Past Due for Murder by Victoria Gilbert has us journeying to Taylorsford, Virginia. Amy Webber is the director of the Taylorsford Public Library and is hosting an event for the local Girl Scout troop. Professor Mona Raymond, a folklorist, is sharing folktales and local legends from the Blue Ridge Mountains with the girls. Amy has been assisting Mona with her research and learned about the fairy lights, two women who disappeared in 1879, and missing gold. Two of Mona’s students who are assisting at the event ask if Amy has seen their fellow student, Lacey Jacobs. No one has seen or heard from Lacey since the previous day. Lacey’s disappearance leads investigators to Richard Muir, choreographer, dancer and Amy’s boyfriend. Lacey was seen leaving his office in tears the day she disappeared. Amy knows that Richard would not harm Lacey, but she must admit that he has been acting odd recently. Lacey is finally found in the woods with Mona Raymond dead nearby. Lacey is in a coma and cannot assist investigators. Amy puts her natural curiosity and knack for research to use. She finds several people with motive for harming Mona and Lacey. Now she needs to ask questions to narrow down her suspect list and identify the killer. This killer, though, is not about to go quietly.

Taylorsford is all atwitter as they prepare for the newly reinstated May Day festivities. Past Due For Murder begins by delving into the folk stories and legends of the area. There are a variety of tales that include the disappearance of two women over a century ago, the strange lights that arise from the forest floor that are attributed to fairies, and missing gold. Professor Raymond has spent the last few months in the library’s archives doing research with Amy’s assistance. Past Due for Murder is the third book in The Blue Ridge Library Mystery series, and I recommend reading the series in order. Past Due for Murder begins with a relaxed pace as we are eased into the multifaceted cozy mystery. In Past Due for Murder, there is the missing Lacey Jacobs, the murdered Mona Raymond, Amy worried about her relationship with Richard, the old tale of the two missing women and gold that vanished around the same time. The book starts off with the disappearance of Lacey and the murder then occurs a third of the way in. Amy uses her skills to investigate Mona’s death. She has several viable suspects and tension builds as Amy’s deductions lead her to the guilty party. The storylines all come together for a satisfying conclusion. I wish, though, that the whodunit had been harder to solve. Amy’s relationship with Richard is prominent throughout Past Due for Murder along with her past association with musician, Charles Bartos. There is a cute kitten, Loie in the story that has a perilous introduction. I especially enjoy the time spent at the Taylorsford library and their amazing archive room. The romantics will especially love the ending in Past Due for Murder. Past Due for Murder has fairies, May Day festivities, a cuddly kitten, a missing coed, romantic entanglements and a slain professor. Join Amy Webber on her latest adventure in Past Due for Murder.

This is the third book in the Blue Ridge Library series and was just as good as the first two books. This book had lots of twits and turns with two different murders happening. There is also changed in Amt and Richards relationship, that will change their relationship in the future. I definitely recommend this book and seriss

*I received a free copy of this book which I voluntarily chose to write an honest review for.

I am so in love with this series!! Set in a small mountain town full of great people you can love and an adorable library. We catch up with Any who runs the library just as they are heading up for a May Day festival. This is where the story gets interesting as we get several things going on all at once. There is a missing girl, eventually a dead body, and not one but two other cases that may be connected. One of them is from the past quite a ways. Seeing all these strings come together was a work of magic as the story blended perfectly. My favorite had to be the final chapters with all the juicy details leading to that ending that made me so happy. An absolute must read for fans of copies with a library theme. I totally loved it so I give it 5/5 stars.

Amy Webber works at a library in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. In the midst of May Day plans, a local student goes missing and Amy gets involved in the mystery.

This is my first read in the Blue Ridge Library Mysteries series. It appealed to me because it is set in a library. I also love the Blue Ridge Mountains and found that setting intriguing.

Past Due for Murder is the third book in this series, but I had no problem learning the characters and catching up, so I feel this book worked fine as a standalone.

