6 Crime Fiction Books Set in Libraries
Libraries are usually known as safe havens. Unfortunately, some nefarious deeds happen between the stacks in these crime-fiction reads. If you’d read just about anything set in a library or book shop, you have to “check out” the books on this list.
The Boston Public Library is a beautiful building with an incredible reading room, that is, until a scream breaks through everyone’s silent reading. Four strangers who sat at the same table before their days were interrupted become fast friends while they wait for security to determine the threat and the cause of the scream. As they try to try to discover what happened, they slowly realize that they don’t know each other as well as they think. Everyone at the table has something to hide and a reason for being in the reading room. What if one of those reasons happened to be murder? Sulari Gentill expertly weaves the plot of the library crime with chilling layers of tangled friendships that prove how deadly words can be.
Agatha Christie never disappoints; her chilling murder mysteries keep you guessing until the very end. The Body in the Library is, of course, no exception, as you join Miss Marple on yet another closed-door mystery adventure. What would you do if you found the body of a woman wearing elegant evening wear and a full face of smeared makeup on the floor of the library in your home? Well, the Bantrys ask Miss Marple to help solve the crime for the young woman and their reputation. Things only get more complicated when another body, this one charred, is found at the bottom of a quarry. Can Miss Marple catch the killer before Mr. Bantry is called into question and the worst is assumed? This is the second published book in the Miss Marple series, but the books can be read in any order.
Everyone comes to Miracle Springs for healing of some kind. Whether it’s the hot springs and spa, the bakery with comfort food and pastries, or Nora’s little bookshop, most people find something they need. Nora runs Miracle Books and she’s got a little magic of her own. She knows the exact right book a person needs to read to feel better. And she’s not the only one with a unique gift for helping those in pain. So when a businessman misses his appointment at the bookshop and is later found dead on the train tracks, Nora doesn’t know what to think. She forms the Secret, Book, & Scone Society with three other women in town, determined to find out what happened.
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Carolyn used to be normal, and in some ways she still is. She likes things other people like, and she knows things other people know, but she also knows a great deal more about things they don’t. Carolyn was normal before her parents died and Father adopted her and the others in his care. Since then, she has not gotten out much due to the strict and strange customs of her caretaker. Carolyn and her adoptive siblings spend their time studying in the library, learning all about Father’s power. They don’t know whether he is a man or a god - and his lessons are often brutal and cruel. But then Father goes missing, and there is no one to control the library or its secrets. Carolyn readies for war against those who seek the library’s power for themselves.
The Body Library is the follow-up to A Man of Shadows in the Nyquist Mysteries series. In it, John travels to Storyville, where imagination truly runs wild as stories and ideas plague the city, words come to life, and fiction becomes reality. When John wakes up in a room with a body—a body that whispers to him—he embarks on a truly unique murder mystery. The clues pull him deeper and deeper into the messy story that even he’s not sure he can untangle.
This is the second installment of the cozy, Regency-era Lily Adler Mystery Series. Widow Lily Adler is finally starting to adjust to life alone in London when her father decides to pay an unexpected visit. Hoping to avoid his overly critical eye, Lily finds herself spending more and more time with Lady Wyatt and her new husband, Sir Charles. While Lily doesn’t know Lady Wyatt very well, she does prefer her company to her father’s. That is until Sir Charles is found dead. While first it appears to be an unfortunate accident, Lily quickly finds evidence that he was murdered.
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Maddie Ehrenreich is an over-caffeinated bookworm dedicated to devouring stories of all shapes and kinds. When she is not reading or writing she enjoys taking her golden retriever for walks around the park.