Village Library Mysteries

There are no renewals when you're permanently checked out. When librarian Ann Beckett finally reluctantly agrees to being set-up on a blind date by one of her over-eager patrons, she figures the worst that could happen would be the two of them wouldn't hit it off. Little did she know that she'd be stood up . . . because her date was murdered. With help from her patrons, Ann tries to find out who might be responsible in the small town of Whitby before more residents are permanently checked out.

Carmen King is a busy woman. Not only does she sit on the library board and dabble in the Friends of the Library, but she juggles quite a few relationships at once. Apparently, this doesn't go over well with at least one of her boyfriends-Carmen is found dead at the bottom of the library staircase. Librarian Ann Beckett not only finds Carmen's body, but finds herself entangled in Carmen's mysterious death as she sets out to learn why Carmen's death, from the killer's perspective, was overdue.

Sometimes a weekend trip is stressful, especially if you're on borrowed time. Fall is beautiful in the small mountain village of Whitby, North Carolina. The leaves are changing color on the mountainsides, the sky is a bright blue, and the air is crisp. Librarian Ann Beckett's friend and coworker, Luna, has persuaded her to take a break from the library and attend a house party on the lake with her. The modest house Ann was expecting is more of a mansion with amazing mountain and lake views and an indoor swimming pool. The other guests initially seem fun, but as time passes, tensions grow. When one of the guests is later found murdered in the pool, Ann works through the puzzle since now someone else is on borrowed time.

It's hard keeping secrets in small towns. At first, librarian Ann Beckett is delighted her director hired another full-time staff member. The Whitby Library is a busy place and another librarian should make life much easier there. Instead, she soon discovers that the new hire, Ellie, seems to be bent on creating issues instead of solving them. When she's found dead at the library, no one is as shocked as they might have been. With time running out and a desperate killer on the loose, Ann starts uncovering all the secrets Ellie was trying to keep hush-hush.

No good deed goes unpunished. The Whitby Library is a hive of activity. The basement of the old building is under construction and there are smaller projects on the main floor, too. The work is being done practically pro-bono by Cornelius, a Friends of the Library member who's a local real estate investor and builder and now a philanthropist. Then Cornelius is found dead in an elevator shaft under mysterious circumstances. The focus falls on his family after his will is read and the amount of his fortune is realized. Can Ann track down the killer before he strikes again? Where there's a will, there's a way.

Small towns + gossip = friction No one in the town of Whitby, North Carolina was excited when Jonas Merchant returned to town. Jonas was an effective muckraker; an expert at uncovering secrets, rumors, and undercurrents. Even worse, he'd fallen on hard times and was desperate for easy cash. It was a decidedly dangerous combination. It was perhaps not the biggest surprise when Jonas was discovered dead one day. More shocking, at least to local librarian Ann Beckett, was the fact that her straight-arrow director Wilson was one of the suspects in Jonas's death. Will Ann be able to track down the killer and clear Wilson's name before he strikes again?

Unintended snooping can mean getting into someone's bad books. The Whitby Library has been a busy place lately, between book clubs, children's storytimes, and students working on research projects. Ann has been busy, too, which is why she's so glad to see some new volunteers to help the staff out. One of the volunteers is worried, though, and comes to Ann with a problem. She's seen something odd . . . maybe even suspicious. Ann tries advising her, but the volunteer still seems troubled. The next day, the woman meets her own suspicious end. Can Ann, with the help of her friends, help solve the mystery before someone else is permanently checked out?

Sometimes a novel idea can turn out to be a bad one. Sally Simmons was rather misunderstood in the small town of Whitby, North Carolina. An awkward woman with a sly countenance, she became a regular at the library, spending a good deal of time scribbling in a notebook and staring vacantly off into space. It turned out, to everyone's surprise, that Sally had been industriously penning a novel. To their greater surprise, it became something of a sensation, even landing itself on the bestseller lists. Since much of the novel had been written within the hallowed walls of the Whitby Library, reference librarian Ann and other staff members decide to hold an event to celebrate Sally's accomplishment and learn more about her book. Sadly, it soon becomes evident that Sally's book was inspired by actual residents of Whitby-and that she concealed their identities poorly. When Sally meets an unfortunate demise, it's up to Ann to figure out the killer so the police can throw the book at him.