Death Overdue

Death Overdue
Author: Mary Lou Kirwin
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2013-11-05
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1451684673

In the second novel in the “engaging” (Booklist) cozy library mystery series, Karen must work to clear her beau’s name after his ex-girlfriend is killed by a falling bookshelf while staying at his inn. The Case of the Killer Case? Ropes, revolvers, daggers, arsenic...They are the classic, go-to murder weapons, from Christie to Clue. But death by bookcase? With one good shove, a crafty killer can keep investigators guessing: did it fall or was it pushed? That’s what sassy Midwestern librarian Karen Nash must determine—and if so, who did the pushing—when an avalanche of books and splintered wood fatally flattens Sally Burroughs, the ex-girlfriend of Karen’s squeeze, London B&B proprietor Caldwell Perkins, who appears the most likely suspect for murder. In the library. With the bookcase. And maybe he has grounds? Just as he and his librarian love are making a go of opening their dream bookstore (that’s bookshop, in British English), Sally pops up years after abandoning him, to demand her share of the B&B’s sale. To Karen’s orderly mind, sorting her jumbled feelings about uprooting her life in Minnesota and taking a chance on Caldwell is much like sorting his four-thousand-three-hundred-and-twenty-four precious volumes: everything has its place. A little research reveals that more than one person may have had Sally issues, and Karen must prove that Caldwell is obsessed with books, not revenge. But will her hunt for a killer turn up too little, too late?

A Death Long Overdue

A Death Long Overdue
Author: Eva Gates
Publisher: Crooked Lane Books
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2020-10-06
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1643854593

When her former director is found dead in the water, librarian Lucy Richardson will have to get to the bottom of the mystery before the killer ends her tale. It's summertime in the Outer Banks of North Carolina and Bertie James's college class is having their 40th anniversary reunion. The opening night reception is held at the Lighthouse Library and Lucy and her colleagues have assembled an exhibit of library artifacts showing how libraries have changed over the years. After the reception, some of the women take a walk down the boardwalk to the pier, using flashlights to illuminate the dark path, but what's scarier than the dark is finding the former director of the Lighthouse Library floating lifeless in the water. Helena Sanchez, the former director, wasn't much loved and spent the party being rude to almost everyone there. As a result, Lucy finds herself in deep water as she rocks the boat, questioning several suspects. But she'll have to batten down the hatches and fast before she's left high and dry...and right in the killer's crosshairs.

Death Overdue

Death Overdue
Author: David S. Pederson
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books Inc
Total Pages: 237
Release: 2020-07-14
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1635557127

I know what you are. Five words scrawled on a note, and Heath knew his life was now in jeopardy. He had no choice but to confront the blackmailer and find out what proof he had. But what then? Pay up and risk demands for future payments? Or not give in and throw his life away? The decision’s made for him when the blackmailer turns up dead. Is Heath a murderer? Even he isn’t sure, thanks to several double martinis. Other suspects include a voluptuous neighbor, a smarmy grocer, a ruthless gangster, Heath’s cousin Liz, who was once married to the blackmailer, and Miss Caldwell, a wily librarian who has eyes for the blackmailer’s current wife, Alice. Heath tries to read between the lines to solve the case of a death overdue before he’s arrested for the crime.

Death Overdue

Death Overdue
Author: Allison Brook
Publisher: Crooked Lane Books
Total Pages: 330
Release: 2017-10-10
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1683313879

Ghosts, books, and cats, oh my!—introducing a ‘spirited’ cozy mystery series about a sleuthing Connecticut librarian and her paranormal sidekick. When a retired detective drops dead at Carrie’s small-town library, she and her ghostly companion set out to find the culprit . . . Carrie Singleton is just about done with Clover Ridge, Connecticut until she’s offered a job as the head of programs and events at the spooky local library, complete with its own librarian ghost. Her first major event is a program presented by a retired homicide detective, Al Buckley, who claims he knows who murdered Laura Foster, a much-loved part-time library aide who was bludgeoned to death 15 years earlier. As he invites members of the audience to share stories about Laura, he suddenly keels over and dies. The medical examiner reveals that poison is what did him in and Carrie feels responsible for having surged forward with the program despite pushback from her director. Driven by guilt, Carrie’s determined to discover who murdered the detective, convinced it’s the same man who killed Laura all those years ago. Luckily for Carrie, she has a friendly, knowledgeable ghost by her side. But as she questions the shadows surrounding Laura’s case, disturbing secrets come to light and with each step Carrie takes, she gets closer to ending up like Al . . . Now it’s due or die for Carrie in Death Overdue the delightful first in a new cozy series by Allison Brook.

