<p><b><i>Crime-fiction librarian - and reluctant amateur sleuth - Ray Ambler gets mixed up in murder once again when he''s called to appraise a mystery-novel collection at an exclusive New York college.</i></b><br><br>An invitation from a prestigious liberal arts college to buy their mystery-novel collection comes as a welcome surprise for Raymond Ambler, crime-fiction curator at New York City''s prestigious 42nd Street Library. But his pleasure quickly turns sour when the collection''s curator - Ambler''s friend Sam Abernathy - tells him he plans to fight the acquisition tooth and nail.<br><br>The collection would make a fine addition to his holdings, but Ambler''s not looking for drama. It''s a shame, then, that drama''s looking for him. Just a couple of weeks later, one of Abernathy''s colleagues is shot dead from the library''s roof, and all signs point to the crime-loving professor as the perpetrator of the violent act.<br><br>Why would Abernathy kill - and was it for his collecti