I like obscure pieces of information. I can sing the theme songs to Bonanza and The Big Bang Theory. I know what time the local landfill closes. I can quote Dylan Thomas, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Shakespeare. But there are many, many things I don’t know and that’s where librarians come in. The reference librarians at my local public library and at the nearby university library consistently make me look smarter than I am. I’ve learned about the formation of caves from a librarian, about tracing the provenance of a piece of art and how paper is made. I’ve had conversations about unified field theory and sourdough starter.
I have yet to be able to come up with a query that a librarian wasn’t able to answer. That’s not really a surprise. Librarians are well-educated women and men with excellent research skills and—at least in my experience—an innate desire to figure things out. The librarians I’ve worked with seem to know a wide variety of people, from staff in the museum archives to scientists at the research council to up and coming local musicians.
So I wasn’t surprised when recently a reader shared that she likes mysteries with a librarian as the main character because it just seems more realistic to her that a librarian could actually be successful as an amateur sleuth. I agree. I also took that comment as a compliment. In my Magical Cats Mysteries Kathleen Paulson is the head librarian at the Mayville Heights Free Public Library and she’s gotten tangled up in more than one mystery in her small Minnesota town. She’s smart, resourceful and compassionate. Is it any wonder people tell her things they don’t tell the police? In the most recent book, Furever After, Kathleen is trying to figure out how a valuable piece of artwork ended up hanging in her library and how it’s tied to the murder of an old nemesis. When I wanted to learn more about art heists, as usual, I headed for the library.
Kathleen isn’t the only literary librarian who gets mixed up in murder. Here are seven “librarian sleuths” you might enjoy.
Minnie Hamilton in the Bookmobile Cat Mysteries by Laurie Cass
Minnie and her rescue cat, Eddie, travel around Chilson, Michigan in the bookmobile. (A job I wanted for a while when I was a kid.) Minnie cares about the people in her community and it makes sense that she’d get involved when something bad happens. She’s also clever and perceptive. And Eddie makes a great sidekick.
Start with Lending a Paw.
Jane Hunter in the Hunter and Clewe Mysteries by Victoria Gilbert
Former university librarian Jane Hunter has been forced into early retirement. Eccentric Cameron Clewe is looking for an archivist—his own personal librarian—to inventory his collection of rare books. Jane is hired and discovers a body in her new boss’s library. Now the collector and the librarian are working to catch a killer. I love the way Gilbert takes the classic mystery tropes and updates them.
Start with A Cryptic Clue.
Sylvia Ashe in the Glass Library series by C. J. Archer
This series is a mix of historical mystery and fantasy set in England in the 1920s.
Librarian Sylvia Ashe not only learns she may be descended from magicians, she finds herself with a new job in the Glass Library, thanks to Gabe Glass, a consultant for Scotland Yard. The library holds the world’s greatest collection of books about magic. As Sylvia searches for answers about who she is, she also gets pulled into Gabe’s cases.
Start with The Librarian of Crooked Lane
Ann Beckett in the Village Library Mysteries by Elizabeth Spann Craig
Set in the small town of Whitby, North Carolina, this series offers the charm of a small town, quirky supporting characters and a smart, resourceful amateur sleuth in librarian Ann Beckett. (And yes, there’s a cat.)
Start with Checked Out.
Jemima Jago in the Jemina Jago Mysteries by Emma Jameson
I have a soft spot for British cozy mysteries. This series is set on the fictional island of St. Morwenna, in the Isles of Scilly just off the coast of Cornwall. When librarian Jemima Jago left the island years ago she promised herself she’d never come back. Never say never. Jem has a knack for finding out information no one else can and I love the descriptions of St. Morwenna, modelled after the real St. Agnes in the Isles of Scilly.
Start with A Death at Seascape House.
Rain Wilmot in The Lakeside Library Mysteries by Holly Danvers
I may be stretching the definition of librarian just a little with this series. Rain Wilmot comes home to Lofty Pines, Wisconsin after the death of her husband, ends up reopening the informal library her mother used to operate out of the family’s log cabin, and very rapidly gets mixed up in murder. The books are as much about friendship and family as they are about catching a killer.
Start with Murder at the Lakeside Library.
The Bookmobile Mysteries by Nora Page
Librarian Cleo Watkins is 75 years old and still very good at her job. She believes in good books, good manners and sweet tea. And how could you not like a character who drives a bookmobile named Words on Wheels and has a cat called Rhett Butler? Unfortunately, there are only three books in this series.
Start with Better Off Read.
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