LIBRARY/LIBRARIAN MYSTERY SERIES: National Library Week

This is National Library Week! 

My most exciting library experience was getting my first library card. I could read by 4, and although I visited our local library on a weekly basis where my mother checked out books for me, I wanted my own library card. The rule was that you had to be able to sign your name to obtain a card. So my sister taught me to sign my name. After that, the world was my oyster! I spent many summers walking the mile from my home to the Cobbs Creek Library in Philadelphia to check out books, get recommendations from the librarians, and participate in the summer reading club (stars for books read). I quickly went from children's to adult books. Books became my best friends. Over the years I continued to visit my local public libraries. I have fond memories of going to the Penn Wynne Library with my Dad where he sought out American hardboiled mysteries. Because of my own love of mysteries, it was a wonderful bonding experience.

So today's list honors National Library Week with a list of Library/Librarian Mysteries series. This is not a complete list, so I welcome any additions. Note this is a list of Library/Librarian series and not stand-alone library books. There are so many of those, including Allen Eskens' The Quiet Librarian, Sulari Gentill's The Woman in the Library, Fiona Davis's The Lions of Fifth Avenue, and so many more. Alas, another post!

Let me know if I've missed any of your favorites library/librarian mystery series. Make a comment or send me a note. Thanks!

LIBRARY/LIBRARIAN MYSTERIES

Jeff Abbott: Jordan Poteet Series

Deborah Adams: Jesus Creek Mysteries 

Lydia Adamson: Lucy Wayles Series

Jenna Bennett: Art Crime Team (ACT) Series (Annika Holst, Librarian)

Claudia Bishop: Hemlock Falls Series 

Lawrence Block: The Burglar in the Library

Lillian Jackson Braun: The Cat Who Series 

Allison Brook: Haunted Library Mystery Series 

Elizabeth Kane Buzzelli: Little Library Mystery Series

B.B. Cantwell: Portland Bookmobile Mystery Series 

Elizabeth Lynn Casey: Southern Sewing Circle Mystery Series 

Laurie Cass: Bookmobile Cat Mystery Series

Genevieve Cogman: The Invistible Library

Elizabeth Spann Craig: Village Library Mystery Series

Shirley Damsgaard: Ophelia & Abby Series

Holly Danvers: Lakeside Library Mystery Series

Debbie De Louise: Cobble Cove Mystery Series

Jo Dereske: Miss Zukas mysteries

Laramee Douglas: Death in Culcinea

Umberto Eco: The Name of the Rose 

Jasper Fforde: Thursday Next Series

Amanda Flower: India Hayes Mystery Series 

Eva Gates: Lighthouse Library Mystery Series 

Victoria Gilbert: Blue Ridge Library Mystery Series 

Jeanne Glidewell: Lexie Starr Mystery Series 

Charles A. Goodrum: Dr. Edward George Series

Charlaine Harris: Aurora Teagarden Series

Zana Hart: Curious Librarian Cozy Mystery Series

Patricia Harwin: Catherine Penny/Far Wychwood series

Marion Moore Hill: Scrappy Librarian Mystery series

M. E. Hilliard: The Greer Hogan Series

Miranda James: Cat in the Stacks Series

Emma Jameson: Jemima Jago Mystery Series

Sofie Kelly: Magical Cats Mystery Series 

Nicholas Kilmer: Fred Taylor Art Collecting Series (Partner Molly Riley, Librarian)

Mary Lou Kirwin: Killer Librarian Mystery Series

Patricia Kirwin: Far Wychwood Mysteries

Nathan Larson: Dewey Decimal

Con Lehane: The 42nd Street Library Series

Amy Lilly: Ophelia "Phee" Jefferson Series

Ellen Jacobson: The North Dakota Library Series

Jess Lourey: Murder-by-the-Month Series

T.J. MacGregor: Alex Kincaid series

Charlotte MacLeod: Helen Marsh Shandy, Peter Shandy's wife, in the Balaclava series 

Olivia Matthews: Peach Coast Library Mystery Series

Jenn McKinlay: Library Lovers Mystery series

D.R. Meredith: Murder by the Yard series

Miriam Grace Monfredo: Seneca Falls Historical Mystery Series

Kate Morgan: Dewey James

Elizabeth Peters: Jacqueline Kirby series

Shirley Rousseau Murphy: Joe Grey Cat Series (Dulcie, the library cat)

