Read and Gone
About
Agatha Award Nominee: A cache of missing gems brings Carrie Singleton’s larcenous dad back into her life—and only she can clear his name
A devoted dad is as precious as diamonds, but Carrie Singleton wouldn’t know since her dad Jim’s been on the lam most of her life. In an unusual family reunion, she finds Jim breaking into her cottage in the middle of the night. The fun really starts when he begs her to help him recover his half of a twenty-million-dollar gem heist he pulled off with the local jeweler, Benton Parr. When she refuses, Jim takes off again.
Carrie finds her father again behind bars for the recent murder of Benton Parr. Who made the connection? Unbeknownst to her, Carrie’s boyfriend Dylan, an insurance investigator, has been searching for the gems. Determined to find the jewels herself, she starts examining every facet of Parr’s life. She turns up a treasure trove of suspects, one of whom bashes her on the head as she’s searching the victim’s country cabin.
Retreating to the quiet confines of the library where she works, Carrie watches as Smokey Joe, the resident cat, paws at a hole in the wall. Is he after the library’s ghost Evelyn, or something shinier? The second charming Haunted Library mystery by Allison Brook, Read and Gone will be a delight for fans of Jenn McKinlay and Leslie Meier.
Praise for this book
“Brook takes the Lincoln’s doctor’s dog approach to the genre, piling cat on ghost on is-he-is-or-is-he-ain’t-her-boyfriend to provide a cornucopia of coziness.”
“The library frame, plot twists, a library cat, a ghost (former library aide Evelyn), a romance, and, of course, the principled Carrie in the lead make this cozy, set during the December holiday season, a delight. Readers may also enjoy Nancy Atherton and Carolyn Haines, whose books also include helpful, opinionated ghosts.”
“Another superbly crafted novel by a master of the mystery and suspense genre.”
A real page turner. I can’t wait for number three!
"A larger cast of characters allows for plenty of quirky asides but doesn't impede the steady pace in unraveling the mystery.
"VERDICT The second book in a new series can be read on its own, but readers are likely to want more and will return to the first title."