Published in
Jan 8, 2024
Is the library ‘the most fatal room in British popular fiction’?
If you grew up playing Clue, you know the thrill of being the first to figure out that Colonel Mustard did it with the candlestick in the library. Do book-lined rooms have an equally sinister role in novels?
The crime writer P.D. James has argued that the library is “the most fatal room in British popular fiction.” But is it true?
I could think only of Agatha Christie’s The Body in the Library as an example. This list has more but includes American libraries. Have you read other examples of what James meant?
Her quote made the list of my 2023 favorites, regardless:
