By Hook or By Book

Reference librarian Megan Clark wants her Murder by the Yard book group to help her conduct research on string theory, but the disappearance of a valuable manuscript and the death of its owner will railroad those plans. Original.

Like its predecessor, Murder in Volume (2000), this second novel starring Megan Clark, a paleopathologist turned sleuth, tells a clever and intriguing tale. Megan, a highly trained scientist and lover of mystery fiction, works as a reference librarian in Amarillo, Texas. In the first book, she joins a reading group and stumbles onto a murder. Now, when the owner of a valuable manuscript is killed, she once again needs the help of her fellow reading-group mystery-lovers to figure out whodunit. These are serious novels with a light touch, tailor-made for those interested in inside information about the mystery genre. The characters discuss well-known authors (Christie, Grafton) and feel their way through a real-life mystery by taking hints from fictional sleuths. And it's a fairly solid mystery, too; some readers may get to the payoff slightly ahead of Megan and friends, but getting there is the fun part. Stick with this series even in its mass-market format; eventually, Meredith will get her shot at hardcovers. David Pitt
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