Sunday, May 5, 2019

Book Review: Twelve Angry Librarians by Miranda James

Charlie is stressed out. The Southern Academic Libraries Association is holding this year’s annual meeting at Athena College. Since Charlie is the interim library director, he must deliver the welcome speech to all the visiting librarians. And as if that weren’t bad enough, the keynote address will be delivered by Charlie’s old nemesis from library school.
It’s been thirty years since Charlie has seen Gavin Fong, and he’s still an insufferable know-it-all capable of getting under everyone’s skin. In his keynote, Gavin puts forth a most unpopular opinion: that degreed librarians will be obsolete in the academic libraries of the future. So when Gavin drops dead, no one seems too upset...
But Charlie, who was seen having a heated argument with Gavin the day before, has jumped to the top of the suspect list. Now Charlie and Diesel must check out every clue to refine their search for the real killer among them before the next book Charlie reads comes from a prison library...[summary via Amazon]

Twelve Angry Librarians is the 8th book in the "Cat in the Stacks Mysteries". As the interim Library Director Charlie Harris has a lot of duties that he doesn't want to do. One of those is sitting side-by-side with Gavin Fong, a man he hasn't seen in years and one he doesn't like at all. However, it seems like Charlie isn't the only one that doesn't like Gavin. When Gavin is poisoned at the Southern Academic Libraries Association annual meeting, it seems like there is at least a dozen people that could've killed him... or "Twelve Angry Librarians"!

I've been a big fan of this series from the beginning, but this instalment showed how amazing a writer Miranda James is. I've read hundreds of cozy mysteries and I've never read a denouement quite like the one presented in this story. The way the mystery unravels would rival the writings of the great Agatha Christie. I don't want to give any spoilers away, but I was open-mouthed in shock, and it takes a lot to shock me in a cozy mystery!

There is a lot of development for Charlie and his family in Twelve Angry Librarians. As revealed in earlier books Charlie's family is growing bigger with the the addition of to-be-born grandchildren. These changes continue as Charlie and Helen's relationship develops, and I love the direction Charlie's life is going to take in future books. While I absolutely love the mystery element it is the continuing sub-plots surrounding Charlie's life that make me treasure this series so much!

I consider every visit to Athena like going home to visit family, and Twelve Angry Librarians exemplifies this completely. I loved this visit with Charlie, Diesel and the gang and I can't wait to see what they get up to next!

No comments:

Post a Comment