WORD TO THE WISE

A librarian and her friends must solve a murder to ensure that she’ll live long enough to get married.

Lindsey Norris and her fiance, Capt. Mike Sullivan, are planning a small wedding on one of the Thumb Islands near the town of Briar Creek, Connecticut, where Lindsey is the library director and Sully runs a charter boat business (Hitting the Books, 2018, etc.). All Lindsey’s plans are jeopardized by an innocuous middle-aged man who turns up at the library seeking information on roses. New to the area, Aaron Grady fears that his rose garden won’t survive the drought that’s searing the area. In response to Lindsey’s assistance, Grady sends her a thank-you note. Then he turns up with a bunch of roses, waiting two hours and quizzing the staff, who all agree that he seems unnaturally fixated on her. When Grady turns up at her house with more roses, she firmly tells him their relationship is limited to that of a librarian and a library patron. Apparently shocked, he leaves her, her friend Beth, and Beth’s husband, Aidan, whom she called before opening the door, to explain to an annoyed Sully what’s been going on. Grady continues to stalk Lindsey, even watching her try on wedding dresses. Sully and Robbie Vine, an actor who knows a thing or two about stalkers, teach the library staff some self-defense moves, and Robbie’s girlfriend, police chief Emma Plewicki, adds a few tips, but nobody can stop Grady from making Lindsey’s life hell. The stalking ends only when Grady turns up dead outside the library, leaving Lindsey and Sully prime suspects. Grady’s wife, Sylvia, accuses Lindsey of trying to steal her husband and Sully of murdering him. It will take all the research skills of Lindsey and her staff to uncover the real motive for the murder.

A fast-paced mystery that provides a chilling look at how difficult it is to get rid of a stalker.