Library Mysteries

With her twins, Fitzgerald and Hemingway, back in school, Jane Steward can finally focus on her work again - managing Storyton Hall and breaking ground on the resort's latest attraction: a luxurious, relaxing spa named in honor of Walt Whitman. But when the Earth is dug up to start laying the spa's foundation, something else comes to the surface - a collection of unusual bones and the remnants of a very old book. The attendees of the Rare Book Conference are eager to assist Jane with this unexpected historical mystery - until a visitor meets an untimely end in the Henry James Library.

Thar she blows! Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose are on an Alaskan whale watching adventure. On their first day, they see a mother orca and her calf. But the next day, the baby orca is missing! The calf needs its mother’s milk. Can the kids solve this whale of a mystery?

Library director Lindsey Norris is happy to learn the Briar Creek Public Library is the beneficiary of the Dorchester family’s vast book collection. However, when Lindsey and the library staff arrive at the old Victorian estate to gather the books, things take a sinister turn. One of the bookcases reveals a secret passage, leading to a room where a skeleton is found, clutching an old copy of The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe.

It’s spring in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Lucy and Connor have moved into their new home, at last, a historic cottage on the Nags Head Beach. Lucy is now happily immersed in her work at the Bodie Island Lighthouse Library, planning her wedding, and decorating the house. But then a dead body disrupts their peaceful new abode.

When a stack of library materials is found at the scene of a hit-and-run, library director Lindsey Norris finds herself dragged into the investigation as the police try to link the driver of the stolen car to the person who borrowed the books. Before Lindsey can delve into the library's records, the victim of the hit-and-run, Theresa Houston, suffers another accident, and the investigation shifts from driver negligence to attempted homicide.

It's the new year in Ivory Beach, and Rory is nursing a broken heart after the Reaper's abrupt departure from town. A distraction comes in the form of a batch of new tourists visiting the library, but when a holidaying stranger returns a rare book to her family and is then found dead, Rory finds herself in hot water again.

Love is in the air in Briar Creek as Library Director Lindsey Norris and Boat Captain Mike “Sully” Sullivan are finally tying the knot. The entire town is excited for the happy day, and Lindsey and Sully's plan for a small wedding evaporates as more and more people insist upon attending the event of the year. When Lindsey and her crafternoon pals head out to Bell Island to see if it can accommodate the ever-expanding guest list, they are horrified to discover a body washed up on the rocky shore.

Lindsey is getting into her groove as the director of the Briar Creek Public Library when a New York editor visits town, creating quite a buzz. Lindsey's friend Beth wants to sell the editor her children's book, but Beth's boyfriend, a famous author, gets in the way. When they go to confront him, he's found murdered - and Beth is the prime suspect. Lindsey has to act fast - before they throw the book at the wrong person.

Last summer, Alice Ogilvie’s basketball-star boyfriend Steve dumped her. Then she disappeared for five days. She's not talking, so where she went and what happened to her is the biggest mystery in Castle Cove. Or it was, at least. But now, another one of Steve’s girlfriends has vanished: Brooke Donovan, Alice’s ex-best friend. Enter Iris Adams, Alice’s tutor who has her own reasons for wanting to disappear. The police are convinced Steve is the culprit, but Alice isn’t so sure, and with Iris on her side, she just might be able to prove her theory.

This collection includes: Ballpark Mysteries #6: The Wrigley Riddle: Ivy-covered walls--they're the most famous part of the Chicago Cubs' historic ballpark, Wrigley Field. Mike and Kate can't wait to get down on the field to see the ivy for themselves. But when they do, they're horrified to discover patches of the ivy have been ripped away! Who would want to sabotage the stadium?

It's summertime in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, and Bertie James' 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.

Library director Lindsey Norris must solve a murder in her cozy Connecticut hometown before anyone else is checked out for good in this Library Lover’s mystery. Carrie Rushton, the president of the Friends of the Library, has been accused of murdering her husband. The evidence is stacking up against Carrie, but neither Lindsey nor the Briar Creek crafternoon club is buying it. When a nor'easter buries the small coastal town, the police are too busy digging out the locals to investigate the murder.

This anthology of rare stories of crime and suspense brings together a selection of rare tales by masters of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction for the first time in book form, including a newly discovered Agatha Christie crime story that has not been seen since 1922. At a time when crime and thriller writing has once again overtaken the sales of general and literary fiction, Bodies from the Library unearths lost stories from the Golden Age, that period between the World Wars when detective fiction captured the public’s imagination.

There’s a bank robber in Green Lawn! A red-haired kid took a video of the crime, but nobody can find him. Without the video, will the robber go free? Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose must track down that kid - before the bandit does!

When Josh discovers a nest of young falcons in the forest, he, Dink, and Ruth Rose start visiting every day. But in the morning they find it empty! The kids discover a wounded falcon with its wing feathers clipped, and they know someone's up to no good. Can they figure out what's going on before it's too late to save the falcons?

After months of travel, former maid Lottie Sprigg returns to Fortescue Manor in the rolling hills of Shropshire. Her arrival coincides with a celebratory dinner to mend a family feud. But the flow of champagne dwindles to a trickle when a body is found in the library. Who committed the atrocity? Suspicion falls on several characters: some above stairs and some below....

They're getting married! Lucy Richardson and Connor McNeil have announced their engagement. Their friends throw a party for the couple at Coquina Beach, close to Lucy's beloved Bodie Island Lighthouse Library. As they're packing up the presents and the (few) leftovers from Josie's Cozy Bakery, who should arrive but Richard Eric Lewiston III, Lucy's former almost-fiancé, and his overbearing mother Evangeline. Push comes to love when Evangeline makes no secret of why she's there: to get Lucy and Ricky back together.

When Greta overhears the library board president and a member of the treasure-hunting club arguing about a secret discovery, her curiosity is piqued—even more so when one of the women leaves a book with a sequence of strange markings on its pages in the library book return bin. Before Greta can ask about the marginalia, the book's outspoken owner turns up dead.

Lindsey Norris and her staff are gearing up for the Briar Creek Library’s annual Dinner in the Stacks fund-raiser. The night of dinner and dancing is not only a booklover’s dream—it’s the library’s biggest moneymaker of the year. But instead of raising funds, the new library board president is busy raising a stink and making the staff miserable.

Complete with fascinating biographies by Tony Medawar of all the featured authors, this latest volume in the annual Bodies from the Library series once again brings into the daylight the forgotten, the lost and the unknown, and is an indispensable collection for any bookshelf.