The mystery was interesting. I had it figured pretty early on but enjoyed seeing Amy solve the case -- before the police did! This is a particularly well paced mystery and I found it a quick read.

There is a character who is a folklore professor and story elements involving fairy folk in the mountains. I absolutely loved these details and felt they added so much to the book.

Amy is a smart, kind, relatable character, and I also enjoyed her relationship with her beau, Richard. There is even a pet rescue storyline involving an adorable kitten!

I greatly enjoyed Past Due for Murder and now need to go back and catch up with the other reads in the series. I recommend this book for fans of cozy mysteries, and especially for readers who also enjoy a library setting.

This book had two of my favorite things - a librarian main character and a missing persons case. I especially enjoyed the folklore angle to this one with all the old stories and legends. I've always liked the history element of this series and this really made that extra special. I enjoyed catching up with Amy and Sunny and the rest of the regulars of Taylorsford. I also thought it was kind of nice to see Richard in a role other than the very perfect boyfriend though I'm sure Amy didn't find it so!



The mystery as usual kept me entertained. Though it takes a bit for the first murder victim to make an appearance it was clear from the very first chapter that something was most decidedly amiss. It was fun to puzzle everything else from the "huh something doesn't seem right" all the way up to the "something has gone catastrophically wrong". I was hooked from the beginning to the end and thoroughly enjoyed figuring out the whos and the whys along with Amy.



If you're looking for a fun cozy with a little bit of history and characters you want to be freinds with this is a great choice.

NetGalley: Spring has sprung in quaint Taylorsford, Virginia, and the mayor has revived the town’s long-defunct May Day celebration to boost tourism. As part of the festivities, library director Amy Webber is helping to organize a research project and presentation by a local folklore expert. All seems well at first—but spring takes on a sudden chill when a university student inexplicably vanishes during a bonfire.

The local police cast a wide net to find the missing woman, but in a shocking turn of events, Amy’s swoon-worthy neighbor Richard Muir becomes a person of interest in the case. Not only is Richard the woman’s dance instructor, but he also doesn’t have an alibi for the night the student vanished—or at least not one he’ll divulge, even to Amy.

When the missing student is finally discovered lost in the mountains, with no memory of recent events—and a dead body lying nearby—an already disturbing mystery takes on a sinister new hue. Blessed with her innate curiosity and a librarian’s gift for research, Amy may be the only one who can learn the truth in Past Due for Murder, Victoria Gilbert’s third charming Blue Ridge Library mystery.

My Review: I have enjoyed all three visits to Taylorsford and each visit gets better and better. Past Due for Murder is by far my favorite visit. The mystery within the mystery is what elevated this book. It added extra punch to an already meaty story. The ending is a beautiful surprise that will sweep you away. I had tears in my eyes while reading.

Each book can be read as a stand-alone but I suggest you read in order as you will get the needed background. This series has more bite than the traditional cozy series. No sex but it is heavily alluded to throughout the book. I would still give it to my grandmother to read and not worry she would be shocked or offended.

For fans of books with libraries, books, mystery, and love this is the series for you.

I received a copy of this book for review from Crooked Lane Books through NetGalley. Any and all opinions expressed in the above review are entirely my own.

Library director Amy Webber is helping to organize a research project and presentation by local folklore expert Ramona Raymond in time for the upcoming May Day celebration. But then university student Lacey Jacobs vanishes during a group outing in the mountains. After several days, Lacey is finally found with a head injury and Ramona's dead body lying nearby. Rumours of Lacey having a romance with a much older man are swirling and some fingers are pointing towards her former dance instructor Richard Muir. Amy briefly has doubts about the strength of their romance but Richard denies any wrong-doing. Amy's former lover, classical pianist Charles Barlos is also back in town and wants to reconnect.

Blackmail, plagiarism, family scandal and a long fortune in gold coins are factors in this story. The pacing was a bit slow at times in the book and Amy's decision to confront and then hide from the killer was weak.

I received an eARC via Netgalley and Crooked Lane Books with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book and provided this review.

