Book Review: Death Overdue by Allison Brook

The Haunted Library Mysteries Book 1

Carrie Singleton is just about done with Clover Ridge, Connecticut until she's offered a job as the head of programs and events at the spooky local library, complete with its own librarian ghost. Her first major event is a program presented by a retired homicide detective, Al Buckley, who claims he knows who murdered Laura Foster, a much-loved part-time library aide who was bludgeoned to death fifteen years earlier. As he invites members of the audience to share stories about Laura, he suddenly keels over and dies.

The medical examiner reveals that poison is what did him in and Carrie feels responsible for having surged forward with the program despite pushback from her director. Driven by guilt, Carrie’s determined to discover who murdered the detective, convinced it’s the same man who killed Laura all those years ago. Luckily for Carrie, she has a friendly, knowledgeable ghost by her side. But as she questions the shadows surrounding Laura's case, disturbing secrets come to light and with each step Carrie takes, she gets closer to ending up like Al.

Now it's due or die for Carrie in Death Overdue the delightful first in a new cozy series by Allison Brook.

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My Review:

It took me a little while to get fully invested in this story. Carrie starts out sounding a little flighty and surprisingly juvenile for her nearly thirty years. But it sounds like there are extenuating circumstances and we get to see some pretty profound changes in fairly short order. For a moment I was afraid I was about to start another series with a love triangle and I’m grateful to report that it isn’t actually. I’m not sure if I can say the mystery successfully baffled me since the villain was at the top of my suspect list for pretty much the whole book, but I was kept guessing which of my top suspects really did it until the end. I thoroughly enjoyed this and look forward to reading more in the series. I read a borrowed copy of this book.