Nora Page: Bookmobile Mystery Series

Meg Perry: Jamie Brodie Series

Ralp;h Raab: Biblio Files Trilogy

R.T. Raichev: Antonia Darcy Series

Nanci Rathbun: Angelina Bonaparte Series

Ian Sansom: Mobile Library Mystery Series

Angela Sanders: Witch Way Librarian Series

Sheila Simonson: Latouche County mysteries

J.B. Stanley: The Supper Club Mystery Series

Susan Steiner: Library, No Murder Aloud

Fran Stewart: Biscuit McKee Mysteries

Dorothy St. James: Beloved Bookroom Series

Emily Thomas: Secrets of Blue Hill Library Series

Judith Van Gieson: Claire Reynier Series (University of New Mexico Rare Books Librarian)

Gayle Wigglesworth: Claire Gulliver Mystery Series

Marty Wingate: First Edition Library Mystery Series

Eric Wright: Lucy Trimble Brenner Series

Sally S. Wright: Ben Reese Series

Non-fiction favorite: Susan Orlean's The Library Book

Other Non-Fiction:

Kathy Lee Peiss: Information Hunters; When Librarians, Soldiers, and Spies Banded Together in World War II Europe
***

Librarians who write mysteries: Check out Robert Lopresti's article on SleuthSayers. You'll be surprised!

Writing Magic Without Breaking the Spell: Guest Post by Gigi Pandian

During the Golden Age of detective fiction in the 1920s and 30s, fair-play puzzle plots gave readers all the clues they needed to solve the mystery. It was common to see a stage magician as the sleuth or other prominent character. Why? Because magicians use misdirection to create seemingly impossible illusions, so they’re the perfect characters to see through baffling puzzles. 

I adore those classic mysteries, and my favorites were the locked-room mysteries by authors like John Dickson Carr and Clayton Rawson, where the crime looks truly impossible. Their books and stories inspired me to try my hand at writing my own impossible crime puzzles—with a stage magician sleuth, of course.

Tempest Raj is a stage illusionist creating grand illusions on the stage, until her career is sabotaged and she’s forced to move home to work for the family business, Secret Staircase Construction. Now she creates a different type of illusion, building “magic” into people’s homes through sliding bookcases that lead to hidden libraries or sconces that reveal secrets when lifted. The sleight-of-hand methods might be different, but the idea behind the illusions are the same. Misdirection. While your attention is held elsewhere, you miss the mechanism creating magic. 

Just like I love magicians in mystery fiction, I love a well-crafted stage show, and I’ve learned a great deal about stage magic. But when I started writing novels about a magician character, I had to walk a fine line: I wanted to write authentically about magic without revealing trade secrets and I wanted to play fair with the reader, so they’d feel they’d read a satisfying mystery when all was revealed at the end. 

As I learned more about magic, I had my answer: Crimes in mystery fiction that look similar can have many different methods. The same is true of the illusions of a stage magician. When you see a trick performed, there are often multiple methods that could have been used to perform what looks to the audience like the same illusion. Therefore, I could use the methods of an illusionist to think about constructing Tempest’s acts as well as the illusions of the culprits in the Secret Staircase Mysteries—with my own methods I’d worked out for both Tempest’s illusions and the puzzle at the heart of the mystery. 

One more similarity between mystery fiction and magic: As with a novel, a key ingredient of stage magic is to tell a story. If a magician simply walks on stage and makes their assistant vanish, that’s not very interesting. But if there’s a story behind why a that person is vanishing, such as centuries-old curse that’s come to claim a victim, the illusion immediately becomes ten times more captivating. 

In my latest novel, The Library Game, Secret Staircase Construction is converting a charming old house into a community library devoted to classic detective fiction—until there’s a seemingly impossible murder in the library, the body vanishes, and a dead man with a connection to the house is heard calling for help. It’s like something right out of a magic act. It’s a good thing Tempest Raj is there.

 ***

Gigi Pandian is a USA Today bestselling author and locked-room mystery enthusiast who’s been awarded Agatha, Anthony, Lefty, and Derringer awards, and been a finalist for the Edgar. She writes the Secret Staircase mysteries, the Accidental Alchemist mysteries, and the Jaya Jones Treasure Hunt mysteries. Gigi lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and a gargoyle who watches over the backyard garden. Her new Secret Staircase mystery, The Library Game, was published in March 2025. Connect with Gigi and sign up for her email newsletter at www.gigipandian.com

 

KERRY GREENWOOD: R.I.P.

