An entertaining cozy mystery. Love the cat. I had one with the same name. Not a fan of the inclusion of a ghost, but glad I did not let the word "haunted" stop me from reading this book. An interesting mystery that kept me guessing. I look forward to reading the next one in this charming series.

Carrie Singleton’s father comes to town to try and retrieve gems he stole with Benton Parr, a local jeweler. The day after Benton does a gem and jewelry presentation at the library he is found dead, murdered. Several parties are looking for the stolen gems and Carrie joins the fray to try to get them back to return to the rightful owner. Bodies start to pile up before the gems and the murderer are found.
The book has a Christmas theme a story Christmas is approaching during the course of events. I enjoy how the author doesn’t just end the story when the mystery is solved. I like that we get to spend time with Carrie’s family and friends on Christmas Eve. The story feels much more complete this way and the book isn’t just about the murder. It’s about the progression of the characters and relationships.

A good cozy mystery. Plenty of suspense as their is murder and missing jewels involved, and Carrie's father is deeply involved. I think I enjoyed Carrie's dynamics with her dad even more than the mystery.

Carrie Singleton finds someone breaking into her cottage. She is surprised to find that someone is her long-lost father. Carrie is suspicious of why he is suddenly there after being absent for so long. She finds out he is there to get his share of some gems when he is found in the room with his partner in crime’s dead body. Even though he is a thief and has been absent from her life Carrie trust that she knows her father well enough to know he isn’t a killer.

This is the 2nd book in the series but my first book. I had no problem following the storyline so it can definitely be enjoyed as a stand-alone mystery. My favorite characters were Carrie and her cat, Smoky Joe. Carrie is a relatable character; she is curious, kind, suspicious, and determined. Smoky Joe is lovable and sweet but sneaky when he wants food which reminds me of some of my pets. The setting of the library is wonderful, being the bookworm that I am, I love libraries and bookstore settings. The mystery has its twists and turns to keep you entertained and guessing until the big reveal.

I recommend the book to cozy mystery lovers. I received an ARC of this book through NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own and have not been influenced in any way.

I'm a fan of cozy mysteries and I'm always on the lookout for a new series. I requested this although I haven't read the first book in this series, but I felt like this was easy to follow. Generally, this was an okay read for me. The story itself was fine and pretty typical for the genre. It was interesting in some parts, but dragged in others. I will say that I didn't really like Carrie. There are definitely aspects of her personality I liked, but I found her to be inconsistent and immature at times. I like her relationship with Dylan, but I felt like she was acting a bit high school-ish when it came to their relationship. For example, she was mad at him and then he calls her when he is out of town and all of sudden she forgives him. She's 30 years old, but at time she acts like a 15 year old teenager. All in all, I'm glad I had an opportunity to read this although it wasn't my favorite. It successfully does what a cozy mystery is set up to do and while it was just okay for me, if you like cozy mysteries, you may like this one.

I really liked this book and could not put it down. The plot and characters were interesting and it was a fun read. My favorite character was Smokin Joe the Library cat. He added humor to the story. The story is about Carrie who works at the library as the Program and Event Director. There is a ghost Evelyn in the Library which I wish they had more in the storyline. Only Carrie and her niece Tracy can see or hear Evelyn. Though she does get some good advice from, and does errands for the ghost. Carrie's Dad shows up after being gone for years and wants a favor. This all leads to a murder which Carrie gets involved in helping solve. I thought the book was very descriptive and helped bring the book to life. I am going to purchase the first book as I liked this series very much and look forward to more adventures with Carrie and Evelyn.

This is the second in the Haunted Library series by Allison Brook. The series (and the characters) have great potential but I didn't like this second one nearly as much as I liked the first one,, Death Overdue. Carrie Singleton, the head of her library's programs and events, gets back into sleuthing once again, of course, but her father the thief is back and staying with her. The plot seemed to drag for me and, while I love Christmas-themed mysteries, this one could've used more Christmas.

I'm certainly going to continue with this series but I hope the next one picks up. For now, this one earns a middling grade, 3.5 stars, from me.

