The Silence of the Library (Cat in the Stacks Mystery) Mass Market Paperback – January 28, 2014

Charlie Harris is more than happy to help with the Athena Public Library’s display for National Library Week which includes a tribute to author Electra Barnes Cartwright, creator of the Veronica Thane Girl Detective series. Not only did he grow up reading the Veronica Thane books, he has a large collection of them thanks to his late aunt. All involved are thrilled when they discover Mrs. Cartwright is still alive and, despite her advanced age, is willing to make an appearance at the exhibit. Fans of the Veronica Thane series start popping up before the exhibit even starts and some of them are desperate to meet Mrs. Cartwright – some are even desperate enough to commit murder.“The Silence of the Library” is the nicely done fifth book in Miranda James’s Cat in the Stacks cozy mystery series (Miranda James is the pseudonym of author Dean James). I’ve come to love Charlie and Diesel, his overweight but very lovable Maine Coon cat. What I liked most about this book is the tribute to Girl Detectives – Veronica Thane is a version of Nancy Drew and James includes a Veronica Thane book within the main mystery that delightfully captures the language of early Girl Detective books (Veronica drives a roadster and refers to her friends as chums). Veronica was created just for this book but her character makes me want to dig out my own Nancy Drew books and reread them. James also does a neat job of tying together the mystery Veronica is trying to solve with the mystery Charlie is trying to solve. As for the mystery Charlie is trying to solve, I did figure out a major plot point halfway through the book but that added to the fun as I watched James cleverly put the plot together.“The Silence of the Library” is another winning cozy mystery by Miranda James.

"The Silence of the Library" by Miranda JamesCharlie Harris, a retired librarian, lives in the town of Athena, Mississippi. Although retired Charlie is still actively involved in the Athena Public Library.The library is planning on an exhibit of YA books that were quite popular a number of years ago. The Veronica Thane mystery series in particular. Charlie soon learns that the author of that series, Electra Barnes Cartwright, is still living and approaching 100 years. An appointment to meet with author at her residence is scheduled in the hope that she may consider gracing the library with her presence for that exhibit.Electra Barnes Cartwright agree to make an appearance at the library honoring her Veronica thane series. Soon Charlie is meeting some eccentric book collectors that don't put him at ease in the least. Then In fact their fanaticism puts Charlie on the alert for possible trouble.Secrets regarding the Veronica thane Mystery series come to light. Secrets such as books written at a later date that have never been published. Charlie also learns of several rare copies of The Mystery at Spellwood Mansion under another title. These books may be worth a small fortune. Fortunately, Charlie's Aunt Dottie was a collector of sorts herself. She left Charlie, along with the house, countless volumes of YA books including the Veronica Thane series.Searching is begun by Charlie, the authors children and the fanatical collectors. that's when a murder is discovered.I love this series and loved this book, a true cozy. I can't forget to include one of the smartest and lovable characters in this series...Diesel. Diesel, a Maine Coon cat, brings a warmth to the series and gives life to each of the other characters

For a murder mystery, even a cozy, this is a delightful entry in the series. It has been four months since the Christmas-time conclusion of the last novel. Charlie’s daughter, Laura, is planning a June wedding. Charlie’s son, Sean, is practically engaged. And Charlie and Helen Louise are still very much in love themselves. Even Charlie’s boarder, Stewart Delacort, is in a relationship serious enough to have him reading more Shakespeare than scientific journals.With National Library Week only a short time away, Charlie and Theresa Farmer, the public library director, have decided to focus this year’s exhibits around the old juvenile detective series like Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys and Judy Belton. They also plan to include exhibits on a series featuring Veronica Thane, which rivaled Nancy Drew for some time and was written by a deceased regional Mississippi author. Now what could possibly go wrong when a library chooses to spotlight children’s mystery books?Well, what goes wrong happens after Theresa Farmer discovers that the author of the Veronica Thane series, Electra Barnes Cartwright, is not deceased. She is quite spry for a centenarian and living only a few miles away. After the library announces on its web site that Mrs. Cartwright will appear during Library Week, rabid collectors of her books descend upon Athena. Fights actually break out among several collectors, in the library no less, and two days later one of the local collectors is dead, strangled at her home office desk. And Charlie’s telephone number is on a pad beneath her hand.For a serious mystery reader, determining the identity of the murderer in this tale will seem too easy. Quite frankly, you feel you know who the villain is before the woman even dies, even if the book is written strictly from Charlie’s first person POV. But this is not a weakness on the author’s part. There are at least four other highly viable candidates and even the real possibility of a tag-team effort. So the obvious could really just be a well-crafted red herring.And speaking of melodrama, Miranda James employs a second, and more rarely used, literary device to further the tale – a book within a book. From the opening page, Charlie is reading, in his spare time, the first Veronica Thane novel. We are treated to every word as he reads it, a few sections at a time. For those of us raised on Nancy Drew, the “blast into the past” makes you realize just how dramatic and unrealistic those stories were. Back then, that type of story was exciting, an I-want-to-grow-up-and-be-just-like-her type of thing. But now, along with Charlie, you read the story with a big grin, your eyes rolling back into your head so far you can see your hair follicles, and a realization that the main characters would now be classified as TSTL.However, the absurdness of those characters and the theatrics of that plot finally trigger a memory in Charlie and the clues begin to fall in place. And for Charlie and Detective Berry, the plan to expose the murderer proves to be dangerous, complicated and ingenious.After finishing the scene that moves the current investigation forward to its denouement, Charlie stops reading the Veronica Thane story to us – right in the middle, just when it’s getting good. Overly dramatic or not, characters in the TSTL category or not, there’s a villain afoot and a victim to save. Oh, how could Miranda James do that to us, her faithful readers?!Well, supposedly, she doesn’t. After the murderer is unmasked, her third literary device comes into play. James states in her Afterward that the entire text of the Veronica Thane story can be found on her web site. Unfortunately, that is not true. There is a sidebar link to a page that says “Coming Soon,” but no text of the story exists as I write this review, four months after the publication date of this novel. For that misdirection, I have reduced the book’s rating in my review. The storyline is already a work of fiction; the author’s Afterward should not be.