Just finished reading...

File M for Murder (Cat in the Stacks #3) by Miranda James.

Semi-retired librarian Charlie Harris is surprised and thrilled when his daughter Laura comes home from Los Angeles to take a temporary teaching gig at Athena College.    He's not so thrilled when he meets the college's new writer-in-residence (and Laura's ex-boyfriend), the egotistical and rude Connor Lawton.

Charlie can't understand why Laura is still friendly with Connor; Lawton is as rude to her as he is to everyone else, but he must (grudgingly) admit that Laura is an adult and can make her own decisions.   He really can't fathom why on earth the deranged Damitra Vane,who follows Connor around like a groupie, is threatening his daughter.

When Laura calls him from Connor's, stunned by finding the writer's body in the living room, Charlie finds himself wondering why the man hadn't been killed sooner.  But Laura is genuinely upset, and he focuses on comforting her and, along with his lawyer son Sean, making sure she's not a suspect.

A Maine Coon

And almost always at Charlie's side is his friend and companion Diesel.  Charlie usually has the huge Maine coon cat with him on a leash, and talks to him as though he's human.  Diesel goes to work with Charlie and sits under his desk or on the window sill,  growls at dubious characters, and even grabs suspicious items out of the mail.

Charlie himself, though not yet 60, is a charming Southern gentleman who does not suffer bad manners or rudeness quietly.  Connor Lawton-types call him stodgy or old-fashioned, but he possesses a quick mind that organizes facts and details methodically, a useful trait for both a librarian and an amateur sleuth.




*FTC Full Disclosure: Many thanks to the publisher, who sent me a copy of the book for review purposes.

Just finished reading...

Shadows of a Down East Summer (Antique Print Mystery #5)* by Lea Wait.

Maggie Summer is visiting Maine for a few weeks with her significant other Will Brewster. They're staying with his elderly Aunt Nettie at the Brewster family home in the fictional town of Waymouth. Nettie introduces Maggie to Carolyn Chase, a relative of an old friend. She is the daughter of Helen Chase, an artist with whose work Maggie, as a professor of American Studies and an antique print dealer, is very familiar. Carolyn is doing some research into her family's history, and is eager for some advice from Maggie.

At lunch the day after they meet, Carolyn informs Maggie that she's been working on her will, and has left a box full of family papers to Maggie. At first, Maggie is shocked, then honored and pleased, especially when she begins reading the journal of Carolyn's great-grandmother, who was killed in an apparent murder-suicide by her husband.

A few days later, arriving to visit Carolyn, Maggie finds her body lying in the middle of the kitchen with a blood-covered rolling pin nearby, and the house ransacked. Maggie is certain this has something to do with the family papers, though she can't explain why, and as she continues to read the journal, she becomes even more certain. She begins to investigate on her own, and comes under pressure from locals who believe the past should remain in the past.

Wait, who lives in Maine and has been selling antique prints for many years, is very familiar with the story's location and theme, and fictionalizes them wonderfully. The journal entries by Anna May Pratt, a young woman growing up in 1890s East Coast society, are particularly well-crafted.

*FTC Full Disclosure: Many thanks to the publisher, who sent me a copy of the book for review purposes.

Just finished reading...

Murder past due by Miranda James.*

Charlie Harris is a semi-retired, widowed librarian. Shortly after his wife Jackie died, his elderly aunt Dottie also passed away, leaving him her house in his hometown of Athena, Mississippi.

Charlie has continued Dottie's tradition of taking in as boarders students from Athena College, and his present tenant, 18-year-old Justin Wardlaw, is the son of his old school friend Julia.

Charlie works part-time at Athena College as their archivist, and is dreading the upcoming cocktail party honoring another schoolmate named Godfrey Priest, an unpleasant person who is now a successful thriller author. The afternoon before the welcome party, Godfrey pays Charlie a visit at his office, and announces his intention to donate his papers to his alma mater's archives. During the course of this visit, Godfrey reveals to Charlie that he is Justin's biological father due to a fling he had with Julia shortly before she married her husband Ezra, who was unaware of Justin's true parentage. He tells Charlie that he's planning on telling Justin the truth later that day, and wanted to give him advance warning, since the boy lives with him.

Charlie is at home getting ready for the cocktail party when he receives a call telling him it's been cancelled. Worried, because Justin has not yet returned from Godfrey's hotel room, and neither of them are answering phone calls. He finally decides to go to the hotel to check on Justin, for whom he feels a sense of responsibility. He finds Justin outside the building, and they enter Godfrey's room together to find him lying on the floor with his head bashed in.

Unsure why Justin hasn't already called the police, Charlie does so and then tries to think of a way to keep the boy from being arrested.

This is the first in the Cat in the Stacks mysteries by Miranda James (a pseudonym of mystery author Dean James. The "Cat" in the series title is Diesel, Charlie's Maine coon, who, though he (thankfully) doesn't speak, is very empathic to the humans around him. Charlie is a well-framed character, and I look forward to learning more about him in upcoming entries in the series.



*Reviewed ARC received from publisher.