The Widening Stain

by W. Bolingbroke Johnson

[annieb123]

Originally posted on my blog Nonstop Reader.

The Widening Stain is a classic mystery by W. Bolingbroke Johnson. Originally published in 1942, this reformat and re-release as part of Penzler's American Mystery Classics is 288 pages and is available in hardcover, paperback, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. For Kindle Unlimited subscribers, this book is currently included in the KU subscription library to borrow and read for free.

This is a mystery from the 1940s and the only mystery written by historian W. Bolingbroke Johnson (real name Morris Bishop). He was affiliated with Cornell, which is also the fictionalized setting for this cozy mystery. It's an appealing and light bibliomystery, with a body in the library, a stolen valuable rare book, and a library cataloger determined to figure it out. 

It's a broad pool of suspects: night watchmen, professors, other librarians, and patrons, and Gilda has the unenviable task of finding the culprit and getting them to confess. 

It's more than competently written, with touches of humor and warmth. It -does- show its age, at roughly 82 years, and some parts of it are quite dated and a bit ridiculous. For readers who are interested in classic mystery in a historical sense, this is very much a lost gem of the genre and Penzler does a great job of setting them into context and giving background and history.

Few readers will be familiar with the author, or his work, and it's nice to see a new generation of readers having access to these otherwise largely forgotten mysteries. 

The unabridged audiobook version has a run time of 7 hours 14 minutes and is capably read by Todd Menesses. He has a rich, well modulated, professionally trained voice and does a good job delineating characters over a range of ages, classes, and both male and female. Interestingly (and appealingly), his voice is very reminiscent of Grover Gardner's rumbly baritone. Sound and production quality are high throughout the read.

Three and a half stars for the book itself, four for the excellent narration. 

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.