This is the next installment in the Blue Ridge Library cozy mysteries and it is just as good as its predecessors. Head librarian Amy Webber is back again and this time she must not only help find a missing girl, solve a murder mystery, make peace with past heartbreak, and keep faith in her current love. Oh and there is the town folklore/legend project for May Day which she and her staff are helping a local professor to compile. The same professor who ends up dead, found not to far from where a missing girl is recovered. No shortage of suspects from the grumpy hermit with a family history shrouded in mystery to the firefighter with orienteering skills. Such a lovely ending as well, that the next one can't get here fast enough!

Past Due for Murder is the third book in the Blue Ridge Library Mysteries series and while I definitely liked this one better than the previous entry in this series, with a cast of pretty interesting characters, I still felt like it wrapped up way too early, leaving an ending that felt far more like a fiction novel than a cozy mystery.

I personally feel the real strength to this series lies in the characters and their interactions with each other. I really liked Amy far better and felt like her character had really grown in this one, becoming much more confident and able to tackle things (and people) without coming across as whiny, which was sometimes the case in the past. Even though she had some small problems with Richard, they were able to work them out in a mature way rather than yell and scream at each other, or sulk, something which drives me nuts, and something which Amy used to do. Amy is very relatable and I liked that in a character. She's not perfect, which makes her more fun. We also got to learn a bit more about her past relationship with Charles, which just made me wonder what she saw in that man or why she would stay with someone like that. It was a great way to learn more about Amy and how much she had changed since coming back home.

I did enjoy the mystery, but it was very easy to figure out. I do like that the action can be typically more sinister than in a typical cozy mystery, which makes it a bit more fun to read, but I do have to admit that the pacing is somewhat off at times, and sometimes the plot feels a bit forced in order to keep the action moving forward. However, the relationships, the drama, the interactions, and the dialogue all work very well together which sort of makes up for the feeling of being forced. I was not too impressed with the way the story ended however, as I felt it dragged on quite a bit and also, the resolution came way too early.

Past Due For Murder was overall, an enjoyable read. While I suppose this one could stand on its own, I don't recommend you start with this one as there are references to previous novels which kind of give away important plot points from previous novels, something of which I am not a fan. While it was easy to figure out the mystery, there were enough layers to it that it did keep my interest and I definitely liked the folklore aspect to it. The Blue Ridge Mountains has so many interesting tales that it was nice to see some of them incorporated into the story, even if I have no idea if any of it was real or not, although I am sure there are lots of tales like it that are. I do recommend this book, but I would start with the first book in the series.

The third of the Blue Ridge Libary Mysteries does not disappoint. Ms. Gilbert's storytelling is as good as ever this time telling a story about a storyteller!

A professor at a local college collects folk tales and loves to share them. One of the tales is about lights that appear in the mountains which she attributes to fairies (who immigrated here from Ireland, she suggests). And of course, no good tale forgets to include the possibility of lost gold. Add in two girls from long ago who were never seen again, and it must be the fairies who took them and their gold!

Amy has to deal with some jealousy regarding Richard's former dance partner, an Kurt isn't as bad as we thought he might be. Although we never learn what the lights are about, they are seen by our characters. A mystery still unresolved!

It's no spoiler to tell you that it all works out in the end. The mystery of the girls is solved, the present day murderer is discovered. Some relationships are destroyed and others strengthened. Typical cozy mystery fare. But what sets this apart from others is the complexity of the returning characters and how our understanding of them develops over time.

I will definitely be looking for #4 of this series.

This is a series that I have had the opportunity to read from the beginning and I have really come to enjoy my time in Taylorsford, which is far from a quiet little town! Murder, mayhem, and mischief abound; however, the town's folklore was on full display in this installment and really made things even more interesting!

While I was initially drawn to the series because it featured a librarian and the library she works at, the focus is actually on the town and its various myths, legends, or tall tales. Amy's innate curiosity and interest in historical preservation not only creates the perfect means for finding answers, but to also putting her right in the middle of it all. Secrets continue to run deep in this small town and I absolutely love how Amy is the vehicle for getting to the truth. Her confidence shines brilliantly through her work both on and off duty; however, her ability to trust in love remains shaky at best if not slightly annoying at worst.

