CHECKING OUT CRIME

A crime-seeking Michigan bookmobile driver pairs with an equally curious friend to find a killer in an attempt to distract herself from her fiance’s jewelry shortfall.

While trying to recruit her fellow library employees to share in the work and love of her bookmobile project, Minnie Hamilton sees a speeding car driving erratically and knows there must be trouble since little Chilson isn’t known for daredevil drivers. Things go from suspicious to terrible when the driver apparently hits a cyclist in the path. The poor man dies in spite of Minnie’s best efforts at CPR, and Minnie feels a responsibility to figure out what happened, especially when she learns that the dead man, Brown Bernier, was a friend of her fiance, Rafe Niswander. Anyone who’s a friend of Rafe’s at least deserves a solid murder investigation. The detectives on the case feel confident they’ll find the killer, but a chance meeting between Minnie and Detective Hal Inwood’s wife, Tabitha, leads the two women to form a dream team to solve Brown’s murder themselves, ably assisted by Eddie, Minnie’s rescue cat. Meanwhile, Minnie has another mystery to solve: Why hasn’t Rafe given her a ring? Minnie, not usually the type to go gaga over jewelry, can only hope the lack of bling isn’t indicative of some greater lack. Digging into Brown’s murder with Tabitha is the perfect excuse to keep her from obsessing over whether something more is wrong between her and Rafe.

A cozy whose main distinction is that the dead guy’s a sweetie, not a baddie.