conuly

The problem with "vintage" is that people may think you're talking about a specific physical copy of the book, the way a "vintage dress" means an old dress, not a new dress in a retro style.

I think I'd say something like "a book written in the 1980s," or "a mystery written in the 1980s," letting then-contemporary be the unmarked state. I can't think of a good shorthand for something like a novel written in 1970 and set during the Great Depression. For nonfiction, you could say "a 1970 history of the Depression" or "a biography of so-and-so published in 1970." There, the age of the book might matter, but someone writing in 1970 is unlikely to use the present tense for the beginning of World War II, or refer to Herbert Hoover as "the current president."