by Sandra Murphy

Details at the end of this post on how to enter to win a copy of Crypt Suzette, and a link to purchase it from Amazon, and an indie bookstore where a portion of the sale goes to help support KRL.

In three short months, Carrie’s gone from Goth Girl to the person in charge of special events at the library. She’s enjoying the job except for Dorothy’s attitude. Dorothy’s the research librarian but thinks she should have gotten Carrie’s job. Dorothy has a sour attitude about everything.

When Dorothy falls on black ice and is injured, she has to be hospitalized for a couple of days and then spend a few more at home. In spite of bad weather, she gets bored and makes her way to the library, crutches and all.

While Dorothy was out, homeless people have been hanging around the library during the day. Shelters kick them out come morning, and they’ve nowhere else to go. Regular patrons tend to avoid them.

A committee of movers and shakers has a plan to renovate an old home for the homeless during the day. In the evenings, the place can be rented for meetings. They’ve gotten state funding and are holding fundraisers. Plans seem to be moving along.

The first day Dorothy’s back to work, she stays until closing before heading home. On the way, she’s run off the road and dies in the crash. Carrie is sure it wasn’t an accident.

Carrie has a secret. There’s a resident ghost, Evelyn, a former library employee, and Carrie is one of the few people who can see her. Evelyn is (was) Dorothy’s aunt, so she enlists Carrie’s help in finding out what really happened to her niece. Meanwhile, Carrie learns Dorothy found out secrets about others and used the knowledge to her own advantage. She even found out about Evelyn.

This is the third book in the Haunted Library series. Carrie is coming into her own, making friends, doing well in her job, and has acquired a cat who comes to work with her daily. Evelyn, the ghost, is not a Casper kind of ghost. She still keeps things from Carrie, in an effort to protect her family, which shows, even as a ghost, your personality shows through. Evelyn is a helpful character in that she can listen in on conversations, phone calls, and meetings and report back to Carrie. Her ghostliness doesn’t distract from the story—after a few pages, readers will adjust to her comings and goings.

Decipher Dorothy’s tricks in this treat of a book. Try not to leave peanut butter cup fingerprints on the pages. The librarians in the story will haunt you.

To enter to win a copy of Buried in the Stacks, simply email KRL at krlcontests@gmail[dot]com by replacing the [dot] with a period, and with the subject line “buried,” or comment on this article. A winner will be chosen October 19, 2019. U.S. residents only. If entering via email please include your mailing address (so if you win we can get the book sent right out to you), and if via comment please include your email address. You can read our privacy statement here if you like.

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Use this link to purchase the book & a portion goes to help support KRL & indie bookstore Mysterious Galaxy:

Buried in the Stacks: A Haunted Library Mystery

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Sandra Murphy lives in the shadow of the Arch in St. Louis Missouri. She writes about eco-friendly topics, pets and wildlife for magazines and reviews mysteries and thrillers for KRL. A collection of her short stories, published by Untreed Reads, From Hay to Eternity: Ten Tales of Crime and Deception can be found at all the usual outlets. Each one is a little weird and all have a twist you won’t see coming.

Disclosure: This post contains links to an affiliate program, for which we receive a few cents if you make purchases using those links. KRL also receives free copies of most of the books that it reviews, that are provided in exchange for an honest review of the book.