Cozy Library

It's Simmering Suspense Week at the Castleton Manor literary retreat in Lighthouse Bay, Massachusetts. Librarian Faith Newberry has her hands full with a week of author talks and signings planned. But when the bejeweled guest of honor, reigning queen of romantic suspense Gloria Bauer, clears out her luxurious suite and disappears without a trace, Faith must scramble to keep the manor's other guests - and her cranky boss, Marlene Russell - satisfied with one less author.

October in Taylorsford, Virginia, means it's leaf peeping season, with bright colorful foliage and a delightful fresh crew of tourists attending the annual Heritage Festival, which celebrates local history and arts and crafts. Library director Amy Webber, though, is slightly dreading having to spend two days running a yard sale fundraiser for her library. But during these preparations, when she and her assistant Sunny stumble across a dead body, Amy finds a real reason to be worried.

Spring has sprung in quaint Taylorsford, Virginia, and the mayor has revived the town's long-defunct May Day celebration to boost tourism. As part of the festivities, library director Amy Webber is helping to organize a research project and presentation by a local folklore expert. All seems well at first - but spring takes on a sudden chill when a university student inexplicably vanishes during a bonfire.

After suffering a personal tragedy, Abby Sullivan buys a huge, old seaside mansion she has never even seen, packs up her life in San Francisco, and moves to Holiday Bay Maine, where she is adopted, quite against her will, by a huge Maine Coon Cat named Rufus, a drifter with her own tragic past named Georgia, and a giant dog with an inferiority complex named Ramos. What Abby thought she needed was alone time to heal. What she ended up with was, an inn she never knew she wanted, a cat she couldn't seem to convince to leave, and a new family she'd never be able to live without.

A heat wave grips Cape Cod, but the attendees of the So Noir literary retreat don't allow the hot weather to dampen their enthusiasm. They roam the halls of Castleton Manor in Lighthouse Bay, Massachusetts, wearing trench coats and fedoras, just like their favorite fictional private eyes. Librarian Faith Newberry gets herself in a jam when she agrees to deliver a lecture about the detective code. It's not exactly duck soup to grab the audience's attention, but Watson, her devoted feline companion, listens attentively.

When a murder desecrates the halls of New York City's iconic 42nd Street Library, Raymond Ambler, the library's curator of crime fiction, has a personal interest in solving the crime. But his quest to solve the murder is complicated by personal entanglements involving his friend - or, perhaps, more-than-friend - Adele Morgan. Not only does Adele's relationship with the staffer who was murdered get in the way of Ambler's investigation, but her growing interest in a darkly handsome Islamic scholar disturbs him.