By by Katie Gayle  (Author) 

A Book Review  by Jackie Houchin

Katie Gayle has brought back her sixty-something recently single and very clever sleuth, Sarah Byrd with her rambunctious chocolate Labrador, Jake. Many of the characters in the Cotswolds town of Barrywick have returned too, including Tabitha her library friend and Sean, the handsome doctor, who looks like the James Bond movie star of that name. To begin this second book feels like settling into a comfy chair with friends.

But, of course, this is a mystery, and as the title says, there is a MURDER IN THE LIBRARY! After a crowded book signing by a handsome, charismatic author, V.F. Andrews (yes, I had to look it up so I wasn’t confused by author V.C. Andrews), someone took offence with the famous man and stabbed him…in the library after everyone had gone.

There are tons of suspects. A lot of people were angry, jealous, or had been dismissed or cheated on by him. Katie Gayle is really good at offering very viable reasons for people to kill one another. She plants clues so cleverly that you forget about them by the next chapter. Especially the important ones.

Working with her new friends, Detective Inspector Hayley Gibson, Sean, and Tabitha she casts suspicion on one person after another. Then a second murder happens, this time NOT in the library, and valuable evidence goes missing. Who killed whom and for heaven’s sake, why? Of course, the person I suspected all along, was not it.

This is what is so good about Katie Gayle‘s mysteries. Atmosphere, characters, tight plotting, a whisper of romance. And a dog.

Five Stars

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