Read and Gone by Allison Brook is the 2nd book in The Haunted Library Mysteries series, and a great addition. Carrie Singleton is the head of programs and events at Clover Ridge, CT library, which is also haunted. Carrie's father shows up, and becomes a suspect for the murder of a local jeweler. Carrie's father has a long history of criminal history, heists, and disappearing from her life. This book has more twists and turns, that kept me reading page after page. I love the unique people and situations in this book. I found this book to be a quick read, with a well developed plot and characters. I am looking forward to reading the next book in the series. If you love cozy mysteries, I recommend this book.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Carrie Singleton is not pleasantly surprised when her estranged father shows up out of the blue. He's return to try to recover some gems that he stole and left with Benton Parr, the local jeweler. Before her father and Parr can exchange anything, Parr is found dead and her father flees the scene.

The plot was a bit thin and the characters still need some fleshing out, but it was fun.

Love the setting! The library sounds like the middle of so much going on during the holiday season. And the cat is a fun addition. The cast of characters is full of such a mix. There are the thieves, police and even an insurance investigator plus the normal group of characters. Add a ghost for a fun read. I like the pace of the book. It kept moving at a steady pace yet Carrie comes across as a real person with a variety of activity in her life. The missing gems and people dying is just one on thing of her plate. I thought the book was great!

Nice cozy mystery. It will be a great read for the Holiday season. I thought it was a little predictable but I still enjoyed it. What's not to love about a book set in a library that has a library cat?

Carrie Singleton is settling nicely into her childhood home of Clover Ridge, Connecticut; she has a job she loves, a great place to live, a new boyfriend, and a new pet. But suddenly her life is disrupted one night when she hears someone breaking into her home - who turns out to be her long-gone father, Jim Singleton. Jim is a thief who's come back to get the jewels he lifted in a long-ago heist, but his ex-partner isn't giving them up. He's asked Carrie for her help, but she refuses.

What makes it worse is she discovers the partner is a member of the library board, Benton Parr; and when Benton is murdered soon after and her father is a suspect, she decides to do a little sleuthing on her own to find the gems, wanting to give them to Dylan Avery, an insurance investigator who's been working on the case.

But Carrie believes that Dylan has only been dating her to get to her father and the jewels, and decides to break up with him. Now with her life in a shambles she doesn't know how to put it back together, and it will take a lot of soul-searching on her part to decide what's really important; trusting people in her life or leaving Clover Ridge and moving on again...

Having recently read the first in this series, I was hoping that the author would have honed it a little bit more. But I felt that Carrie still seemed immature in this one, repeatedly breaking up with Dylan because he "used her" to get to her dad, without actually talking to him about it. So she has no idea whether he used her or not, does she? She also mentions that one character has PTSD, but I don't think she understands what it is. You can't get PTSD because your husband accuses you of having an affair (which she was) or that he wants you to find a better paying job. A bit of research could have cleared this up.

There were also some things that seemed rather unbelievable. The library is supposed to be in an old Victorian home, yet has a utility room, a break room, an events room, and even a coffee shop! In what library would there be a coffee shop? They don't want you eating or drinking around the books, not to mention the smells that would permeate the library from the food. Then Sally told Carrie that she had to conduct the holiday chorus because the maestro took ill! Really? Singing in a chorus does not give you the skills to lead one. (I'm still amazed that this library has so many programs and events that other, larger library systems across the country have never done, but hey...) Anyway, because of all the things I've mentioned above, where do they keep the books? It seems all of the space is taken up for other things.

I also think there weren't enough descriptions of people - aside from the fact of Carrie's hair color, I honestly don't know what she looks like (although she does wear makeup, and that's a plus because I hate books where the MC 'throws on a little lip gloss' and everyone tells her how beautiful she is); and there are no descriptions of the town at all, so one can get an idea of what it looks like. More detail should have been paid to this.

I was also surprised that her father Jim, a known criminal, just waltzes into town after not being around while Carrie is growing up and expects her to help him retrieve stolen gems. What kind of father would do that? Why would she allow him to stay with her after that? I'd kick his sorry behind to the street without a how-do-you-do after that opening. Yet she does let him stay, and again unfortunately, it made the first part of the book so boring I almost gave up. The conversations between any of the characters had no zip, no spark. None of the people seemed to have any life in them; certainly not enough that if it hadn't picked up in the last half I may not have finished it.

