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Hitting the Books: 08/19/24

Hitting the Books

Hitting the Books by Jenn McKinlay and Allyson Ryan (Narrator) (2018) is the ninth book in the Library Lover's mystery series. The library is a witness to a hit and run and checked out materials in the abandoned car are the only clues. Lindsay, though, doesn't believe for an instance that the two persons of interest have anything to do with the crime.

This particular volume feels out of character for both the main character as well as the Jenn McKinlay's oeuvre of mysteries. McKinlay writes genre savvy characters who love to use quotes from the things they love whenever they see a connection. They are always seeing connections and using those moments to inform how they go about solving mysteries. Except in this volume when the connection glaringly blatant and it hurts to see so many missed opportunities.

After Lindsey delivers a bunch of audiobooks to the injured woman she looks back at the house and sees a woman in an upstairs window. The injured woman is engaged to the wealthy man who owns the house and is already acting as a mother figure to his grown daughter. Even though the circumstances leading up to the scene are different, I caught the Jane Eyre reference. I waited for Lindsey to notice too or even one of her library staff or her bookish friends. Nope. Nada. Zilch.

Of course, had she made the connection and pushed harder, the book would have taken a very different path. I might have even been shorter.

Instead, Lindsey spends much of the book distracted by her doubts over her decision to cohabitate with her boyfriend. She also stresses over babies and not wanting any of her own.

The tenth book is Word to the Wise (2019).

Four stars

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