I have a soft spot for librarian fiction, but a distaste for Gale Cengage Learning, which in addition to the crime of being a library conglomerate responsible for some overpriced electronic resources with crappy interfaces, has published at least one other librarian penned title in its Five Star genre fiction imprint.
Maid of Murder is readable enough, though I found some of the librarian details a little unlikely (the library director and cataloger at work Saturday, July 5? two librarians staffing the ref desk in the summer? don't they have offices?). I did enjoy this bit of bibliophilia:
"I know you're a librarians, but..." He dumped the bag on a metal tabletop with a succession of muffled thuds. Half a dozen paperback books fell out of the bag, some were mathematics texts, but most were mystery and fantasy novels. A half-realized smile played on Mains's lips.
"He's stuck in that cell with nothing to do. With nothing to read. I hoped I could give him some of his books to take his mind off things."
Mains's face broke into a full-fledged smile. "So having nothing to read is the worst punishment you can think of?"
Yeah, mostly.
Oh yeah, the protagonist is India Hayes, an academic librarian who has agreed to serve as one of her childhood best friend's bridesmaids. Olivia, the bride-to-be, gets knocked off and India's brother Mark, who has had an outsize crush on Olivia for years is the only suspect. Both Hayes children have cats, and I developed a bit of a crush on Mark's giant Maine Coon, Theodore, who walks around on a leash.