This cozy mystery weaves present day murders with mysteries from the past, making the story layered and interesting. There is also a potential love story, though the main character resists it, leaving the reader to cheer for her to change her mind and give her charming neighbor a chance. And of course the librarian in me enjoyed the book's library setting and librarian main character.

I solved the mysteries halfway through the book, which usually takes away from my liking a mystery, but the plotting and the character development were strong so I still enjoyed it. Two bits about the writing wore on me, though since I read a advance copy hopefully they will be fixed before publication. In dialog, the author constantly uses fragments that omit the word(s) at the beginning of the sentence. For example: "Never really wandered into the trees. Too much underbrush back there." instead of, " I never really wandered into the trees. There is too much underbrush back there." When used occasionally this can make conversations feel more casual, but the constant usage felt awkward. The phrases "you see" and "you know" were also overused by many of the characters.

I look forward to the next book in the series!

This book was an interesting read. The suspense and mystery within this book made it a fun read. The mystery starts with Richard and Amy , past meets present. Aunt Lydia and Sunny both think that they know what is best for Amy, meddling and supportive. This book has some twists that will leave the reader begging for more. Thank you NetGalley and Victoria Gilbert for allowing me to read this book and write a honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the chance to read this book!

Cozy mysteries and libraries just go together so well. Librarians make great sleuths, and are able to research and just KNOW things us poor average Joes don't. Amy is the perfect librarian, and although she doesn't know it, she makes a perfect leading lady .as well. Add to the mix a cast of excellent secondary characters and a super hot love interest ( A MALE DANCER!? -drool-) and you've got yourself an outstanding first novel.

I particularly liked the historical build up behind the current murder mystery. It's just something not too many cozies do, and I can see the small town and it's history will be a forefront of books to come. The web of characters and their connections was great too.

This is a fast paced mystery that keeps you on the edge of your seat. There's plenty of action and plenty of suspects to keep you guessing. Just who knows what doesn't get fully revealed to the end.

An excellent first book, I highly recommend this one for cozy mystery lovers. Five stars!

Thank you to Netgalley and Crooked Lane Books for the ARC of this novel.
A Murder for the Books is one of the best cozy mysteries I have read in a while. Amy Webber is the new librarian in a small town after a embarassing break up with her boyfriend that forced her out of her other job. Amy finds herself caught up in a murder mystery when a customer dies in the archives room of the local library. All while meeting her new next door neighbor, finding out secrets about her family, and taking on the locals. It is a fun, interesting mystery that will have you guessing until the very end. It is unlike other cozy, mysteries in the sense that you feel apart of the area and understand how eccentric small towns can be.

Really enjoyed this book about the librarian who loves research and puzzles. Really liked the different twist and turns this book took along the journey and am curious where the series will go next.

I LOVED this cozy mystery and am thrilled that it is a brand new book for a brand new season! I don't get excited this often for books but I can honestly tell you that this is a MUST read and fits in well with the genre. I feel like I need more right this minute!

This is an excellent start to the series and I am so excited to see where the author takes us next!

A new cozy mystery series, this book keeps your attention to the end.

A promising start to a new cozy series. A Murder for the Books is well-written and features likeable characters, especially heroine librarian Amy Webber. Amy loses her university job when she reacts badly to catching her boorish boyfriend cheating on her and makes a public spectacle of herself. She retreats to her aunt's house in small town Taylorsford, Virginia.

Tangled family histories and town secrets suppressed by earlier generations can be a bit challenging to follow (as is the introduction of so many characters that the debut of any cozy series demands), but eventually all becomes clear. Also clear is the romance between Amy and the choreographer next door, Richard Muir.

And, let's face it, any book about a librarian, written by a librarian, merits a read!

Full Disclosure--Net Gallery and the publisher provided me with a digital ARC of this book. This is my honest review.

I love being able to become ensconced in a community and get to know the people and their stories. Victoria Gilbert's first Blue Ridge Library Mystery took me to Virginia with intriguing characters, a taut mystery and a sweet romance. I learned a lot about loyalty, and the meaning of family pride - for good or for ill. Most importantly the story of Amy Webber doesn't seem to be finished. The were several possibilities for the future contained within a satisfying conclusion. I look forward to more!

I really enjoyed this book. It had a lot of depth in terms of the history and the characters and cold cases as well as the contemporary crime. It was well plotted and written and very satisfying. But it's the first book in a series and there's nowhere to go with this story. The story has been told so I don't understand how this can be the launchpad for a series and where the characters will go forward. I loved the book but I think it's a stand alone.

A Murder for the Books is book #1 in the Blue Ridge Library Mysteries. This is a debut novel by Victoria Gilbert. A very enjoyable read that combines mystery with romance. I love the front cover of the book, so bright and vibrant.

Amy Webber works in Taylorsford public library – a Carnegie library in need of a little TLC. Sunny, Amy’s best friend also works there as her assistant. Since moving to Taylorsford after leaving her previous job under a cloud, Amy has been living with her Aunt Lydia.

Doris Virts used to be a volunteer at the library, but unfortunately is now going senile and keeps saying that someone is following her. Her daughter Bethany looks after her. However, Doris sometimes goes astray and quite often ends up at the library. Doris has gone missing again, so Bethany has asked for people to keep an eye out for her and to phone her if she turns up at the library.

Richard Muir turns up at the library. Turns out he has moved into the old Cooper house next door to Aunt Lydia. Richard says that he is aiming to prove that Eleanora Cooper did not poison her husband and has come to the library to look through historical records. His great uncle, Paul Dassin, a writer, who’d owned the Cooper house before his death, firmly believed that Eleanora did not kill her husband Daniel and Richard wanted to confirm what his great uncle had always believed. Amy is unable to find the keys to the archives, but fortunately as director, she has spare keys for all the doors. She thought to herself that Doris probably took the key. When Richard and Amy arrive at the door to the archives, they find the door unlocked. Richard offers to go in first, but Amy says if Doris is in there, she doesn’t want to spook her. However, when Amy switches on the light, they see a body lying face down in a pool of blood. Richard phones 911.

