130,000+ Books, Games & Puzzles in-stock 🇳🇿

Overnight NZ-wide delivery 🚀 Auckland Bookstore • Open 7 days, 8:30am–5pm

Bookish Volume 2

a witty, warm-hearted mystery that's perfect for book lovers
By Matthew Sweet
Series: Bookish
0.0 (0 reviews)
Brief Description
Adapted from the major television series created by Mark Gatiss - new season coming soon! London, 1946. Much of the capital, and indeed the country, remains beset by rationing and bomb damage. But for some, there are other, more immediate concerns: crimes of a serious and... Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
$3999
AVAILABLE WITH SUPPLIER Ships from our Auckland warehouse within 4-6 weeks

Found a better price? Request a price match

Based on Mark Gatiss's brand new TV series set in post-war London, Bookish follows an enigmatic independent bookshop owner who helps the local police solve crimes.

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description
Adapted from the major television series created by Mark Gatiss - new season coming soon! London, 1946. Much of the capital, and indeed the country, remains beset by rationing and bomb damage. But for some, there are other, more immediate concerns: crimes of a serious and sometimes deadly nature. Inspector Bliss of Bow Street occasionally enlists the services of Gabriel Book, proprietor of Book's Books: antiquarian and amateur sleuth, whose appetite for mystery is rivalled only by his enthusiasm for rare second-hand volumes. Working alongside Book are his wife and wallpaper shop-owner, Trottie; true crime fanatic Nora; and Jack, who's surprised to have found a home at Book's. They are all overseen by Dog, when otherwise unoccupied by his hunt for ginger biscuits. Together, they sell books and solve crimes. But Book has his own personal mystery to solve – one that's haunted him for over a decade – and with each passing day, he draws closer to the truth. Warm-hearted, witty and perfect for book lovers, Bookish Volume 2 is a surprising, entertaining mystery about books, murder, and the lengths we'll go to keep our secrets safe. READERS LOVE BOOKISH 'A delicious read' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'Charming and entertaining' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'An enjoyable and very clever read' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'So unique and if you are a murder mystery fan give it a go' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Series: Bookish

View all
  • Bookish
    Adapted from the major U&alibi series created by Mark Gatiss - out now! 'A delicious read' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ READER REVIEW London, 1946. Gabriel Book is an erudite and unconventional London bookseller married to Trottie, the owner of the wallpaper shop next door. He is also a sleuth who uses the chaotic riches of his stock to crack the puzzling cases that...
    By Matthew Sweet
    Paperback
    $3799
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Bookish Volume 2
    Bookish Volume 2
    Adapted from the major television series created by Mark Gatiss - new season coming soon! London, 1946. Much of the capital, and indeed the country, remains beset by rationing and bomb damage. But for some, there are other, more immediate concerns: crimes of a serious and sometimes deadly nature. Inspector Bliss of Bow Street occasionally enlists the services of Gabriel...
    By Matthew Sweet
    Paperback
    $3999
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781529452341

Publisher: Quercus Publishing

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 27 August 2026

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Quercus Publishing

Illustration: N/A

Contributors:

  • Read by Mark Gatiss

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 34.0mm

Width: 154.0mm

Height: 234.0mm

Weight: 480g

Pages: 384

Collections

Cosy Crime Crime & Thriller Fiction General Fiction Historical Crime & Mystery Historical Fiction Matthew Sweet Series: Bookish

About the Author

Matthew Sweet is co-writer, with Mark Gatiss, of Bookish. He is a Fellow of the School of Advanced Study, University of London and the author of Inventing the Victorians, Shepperton Babylon, The West End Front, Operation Chaos and the crime novel The New Forest Murders. His biography, Barbara Cartland: The Great Dictator is published in September 2026. He is the presenter of Free Thinking (BBC Radio 4) and his 25 years of television and radio programmes include The Culture Show (BBC2), Checking into History (C4), 12 years of Sound of Cinema (Radio 3), five series of The Philosophers Arms (Radio 4), and 1922: The Birth of Now, a ten-part history of modernism (Radio 4). He has been film critic of the Independent on Sunday, photography critic of Newsweek and fashion columnist for 1843/The Economist. Liberation Radio - his collaboration with the artists Nhung Nguyen and Esther Johnson - has been staged at the Manzi gallery in Hanoi and at Index, the Swedish Contemporary Art Foundation in Stockholm. In 2017 he and the baker Frances Quinn achieved a chocolate-related Guinness World record that held good until 2022, when it was broken by Ant and Dec.

