First in the charming Blue Ridge Library Mysteries comes this introductory tale, setting up the characters and locale. Amy Webber works in a Carnegie library that is now in need of roofing and wiring but has a small-town budget. A MURDER FOR THE BOOKS is set in Taylorford, a historic Virginia town. Amy used to work in a university library but felt embarrassed when her distinguished boyfriend was caught cheating. Sadly the lady is the one who leaves in these circumstances. Now her eyes are opened, Amy reflects that the man was a controlling pompous type, and she decides never to get involved with an arts man again. So when Richard Muir, a performing artist, arrives in her library, she's sure she's not going that direction, however available he is.

The mystery isn't long in arriving. Richard wants to look up local archives about a family tragedy, but in the archive room, a library volunteer is lying dead. The elderly lady, Doris Virts, had been wandering in her mind lately and had taken to thinking she was being followed. By the looks of it, maybe everyone should have believed her.

Amy demonstrates the complexities of archival research to Richard, hunting up the owner of a brooch, and he enlists her aid to rediscover his ancestors. This does slow down the tale but displays the skills required of an amateur sleuth. After Amy and her trendy assistant librarian Sunny Fields have a run-in with Doris Virts' son, an investor in a contentious housing project, Amy gets more involved in tracing the killer and motive. Expect much talk of family backgrounds and past tragedies. The action really picks up in the later chapters, tying the tale together.

Not for the first time, I found myself thinking that a great deal of time and money could be saved if public buildings all had CCTV inside and out, as they do in many cities. The same applies when a house is burgled. As more crimes pile up in a town unaccustomed to lawbreaking, tensions rise and the elderly feel unsafe. Amy, just in her early thirties, admits to feeling insecure and keeps comparing the nice Richard with her past beau. She also has body image issues and wonders if her curvy figure is offputting. Women do tend to ponder relationships more deeply than men. Victoria Gilbert who was raised in the Blue Ridge Mountains has qualified in arts and library science, providing the expertise needed to write this excellent mystery A MURDER FOR THE BOOKS. While a lot of the tale does relate to books and records, we spend time outdoors in the natural environment too.

Book Summary

Fleeing a disastrous love affair, university librarian Amy Webber moves in with her aunt in a quiet, historic mountain town in Virginia. She quickly busies herself with managing a charming public library that requires all her attention with its severe lack of funds and overabundance of eccentric patrons. The last thing she needs is a new, available neighbor whose charm lures her into trouble.

Dancer-turned-teacher and choreographer Richard Muir inherited the farmhouse next door from his great-uncle, Paul Dassin. But town folklore claims the house’s original owner was poisoned by his wife, who was an outsider. It quickly became water under the bridge, until she vanished after her sensational 1925 murder trial. Determined to clear the name of the woman his great-uncle loved, Richard implores Amy to help him investigate the case. Amy is skeptical until their research raises questions about the culpability of the town’s leading families... including her own.

When inexplicable murders plunge the quiet town into chaos, Amy and Richard must crack open the books to reveal a cruel conspiracy and lay a turbulent past to rest in A Murder for the Books, the first installment of Victoria Gilbert’s Blue Ridge Library mysteries.