LATE CHECKOUT

A library volunteer gets more than she bargained for when a body turns up in the stacks: a scary murder victim but a great potential research opportunity.

Though she doesn’t really need the cash from her job as a field reporter at WICH-TV, Lee Barrett is at loose ends when her hours are cut to make room for a nepotistic new hire. Luckily, Lee’s Aunt Ibby has an excellent suggestion: Lee can volunteer at the local Salem library. Lee’s happy to help, but she’s immediately thrust into a mystery when she encounters a body that’s been surrounded by books in the back of the stacks. What a first day! Is her discovery related to the vision of a black shoe with a maroon dress sock that Lee had in her car mirror earlier, when all she was trying to do was check her hair? It wouldn’t be the first time Lee’s had an ambiguous vision that she somehow knows is linked to a murder (Final Exam, 2019, etc.). Of course, the vision might also be connected to Larry Laraby, WICH-TV’s original sports guy, who was also recently found dead in a way that Lee thinks is definitely suspicious. Whether because of the library setting, her new free time, or her connection to the law through her detective boyfriend, Pete Mondello, Lee decides to dig into the network’s early days to find out if there’s a connection between Larry and the library murder. After learning that the body in the library is that of former minor league ballplayer Wee Willie Wallace, Lee’s all the more convinced of a sports link to be uncovered, and she’s sure that she and O’Ryan, her sidekick cat, are the ones who can get to the bottom of it.

Great for readers who can get lost in a flood of everyday details others may find mundane.