Shelved Under Murder: A Blue Ridge Library Mystery

Shelved Under Murder by Victoria Gilbert is the second installment in A Blue Ridge Library Mystery series. It is October in Taylorsford, Virginia where Amy Webber, library director, is preparing for the annual Heritage Festival where the library hosts a yard sale table as a fundraiser. They have been busy gathering donations and Sunny Fields, Amy’s perky assistant, got a local artist to donate three paintings. Since Sunny drives a tiny car, Amy and her boyfriend, Richard agree to go with her to acquire and transport the works of art. They arrive to find the artist dead in her studio where she was stabbed with her own palette knife. Chief Deputy Brad Tucker arrive on the scene and his staff finds paintings in a hidden room. Amy, courtesy of her art history background, looks at the paintings and she discerns that they are expert forgeries. Hui “Hugh” Chen, an art expert, arrives in town and Aunt Lydia offers their guest room to him. He uncovers canvases belonging to Andrew Talbot, Aunt Lydia’s deceased husband, in the guest room closet that are replicas of renowned paintings. Had Andrew been involved in forging artwork? Amy delves into the murder and the world of art forgeries. She believes Kurt Kendrick is involved, but will Amy be able to prove he is complicit in the crime? Shelved Under Murder can be read alone. The author summarizes A Murder for the Books and provides background on the main characters. The mystery is complex as it explores the world of art forgeries. Unfortunately, the killer might as well have a neon arrow flashing over his head. I wish the author had made it harder to pinpoint the guilty party. Amy is an interesting main character. She is an intelligent woman with diverse interests. I love the home she lives in with Aunt Lydia. The descriptions of the beautiful Victorian and the town allowed me to visualize the scenes. I enjoyed the scenes where Amy was researching the artwork. We get to learn about resources available. I also liked the scenes with Amy and Sunny interacting with the patrons and helping them with their research requests. Despite what some people may think, libraries along with their librarians hold an important place in our society (a valuable resource). Sunny adds lightness to the story with her cheerful personality and outlook on life. I did feel that there was too much romance in the book. I would have preferred less lovey dovey moments (dating, kissing, thinking about Richard, and more). Shelved Under Murder is nicely written, but I did feel the pace could have been peppier. The long-winded ending wrapped up the mystery and answered all the lingering questions about the crime. My rating for Shelved Under Murder is 3.5 out of 5 stars. Shelved Under Murder is an inviting cozy mystery with congenial characters, lovely setting and a stimulating whodunit.

AudioBook Review: Stars: Overall:3 Narration: 3 Story 3 Be aware that in this, the second installment of the series that there are zany characters and plenty of ‘atmosphere’ that expands past the library proper, and perhaps more importantly, this book is full of information (and spoilers) from the first. So, if you haven’t read the first you don’t HAVE to read this one – but there won’t be any mystery left when you do. That being said, as a sophomore offering in the series, it was a solid effort, wth some truly unexplained and unusual pacing issues that kept the listen more than a bit uneven. In this book, fall has arrived and that means the Harvest Festival – and all of the associated tourism, events and mayhem that one would expect from a small town. Amy and her assistant are busy gathering items for the sale and doing all of those last-minute tasks that have fallen aside – and things are a bit frantic. Only made worse when a local artist is found by Amy, dead in her studio with the apparent weapon being a palette knife. Adding to her discovery is the multiple canvases that contain forgeries of other more well-known paintings – purportedly done by the dead artist. Of course, Taylorsford is not exactly the hub of an international art forgery ring, or is it? A man seen running from the studio before the dead artist was discovered, just how or why the paintings were created and that ever-present question of why this woman, one who kept to herself and worked on her art was murdered? Oh there were so many divergent and diverse threads here – and with Amy’s special knowledge of art history, she’s perfectly placed to help the police answer questions. It’s increasingly important to get to the murderer: people are in danger, including Amy, and the stakes seem to be increasing with each day the crime goes unsolved. With a lack of consistent pacing as mentioned before, and a curiously timed side trip for Amy that pulled everything away from Taylorsford without actual reason, there was a need for some editorial changes and suggestions to both even out the pacing and better incorporate the multiple introductions of characters and their stories (or additional backstories) that did have an unintended result: pulling me from the twists, turns and investigation. Less successful than the first book, but still amusing and clever overall, I’m curious to see where the next story will go, and just how the author’s skills will develop. Narration for this story was provided by Colleen Marlo, a new-to-me narrator- and her work was solid. Characters were distinct and clearly presented, her enthusiasm for the story was clear to hear, and she didn’t over-work emotion or tension to artificially inflate emotion. While I can’t say that her skill in presenting the characters managed to overcome the erratic pacing, she did keep the story moving forward and on track, allowing for each moment to stand on its own, important as an integral part of the story. I received an AudioBook copy of the title from Tantor Audio for purpose of honest review. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own responsibility.

Shelved Under Murder is more complex than most traditional cozies and yet it has a strong traditional feel. I was first drawn to this book when I saw that the main character was a librarian but I came to love all the core characters within the first few pages and continued to love everything about the book. My friends will have a blast with this new series, too.The main characters are not perfect and the unpleasant characters are not all bad. It is great to find depth of development in characters in a cozy mystery. In several areas the book did not go where I expected, but I see that as a plus since the plot was fascinating and well laid out. I believe that Shelved Under Murder will attract readers of all mysteries except thrillers. I was thrilled to receive an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley. It is the first book I have read by Victoria Gilbert but I will be going back to find the first book in the series and watching for future releases. I am excited to share this outstanding novel with friends and other fellow readers.