The Broken Spine

November 2, 2020
In this whimsical series launch from St. James (the Southern Chocolate Shop mysteries), Cypress, S.C., librarian Trudell Becket discovers that Mayor Marvin Goodvale and town manager Duggar Hargrove’s plan to renovate the library includes sending all print books to a recycling center. Horrified, Trudell sets out to transfer as many books as possible to a secret room in the library’s basement. Trudell’s dislike of the unctuous Duggar is well known, so when he’s murdered, she becomes the number one suspect. Assisted by various friends, including wheelchair user Flossie Finnegan-Baker (St. James ensures Flossie’s disability isn’t the focal point of her character), Trudell seeks to identify Duggar’s killer while trying to dodge a suspicious police detective who bullied her in high school. An intriguing plotline and plenty of red herrings redeem in part flat characters who often act illogically. Cozy fans seeking a lighthearted, straightforward mystery will be satisfied. Agent: Jill Marsal, Marsal Lyon Literary.

November 1, 2020
St. James kicks off a new series showcasing a librarian risking all to save her beloved books. Trudell Becket is assistant to the formidable Lida Farnsworth at the library in Cypress, South Carolina. Mayor Goodvale and town manager Duggar Hargrove, determined to turn Cypress into the Silicon Valley of the South, have converted the library into a high-tech space free of books. Nothing daunted, Tru and her friends Tori Green and Flossie Finnegan-Baker have turned unused basement space into a shadow library by rescuing books headed for the town dump and quietly doling them out to technophobic readers. After the women spend a night moving books with the help of Tori's potential new boyfriend, Charlie, morning breaks with a tremendous crash that sends Tru upstairs, where she finds Hargrove squashed under a massive bookshelf. Tru can't tell the truth without revealing the hidden library, and her silence has the police, especially newly returned Jace Bailey, suspicious of her. Nor has she trusted Jace ever since he romanced her and then stole her high school term paper. So she and her friends decide to find the killer on their own. Luke Goodvale, the mayor's son, who's recently moved home from Nevada, turns out to have a dangerous debt collector after him. Anne Lowery, the tech specialist who set up the new book-free library, is furious when the mayor gives all the credit to Luke. But is she mad enough to kill? Tru fights her attraction to Jace and the comedy of errors that breaks out when everyone involved suspects everyone else. A gritty heroine downplays the Southern charm to focus on a complex crime.

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January 8, 2021
Duggar Hargrove wants the library in rural Cypress, South Carolina, to become "bookless," the first step in the town becoming a high-tech center. Hargrove has directed the staff to send the entire book collection to the landfill, but Trudell Becket, the assistant librarian, takes action. With her closest friends, she secretly diverts a substantial number of books being packed for removal, reshelving them in the cellar. At the end of all-night work session, Tru hears a crash. Rushing upstairs to the just-opened library, she finds Hargrove, crushed by a toppled shelving unit full of DVDs. The police arrive, including detective Jace Bailey, hometown boy and Tru's high-school nemesis. Unable to provide an explanation of her whereabouts without revealing the secret library, Tru becomes the prime suspect. Not trusting Jace, Tru and her friends--assisted by Dewey, a stray cat who slipped into the secret library one night--work to find the real killer. This first in a new series boasts endearing characters with fun backstories, to be developed, one hopes, in future entries, along with the relationship between Tru and Jace.

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