My Big Chill: Tools of the Bookbinding Trade

by Guest Author, Kate Carlisle

A lifelong love of old books and an appreciation of the art of bookbinding led Kate Carlisle to create the Bibliophile Mysteries, featuring rare book expert Brooklyn Wainwright, whose bookbinding and restoration skills invariably uncover old secrets, treachery and murder. Kate is a member of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, International Thriller Writers and Romance Writers of America. She loves to drink good wine and watch other people cook. Kate’s third Bibliophile Mystery, THE LIES THAT BIND, will be released on November 2. Connect with Kate online at www.katecarlisle.com and www.facebook.com/katecarlislebooks.

from Kate:

Thank you so much for welcoming me here today at Killer Hobbies, and thanks especially to Linda O. Johnston and Camille Minichino for hosting me. I’m a longtime lurker and admirer. I think hobbies are a vital part of living a rich, layered life.

I understand the theme this week is “The Big Chill,” which ties in nicely with both my hobby and with my latest release, THE LIES THAT BIND, the third book in my Bibliophile Mysteries series. Because my “big chills” – the things that put visions of murder in my head – are the instruments of bookbinding.

Bookbinding is my hobby, and it’s the career and passion of my protagonist, Brooklyn Wainwright. One of her passions, that is. The other is the very sexy and dangerous British commander Derek Stone.

On the surface, bookbinding would seem to be a benign pursuit. Dusty books and futzy artisans. Delicate papers held in delicate fingers. But during my first class, one look at the tools we would use had bloodcurdling screams echoing in my head.

My mother always did say that I had too much imagination for my own good.

Don’t understand how people can move through the world and not see a murder weapon around every corner. Knitting needles, kitchen shears, even macramé plant hangers can be used to do the Deadly Deed.

I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I assert that bookbinding is every bit as dangerous as knitting. And you can quote me on that. (Please do!)


This is a sewing frame. Doesn’t it look like a bright and shiny medieval torture device?


A bookbinder’s awl: the ergonomically correct murder weapon.


So why do we risk our lives every day with these lethal pursuits? In my case, it’s because the products of my pursuit are just so darn pretty. Here is a picture of the books I made in a recent weekend class on bookbinding:



Brooklyn teaches just such a class in THE LIES THAT BIND. When the Bay Area Book Arts Center director winds up dead, Brooklyn must discover whether one of her students could be a murderer.

Tell me about your hobby and how its tools could be used as murder weapons. Then let’s brainstorm some unusual hobbies and come up with new ways to turn a good time into a homicide.

Kate will give a copy of HOMICIDE IN HARDCOVER, the first book in the Bibliophile Mystery series, to a random commenter. U.S. mailing addresses only, please.