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BOOK INFO
Title: Read and Gone
Author: Allison Brook
Publisher: Crooked Lane Books
Publish Date: September 11, 2018
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Series: The Haunted Library Mysteries #2
My Rating: 3/5
BOOK BLURB
Right in time for the holidays, comes Allison Brook’s second Haunted Library mystery, a perfect present for readers of Jenn McKinlay and Leslie Meier.
Twenty million dollars’ worth of missing gems bring Carrie Singleton’s long-lost and larcenous dad back into her life and it’s up to Carrie to clear his name.
A devoted dad is as precious as diamonds, but Carrie Singleton wouldn’t know since her dad Jim’s been on the lam most of her life. In an unusual family reunion, she finds Jim breaking into her cottage in the middle of the night. The fun really starts when he begs her to help him recover his half of a twenty-million-dollar gem heist he pulled off with the local jeweler, Benton Parr. When she refuses, Jim takes off again.
Carrie finds her father again behind bars for the recent murder of Benton Parr. Who made the connection? Unbeknownst to her, Carrie’s boyfriend Dylan, an insurance investigator, has been searching for the gems. Determined to find the jewels herself, she starts examining every facet of Parr’s life. She turns up a treasure trove of suspects, one of whom bashes her on the head as she’s searching the victim’s country cabin.
Retreating to the quiet confines of the library where she works, Carrie watches as Smokey Joe, the resident cat, paws at a hole in the wall. Is he after the library’s ghost Evelyn, or something shinier? The second charming Haunted Library mystery by Allison Brook, Read and Gone will be a delight for fans of Jenn McKinlay and Leslie Meier.

MY REVIEW
Carrie’s father is a thief. In Read and Gone, he shows up in the middle of the night, and wants her to help him recover his portion of the gems from a heist he did with a local jeweler. She refuses to help, but when the jeweler is murdered, and her dad is arrested, Carrie gets involved. She knows her father to be a thief, but not a killer, so she wants to clear his name. To complicate matters, it turns out Carrie’s boyfriend is an insurance investigator, and he’s looking for the stolen gems, too.
Read and Gone is the second book in The Haunted Library mystery series. This book doesn’t have much about the haunted library. I haven’t read the first book in the series, so I’m guessing that one features more of the library ghost. This book was good as a standalone.
A sweet and fun cozy mystery. Charming setting and, mostly, likable characters. Quick and easy read, good for fans of cozies that involve libraries and bookish characters.
I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
Books in The Haunted Library Series:
- Death Overdue
- Read and Gone
- Buried in the Stacks
- Checked Out for Murder
- Death on the Shelf
- Dewey Decimated
- Overdue or Die