Trudell Beckett is an old-fashioned librarian. So when the library in her town of Cypress, South Carolina decided to go high tech, by getting rid of the print books in favor of computers and tablets, offering electronic books and magazines instead, she couldn’t help but balk. She rescued as many of the books as she could and set up a secret library in the basement, in a room that was a bomb shelter during World War II. She has friends who volunteer to help, and her cat Dewey keeps watch over the books while Tru works upstairs.
When Trudell is asked to speak about the library to the most elite book club in town, she agrees, if for no other reason than to find out what their meetings are really like. The Arete Society is meeting at Hazel Bailey’s this month, and she is known for her hosting skills. Trudell knows she’s going to see a beautifully decorated home and eat a delicious meal. But as soon as Tru shows up with her good friend Flossie, she can tell that things are not going well. Hazel is frazzled, and when they get inside, they find out why.
The president of the book club is local celebrity Rebecca White. She had been an actress when she was younger, scoring a role on a popular soap opera. But she had retired from acting while she was still young, and she had moved to Cypress. Now she was ruling the book club with an iron fist. As Tru and Flossie make their way into Hazel’s house, they immediately hear Rebecca criticizing Hazel for the food she has clearly spent hours making. Then Rebecca drags Trudell into the living room and makes her help rearrange the furniture to where Rebecca wants it, instead of the cozy space that Hazel had crafted.
Rebecca gives Trudell her final instructions for the living room and then returns to the kitchen. When there is a loud bang, Flossie rolls her wheelchair in to figure out what that was. And when there is a second bang, Tru goes to the kitchen to join her. Flossie tells her friend that the second bang was her, banging her chair into the cabinet. But then Tru notices Rebecca on the floor, surrounded by a broken casserole dish and the upscale macaroni salad Hazel had prepared. Trudell can tell that Rebecca won’t be eating anything, any more. And then Hazel comes back into the kitchen from the back door, where she had been throwing out the dessert she had burned while Rebecca had distracted her.
Trudell can’t figure out who could have killed Rebecca. They were the only ones in the house. Hazel had clearly been really frustrated with Rebecca, but would she kill her? Flossie was one of Tru’s best friends, but she had been trying to get into the book club for five years, and Rebecca was clearly standing in her way. Tru can’t see her killing anyone, and she didn’t think that Flossie could have hit Rebecca hard enough from her wheelchair to kill her. Is it possible that someone snuck in to the house and killed Rebecca while Hazel was outside and Trudell and Flossie were in the living room? Who would do that?
The rest of the book club members show up shortly before the police, so they are taken to the living room to wait to be questioned. There is the mayor’s wife and the head librarian, the new town manager, and special guest Joyce Flowers, who was going to interview Rebecca for her show Ideal Life. And then Jace shows up. Jace is Hazel’s son and Trudell’s boyfriend, but he’s also a police officer. He’s not allowed in the house, so when Tru is able to leave, she takes Jace back to her place. They stay up late talking about the murder and who could have killed Rebecca, and Jace ends up falling asleep on her sofa.
The next morning, on only a couple of hours of sleep, Trudell heads to the library to do her job, but nothing goes right. She’s late, which her boss hates. And then the local start-up Tech Boys are there testing a new robot librarian. But Tru hadn’t been there when all the other librarians had been scanned by the robot, so it thinks Tru is an intruder and corners her in the library. She finally gets free and gets an angry call from her mother. When she had been outrunning the robot, Tru had ignored the calls ad texts she’d gotten. But while talking to her mother, she finds out that no one has seen her father for several days. There is mail piled up at his place, and he doesn’t answer her texts.
Trudell is in a tough place. Jace is begging her to investigate the murder, to show that his mother hadn’t killed Rebecca. Her father is missing. And things are strained at the library, between her secret basement library and the tech gone wild. Will she be able to solve all the mysteries, find her father and solve a murder, to keep everyone she loves happy? Or will she inadvertently get too close to a killer, who wants to take her out of circulation?
A Book Club to Die For is the third book in Dorothy St. James’ Beloved Bookroom Mystery series. These cozy murder mysteries are charming and sweet (aside from the murders, obviously). Trudell and her friends are smart and industrious, and they are upholding the library traditions of the past with their basement library with real books, a card catalog, and cards to check them out. Fans of traditional libraries will enjoy the nostalgia of that, and fans of well-written mysteries will enjoy the plot.
I am a big fan of these mysteries. There is a grace to the writing that makes the reading feel effortless. These are fun characters, and the secret basement library feels a little like an old-fashioned speakeasy. I also loved the contrast with the upscale book club and all the gossip and rumors of those in power in the town. A Book Club to Die For is a great installment to this series. It just gets better and better.
Egalleys for A Book Club to Die For were provided by Berkley Publishing Group through NetGalley, with many thanks.
