Read and Gone: A Haunted Library Mystery

Carrie Singleton sees her dad after years of absence when he decides to break into her home and request her help to retrieve stolen gems from a heist he helped commit years ago. After she refuses, she doesn’t expect to see him again until he calls her from jail, having been arrested when found at the scene of a murder. She believes him to be innocent, but proving it appears to be tricky since the victim was Benton Parr, the man who helped her father commit the heist and the one responsible for hiding the gems. Now she has to find the gems before her father does so she can turn them over to the police before he can disappear with them. To make life more complicated, her happy relationship with Dylan hits a snag when she learns he’s investigating the heist and working to reclaim the gems.

Family and relationship drama are at the center of this mystery as Carrie is torn between proving her father’s innocence and trusting her boyfriend after the truth of his search for the gems is revealed. This provides a great deal of tension and conflict as she’s pushing both of them away. She struggles to face her past in order for the relationship she has with both in order to work. The library is a delightful setting, with a haunted and charming quality that is warm and inviting. It’s perfectly fitted to a mystery with murder and stolen jewelry. Carrie is stubborn and at times brash, but she’s a quick-witted sleuth. The mystery has plenty of suspense as a mysterious and dangerous man emerges seeking out the gems and threatening not just her father’s life but her own. Read and Gone is a delightful holiday treat with themes of romance, giving, and family in a mystery that will keep you guessing.

Read and Gone is the second book in the Haunted Library Mysteries series.