Past Due for Murder

Library director Amy Webber finds herself involved in another murder investigation when a student goes missing and the demanding professor, who researched the local "fae" and lights legend and its connection to a pair of girls who went missing in the 19th century, turns up dead. Her boyfriend, the last to see the missing student, becomes the prime suspect. We meet many colorful characters in the course of the book. There's a lot going on in the book, but I never got things confused as I do in some. I knew who did it early on. I found a couple of things that seemed inconsistent in a place or two but I didn't go back to find what made me think something had been stated differently earlier. This was a fun, escapism read with an interesting show more setting. show less

It’s alway interesting to see the different ways Amy manages to insert herself into police investigations. Her expertise as a research librarian as surely one reason, but so is her natural curiosity and her desire to right the wrongs of the world. In this story, she is not only looking for a missing student, but also for a murderer. Some lost gold also figures in. Little does Amy know how close she is to the murderer and how close she is to being his next victim. This well-written story is pretty tense at times. Quite intriguing and fast paced, it is thoroughly entertaining.

It took me a little time to get into this story, but the town of Taylorsford and Amy won me over quickly. I truly liked the atmosphere of the Mountains and how tales of the old fairy folk add wispy bits to both an old story of missing women and the new one. I felt like I was reading very slowly, the descriptions of the area and the relationships were so deep and interesting. It was a good mystery that had many threads running along and Gilbert was able to concoct a good ending.

To me, there's not much better than a library (or book)-themed cozy and this Blue Ridge Library series, of which Past Due for Murder is the third and latest installment, perfectly fits the bill.

Amy Webber is the library director at a small town library in Virginia. As is true with cozies, she finds herself solving mysteries. No surprise there. What is surprising is how well-drawn the surrounding cast of characters are in this series and how clever the plots are, with many twists and turns.

This series gets better and better with each book. Long may this series run. Highly recommended to cozy mystery fans!!

(Note, I received this book from the publisher, via Net Galley, in exchange for a fair and honest review.)

So much goes on in this book! The mystery itself is solid. Seeds planted in the first book in the series bloom here, moving some important things forward for Richard. Amy also gets to resolve her previous relationship here and move forward more confident. I love that the last few chapters just breathed, giving us time to just spend time with the characters, as well as giving the library a big bequest. The next book is going to be starting in a very different place and I'm here for it.

Amy Webber loves her job as the director of the public library in a small town in Virginia. When the mayor decides to resurrect the old May Day celebrations other things are resurrected as well- namely tales of missing girls and abductions by fairies. When a local professor is found murdered and the last person seen arguing with her was Amy's old boyfriend, Amy is drawn into the search to find the killer.

Fun story, well plotted and surprising end!

“Murder Past Due” is obviously not the first book in this series, but it is the first one I read in the series. The story deals with a missing student, the demise of her instructor, and secrets being kept by several of the characters. I was hooked into the story by the third chapter. The only problem I encountered was my unfamiliarity with the characters, since I had not read the others that preceded this book. The author makes reference to events from previous novels and people who were involved in those events, and it took me some time to figure them out. I still enjoyed the book and will probably read others in the series.

I received this book from the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The opinions show more expressed here are entirely my own. show less