good mystery
love the cover, the book sounds to be a great read! thanks for the chance to win
love the cover, the book sounds to be a great read! thanks for the chance to win
Sounds like a series I would enjoy reading.
The title caught my interest right away. Libraries, books, mystery, what a wonderful combination. Thanks for the opportunity to win a copy of “Murder in the Manuscript Room”.
Thias library mytery sounds like a very interesting read. “Murder in the Manuscript Room” by Con Lehane has been added to my want to read list.
I’d like to read the entire book while sipping on a bourbon cocktail!!!
I’d like to read the entire book while sipping on a bourbon cocktail!!!
One of the few writers that really gets us librarians. Read the first one, Murder at the 42nd St. Library. Am looking forward to this new one.
What better prize could there be for booklovers like us? I’d love to win a copy, thanks for the chance
As a librarian and medideval studies person, this is a must read for me.
Like Ambler, I actually am a curator of crime fiction! I am a librarian at The Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley, where my job title includes “Curator of the California Detective Fiction Collection.” I’m looking forward to reading these books!
A library mystery!?!?!?! Yea!
Murder & the Library, what could be better?
Love the backdrop!!
I love this library and of course I also love a great mystery.
Hope I win
Great setting. Love this author.
looks intriguing
I’m in search of a good mystery to read. Thanks for the chance!
Good luck with the book! I’d love to win it. Count me in
Mystery in New York (my favorite city) on a cold Winter night with a large Irish Coffee. Hope I WIN!!!!
Love this library. Look forward to reading this book.
always like a mystery
Still love the library. Worked in the library at school for credits.
love to win this. I love mysteries
love to win this. I love mysteries
Wow, to spend a year in this amazing place sounds heavenly. And your article makes me want to both visit the library and read your book.
Wow, to spend a year in this amazing place sounds heavenly. And your article makes me want to both visit the library and read your book.
Wow, to spend a year in this amazing place sounds heavenly. And your article makes me want to both visit the library and read your book.
I love reading rooms .. and this book looks great.
Thank you.
Murder in the Manuscript Room sounds wonderful. I’m going to have to grab the first book in Mr. Lehane’s 42nd Street Library series or I suppose I could start with the second – wink, wink
Great book premise!
I LOVE the 42nd stree lib!!
sounds good!
I love stories centered around libraries, bookstores, or books.
I love stories centered around libraries, bookstores, or books.
I’ve always been attracted to books with library settings. Would enjoy reading this one!
It sounds like a lot of research went into this book. I love libraries and I love mysteries so this sounds like a great read for me.
awesome book thanks for the chance to win
I would like to read the work of Con Lehane.
Sounds like a fun read.
Libraries are some of my favorite places
This sounds interesting!
I love a good mystery!
Thanks for the giveaway!
the Library is one of my favourite places, so may reads.
I love that this is set in a library. I can’t wait to read it.
I would love to read this one!
What a great setting for a mystery. Love libraries.
Libraries have always been a bit creepy… 😉
This looks fantastic! I’ve been there!
Book sounds interesting. Would like to read.
Am a volunteer at our local library which is too small to have any curators but someday hope to check out your 42nd Street library up NYC! Your story sounds very interesting.
Love the setting! There should be a curator for the crime fiction collection!