Also by Matthew Sweet

View all
  • Bookish
    Adapted from the major U&alibi series created by Mark Gatiss - out now! 'A delicious read' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ READER REVIEW London, 1946. Gabriel Book is an erudite and unconventional London bookseller married to Trottie, the owner of the wallpaper shop next door. He is also a sleuth who uses the chaotic riches of his stock to crack the puzzling cases that...
    By Matthew Sweet
    Paperback
    $3799
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • The New Forest Murders
    [A] witty, unusual murder mystery SUNDAY TIMES A sharp and compelling wartime mystery, perfect for fans of Agatha Christie's Partners in Crime and Foyle's War. SUMMER 1944. The tide of war is turning. The Allies are at the gates of Paris. But the Nazis have one last chance of victory – and its success depends on a traitor in the...
    By Matthew Sweet
    Paperback
    $5300
    Available
    Ships in 2-3 weeks
  • The Great Dictator
    The Great Dictator
    Penniless virgins. Reckless dukes. Flappers. Airmen. Suffragettes. Barbara Cartland made them fall in love. She wrote 723 books without touching a typewriter: instead, she reclined on her sofa with a Pekinese on her lap—romantic fiction billowed out of her. This dazzling biography reveals the woman behind the powder and mascara—a clever, socially precarious writer navigating a twentieth-century world of war-damaged...
    By Matthew Sweet
    Paperback
    $3799
    Elsewhere:
    $3999
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • The West End Front
    Spies: Meet Marie-Jacqueline Lancaster, the woman from M15 who has the gravy browning licked from her legs by Dylan Thomas. Royals: Meet Crown Prince Alexander of Yugoslavia, born in a suite at Claridge's that was declared Yugoslav territory for the night. Players: Meet Joyce Stone, whose husband leads the band at the Dorchester, keeping dancers foxtrotting even as the shudders...
    By Matthew Sweet
    Paperback
    Sold Out

