Bound for Murder

November 4, 2019
The discovery of a body on the farm of mayoral candidate Sunny Fields’s grandparents propels Gilbert’s diverting fourth Blue Ridge Library mystery set in Taylorsford, Va. (after 2019’s Past Due for Murder). Since a scandal connected to Sunny’s family wouldn’t be good for her candidacy, her best friend, librarian Amy Webber, steps up to help. Amy proposes to use her research skills to try to clear the grandparents, who once ran a commune on the farm. When the skeletal remains, showing signs of foul play, are identified as those of a man who went missing from the commune back in the 1960s, the cold case starts to heat up. Amy’s 66-year-old aunt, Lydia Talbot, is a good source of information, while Lydia’s significant other, Hugh Chen, and Amy’s fiancé, Richard Muir, also assist in the sleuthing. The stakes rise with a second murder, but is it connected to the first one? The plot builds to a complex but satisfying solution. Cozy fans will hope Amy will return soon. Agent: Frances Black, Literary Counsel.

November 1, 2019
Can a 50-year-old secret ruin an aspiring politician's campaign? Amy Webber, Sunshine Fields' best friend and boss at the Taylorsford Public Library in the Blue Ridge Mountains, is engaged to Richard Muir, dancer, choreographer, teacher, and her next-door neighbor. Amy wants the wedding to be simple, but Richard's mother is determined that it will be a tasteful extravaganza. Meanwhile, Sunny's campaign for mayor is rudely interrupted when a skeleton is found on her grandparents' farm. P.J. and Carol Fields run Vista View as an organic farm, but for a while in the 1960s, it was a commune housing a motley crew of people with varying drug habits. Amy, whose research skills have helped the police solve several murders (Past Due for Murder, 2019, etc.), finds a 1965 newspaper article mentioning the disappearance of Jeremy Adams, a talented musician who'd lived on the commune but left to pursue his career. Chief Deputy Brad Tucker, Sunny's ex-boyfriend, asks Amy to do a little more research but to keep it quiet since the case could involve Sunny's grandparents, who Amy's sure are hiding information. Once they've given Amy a list of all the former commune members, she starts digging into their histories. One of them recently died in what seems to have been an accident. When the skeleton is identified as Adams', reporters stake out the Fieldses, but after a rough start, Sunny, encouraged by Amy, makes friends with handsome Daniel Dane, an investigative reporter digging deep into the past because his own aunt went missing from the area in 1964. When another commune alumnus is shot dead, Amy redoubles her efforts, searching the past for clues. A little help from her friends, including a former drug dealer who helped keep the commune mellow, sets her on the right track, prompting dire warnings from the killer. Historical research wins out over romance and mystery in this pleasant cozy.

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January 1, 2020

Library director Amy Webber's only full-time assistant at the Taylorsford Public Library, Sunny Fields, is running for mayor. When a body is uncovered on the organic farm run by Sunny's grandparents, the small-town rumors fly, impacting Sunny's campaign. In the 1960s, the Fields had a commune on their property, and the corpse turns out to be a musician who disappeared from there. Amy has helped the police in the past, so, of course she's going to do some research for her best friend's grandparents. Where are the people who lived at the commune? An art collector and former drug dealer tries to warn Amy, fearing the death goes back to a serious drug problem in the past. The murder of a former commune member, threats, and a shooting drag the library director deeper into the case. The story's menacing tone is alleviated by the antics of some kittens, but the past causes troubles for the town's residents. VERDICT As with Cleo Coyle's "Coffeehouse" mysteries, Gilbert's library mysteries (Past Due for Murder) are darker than many cozies. The well-developed characters and complex issues will appeal to fans of Jenn McKinlay and Miranda James.--Lesa Holstine, Evansville Vanderburgh P.L., IN

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November 15, 2019
The fourth Blue Ridge Library mystery (after Past Due for Murder, 2019) finds Taylorsford Public Library director Amy Webber once again involved in a murder investigation. But this time, she has Chief Deputy Brad Tucker's blessing, at least at first. Jeremy Adams lived in Carol and PJ Fields' Vista View commune during the 1960s until he supposedly left to pursue a music career in LA. His disappearance was never investigated seriously back then (he was a hippie and a drug user and African American), but when a body is found on the farm, identifying Jeremy's remains is the least of the mysteries. Webber uses her access to the archives to aid the police, then starts an unofficial investigation by talking to the few remaining ex-communers still in the area?including the Fields, whose granddaughter, Sunny, is Amy's best friend. Series fans will enjoy the ongoing shenangians around Amy's upcoming wedding to the dashing dancer, Richard, who rescues a cat named Fosse, and newbies with an appreciation for small town politics (and an interlibrary loan mulligan) will have no trouble starting here.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)