Three Can Keep a Secret

November 21, 2022
In Hilliard’s enjoyable if at times rambling third mystery featuring widowed librarian Greer Hogan (after 2022’s Shadow in the Glass), Anita Hunzeker, the ruthless chair of the Raven Hill, N.Y., library’s board of trustees, dies after her car is run off the road. The victim was easily the most disliked person in town, so pinpointing the culprit proves to be a difficult task. Greer starts sleuthing after two coworkers, the youth librarian and the archivist, become suspects. In addition to unearthing Anita’s blackmailing schemes, Greer learns that both Anita and her rival, Cynthia Baker of Raven Hill’s historical society, were deeply interested in the work of history professor J.P. Walters. When J.P. is fatally poisoned, Greer is convinced the two murders are linked, and her superb research skills lead her to uncover decades-old secrets. The plot becomes a bit muddled as it nears the satisfying if bittersweet conclusion. Characters that readers can care about help compensate for Greer’s repetitive reflections on the book’s various mysteries. Fans of Elly Griffith’s Ruth Galloway series will want to have a look. Agent: Julie Gwinn, Seymour Agency.

December 1, 2022

Greer Hogan has been the reference librarian at Raven Hall Manor for a year now, so she knows the people involved in the day-to-day functioning of the library and the community. Anita Hunzeker, the chair of the library board, is able to get things done, often by bullying others. But Anita is facing a roadblock in her plans to build a new, technologically advanced library. Many of the people in town love the old manor, and the Ravenscroft Trust that financially supports the library might have the final say. However, Anita has been researching the trust and the family. When she's run off the road and killed, Greer is curious because no one in town seems to care about the victim. When a local professor is killed, Greer's pokes into the connection between his work and Anita's research. Maps, rumors, and stories all lead her back to the library, where secrets might be hiding in plain sight. VERDICT Readers who enjoy the library and community connections in Victoria Gilbert's "Blue Ridge Library" mysteries will want to try this mystery that hints at future answers to the ongoing story line of the murder of Greer's husband.--Lesa Holstine

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December 1, 2022
A small-town librarian continues to demonstrate that the most dangerous homicide zones in America are public libraries. From the moment her husband's murder chased her from her big-deal job in the New York fashion industry to the upstate village of Raven Hill, Greer Hogan has never taken to energetic, insensitive Anita Hunzeker, who chairs the library's board of trustees. But she's far from rejoicing when Anita is found dead in her wrecked car, bashed to death with a flashlight. Nor do any of the other librarians or townsfolk united in their dislike of Anita celebrate her demise, though they don't exactly mourn her either. A hush seems to fall over Raven Hill, as if the locals were waiting for something. And so they are: the fatal poisoning of historian James Walters, whose research seems to have taken him a little too close to the Ravenscroft Trust, the vehicle by which matriarch Harriet Ravenscroft funded the relatives who came after her. The discovery of Anita's fingerprints on a bottle of wine in Walters' house convinces Officer Jennie Webber, Greer's workout buddy, that the two murders are connected, and she urges Greer to dive into the kind of research librarians do best. Greer unearths so many suspects, motives, and possible alibis, however, that the case becomes even murkier. The records she consults with the help of Raven Hill archivist Millicent Ames and everlasting temporary diocesan archivist Sister Mary Josephine carry hints of family quarrels, financial irregularities, and perhaps an illegitimate birth that would scuttle all the assumptions the locals make about the Ravenscroft Trust. But the details are so unremittingly dry that only a librarian convinced she was channeling Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers would find excitement here. A well-meaning plod.

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February 17, 2023
"Three can keep a secret if two of them are dead." Greer Hogan, reference librarian and amateur sleuth in the hamlet of Raven Hill, is drawn into yet another murder investigation (following Shadow in the Glass, 2022). When the head of the library board is found dead in her car, no one seems surprised. Anita was in constant conflict with various townspeople, going so far as blackmail to get what she wanted. When a local professor also turns up dead, Greer suspects a connection and starts digging for answers. What she finds turns Raven Hill and its residents upside down. The series' third installment is entertaining, albeit predictable. Librarians will appreciate the details concerning the daily life of a public librarian, including a breakdown of interlibrary loans, the weekend Friends of the Library book sale, and the annual children's Halloween programs. The mystery itself is cozy and simple. Those who have read the previous two books will not get any further information about Greer's husband, but there is an obvious nod toward a fourth book. A worthy addition to the series.

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