A nice twist on cozy mysteries. A Jessica Fletcher-like older lady Librarian who solves crimes in her sleepy town. But is it all just a little too much like a cozy mystery or Murder She Wrote? I enjoyed the blend of mystery with a little bit of a supernatural. I do wish that how people were dressed was paid a little bit more attention to because that eventually becomes a plot point at the end of the book.

Well that was interesting.
Not entirely sure I didn’t just get possessed by a demon and forced into an acid trip for the last 265 pages.
Ending leads to a nice sequel of which I have to admit sounds way more enticing than this one.

I liked the concept. Execution was a bit iffy.
Characters felt like random scrabble pieces picked at random. Everything was very all over the place. It was hard to interpret the authors intent at times.

“The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society” is for fans of mysteries that have a supernatural twist. It’s cozy mystery mixed with fantasy. It was a very fun and quirky read. It was just so funny and smart and there was a perfect amount of twists and banter. Sherry is a great protagonist who truly takes her circumstances in stride, considering what’s thrown at her; sentient pets, magical barriers and demons. I love the references to Agatha Christie and Jessica Fletcher. This was definitely written by someone who has a clear love for Miss Marple and Murder She Wrote. Thanks to Netgalley C.M. Waggoner, and Berkeley Publishing Group.

There’s a reason it is getting compared to Buffy thought the characters are older adults- it takes the same stance of both genuinely enjoying the genre it represents and lampshading its faults at the same time. It’s a bit meta, a bit sincere, and a bit sarcastic. You need to be willing to ride with some supernatural shenanigans as well as some highly suspect coincidences. Sometimes the suspect coincidences are caused by the supernatural shenanigans. It’s a commentary on every cozy mystery series set in a small town with a strangely high death rate and a set of core quirky characters with perfect plot armour. Not every character is well fleshed out, including the demon, but the main character is likable and, on a librarian note, most of the noticeable flaws in representing the field do have an explanation…

This book baffled me. Its tone is puzzling, and the way the two genres blend is uneven and feels haphazard. It was difficult to connect with the characters. And yet, I did want to keep reading it, even though I guessed the murderer's identity almost immediately. I don't know -- it's a strange one.

Thank you to NetGalley for giving me an e-arc of this book.

Whenever an author is bending genres it is hard to know if it will be a match for you because you don't know which elements from each genre are going to be pulled into the work. For this one, it is blending genres/tropes that I like, the cozy mystery (think <em>Murder She Wrote</em> or Miss Marple), a low-stakes fantasy set in a small town (think <em>Legends and Lattes</em>, but set in New York) and a book focused career for the MC, but the blend didn't work for me. The book is well written and I think it could be good for someone else, but it just didn't work for me.

This is the weird, quirky supernatural amateur sleuth book that I didn't even know that I needed in my life but so glad it came along! I LOVED this book. Sherry was awesome - wish we could be besties IRL. .I couldn't really tell the difference between her two girlfriends - unless they were supposed to be mini-me's of each other. That's my only complaint about the book.

Did a great job with the mystery and solid plot that kept me engaged the whole time. And it looks like it's perfecty setup for the next book int he series that I can't wait to read!

Fantastic author! Great pacing and great development for the characters. I was heavily invested in the plot and descriptive settings.

A mix of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Murder She Wrote? Say less, these are two of my favorite things. I had so much fun reading this cozy mystery in a small town where the alarmingly high body count doesn't seem to register for most people... until our librarian/amateur detective loses somebody close to her, which makes the strangeness a little harder to ignore.

The humor and mystery were a great combo, and I'll gladly read more of Sherry's adventures.

I received a free copy of this book thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group; all opinions expressed are exclusively my own.

This book was an absolute delight! I don't know if there are a lot of Hercule Poirot/Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans out there, but I am one and this book feels written directly for me. For those who are unfamiliar, The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society starts out as a classic cozy murder mystery tale with these strange... glitches. As the story progresses, the supernatural element comes out, and the characters are embroiled in a battle against something very old and VERY powerful. To be honest, in some ways the story most parallels that of Coraline, so if you had Miss Marple in Buffy the Vampire Slayer's world following the plot of Coraline, you'd have something very like this book, and that is high praise indeed.

For sensitive readers, there are depictions of off-page death, death of loved ones, body horror, loss of bodily autonomy, and violence.

I absolutely adore Sherry. This is who I thought I'd be as a librarian. She describes others in terms of her favorite book characters, she plants fairy gardens, and her books help her solve crimes. The call-backs to various stories and characters - and name-dropping authors - are delightful.

"She wondered whether Peter ever thought of her as a storybook animal. If he did, she would probably be a fat old badger in a bonnet."

