The Miskatonic Manuscript (Case Files of Matthew Hunter and Chantal Stevens Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page A

afraid.”
    “Lord Balmoral didn’t call on you to help recover the Quran after it was stolen by religious fanatics?”
    “Wild exaggerations, Brittany. I only know Lord Balmoral as a book collector.”
    “Not what we’ve heard, Matthew. But in the meantime, I’m sure Action News viewers are wondering, how did you happen to stumble on this million-dollar Sherlock Holmes manuscript during your recent visit to England?”
    Matthew paused a second. He actually turned to look directly down at the beaming newsgal, slathered up in her uniform coat of suntan-colored makeup, her lips and eyebrows then carefully penciled back in place in the appropriate dramatic colors over the top, to see if she was putting him on. Chantal, one of those rare and lovely blue-eyed brunettes, shorter than Marian, dressed in her trademark pleated wool skirt, now had her knuckles in her mouth to keep from laughing out loud. He resisted the urge to say an elf had dropped the story to them out of a hollow tree.
    “‘The Sign of the Sixteen Oyster-Shells’? Doyle scholars have known all along that the author wrote a letter to his mother in the winter of 1888, not long after A Study in Scarlet finally appeared in a Christmas annual, saying he was about to write a story with that title. John Dickson Carr mentions it in the 1949 biography. The question was where it could be. Doyle’s papers had been widely scattered, and we knew at least one manuscript had been lost in the mails. It was just a question of where to look.”
    “So once you knew where to look, then, Matthew Hunter, would you say finding that story was … ‘elementary’?” asked the clever young thing.
    Matthew finally allowed himself a smile, knowing Doyle scholars who’d been searching for 70 years were about to shriek and hurl things at their television sets. “Yes, I believe at that point you could say it was ‘elementary,’ my dear Miss Watson.”
    “Thank you, Matthew Hunter.”
    * * *
    Normal business resumed in the bookstore as the TV crew pulled down and hauled away their lights. A customer came in with a list of books she was looking for, handed it to Marian at the front desk.
    “Most of these are recent books,” Marian said. “You might do better finding those online or at the college bookstore; we don’t handle much here that’s less than forty years old. Now, The Benson Murder Case , on the other hand, is a book we stock when we can find it, although early hardcovers of that are hard.”
    “It’s a Haystack Calhoun cornerstone.”
    “Yes it is. It has a prominent place on the list of keystone mysteries compiled by that eminent historian of the genre, Ellery ‘Haystack’ Calhoun,” said Marian, who tried not to correct the customers if she could avoid it, especially on something as minor as the proper name of the Haycraft-Queen cornerstones, a list originally compiled by Howard Haycraft in 1941 and then expanded several times by Ellery Queen, who in turn was really two cousins, neither of whom was named Queen, and neither of whom was a queen, so far as could be determined. All much too complicated to get into, on the fly. “I can put it on a want list for you, if you like, and let you know if one shows up.”
    “And how much would that be likely to cost?”
    “Offhand, a couple hundred for a 1926, maybe half that for a 1927. That’s without a jacket, of course. In an original jacket, much more. Unless you just want a reading copy.”
    “A reading copy?”
    “A later reprint or something beat to hell. Those turn up. And I do recognize this Michael Jackson title. I don’t think we have one in right now, but let me check online.”
    Marian sat down at her computer to start the requested search. Tabbyhunter, who was sitting in front of his own screen, turned to watch.
    “Does that cat have her own computer?” asked the customer.
    “No, all the cats share that one. But Tabby is the best at it. He’s a ‘he.’”
    “He just sits and watches