Certain jobs and pastimes come with a higher degree of risk. This we know. I hope that everyone

who decides to become a racing driver or climb a mountain without ropes or chase tornadoes

understands that their chosen activity comes with a heightened chance of injury or death.

What about the person who just steps into a bookshop hoping to indulge in a little browsing,

though? Or heaven forbid, someone who runs such an emporium,

sharing their love of books with employees and customers.

Buying and selling books appears on the surface to be an entirely safe way to spend your time.

Not in a Golden Age detective novel though. Join me, won't you?

For a thrilling romp through the many instances of murder at the bookshop.

Welcome to She Done It.

I'm Caroline Crampton.

I like spending time in bookshops and I think you probably do too.

The allure of a murder mystery with such a setting is clear on this level.

People who write books tend to enjoy being in the places where they are sold, as to those who read them,

and it's pleasing to have a familiar location appear in what you're reading.

Writers can write bookshop mysteries and feel sure that their readers will be able to

picture their setting with ease.

And because everyone is so well acquainted with this setting and so well disposed towards it,

we get some marvellous descriptions of bookshops that have been turned into crime scenes by

unscrupulous murderers.

Take this one, for instance,

from Death of Mr Dodsley by John Ferguson from 1937. A police constable on his beat in London

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