And Sherry's musings often just make me, a fellow librarian, giggle. "She'd tried many methods over the years to treat her occasional insomnia, but she'd yet to find one as reliably efficacious as Tolstoy."

I'd describe this as a cozy mystery - it feels much like my favorite Atherton series, the Aunt Dimity stories. And it definitely feels like Christie's adventures! I mean, except for the demon thing. 😉

"I wanted a librarian. I had to look a long time to find you. A librarian who knows about the stories."

At any rate, I loved it! And, you know, there's always someone who enjoys the stories, no matter how they're retold!

A delightfully cozy novel for library lovers and mystery fans alike. The smalltown murder-solving Librarian is a hoot of a lady, one I'd like to sit down and have tea with to discuss the latest news on the most recent crime. Written with humorous wit, this author is one I am likely to revisit again and again when in need of a light and fluffy mystery and lots of smiles while reading.

[received an arc from netgalley and berkley publishing group, thank you!]

this book had some nice ideas, but the execution was middling, in my opinion. i think it struggles to balance the 'cozy' with the 'mystery'--it's hard to have stakes in a story that is deliberately trying to shock you out of the boundaries of its own genre [that being a genre in which stakes are extremely low]. i do admire this book's desire to have well-rounded characters, but its methods of doing so were to jumble together a series of random traits into one long, rpg-style character paragraph upon introduction and then disregard those traits almost entirely later on in the story. still, i liked sherry as a main character, and i would've preferred her in a book that took itself in one of two directions of 'cozy mystery/thriller', as opposed to trying to balance between the two.

thanks to NetGalley for the eARC

⭐️=4 | 😘=2.5 | 🤬=3 | ⚔️=2 | 15+

summary: a woman has been solving murders in her small town—but wait! why are there so many murders in a tiny town? is her cat possessed?? what supernatural wonders are afoot??????

thoughts: this is a bizarre, cozy, spooky, silly, clever sort of book. pacing was occasionally off, but the mystery was genuinely great, and the concept itself is so strange that I couldn’t not be intrigued. the first chapter feels really weird, but by the time you get to the end of the book everything makes sense and it’s actually really smart. yay!

This book started out SO strong but got a little lost in the middle and only meandered from there. I was so enamoured of the “small town Gilmore girls solves a murder” setting of winesap within the first 50 pages or so. Then the cat started to talk. By the time i reached the middle i think the author had really lost the plot: there was actually a motive for every murder? But also there was a demon causing the murder? But also the protagonist did a Hercule poirot style takedown of the real life reasons for the murder that didn’t actually involve the demon? This book would have been better served just sticking to the real world, sadly! What could have been an excellent fantasy was ruined by trying to do too much.

Sherry Pinkwhistle is the local librarian and is concerned abut the number of dead bodies that are piling up in her small village. When a friend dies and her cat convinces her that he is the spirit of Lord Cromwell she becomes certain her village has been taken over by demons. With the help of her friends and co-workers from the library they investigate and save the village. Cute story of the absurd.

Great unique twist on the paranormal mystery scene. Fun start to what I hope becomes a long running series.

This is a terrific and fun, easy to read mystery that’s very clever. It warps form a few times which may be a bit tough for some but worked for me. The characters are almost all cliches of different types of people - but given the genre - that’s part of the fun. I read this quickly because I enjoyed the experience. It’s not a challenging book; it’s a bit messy; but ultimately a pleasure.
As a librarian, I tend to avoid books with librarians as main characters because they are often cringy - Sherry Pinkwhistle embraces all the stereotypes but manages to be a fully formed character who I can see following to future adventures.

_The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society_ by C.M. Waggoner is an easy and cozy murder mystery with paranormal aspects and likeable quirky characters. Small-town librarian Sherry Pinkwhistle is the resident amateur murder investigator who becomes directly invested in solving the deaths of the village when a loved one is targeted. It seems there is a demon possessing the town, and Sherry and her friends, accompanied by Sherry’s possessed cat, must solve the murders and save their village from the supernatural. This was an enjoyable and quick read.

2.5/5 stars rounded to three. This book was sort of a slog for me. I came for a cozy mystery with supernatural twist, which is what I got, but something I can’t quite put my finger on kept me from eating it up. The main character, an elderly librarian named Sherry Pinkwhistle, has already been solving murder mysteries in Winesap, New York, for quite a while, and is known by the community for her exceptional deductive power. The twist involves demonic possession. I should have been all over this, but sadly, I found the storytelling bland and the characters pretty flat.

Thank you to Netgalley and Ace Publishing for an ARC copy in exchange for my honest review.