More from Crime & Thriller

View all
  • New Release
    King’s Ransom
    Five innocent hostages. Five private investigators. A fiendish ransom game. Has Detective Sam Speedman met his match? A fast and deadly Matthew Reilly thriller. A DARING ABDUCTION The richest man in the world has been kidnapped. Along with four of his children. THE DEADLY CHALLENGE The kidnapper's demand: the five best private detectives in America must come to the missing...
    By Matthew Reilly
    Paperback
    $2999
    Elsewhere:
    $3499
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • New Release
    The French Illusion
    Bestselling author John Grisham delivers a new gripping, suspenseful page-turner about aParis honeymoon gone horribly wrong - and the nightmare that follows. After Paul and Chelsea Tanner's fairytale wedding, their future is full of promise. But their honeymoon to Paris takes a dark, shocking turn when they are kidnapped while on a day trip to the French countryside. Who would...
    By John Grisham
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • King’s Ransom
    New Release
    King’s Ransom
    Five innocent hostages. Five private investigators. A fiendish ransom game. Has Detective Sam Speedman met his match? A fast and deadly Matthew Reilly thriller. A DARING ABDUCTION The richest man in the world has been kidnapped. Along with four of his children. THE DEADLY CHALLENGE The kidnapper's demand: the five best private detectives in America must come to the missing...
    By Matthew Reilly
    Hardback
    $4499
    Elsewhere:
    $4999
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • New Release
    Lizzy's Pick Lizzy's Pick
    Chain Reaction
    Jack Reacher, \"the coolest continuing series character\" (Stephen King), returns in a brand new, pulse-pounding read from Lee and Andrew Child. The world’s bestselling hero is back in a brand new, high-octane adventure! ‘She knew that finding Reacher would not be easy . . .’ Washington DC. General Susan Turner needs help from the only guy she knows will get...
    By Lee Child and Andrew Child
    Paperback
    $2999
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    (2)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • New Release
    The Family Cross
    In the gripping new thriller in James Patterson's globally bestselling series, Alex Cross faces his most personal case yet as a ruthless conspiracy targets Washington's most vulnerable... and his own family. Discover the latest gripping thriller in the globally bestselling Alex Cross series - now the inspiration for the original series CROSS on Prime Video starring Aldis Hodge as Alex...
    By James Patterson
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • The Heights
    In The Heights by #1 Sunday Times bestselling author Sir Ian Rankin, murder comes to London's most exclusive high-rise - and every resident is a suspect... MURDER COMES TO LONDON'S MOST LUXURIOUS HIGH-RISE: AND EVERY RESIDENT IS A SUSPECT. The Heights: a gleaming, high-end high-rise looming over Hyde Park. Newly built from steel and smoked glass, it is a billionaire's playground offering sumptuous suites...
    By Ian Rankin
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    Backorder
    Ships mid November
  • New Release
    Death Row
    With all hope of an appeal fading away, the fate of a condemned murderess takes a shocking turn in a breathtaking short story from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Housemaid! A thrilling novella from #1 New York Times bestselling author Freida McFadden! Death is coming for her… unless she finds the truth first. Talia Kemper is on death row for murdering...
    By Freida McFadden
    Paperback
    $2299
    Elsewhere:
    $2400
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Signed Copy
    On Sale
    19% off
    Dying Days
    Award-winning writer delivers a pulse-pounding espionage thriller. Missing soldiers, MI6 secrets and European partisans collide in a deadly game where the lines between lies and reality are fast disintegrating. In the dying days of the Second World War, a new conflict is about to ignite. May, 1945: After fighting to liberate Europe from the Nazis, Tito's Yugoslav Army and Allied...
    By Anthony Byrt
    Paperback
    $2600
    Elsewhere:
    $3699
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • On Sale
    19% off
    New Release
    Fury In Death: An Eve Dallas thriller (In Death 63)
    In the new crime thriller from the bestselling author, Lt. Eve Dallas journeys into the darkness where murder is born… NYSPD homicide detective Eve Dallas has seen a lot in her time but even she is shocked by the savagery of a beating which leaves a wealthy biotech executive dead in his home office. The victim’s corpse is so mangled...
    By J. D. Robb
    Paperback
    $2600
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • On Sale
    19% off
    New Release
    Tom Clancy Pressure Depth
    Jack Ryan Jr leads a team of divers in a race to beat the Chinese Navy to a weapon of terrible destructive power in the latest entry in the #1 New York Times bestselling series. Jack Ryan Jr. is on Guam to work on a project for Hendley Associates. It's a perfectly ordinary insurance matter, but trouble finds the Ryans...
    By Jack Stewart
    Paperback
    $2600
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • The Country Road Murders
    On Sale
    10% off
    New Release
    The Country Road Murders
    From the Sunday Times bestselling author comes a pulse-pounding thriller about justice, vengeance and the roads that lead us home. No one gets this big without amazing natural storytelling talent - which is what Jim has, in spades — LEE CHILD Cross Rivers is the kind of small town where everyone knows your name – and your secrets. Silas Tucker...
    By James Patterson
    Paperback
    $2700
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • On Sale
    15% off
    Every Lake
    Scary stories are fun... until your life becomes one. When Alice was fifteen, her father killed Mia Heywood in their lakefront cottage before vanishing into the trees. At least that's what the locals think happened. Over a decade later, Alice has lost her job as a journalist, she's going through an expensive divorce and she desperately needs to sell the...
    By Adam Perry
    Paperback
    $2800
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    (2)
    In Stock
    Ships today

Why buy from us?

Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!

Service & Delivery

Service & Delivery

Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 100,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.

Auckland Bookstore

Auckland Bookstore

We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.

Our Gifting Service

Our Gifting Service

Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.

Crime & Thriller lists from the team

Explore our curated lists from our heroes to find your next read!

The Latest at Book Hero

View all