Read and Gone

September 15, 2018

Carrie Singleton has settled into a fresh beginning in Clover Ridge, with supportive family nearby and an awesome job at the public library. Even her furry companion, Smokey Joe, finds his happy place as the library cat. But when her absentee father sneaks into her home to ask for help retrieving missing stolen gems, Carrie finds herself sleuthing against her better judgement. A larger cast of characters allows for plenty of quirky asides but doesn't impede the steady pace in unraveling the mystery. VERDICT The second book in a new series can be read on its own, but readers are likely to want more and will return to the first title.

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 16, 2018
Brook’s workmanlike sequel to 2017’s Death Overdue finds Carrie Singleton, the head of programs and events at the Clover Ridge, Conn., public library, “deliriously happy” with the love of her life, Dylan Avery, who works “as an investigative investigator” for an insurance company that recovers stolen art and jewelry. Her joy turns to dismay with the unexpected arrival of Jim Singleton, her estranged father and a professional thief. Jim asks her to set up a meeting between himself and Benton Parr, owner of the local jewelry store. Years earlier, Benton and Jim stole $7 million worth of loose stones, and Benton failed to divvy up the loot with Jim. Benton ends up dead, and soon the race is on to recover the stolen gems. The ghost of former library aide Evelyn Havers, to whom Carrie occasionally confides her troubles and suspicions, does little more than lend a sympathetic ear. Cozy fans who don’t mind a lack of deductive reasoning will be satisfied. Agent: Dawn Dowdle, Blue Ridge Literary Agent.

July 1, 2018
A librarian hunts a cache of stolen gems.Programs at the Clover Ridge Public Library aren't for cowards, as Carrie Singleton, head of the library's Programs and Events department, discovers. Retired detective Al Buckley has already keeled over dead after his presentation (Death Overdue, 2017). Now local jeweler Benton Parr is found murdered in his shop right after his talk on how to tell real from fake gemstones. Of course, Parr knows his subject inside out since he's not only a jeweler, but a thief who helped Carrie's father, Jim Singleton, steal loose stones worth $7 million. Jim, who's come back to town to claim his share of the loot, is of course a major suspect in Parr's death. Despite her mixed feelings for her wayward dad, Carrie wants to help him prove that although he may be a thief, he isn't a murderer. She can't tell anyone about her father's part in the heist--least of all her boyfriend, insurance investigator Dylan Avery. So her only confidants are her cat, Smoky Joe, and Evelyn Havers, the ghost of a former library aide who died six years ago and, for reasons unspecified, appears only to Carrie and to Carrie's 4-year-old cousin, Tacey. Finding the stolen gems seems Carrie's best shot at identifying Parr's real murderer, unless of course her quarry catches her alone and makes her current program of amateur detection her final event.Brook takes the Lincoln's doctor's dog approach to the genre, piling cat on ghost on is-he-is-or-is-he-ain't-her-boyfriend to provide a cornucopia of coziness.

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August 1, 2018
Carrie Singleton, employed at the public library, is stunned when her father, Jim, a charming career criminal, arrives in Clover Ridge, Connecticut, in search of $20 million in stolen gems, having been double-crossed by his partner, local jeweler Benton Parr. Disappointed by her father since childhood, Carrie is reluctant to let him into her life again and in no way supports his lifestyle. When Parr is found murdered with Jim running from the shop, Carrie investigates to clear her father, determined to find the gems herself and return them to their rightful owner. However, Carrie is only one of many hunting for the missing stones, including her insurance-investigator boyfriend, Dylan, whom she begins to believe has used her to get to her father. The library frame, plot twists, a library cat, a ghost (former library aide Evelyn), a romance, and, of course, the principled Carrie in the lead make this cozy, set during the December holiday season, a delight. Readers may also enjoy Nancy Atherton and Carolyn Haines, whose books also include helpful, opinionated ghosts.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)