LONG OVERDUE AT THE LAKESIDE LIBRARY

When her best friend’s husband is accused of murder, a small-town librarian eager to clear his name struggles to keep her friend’s help from getting in the way.

Back in the Wisconsin lakeside town of Lofty Pines to run her family’s library after her misadventures in love and life, Rain Wilmot is starting to feel at home again. She’s glad to spend time with her close friend Julia and Julia’s brother, Jace (a potential romantic partner), and she loves helping locals with library finds—for example, getting Wallace Benson the perfect cookbook when he shows up looking for something for the annual Ice Fishing Jamboree’s chili dump. Rain is no ice fisher, and she’s never met Wallace before, but his enthusiasm is contagious, and she feels a connection with him. Even so, she senses that something’s off; maybe Wallace is going through some sort of transition she never finds a way to ask about. At the jamboree, Rain warms up in Julia and her husband Nick’s tent, and she and Julia are happily chatting while Nick ducks out to prepare for the ice fishing. Moments after he returns with a cut on his hand, a strange woman runs up to him and accuses him of murder. Rain, Julia, and Nick are shocked: What murder? Soon enough, Jace arrives in his official capacity as a police officer. The woman accusing Nick is the wife of Wallace, who’s been killed in his neighboring ice shanty. Jace can’t offer his brother-in-law much help, and Nick is soon the prime suspect. Rain wants to help clear his name, and Julia wants to be part of the effort, but her continued interference threatens to derail Rain’s mission.

Interest in an ice fishing jamboree may be a prerequisite.