Comments (0) Best Mystery Trove - 2001
Mercantile Library
For a long time I used to read before going to bed—the first few pages of \"Combray,\" night after night. Then I got a life and started reading books I could actually finish: vintage mysteries from the 1930s. But as the titles grew more obscure (The Riddle of the Traveling Skull; Y. Cheung, Business Detective), I wondered how to sustain the habit without auctioning my body parts on eBay. The $60-a-year solution? The MERCANTILE LIBRARY, with its exhaustive collection of whodunits (not to mention its healthy infusion of new, general-interest fiction). And when I decide to go by Swann\'s again, I can join the Proust Society of America, headquartered at the Merc; recent events include a dinner of vittles found à la Recherche.
