the have-yachts versus the have-nots

Lindsey Norris is concerned about the future of the Briar Creek Library. Local councilman Gideon Trask is wanting to shut her down. He is part of the wealthy who live on the Thumb Islands off the coast of Briar Creek, Connecticut, and they want to lower their property taxes. He’s decided to go after the waste in the budget, and he wants to start with the library.

Lindsey and her fellow librarians know how much they offer the community, and they are determined to keep the doors open. But Lindsey knows that she has to do something to impress the island residents, since they don’t utilize the library services as often as the mainlanders. Her idea: a book boat. It would be like a bookmobile, but on a boat instead of a bus.

She wants to get the wealthier inhabitants of the islands involved with the library, to offset Trask’s campaign to close the library, so she talks three of the more charitable women into making a donation that will cover the costs of the boat. And once it’s up and running, complete with beautiful shelves with watertight doors, Lindsey and Sully head out to take books to the islanders.

The first trip goes pretty well, with several islanders impressed with the boat and checking out books. But when Lindsey and Sully head back out, they find one of their patrons has been murdered. They call the police, but Lindsey knows she has to investigate it herself, or she will be giving Trask and the council another reason to cut the library funding. She understands just how important the library is to the area, from providing children’s story time to a free place for local groups to gather to providing diapers for new parents who need them.

But when another murder happens in the islands, Lindsey loses more support from the council. She will need to fight hard to save the library and to solve the murders, before a killer comes after her too.

Booking for Trouble is book 16 in Jenn McKinlay’s Library Lovers Mystery Series. These mysteries feature Lindsey and her library book club, which includes fellow librarians and friends from town, and they discuss books, eat delicious food, and do crafts. These books celebrate the power of the library and what it can do for its community, even more so in this book, where she literally has to fight to keep the library funded.

I enjoyed Booking for Trouble. I have been a longtime fan of these characters, and I loved the addition of the book boat and the island residents. The mystery was well plotted and interesting. And there are always recipes and crats included at the end of the book, so readers can start their own Crafternoons These books are consistently good and fun to read, and I will always be a fan of Brian Creek Library.

Egalleys for Booking for Trouble were provided by Berkley through NetGalley, with many thanks, but the opinions are mine.