The pacing was quite remarkable this time around as the suspense built gradually to such an unpredictable and satisfying conclusion. As always, the mystery continues to be quite elaborate, while the additional story lines and well developed and diverse secondary characters add those subtle red herrings and fun twists needed to keep readers guessing until the very end.

This series continues to build the layers of a fascinating community that I look forward to returning to each time. While definitely a solid selection for fans of bookish cozies, the more mature and thought-provoking mystery elements, plot points, and themes add dimension and appeal that makes this series a cut above the standard cozy and highly recommended!

This third book in the Blue Ridge Library mystery series is exceptional. The mystery is quite convoluted and involved. There were a few irritants - Amy trusted the man who betrayed, Charles Bartos, her more than her true new love Richard. Amy was really naive where Charles was concerned.
The folklore of the blue ridge mountains was a great addition to the story.
It’s fun that each novel introduces new people who have been previously mentioned or may play a role in a future book.
I really like that the book doesn’t end with the murderer being unmasked. I like that the story continues and plays out events that have been mentioned along the way of the storyline.
While cozy mysteries may not be very realistic, it is fun to enter the world of the characters and get to know and care for them. This only works when the author creates characters that make you want to keep following the story. Victoria Albert does a great job with that.

Dollycas’s Thoughts

Past Due for Murder takes us to Taylorsford, Virginia just in time for Spring and the town’s May Day celebration. Our protagonist Amy Webber has opened up the library archives for a professor and her students to research the local folklore. The will be making a presentation at the celebration. One of these students disappears during a bonfire event and police have organized a search. They also question the man in Amy’s life, Richard Muir. He was the woman’s dance instructor and may have been the last person to see her before she went missing. The student is later found, next to a dead body. She is dazed and confused. Amy has been trying to use her talents first to find the student and now the murderer. She meets an elderly woman with stories to tell of the area that just may point her in the direction of the killer. It also could make her their next victim.

Ms. Gilbert has written a story that links the present to the past in a very interesting way. The area folklore includes a story of two missing women, but what parts of the story are true and which are pure fabrication and how does it pertain to the current event of a missing woman and a murder? It is a twisted journey that captivated me right away.

I loved the way the author brought in a woman who is basically a hermit now. I found this woman to be genuine and heartwarming. Having Amy visit to record her stories for the library’s archives was a brilliant idea. Many towns and libraries are doing this now. It makes me wish I had done the same with my parents and grandparents. Our history, our stories, fade due to poor memories and these records would be priceless. If these options are available to you jump on them while you can.

The author also brings a man into the story, a neighbor to the woman, also someone who shuns society for his own reasons. He has a wonderful gift that he has mostly kept to himself but could he be a murderer?

Sticking with new characters, Richard’s parents come to visit and it was quite the experience. No spoiler here, but answers to some of the questions I had about the man are answered.

With great characters and plenty of twists and turns, this story takes us on quite a ride. The blend of folklore with a smidgen of fairies and magic was a delight. The ending was an ultimate surprise. This story is a wonderful addition to this series!

This is the third book in the Blue Ridge library Mystery series which can be read as a standalone.
Great characters, twists and turns, and local lore. I am still enjoying this series.
Amy Webber, the local librarian is in the thick of things trying to solve what happened to a college student that goes missing and is later found near a dead body with no memory of what has happened to her or how the she got there.

Richard is the prime suspect and won’t tell anyone where he was during the time frame.

This started slowly but soon picked up and was an enjoyable tale.

I received an Advanced Reader’s Copy from Crooked Lane Books via Netgalley and these are my own opinions.

PAST DUE FOR MURDER by Victoria Gilbert
The Third Blue Ridge Library Mystery

Folklorist Ramona Raymond has descended upon the Taylorsford public library with her cadre of university students researching the mysterious mountain lights. A missing student, an evasive boyfriend, and ties to a mystery a hundred years before lead library director Amy Webber on a search of her own. Will she be able to tie these threads together, or will the legend of the mountain lights claim more deaths?

