AUGUST MOON
by Jess Lourey
A sweltering summer that would make most Minnesota librarians grateful for their climate control brings several dangerous cases to an amateur sleuth who just can’t stick to the stacks.
Her budding romance with Johnny Leeson (Knee High by the Fourth of July, 2007, etc.) ending when he leaves town for a temporary job, Mira James, fed up with her small town, plans to quit her job as Battle Lake’s librarian and move back to Minneapolis. Before she can pack her card catalogs, however, a local girl is murdered, and Mira’s incorrigible curiosity leads her to investigate her possible connection to the newest arrivals in town, Pastor Meale, his wheelchair-bound wife and their attractive, sneaky teenaged daughter. The pastor’s beliefs are anathema to free-thinking Mira, and when her in-training replacement and the town sheriff are drawn into Meale’s ultra-conservative bible camp, she’s spurred to dig some dirt on the smarmy pastor. The disappearance of another girl adds urgency to her search. As in so many cases, her not-entirely-professional research shows that the answer lies in the past.
Another amusing tale set in the town full of over-the-top zanies who’ve endeared themselves to the engaging Mira.