Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

A past disappearance may provide the impetus for a current murder in Taylorsford, Virginia. In the time she’s not spending wrangling her 6-year-old twins, Taylorsford Library director Amy Muir is busy with an arts festival and the premiere performance of her husband Richard’s new dance company. The Friends of the Library association has invited true-crime author Maureen Dryden to speak at their book sale; her best-known book claims to have solved the still officially unsolved murder of a woman named Beverly Baron. Maureen is accompanied to town by her assistant, Sean Gordon, along with Terrell Temkin and Mindy LaSalle, podcasters collaborating on her new book, an anthology of cold cases including the disappearance of low-level drug dealer Edward Jaffe from the Taylorsford area. She tells her audience that her research has turned up a couple of names—Delbert Frye and Karl Klass—and asks whether anyone knows them. That request will have fatal consequences. Frye is a recluse who still lives in the area, and Klass, a former drug dealer, has transformed himself into wealthy art dealer Kurt Kendrick. Kurt is a friend of the Muirs and Amy’s Aunt Lydia, whose first husband, a famous artist, was Kurt’s close friend in their youth. When Maureen is found dead in her hotel room, the sheriff, suspecting that her death may be connected to the cold case, asks Amy to research Jaffe. Maureen’s book on the Baron murder accused a man named Allen Cardullo, who then died by suicide, opening the possibility of a revenge killing. Amy’s investigation leads to threatening notes and reveals unwelcome connections to her own family. Given all those motives and possible killers, the librarian’s research is the key to solving the case. Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Library Journal
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Gilbert's latest "Blue Ridge Library Mystery" (after Death in the Margins) opens in the summer, an idyllic time in the Blue Ridge Mountains. As always, library director Amy Muir has a full plate, and to add to the excitement, her husband Richard is debuting a new dance piece. But murder takes no vacations, and when a man is found brutally killed, the prime suspect is a close friend of Amy's family. At the request of Sheriff Brad Tucker, Amy begins to research possible links between the murder victim and a cold case of many years' standing. It becomes apparent that someone doesn't want the information found. Injuries, kidnapping and a convoluted trail will finally lead to an answer—but it may not be one that those involved want to hear. VERDICT A perfect cozy mystery, from the setting and characters to the pacing and plot development. Readers may prefer to start with book one, but this installment has enough background that it could be read independently; of course, readers might then want to go back to find the earlier entries.—Pam O'Sullivan