Read and Gone: A Haunted Library Mystery
Cozy Mystery
2nd in Series
Crooked Lane Books (September 11, 2018)
Hardcover: 320 pages

Synopsis

Twenty million dollars’ worth of missing gems bring Carrie Singleton’s long-lost and larcenous dad back into her life and it’s up to Carrie to clear his name.

A devoted dad is as precious as diamonds, but Carrie Singleton wouldn’t know since her dad Jim’s been on the lam most of her life. In an unusual family reunion, she finds Jim breaking into her cottage in the middle of the night. The fun really starts when he begs her to help him recover his half of a twenty-million-dollar gem heist he pulled off with the local jeweler, Benton Parr. When she refuses, Jim takes off again.

Carrie finds her father again behind bars for the recent murder of Benton Parr. Who made the connection? Unbeknownst to her, Carrie’s boyfriend Dylan, an insurance investigator, has been searching for the gems. Determined to find the jewels herself, she starts examining every facet of Parr’s life. She turns up a treasure trove of suspects, one of whom bashes her on the head as she’s searching the victim’s country cabin.

Retreating to the quiet confines of the library where she works, Carrie watches as Smokey Joe, the resident cat, paws at a hole in the wall. Is he after the library’s ghost Evelyn, or something shinier?

Review

As a book lover, how could I not enjoy a series that is set in a library and is haunted too?! Ok, so the haunting isn’t a scary haunting, but that is ok because Evelyn, the ghost, is caring and comical at the same time.

Family means a lot to Carrie and she was quite surprised when her father, Jim, showed up. Who could blame her since he wasn’t around much and he is a thief? I could see where it might be hard to have him around but at the same time want him around because he is family. I did like watching the progression of their relationship in this book.

So the big mystery is what happened to $7+ million in gems that were stolen by Jim and the local jeweler, Benton. Of course being a mystery somebody has to end of dead and Benton is the victim. But where are the gemstones? Carrie, of course, gets involved in this case. I’m not sure she would have if her dad wasn’t involved and wanting to find the gems, but not to turn them in and collect the reward but to fence them. The author throws quite a few characters into the mix as suspects and when the real killer is revealed I was surprised. This person wasn’t really on my radar! I thought this character could be the culprit but they were near the bottom of the list. I thought the mystery was well written.

Then there is the romance part of the story. Here is where Carrie got on my nerves a little bit. She started thinking different things about Dylan and why he was involved with her and perhaps he only wanted to use her to get to her dad. I thought it was kind of crazy for her to think this and why didn’t she talk to him about her thoughts? I didn’t remember that Dylan was in the insurance business but it has been a bit since I had read the first book.

Overall very enjoyable and can’t wait to see what happens in the next book.  We give this 4 paws up

About the Author

Allison Brook is the pseudonym for Marilyn Levinson, who writes mysteries, romantic suspense and novels for kids. She lives on Long Island and enjoys traveling, reading, watching foreign films, doing Sudoku and dining out. She especially loves to visit with her grandchildren on FaceTime.

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