Sad news. Australian Kerry Greenwood, author of the Phyrne Fisher mysteries, died on March 26, at the age of 70. I really enjoyed all of her books. She will be missed. 

Kerry Greenwood published the first Phryne Fisher novel, Cocaine Blues, in 1989 and went on to write 22 novels featuring the glamorous 1920s detective. An adaptation of the series, Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries (2012), starred Essie Davis in the lead role and ran for three seasons.

Kerry Greenwood, who was also known for the Corinna Chapman mysteries, was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in 2020.

Alongside her career as a professional writer, Greenwood worked as a legal aid solicitor in Melbourne, Australia.

From ABC Australia:
A new Phryne Fisher novel in the works. Greenwood's latest novel, Murder in the Cathedral — number 23 in the Phryne Fisher series — is due out late in 2025.
On March 18, in her last Facebook post, Greenwood shared an update about the forthcoming book.
"Murder in the Cathedral (the newest Phryne) is undergoing transformation from an extensively edited Word file into proper pages. This is a slow process, involving mysterious alchemy, scattering of rose petals, muttered incantations and the like, but it progresses," she wrote.

Fingerprint Award Shortlists: Capital Crime Festival

London’s Capital Crime Festival announced the Shortlists for the Fingerprint Awards. Here are two categories of interest to mystery readers.

Overall Best Crime Book of the Year:
• Murder on Lake Garda, by Tom Hindle (Century)
• All the Colours of the Dark, by Chris Whitaker (Orion)
• Midnight and Blue, by Ian Rankin (Orion)
• The Mercy Chair, by M.W. Craven (Constable)
• Nightwatching, by Tracey Sierra (Viking)

Thriller Book of the Year:
• One Perfect Couple, by Ruth Ware (Simon & Schuster UK)
• A Violent Heart, by David Fennell (Zaffre)
• The Woman on the Ledge, by Ruth Mancini (Century)
• Hunted, by Abir Mukherjee (Harvill Secker)
• The Missing Family, by Tim Weaver (Michael Joseph)

The full 2025 Fingerprint Award are here. 

Readers can vote at this link from now through Saturday, May 31. 

Winners will be announced at the Capital Crime Festival in London on Thursday, June 12.

HT: The Rap Sheet

MEMORIES #1

 

GRANTCHESTER, Season 10

Grantchester returns to MASTERPIECE Mystery! on PBS with Season 10!
 
As DI Geordie Keating (Robson Green) and Reverend Alphy Kottaram (Rishi Nair) continue to work together as a crime-solving duo in scenic Grantchester, they must also support each other through changing times, family struggles, and personal secrets. This season, Alphy feels like he’s found a home, but is forced to confront secrets he’s kept close to his chest. Will he be able to let anyone fully in, or must he confront truths about himself first?
 
Season 10 of Grantchester premieres on Sunday, June 15 at 9/8c. The eight-episode season will also be available to stream on the PBS app, PBS.org, and with PBS MASTERPIECE on Prime Video.

  

Cartoon of the Day: Cats

 

Short Mystery Fiction Society 2025 Derringer Award Finalists

The 2025 Short Mystery Fiction Society Derringer Award Finalists. Named after the popular pocket pistol, this award recognizes outstanding stories published during 2024. Results of membership voting are scheduled to be posted on May 1, 2025.
 
FLASH
 
Sweet Red Cherries by C.W. Blackwell
(Punk Noir Magazine, November 28, 2024)
 
Mob Mentality by James Patrick Focarile
(Shotgun Honey, June 20, 2024)
 
La Petite Mort by Susan Hatters Friedman
(Bristol Noir, February 16, 2024)
 
Kargin the Necromancer by Mike McHone
(Mystery Tribune, December 15, 2024)
 
Lockerbie, 1988 by Mary Thorson
(Cotton Xenomorph, October 13, 2024)
 
 
SHORT STORY 
 
"Skeeter's Bar and Grill" by Julie Hastrup
(Larceny & Last Chances: 22 Stories of Mystery & Suspense, Superior Shores Press)
 
"The Wind Phone" by Josh Pachter
(Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, September/October 2024)
 
"The Heist" by Bill Pronzini
(Shamus and Anthony Commit Capers: Ten Tales of Criminals, Crooks, and Culprits, Level Best Books)
 
