Header image with four cats and the text: Pussreboots, a book review nearly every day. Online since 1997
Now 2025 Previous Articles Road Essays Road Reviews Author Black Authors Title Source Age Genre Series Format Inclusivity LGBTA+ Art Portfolio Purchase Art WIP

Recent posts


Month in review

Reviews
Akata Warrior by Nnedi Okorafor
Akissi: Tales of Mischief by Marguerite Abouet
All Ducks Are Birds: But, Not All Birds Are Ducks by Tara Michele Zrinski
Arsenic and Old Books by Miranda James
BLAME! MASTER EDITION 1 by Tsutomu Nihei
City of Orphans by Avi
Crush by Svetlana Chmakova
Death on the Page by Essie Lang
Delicious in Dungeon, Volume 4 by Ryoko Kui
The Dollar Kids by Jennifer Richard Jacobson
Egg Drop Dead by Vivien Chien
The Emerald City of Oz by L. Frank Baum
Freezer I'll Shoot by Victoria Hamilton
Ghost-Spider, Volume 1: Dog Days Are Over by Seanan McGuire
I'm Sad by Michael Ian Black and Debbie Ridpath Ohi
I'm Worried by Michael Ian Black and Debbie Ridpath Ohi
If I Had a Little Dream by Nina Laden and Melissa Castrillón
The Killings at Badger's Drift by Caroline Graham
Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Albertalli
Mañanaland by Pam Muñoz Ryan
Marriage of Unconvenience by Chelsea M. Cameron
The Mother of Black Hollywood: A Memoir by Jenifer Lewis
Notorious by Gordon Korman
Of Curses and Kisses by Sandhya Menon
Paladin's Grace by T. Kingfisher
Prince in Disguise by Stephanie Kate Strohm
The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright
This is London by Miroslav Sasek
Turtle Under Ice by Juleah del Rosario
We Unleash the Merciless Storm by Tehlor Kay Mejia
You Are Never Alone by Elin Kelsey and Soyeon Kim

Miscellaneous
February 2020 Sources
February 2020 Summary
It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (March 02)
It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (March 09)
It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (March 16)
It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (March 23)
It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (March 30)

Road Essays

Previous month



Rating System

5 stars: Completely enjoyable or compelling
4 stars: Good but flawed
3 stars: Average
2 stars: OK
1 star: Did not finish


Privacy policy

This blog does not collect personal data. It doesn't set cookies. Email addresses are used to respond to comments or "contact us" messages and then deleted.


Arsenic and Old Books: 03/11/20

Arsenic and Old Books

Arsenic and Old Books by Miranda James is the sixth of the Cat in the Stacks mysteries. Mayor Lucinda Beckwith Long has donated a set of Civil War diaries to the archives of Athena College. She believes they will be a benefit to her son Beck as he runs for state senate. Before Charlie can even begin working on the diaries, they're stolen. And then the thief is murdered.

When the diaries are returned, Charlie hopes their contents can give a clue to the reason they were taken and why someone else would kill for them. As Charlie reads through them and interviews the people most vested in the diaries, he also solves the mystery of two deaths recorded in them.

If you know anything about heavy metals, you'll be able to solve the cold case before Charlie does. The clues are all there. The present day murder is also well laid out, though not as obviously so.

The seventh book is No Cats Allowed (2016).

Five stars

Comments (0)


Lab puppy
Name:
Email (won't be posted):
Blog URL:
Comment:

Tumblr Mastadon Flickr Facebook Facebook Contact me

1997-2025 Sarah Sammis