I also don't understand why this is called Haunted Library Mysteries. The library may be haunted with the ghost of Evelyn, but she adds nothing to the book. She's only in it for about 10%, and when she did ask Carrie to do a favor for her - speak to Morgan - the entire episode seemed like filler and nothing more. It could have been left out entirely and wouldn't have changed the book one whit. She doesn't help solve the murders, she doesn't give any helpful information - she thinks listening to others' conversations is eavesdropping - so she doesn't even add to the story. Sorry, but there it is.

The part that irritated me the most though is the fact that Carrie is under the impression that Smoky Joe is a dog. That's right, a dog. You don't put out food for a cat several times a day; unlike dogs, they don't eat everything in the bowl until they writhe in pain. When they're finished, they walk away, so you can leave the kibble in the bowl all day. You also need a carrier for a cat. They don't lie down on the seat; they're curious and will walk all over the car - and you certainly don't consider leaving them alone in a car while you go about and run errands! Plus, if you're going to take the cat to work with you every day, invest in a leash so the cat can't just escape your arms (which they can do very easily since they have very sharp little claws, you know; as I mentioned, they aren't dogs).

I wasn't really surprised as to the identity of the killer, as there wasn't a big suspect pool in the first place, but this wouldn't have made a difference if the things I mentioned above had been otherwise. In the end, the book wasn't bad but it still needs work; we need to know what the town looks like, what the people look like, and better treatment of Smoky Joe.

Read and Gone by Allison Brook is well told suspensful mystery.
After being absent for many years Carrie's father shows up in the dead of the night claiming that the prominent local jeweler was his partner in a robbery but is reluctant to share stolen goods. Of course Carrie doesn't believe him, he is a hardened criminal after all.
Next morning jeweler is found dead and her father by his side. For some reason she believes that her father is not the killer but she is the only one. So it's up to her to prove his innocence. Unfortunatelly there is no one she can turn to for help as it appears that her boyfriend was using her to get to her father.
Very interesting story, it pulled me in from the first page. I liked the characters and how real they and their relationship is presented. I also enjoyed the romance aspect.
There are many twists and turns to keep the reader engaged and guessing.
Delightful whodunnit.

This is the second in the Haunted Library Mysteries series and I still don't much like Carrie as a protagonist. I hadn't warmed to her in the first book and was hoping I would feel differently after reading this installment. While I can understand a little bit why she's a bit prickly about her dad's sudden reappearance in her life and how her feelings of abandonment impact her life, I just don't like her. Her "relationship" with Dylan runs hot and cold throughout the story, the ghost simply isn't very ghostly, and now there's a cafe in the library??!

I did like the cat and quite warmed to Jim, but this is it for me for this series. The lack of character(s) development and relationships is off-putting, as cosies depend heavily on that.

Carrie is settling in as the Programs and Events Coordinator for the public library in the town where her father's family lives. Her current program features Benton Parr - a local jeweler - who is talking about all sorts of precious gems. But Benton has a hidden not-so-legal past. Carrie's long estranged father has come to town to get the jewels that he and Benton stole. Jim has been in and out of Carrie's life since she was a child. His crimes had him spending a lot of time in prison and otherwise away from the family.

Jim has asked Carrie to help him recover his half of the jewels that were stolen. Before that happens though, Benton is killed and Jim is found running from the scene of the crime. Now Carrie has to prove her father innocent and find the jewels too. She intends to return them to her boyfriend Dylan who is an insurance investigator on the track of the missing gems.

Benton Parr's death is only the first. Tom Quincy who had come to town to try to find the jewels for himself is the second victim. The final victim is Mariel Parr who is Benton's wife. Carrie has all sorts of suspects apart from her father. Before his death, Quincy was a great suspect. Paul Darby whose wife was having an affair with Benton is also a good suspect given that he was near where Quincy and Mariel's bodies were found. His wife, who works in the coffee shop in the library, is also behaving in a very suspicious manner. Then there are the Parr's children Richard and Dina and Dina's wannabe boyfriend Chris Crowley.