"The Last Chance Coalition" by Judy Penz Sheluk
(Larceny & Last Chances: 22 Stories of Mystery & Suspense, Superior Shores Press)
 
"The Kratz Gambit" by Mark Thielman
(Private Dicks and Disco Balls: Private Eyes in the Dyn-O-Mite Seventies, Down & Out Books)
 
LONG STORY
 
"How Mary’s Garden Grew" by Elizabeth Elwood
(Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, January/February 2024)
 
"Heart of Darkness" by Tammy Euliano
(Scattered, Smothered, Covered & Chunked: Crime Fiction Inspired by Waffle House, Down & Out Books)
 
"Putting Things Right" by Peter W. J. Hayes
(Thrill Ride - The Magazine, December 21, 2024)
 
"Motive Factor X" by Joseph Andre Thomas
(Howls from the Scene of the Crime: A Crime Horror Anthology, Howl Society Press)
 
"Cold Comfort" by Andrew Welsh-Huggins
(Private Dicks and Disco Balls: Private Eyes in the Dyn-O-Mite Seventies, Down & Out Books)
  
NOVELETTE
 
"A Band of Scheming Women" by Joslyn Chase
(Thrill Ride - The Magazine, March 21, 2024)
 
"Christmas Dinner" by Robert Lopresti
(Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, November/December 2024)
 
"Barracuda Backfire" by Tom Milani
(Chop Shop Episode 4, Down & Out Books, April 1, 2024)
 
"Her Dangerously Clever Hands" by Karen Odden
(Crimeucopia - Through the Past Darkly, Murderous Ink Press)
 
"The Cadillac Job" by Stacy Woodson
(Chop Shop Episode 1, Down & Out Books, January 1, 2024

ANTHOLOGY

(Previously Announced)

Devil's Snare: Best New England Crime Stories 2024

Edited by Susan Oleksiw, Ang Pompano, Leslie Wheeler, Crime Spell Books

Friend of the Devil: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of the Grateful Dead

Edited by Josh Pachter, Down & Out Books

Larceny & Last Chances: 22 Stories of Mystery & Suspense

Edited by Judy Penz Sheluk, Superior Shores Press

Murder, Neat: A SleuthSayers Anthology

Edited by Michael Bracken and Barb Goffman, Level Best Books

New York State of Crime: Murder New York Style 6

Edited by D.M. Barr and Joseph R.G. De Marco, Down & Out Books

The 13th Letter

Edited by Donna Carrick, Carrick Publishing

APRIL FOOL'S DAY CRIME FICTION // APRIL FOOL'S DAY MYSTERIES

April Fool's Day Mysteries: I love any chance to celebrate a 'holiday,' so even April Fool's Day fits the bill! Here's a short list full of foolish and not so foolish crime fiction that takes place on and around April Fool's Day! As always, let me know if I've forgotten a title!

The first of April, some do say,
Is set apart for All Fools' Day.
But why the people call it so,
Nor I, nor they themselves do know.
But on this day are people sent
On purpose for pure merriment.

--Poor Robin's Almanac, 1790 
 
APRIL FOOL'S DAY CRIME FICTION

The Marsh Madness by Victoria Abbott
Maple Fools' Day by Virginia K. Bennett

The Case of the April Fools by Christopher Bush
April's Fool by Edna May Ciesclwicz 
A Body on April Fool's Day by Steve Demaree

April Fool by William Deverell 
The April Fool by Robert J. Fields
April Fool's Day by John Greenwood
April Fools’ Day Murder by Lee Harris
April Fool Dead by Carolyn Hart 
A Remarkable Case of Burglary by H. R. F. Keating
April Fools by Jess Loury
The Confidence Man by Herman Melville
April Fool’s Day A Novel by Josip Novakovich (not quite a mystery but with mystery elements)
The Cruelest Month by Louise Penny
April Fool's Day by Jeff Rovin

Short Stories:
The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Vol. 3: The April Fool’s Day Adventure and The Strange Adventure of the Uneasy Easy Chair by Anthony Boucher and Denis Green.

Children's:  
April Fool's Day by Carolyn Keene (Book #19 of Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew)

Meg Mackintosh and The April Fools' Day Mystery by Lucinda Landon

The April Fool's Day Mystery by Marion M. Markham,  illustrated by Pau Estrada