After reading the first two books in the Blue Ridge Library Mysteries I grew to really like the characters. But I found myself not as enamoured with them as this third entry began. Amy is plagued by inadequacy and doubt for a good portion of this book. Her clinginess is annoying, yet suspicion is warranted as Richard is no longer acting the part of the model boyfriend. His attitude and behaviors certainly indicate that something is up and he becomes quite unlikable for a while. I also found myself wanting to smack Amy as I quickly realized something to which she was totally blind. That being said, by the end of the novel their behaviors improved and both Amy and Richard are back in my good graces. This actually says a lot for the author as she's able to get readers to care about her characters. While the relationships of Amy, Richard, and even Sunny proved irksome at times, I really love the blossoming relationship between Lydia and Hugh and hope we get to see more of it. My favorite character has to be Kurt Kendrick who adds quite a bit to not only plot, but character development.

I enjoyed the mysteries found in PAST DUE FOR MURDER, especially the ties to the mystery of the lost girls in the late 1800s. Clues were in laid out, allowing readers to figure out a good portion of the modern day mystery...and possibly yelling at Amy who couldn't see the forest for the trees!

PAST DUE FOR MURDER explores self doubt and trust while asking how much we really know about those we love, or loved. The end of the novel is uplifting and makes me look forward to the next installment.

The first word that comes to mind is EXCITING. There is a lot going on between these covers.
From a slightly paranormal start, local folklore legends and bobbing, mystical, unexplained lights, to mysterious relationship issues. People who are not supposed to be around show up and others disappear or act strangely. Relationships are complicated but this storyline adds extra twists and zags. Then when men librarian Amy has feelings for are implicated in dasterdly doings, she can't keep her nose and talented, resourceful, research skills and curiosity from getting involved to prove them innocent. Add to that grumpy hermits (one with a shotgun,) meeting the parents scenarios, and a search for gold, real, imaginary or fae and this book will take you on a twisty journey.
It did appeal to me from a library researcher perspective.
I also like the friendship aspects.

3.5 stars. I have mixed feelings on this one. At times this felt disconnected - too many threads being pulled but no strong sense of order or purpose. In the end, everything came together well. The ending was suspenseful and there were several chapters after the mystery was solved to wrap up the remaining story threads.

Overall, this felt uneven to me compared to the first two books. I'll stick with the series because I've enjoyed it so far, but this one wasn't as tightly put together for me.

Decades-old gossip, scandal, mysterious disappearances and lost treasure provide the backdrop to this mystery set in Appalachian mountains. Add quirky characters and intriguing plot to form a compelling storyline. The only weakness was too much about Amy and Richard’s parents, that slowed down the momentum of the story.
Thank yous to #NetGalley and publisher Crooked Lane Books for an early digital copy.

Past Due for Murder by Victoria Gilbert is book 3 in the Blue Ridge Library series.
Amy is busy running the library and helping on the May Day celebration when a student from the college is reported missing. Throw in Amy's ex now living nearby, his ex a victim of a hit and run, a possible hidden treasure, and add a murder. Amy is kept busy tracking down clues. Add meeting her boyfriend's parents to the mix and you get a great story.
This is an easy to read Cozy with twists and turns to keep you guessing until the end. The setting is great with likeable characters with some romance.
Thanks to Netgalley for an ARC for an honest review.

I love visiting with Head Librarian Amy Weber and her friends in Taylorsford, VA. Spring is on the way and the town is planning a May Day celebration with an spotlight on local folklore and legends. When one of the Clarion College students vanish, Amy's boyfriend Richard becomes a prime suspect. When the girl is finally found wandering a mountain trail with no memory the dead body next to her is now a focus. This is book 3 in the Blue Ridge Library cozy series and it's a good addition. I enjoyed some of the research that Amy does and the way the town comes together. I received a copy of this ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.