This Book Is Overdue!

This Book Is Overdue!
Author: Marilyn Johnson
Publisher: Harper Collins
Total Pages: 294
Release: 2010-02-02
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0061431605

A spirited exploration of libraries' evolution from fusty brick-and-mortar institutions to fluid virtual environments.

Death on the Shelf

Death on the Shelf
Author: Allison Brook
Publisher: Crooked Lane Books
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2024-06-04
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1639106707

Librarian Carrie Singleton sleuths a murder at her best friend’s wedding in Agatha Award nominee Allison Brook’s fifth Haunted Library mystery. Clover Ridge librarian Carrie Singleton is thrilled to attend her best friend Angela’s wedding, but Angela’s family can be a bit…much. Angela’s wealthy cousin Donna hosts an extravagant bridal shower at her resplendent home, but the celebrations turn to gossip as the guests notice Donna’s surgeon husband, Aiden, spending a bit too much time with Donna’s cousin Roxy. At the wedding reception, the sweet occasion turns darkly bitter when Aiden topples into the chocolate fountain–dead. The suspect list is as long as the guest list, and as difficult to sort out as the seating chart. A few of the top contenders on Carrie’s suspect list are the flirtatious Roxy, emotionally unstable since her recent divorce; Angela’s grouchy brother, who feels Aiden betrayed him; and Roxy’s scorned ex-husband. Even Donna may have had reason to want her husband dead. And Aiden’s gossipy office manager has plenty to say about them all. Then another member of Angela’s family is murdered, making Carrie more determined than ever to find the killer. Can library ghost Evelyn and library cat Smoky Joe help Carrie solve the murders before she becomes the next of Angela’s wedding guests to head to the grave?

Death's Prelude

Death's Prelude
Author: David S. Pederson
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books Inc
Total Pages: 237
Release: 2021-02-09
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1635557879

It’s 1937, and Heath Barrington is a naïve twenty-two-year-old about to set sail across the Atlantic on the Queen Mary. While on board, he meets the handsome Lord Simon Quimby, who invites Heath to his estate. Heath falls for Simon hard, but Simon soon becomes withdrawn and distant. Is Simon all he appears to be, or is there more to him than meets the eye? And what of the old gypsy curse Simon claims his family is under? Did it really cause his mother’s death, his sister’s suicide, and his father’s murder, or did Simon have something to do with it all? It’s up to Heath to uncover the truth, despite his heart telling him otherwise. In this prequel to the Detective Heath Barrington Mystery series, Heath discovers that first love changes you forever and drives you to become the person you’re destined to be.

Murder on Monte Vista

Murder on Monte Vista
Author: David S. Pederson
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books Inc
Total Pages: 228
Release: 2022-03-15
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1636791255

It’s 1946, and on a hot spring night in Phoenix, Arizona, things are only beginning to heat up at the Monte Vista Road home of flamboyant decorator Walter Waverly Wingate. Private detective Mason T. Adler isn’t thrilled to be turning fifty, and the party Walter throws him makes him even more uncomfortable. Walter has arranged a special birthday present for Mason: a private hour with the handsome, young Henry Bowtrickle in Walter’s upstairs bedroom. But the night turns deadly when his birthday gift turns up murdered. The room was locked, no way in or out, and only Henry and Mason were inside. Mason Adler is on the case, but he is also a suspect, along with the other assorted party guests who were all downstairs at the time of the stabbing. Or were they?

Puzzles Can Be Deadly

Puzzles Can Be Deadly
Author: David S. Pederson
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books Inc
Total Pages: 276
Release: 2024-05-14
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1636796168

A bizarre old woman who worships the memory of her lost son. A nun with hidden secrets. A spinster housekeeper with a secret of her own. An angry young man with a troubled past. A neighbor who claims to talk to dead people at seances. Skip Valentine and Henry Finch encounter these eccentric people on their weekend trip to visit Henry’s uncle. When they learn of the groundskeeper who died in a mysterious fire shortly before they arrived, strange occurrences are imbued with ominous portent. The peculiar accidents, ghostly barking, a pounding heard late at night in the creepy old mansion, and a strange old box buried behind the burned-out carriage house all add up to something. Skip yearns to investigate. It’s all so perplexing. But when another death raises the stakes, the puzzle turns deadly. The solution may lie in a curious rhyme told by the groundskeeper before he died, but first Skip and Henry must decipher it.