DEATH ON THE SHELF

A librarian must deploy all her sleuthing skills when her dearest friend’s wedding turns deadly.

Carrie Singleton is helping her bestie, Angela Vecchio, negotiate the treacherous shoals of wedding plans. Despite last-minute problems, they manage to make it to the big day with some help from Angela’s cousins Donna and Roxy, even though they aren’t her favorite relatives. The wedding is lovely, but disaster strikes at the reception, where Donna’s physician husband, Aiden, drops dead in the chocolate fountain. Angela’s mother begs Carrie to help find the person who poisoned Aiden, since all the obvious suspects are family members, including Donna; Roxy, who was recently divorced and making a play for Aiden; and Angela’s belligerent brother, Tommy, who was furious when Aiden turned down his request to help finance a movie Tommy wanted to make. On top of those problems, Evelyn, the library ghost, asks for help in tracking down her brother, who deserted his family years ago and whose daughter has been in financial trouble ever since her husband dumped her. Luckily, Carrie’s own life is going smoothly. Her landlord, investigator Dylan Avery, is a highly satisfactory boyfriend. And she’s come to terms with her mother, who’s remarried, and her father, who’s a reformed crook. Does the illegal scheme Carrie unearths at Aiden’s medical practice mean that he was killed for love or money?

Red herrings abound as the pleasing heroine continues her crime-solving avocation.