OVERDUE OR DIE

A Connecticut librarian, her fiance, and a ghostly friend solve a series of crimes.

Clover Ridge librarian Carrie Singleton’s beloved Great-Aunt Harriet and Great-Uncle Bosco stand in for her distant parents, so she’s anxious when Bosco suffers a heart attack. Her cat, Smoky Joe, and Dylan Avery, her fiance, do their best to cheer her up, but they’re soon overwhelmed by art forgeries, murder, and wedding plans. Dylan, an investigator who recovers stolen art, is off to Chicago to clear out his late great-great-uncle’s apartment and pick up a valuable Terrance Haggerty painting left to him. As the library prepares to open a new wing, Carrie is involved in festivities involving the library board, the staff, council members, and wealthy donors, all of whom often have differing views. The first event in the new wing is interrupted by a septuagenarian named Emily Pierce Fielding, who claims that the building belongs to her. Carrie’s awful night is capped by a call that Dylan’s been attacked and his painting stolen. The evidence leads to a ring of art forgers Dylan and his partner plan to track down. When local businessman Victor Zalinka invites Carrie and Dylan to his magnificent house to pick out artworks from his collection to lend to the library gallery, Dylan immediately recognizes that Victor’s Haggerty is a forgery. The murder of local gallery owner Martha Mallory raises the stakes. Carrie’s friend Evelyn Havers, the ghost who haunts the library, wants Carrie to find the killer of her old friend Martha, who harbored many secrets.

A complex mystery whose many pieces eventually snap into shape.