The Silence of the Library

The Silence of the Library by Miranda James
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Librarian Charlie Harris is assisting his friend and Athena Public Library director, Teresa Farmer, with putting on an event featuring authors of mysteries with "intrepid girl detectives" from the middle decades of the 20th century. They are thrilled to discover that one of Charlie's favorites from childhood, Electra Barnes Cartwright, centenarian author of the Veronica Thane series, is not only still alive but living nearby and willing to come speak during their program. Her most ardent fans immediately descend on the town when they hear the news, demanding to meet her. When the editor of the "EBC" fan newsletter is murdered, Charlie and his Maine coon cat, Diesel, begin investigating to help the sheriff's deputy figure out who killed her and why.

I guessed the murderer & motive long before anyone even died, but it was still a fun book to listen to. This is book #5 in the Cat in the Stacks series, but it could almost stand alone, since the interactions with ongoing characters were relatively minimal. The narrator doesn't differentiate a whole lot between voices/accents for most of the characters, yet I had no difficulty knowing who was speaking.

For readers' advisors: story and character doorways are primary. The violence is offscreen and barely mentioned, really. There is no sex or swearing. It's a light, cozy mystery.

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