Along with her investigation, Carrie is very busy at the library since it is almost Christmas and there are all sorts of programs and parties including their Secret Santa celebration where she drew the name of Dorothy who is an very unpleasant person who made things difficult for Carrie when she first got her job at the library. Her aunt Evelyn is a ghost who frequently appears to Carrie and often gives her clues about her investigations.

This was an engaging mystery with a nicely twisty plot.

Carrie Singleton is adjusting to her new life with a job and home she loves, a budding relationship with Dylan, and an awesome cat named Smokey Joe. Then her dad wakes her up while trying to break into her house. Carrie really struggles with her father's return to her life; he was in and out of jail while she was growing up, it's pretty clear he's only back for the gems and not to see her. When she finds out that Dylan has been investigating her father, it throws her for another loop and she dumps him. Luckily, she is surrounded by common sense friends and relatives who remind her that her father is temporary and Dylan has the potential to be long-term (though she spends the rest of the book finding reasons to walk away - Carrie still has some growth to do).

The mystery of the missing gem continues because there are so many suspects, and then there is another murder. Carrie is warned off repeatedly but keeps sticking her nose in because of her father. Read and Gone does a nice job of deepening Carrie's ties to the town and at work (though, as a librarian, I am completely cynical of the fact she apparently gets a lunch break every day... that is not usually what happens with all the interruptions). The suspects include Parr's wife, children, his lover and her husband, his "business" partners, and more. Carrie teams up with some of them along the way as she tries to clear her dad's name. Evelyn visits to dispense some advice and ask Carrie to visit her old neighbour because it's nearly Christmas time.

In the end, the mystery part was well done and had good pacing, but it stumbled all over Carrie's personal roadblocks about her father and Dylan. Hopefully the character growth continues in the next book.

The last thing she needed was her father showing up after years of absence. Not only that, but he wants her help to get his half of the gems he helped steal in his last heist. She says no. But it's not that easy.

Cooked Lane Books and Net Galley allowed me to read this book for review (thank you). It will be published September 11th.

She loves her father but hates his thieving. The next thing you know, the man hoarding the jewels is dead and her father is accused of murder...

With her boyfriend trying to recover the gems, her father flirting with jail, and no sign of the hidden jewels, she's got her work cut out for her. It's a good thing she loves her job. It's also a good thing she has a cat to help her out.

Read and Gone is the second book in the Haunted Library Mystery series.

The last person Carrie Singleton expected to show up on her doorstep is her estranged father, Jim. For most of Carrie’s life, Jim was engaging in scams and quite frequently finding himself in jail for these scams. On the one hand, she wanted to wish him well and have him move on, but the old saying about blood being thicker than water kicked in she agrees to let him stay. Then he shares with her that he was part of a jewelry heist of some 7 million dollars of gems and he had given these gems to a local jeweler, Benton Parr to hold for safekeeping. He has mainly returned to get his share of the gems and he will move on when he gets his “retirement fund” and asks Carrie to help him in getting the jewels back. When Parr is found dead Jim becomes the primary suspects and Carrie must clear her father’s name, while still helping locate the gems. Carrie soon finds that there are many suspects to consider. Carrie also learns that her boyfriend’s, Dylan Avery, employer has been investigating the theft and this puts a strain on their relationship. Carrie feels that he is more concerned with solving the case of missing gems than helping her father.

The story is well-told and plotted with an interesting cast of characters. Evelyn Havers, the library’s resident ghost didn’t get to play as big a role in this book and I missed her wonderful character. She was able to convince Carrie to visit a friend of hers in an assisted living facility, Morgan Fuller. She was able to deliver a check to a family that Fuller feels he had treated wrong.

I will be looking forward to the next book in this interesting series.

Cute cozy but very, very predictable. I enjoyed that the main character works in a library as I adore libraries. I may continue on with this series.

Cute, clever mystery featuring a ghost, a library cat, an absent father and $20 million in stolen gems. Carrie Singleton is shocked to find her long-absent father Jim breaking into her cottage in the middle of the night. When he asks her to help him get his share of the jewel heist, she says no. But when Jim is arrested for the murder of his alleged accomplice in the crime, Benton Parr, Carrie is quick to jump in.