Better Late Than Never by Jenn McKinlay
When the book opens, the Briar Creek Public Library is having its first “fine amnesty” — that is, overdue books are being allowed to be returned fine-free for a limited time. While Ms. Cole, the grumpy older librarian nicknamed “the Lemon” for always looking like she swallowed one, disapproves, the library is getting a lot of books back that otherwise would be lost so series hero Lindsey Norris is counting the whole thing as a win. The staff are even holding a small contest to see who can find the book that was the most overdue, which new hire Paula seems likely to win with a copy of The Catcher In The Rye that has been missing for twenty years.
Curiosity leads Lindsey to try to find out who the book was checked out to. While at first the name, Candice Whitley, means little to Lindsey, it nearly drives Ms. Cole to faint. It seems that Candice Whitley was a high school teacher who was murdered, by strangulation, the same night she checked out the book. Who would return to book now, and why? Reasoning that it must have been kept by Candice’s killer and probably returned by same, Lindsey takes the book to Police Chief Emma Plewiicki, who is meeting with the Mayor and his assistant about a series of robberies the town has been having. They want Emma to focus on the more recent crimes, but Emma, aware of the whole “no statute of limitations” thing, can’t ignore the more serieus crime. She does not, for once, tell Lindsey to stay out of it — instead she asks for copies of any useful info she finds. Perhaps Emma is catching on?
Suspects there were aplenty: Candice’s boyfriend at the time, younger brother of the Mayor’s right=hand man, and Matthew Mercer, her prize pupil who may have been stalking her and who left town in the wake of the murder, are the two prime suspects, though both had alibis.
Lindsey does her best to find the killer, but will doing so put her in danger?
McKinlay continues to develp this series in good directions. I like all the characters, except maybe Robbie Vine, who keeps goading Lindsey into investigating when she would like to step back and who keeps hitting on her — though she manages to figure out that he would rather be with Emma in this story, which ends that romantic triangle. The mystery makes sense once we have all the pieces, and the locations are well-described. My only complaint is that when LIndsey confrtonts the murderer the danger is ended by what feels like kind of a deus ex machina.
Overall, recemmended, as is the entire series.
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