I received this ARC from Netgalley and the publishers in exchange for an honest review. This was the first book that I read in the series and I didn’t have a problem catching up with the characters and what was going on. I really enjoy McKinlay’s style of writing and her enjoyable characters, especially Lindsey and Sully. I actually went back and started to read book one in the series. Grab a copy and enjoy this Library Lover’s Mystery. Lindsey is a director of Briar Creek Public Library and runs the Crafternoon group. While they are crafting a story comes up about a bride who disappeared in 1989. The son of Mrs. Dorchester, a prominent family in town, has donated all of the books in his mother’s library to the Briar Creek Public Library. . While Lindsey is going through the books, she finds a hidden panel which opens up to a secret room with a skeleton in it. Lindsey has a feeling that this is the missing bride from 1989. Will Lindsey crack the case and find out who killed the body in the library. Read and enjoy visiting Briar Creek and all of the crew from the Crafternoon club.

I always enjoy returning to Briar Creek and its cast of characters. I liked that this book features a cold case and had a slightly creepy vibe for Halloween. Even though I solved the mystery early on I still enjoyed this read.

We are back in Briar Creek with Lindsey and the crafternooners in this latest installment of the Library Lover's Mystery. When William Dorchester comes to offer the library a donation of an enormous and valuable book collection, if she can pack it up in less than a month, Lindsey rallies the crafternooners to help get it done. But William being back in town stirs up all the old gossip about the runaway bride, a new bride who disappeared just weeks after her marriage. When Lindsey makes a surprising discovery at the mansion as they are packing up the books, she and the gang set out to find the truth to a 30 year old mystery.
A great cozy mystery and enjoyable read. This being a cold case was a departure from her normal books and I found it was a little light on the mystery but I still liked it. Even though the culprit was fairly obvious from the beginning.

I love anything written by Jenn McKinlay and this series is my favorite of all her work. I so want this place to be real so that I can go and visit. Lindsey and Sully are the perfect couple and the mystery was fantastic to read. Loved all the other characters especially Robbie. And welcome to the family Zelda. Can't wait for more books in this series.

This is my favorite series by Jenn McKinlay. Give me Sully any day!!! Oh, and Lindsey LOL. Another great one!

I throughly enjoy this mystery series. The books are always interesting, with great plots, and interesting characters. I’m never bored with this series and wanting to skim ahead with happens with a lot of the Cody’s I read.
Lindsay and her friends are in the Dorchester Mansion library packing up the books the owner donated to the library when they happen upon a secret room and a dead body. Could this be the woman who’s been missing for decades but never forgotten?

Librarian Lindsey Norris is back with a new adventure -- I will definitely recommend this title to readers who have been enjoying this long-running series. They will love this one. But, it does serve very well as a stand-alone title, so it is safe to recommend it to readers who are not familiar with this series, or want to read them out of order. It is a perfect cozy for your cozy mystery readers -- smart amateur sleuth, small town, and a mystery that readers feel as if they are solving right along with the main character.

Jenn McKinlay’s latest Library Lover’s Mystery has one of my favorite covers, and The Plot and the Pendulum is one of my favorite books in the series as well. McKinlay’s descriptions of the scenery and weather in Connecticut in October tie in beautifully with the mystery itself. Here’s just one sentence to introduce you to the setting and story. “It was very much a Poe day outside, with a certain feeling of menace in the chilly air.”

It’s very much a Poe time of year for Briar Creek where Lindsey Norris is the library director. It’s time for the crafternoon program, a book discussion while the readers eat and do a craft. Lindsey’s interrupted, though, when a library patron wants to talk to the director. William Dorchester is just in town for a short time to sell the family mansion so he can use the proceeds to put his mother in assistive living. He wants to donate the family library, 12,000 books, to the library.

The women in the crafternoon session know all the gossip about William Dorchester. He hasn’t been back in Briar Creek in thirty years. He was in love with Grace Hartwell, but William’s mother wouldn’t let her marry him. Instead, she married Timothy Little, and then Grace disappeared six weeks after the wedding. She’s been called “the runaway bride”, but rumors in town were that Tim murdered his bride. It took years and a successful marriage to Barbara for Tim to outlive the gossip.

Lindsey and some of her friends, even her husband, Sully, spend evenings and weekends packing up the enormous collection of books at the Dorchester mansion. On one of those trips, she finds a hidden door, a hidden room, and a skeleton holding a copy of The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe. Even from that short glimpse before the police are called, Lindsey suspects the skeleton might be about thirty years old. And, all the gossip about Tim Little and William Dorchester will start up again in Briar Creek.

A cold case, a sinister mansion, a book collection, a skeleton, and Poe. McKinlay once again succeeds in the latest in her Library Lover’s Mystery series with a book filled with interesting characters, moments of humor to alleviate the suspense, and several chilling scenes. The Plot and the Pendulum is a perfect book for the season.