The Ghost and the Dead Librarian (Haunted Bookshop Detective Mystery #1)

A Library Journal "Mystery Pick of the Month" In an utterly charming new mystery from New York Times bestselling author Cleo Coyle, a smalltown Rhode Island bookshop owner investigates the death of an eccentric librarian with the help of a wisecracking, 1940s gumshoe ghost.

As a young widow, Penelope moved back to her quaint Rhode Island town to give her young son a safer home and her aunt’s dying bookshop new life. Using her late husband’s insurance money, Pen polished the store into a local treasure. But her updates did more than attract new customers. They roused a dead private eye from his big sleep.

With Pen’s affection for hardboiled detective stories, it’s no surprise she’s developed a fondness for the wisecracking yet oddly likeable spirit. Sure, Jack’s cold spots are exasperating, along with his proclivity for putting noir fiction in the cozy section. But murder was Jack’s business in life, and his PI skills come in awfully handy when the body of an eccentric librarian is found amid the bookshop’s aisles.

For years, Dory jokingly called herself “The Dead Librarian” because of her hobby of collecting and writing local obituaries. Now, in death, she’s discovered with her own eerily pre-written obit. Was it a suicide note? Jack and Pen say no and their certainty takes them from a ghost town’s ancient cemetery to a posh Newport mansion. Then another body drop and a mysterious stranger makes Pen a shocking offer, one that may change her life—and Jack’s afterlife. But unless Jack can help Pen prove who “checked out” the librarian, a ruthless killer may close the book on her.

"This spin-off of Coyle's 'Haunted Bookshop' series blends cozy mystery, supernatural intrigue, and classic noir influences into a suspenseful small-town murder mystery....Combining humor, literary references, ghostly interventions, and layered community drama, the novel explores how hidden truths from the past continue to haunt the present." —Library Journal (*Starred Review)

"INGENIOUS...EXCEPTIONALLY VIVID....Jack and Pen, along with a host of colorful characters, solve an assortment of crimes in a variety of places across nearly a century." —Kirkus Reviews