Sheriff Bradley Tucker is quickly on the scene. He confirms that Doris was killed by gunshot. Tucker is told about what Doris had said about someone following her and about the strange black Jaguar car that Sunny had seen parked outside earlier. Everyone who is at the library is interviewed, then sent home. The library is then locked and closed until further investigations have taken place.

Amy and Richard, as they live next door to each other, walked back home together. Amy invites Richard in to meet Aunt Lydia. According to Aunt Lydia, Richard’s uncle, Paul Dassin, was in love with Eleanora Cooper. Evidently Rose Baker Litton, Lydia’s grandmother, was a key witness for the prosecution in Eleanora’s trial. Rose, who was 17 at the time, had seen Eleanora writing recipes in a herbal book and firmly believed Eleanora had poisoned her husband. Rose’s testimony relied on the herbal book, but the vital pages were missing, so Eleanora was aquitted and the book returned to Rose. Eleanora left town leaving everything behind – house, lumber lots, land – all of which she supposedly killed her husband for. Strange that she left everything, but she never returned. Lydia said that after Rose’s death, she donated the herbal book to the library, even though Rose on her death bed had asked for the book to be burnt. Amy said that she had not come across the book in the library. Lydia said that evidently the book went missing very soon after she had donated it to the library.

After Richard left, Amy decides to do some gardening. She started to dig up a dead rose bush that her great grandmother Rose had planted many years ago. As she is digging she finds a brooch. The following day, Amy decides that she is going to do some research on the brooch. The library is closed due to the murder investigation, but Amy has keys and firmly believes that it is ok for her to enter the library, so off she pops. On route, she meets Richard, who was out for a run. Telling him her plan, Richard decides that he will tag along. Amy switches on the computer and is going to use this to search for info. She asks Richard to start searching through his great uncle’s novel ‘False Falsehood’ to see if there is any info in that about the brooch. Pulling the book from the shelf, Amy spots something behind Dassin’s book – it is the herbal book – title page Eleanora Amaryliss Heron 1916. After much research via the computer, Amy finds a newspaper article showing a photo of Eleanora during her trial. Lily, as Eleanora’s husband used to call her, was wearing the brooch that Amy had found. Evidently the brooch was given to Lily on her wedding day by her husband and was heard to say during the trial that she would wear the brooch every day for the rest of her life. Richard said as she wore it every day, why would she leave town without it. Amy gave the brooch to Richard saying that it belongs in his house.

Kurt Kendrick (previously known as Karl Klass) was a foster child of Paul Dassin for 6 years. He is now a very wealthy art collector and has a second home just outside of town. Richard is going to visit Kurt and asks Amy if she will accompany him. When Amy and Richard meet Kurt, his teeth and smile remind Amy of the big bad wolf in the fairytale. When talking about Eleanora, Kurt says that Eleanora’s health improved whilst she was in jail awaiting trial. Amy spots the black Jaguar car that Sunny saw.

Not long after spouting to everyone in the diner about a cover up story, Clark Fowler is found dead – killed by gunshot. Fowler firmly believed that Blackstone’s father and other town members hushed up the true reason why his mother and the orphanage children had all died. Fowler said that his mother and the children had all been sick for ages prior to eating the mushrooms and that it was not poisoned mushrooms that had killed them. Most people tended to ignore his rants because they had heard it all before, many times.

Blackstone is trying to develop the land where the orphanage once lay, but many people in the town are against this. Sunny organises a peaceful demonstration, but Blackstone and his lawyers try to get the sheriff to disperse the crowd saying that the demonstrators are trespassing on his land.

The following day nobody seems to know where Sunny is. Blackstone is found in his car barely alive. Is anyone in town safe? Amy firmly believes that Kurt Kendrick has something to do with all of this, after all it was his Jaguar car that was parked outside the library – the car that Sunny saw and now Sunny is missing. Can she get to the bottom of the mystery without putting herself in danger?

I received a digital copy of this book from Netgalley in return for the above review.

A brilliant 1st a book , I couldn't put it down .what drew me to this book was the history of a unsolved mystery and a new one added.
Amy lives with her aunt with family secrets to be told her best friend Sunny both work in the local library looking into a old mystery of the local orphanage and trying for find answers to the truth. This book had twists and turns through out the book and I couldn't believe who the killer turned out to be .very well done to the author for a really thought through book . I cannot wait for the next book in this new series.
Thankyou so much net galley for letting me read and review this wonderful book .

A compelling mystery with a side of romance

Victoria Gilbert's debut mystery was a pleasure to read. I loved her sleuth Amy, a librarian who can't resist a puzzle but who has been hurt by love gone bad. Richard her new neighbor encourages her to believe in love while delving into their joint investigation.
The story twisted and turned starting with a body she finds in the library to the past and secrets she never knew her family kept. The dialogue was realistic and the secondary characters added a richness to the story.

I received an advance reader copy from NetGalley in exchange for a fair review.

Excellent! Engaging,entertaining and a page turner.
I could hear the characters voices.
More please!

Who doesn’t love a mystery with a librarian as the protagonist? Amy Webber has left her college library job behind along with her broken heart and moved in with an aunt in small town Virginia. There shes tries to forget her sorrow by taking over the reins of a small public library that is severely underfunded (like every library). The last thing she wants is to get involved with another man, but Richard is a charming man who is trying to clear the name of an ancestor accused of murder most foul neatly 100 years ago. Amy uses her formidable research skills to help uncover the answers in this lively cozy