4 out of 5 stars.
Twelve Angry Librarians is the latest installment in the Cat in the Stacks mystery series by Miranda James. I enjoyed it and I enjoyed visiting characters I love again, but this one didn’t hold my attention as well as some of the others in the series.
Purchase Links: Amazon – B&N – Kobo
Brief Synopsis
Charlie is stressed out. The Southern Academic Libraries Association is holding this year’s annual meeting at Athena College. Since Charlie is the interim library director, he must deliver the welcome speech to all the visiting librarians. And as if that weren’t bad enough, the keynote address will be delivered by Charlie’s old nemesis from library school.
It’s been thirty years since Charlie has seen Gavin Fong, and he’s still an insufferable know-it-all capable of getting under everyone’s skin. In his keynote, Gavin puts forth a most unpopular opinion: that degreed librarians will be obsolete in the academic libraries of the future. So when Gavin drops dead, no one seems too upset…
But Charlie, who was seen having a heated argument with Gavin the day before, has jumped to the top of the suspect list. Now Charlie and Diesel must check out every clue to refine their search for the real killer among them before the next book Charlie reads comes from a prison library…
Review
As I stated above, while I enjoyed this latest installment to a point, it didn’t hold my attention as well as previous books in the series. I’ve always been eager to read the new book and devoured it quickly. This one, I actually set aside for a few weeks after starting it (because I had other books to read for blog tours) and then went back to it. I don’t know why it wasn’t holding my attention as well, it just didn’t.
It was still a lovely visit with favorite characters – Charlie, Diesel, Helen Louise, Stewart & Haskell, etc. I’ve enjoyed these characters throughout the series and it’s always fun to visit them in a new book. These are complex characters and many are at a crossroads in their lives in this book (I’m not saying anything more because I don’t want to spoil the book for you!).
I suppose it’s possible that this one wasn’t as riveting for me because while we were still in Athena, the plot centered around a library convention being held so there were more “strangers” and less of our favorite characters.
I did thoroughly enjoy the plot twist that occurred. I certainly did not see that coming! Karma really is a bitch. Again, I don’t want to spoil anything so that’s all I’m going to say about that!
I do recommend this book, especially if you’re already a fan of the series. If you haven’t read the series before, I highly suggest you start at the beginning with Murder Past Due. While the mysteries themselves stand alone, Charlie’s life does change quite a bit during the course of the series and you’ll understand it all better if you start at the beginning!
About the Author – Miranda James
I am a native of Mississippi and recently returned to live in Jackson after spending thirty-three years in Houston, Texas. I have loved mysteries since I discovered Nancy Drew at the age of ten. At twelve or thirteen I wrote a mystery and even submitted it to a publisher — and promptly received a form rejection letter. That dashed my hopes for a writing career for a while, but I went back to writing mysteries while I was in graduate school in Rice. My first published adult mystery was actually the second one I wrote: CRUEL AS THE GRAVE was published in 2000.
Since then I have published twenty additional mysteries, the latest of which is TWELVE ANGRY LIBRARIANS, the eighth in the Cat in the Stacks series. In my day-to-day life I am a librarian like Charlie (except my specialty is medical libraries) and I have two cats, neither of whom is a Maine Coon. I love reading and writing mysteries and taking care of two spoiled cats (that’s probably redundant–all cats are spoiled because they generally accept no less). I write mysteries to entertain readers and help them relax and get away from the pressures of daily life. That’s why I read them myself.
Valerie's Musings 