The Haunted Bookshop

The Haunted Bookshop (1919) is a novel by Christopher Morley. Although less popular than Kitty Foyle (1939), a novel adapted into an Academy Award-winning film, The Haunted Bookshop is a fast-paced thriller that deserves a modern audience. From unassuming beginnings as a tale about a lovelorn advertising salesman who visits a charming bookstore, The Haunted Bookshop quickly morphs into a story of paranoia, stalking, and kidnapping. “If you are ever in Brooklyn, that borough of superb sunsets and magnificent vistas of husband-propelled baby-carriages, it is to be hoped you may chance upon a quiet by-street where there is a very remarkable bookshop.” In need of a new client, Aubrey Gilbert steps into a bookstore on a quiet Brooklyn street. There, he meets Roger Mifflin, the store’s owner, who inundates the adman with information on the value of books. Although he fails to get Mifflin’s business, Gilbert is drawn to Titania Chapman, the man’s beautiful young assistant who just so happens to be the daughter of Gilbert’s most important client. As mysterious occurrences begin to pile up—a valuable book is stolen, Gilbert is assaulted, and a strange man is found lurking in the alleyway behind the store—it becomes clear that Titania is in grave danger. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Christopher Morley’s The Haunted Bookshop is a classic of American literature reimagined for modern readers.