Cathy C. (cathyskye) - , reviewed on 1/13/2013 + 2307 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 1

First Line: "Daisy Buchanan was an insipid, shallow, soulless woman," Violet La Rue declared.

Lindsey Norris couldn't be happier in Briar Creek, Connecticut. She's started her second year as library director; she enjoys the meetings of the crafternoon club she's a part of; and she's dating Mike Sully, one hunk of a tour boat captain.

Unfortunately a storm appears on the horizon when a salvage company sails into town to dig up a treasure that was supposedly buried on Pirate Island over three hundred years ago.

Factions begin to form in town, with those all for the salvage company doing its thing led by Trudi Hargrave, the local tourism director. Lindsey's downstairs neighbor Charlie gets a job with the salvage company, and when Trudi's body is found at the excavation site, Lindsey finds herself doing some investigating of her own in order to keep Charlie out of jail.

In the space of three books, Jenn McKinlay's Library Lovers series has become one of my favorites. I think it encapsulates some of the things cozy lovers wish for in the real world: a picture postcard town to live in, the perfect library to patronize, the best set of friends anyone could hope to have, and a solution to the crime by book's end. Even the obnoxious people in Briar Creek are fun in their own ways. Take Trudi Hargrave, for instance. I probably shouldn't speak ill of the dead, but since she's fictional I might get away with it. One of Trudi's trademarks was her uber-high stilettos. Now, I knew she was going to bite the dust just from reading the back of the book, but that woman was so nasty and pushy that I kept hoping she'd trip on those silly shoes and come a cropper before she met her untimely demise. Rotten of me, isn't it? But it's just that easy to get wrapped up in Jenn McKinlay's world.

The plot involving a pirate treasure is so much fun, and the way the characters interact with each other is a joy as always. If you're a fan of mysteries set in the book world and are hoping to find characters who seem like real librarians dealing with real library situations, you can't go wrong with this series. The author is a librarian herself, and you can tell how much she enjoys it by reading these books. In fact, my only quibble with the Briar Creek Public Library is that the librarian everyone loves to hate shares my surname. Oh well, can't win 'em all!

Do you have to read this series from the beginning, or can you begin with this latest book? You can start with Book, Line, and Sinker, but if you're the fan of cozies and libraries that I think you are, why deny yourself the pleasure of reading them all?

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