Review: The Silence of the Library by Miranda James

The Silence of the Library (Cat in the Stacks #5)
by Miranda James
narrated by Erin Bennett

My Rating: 4 stars

Genre: Cozy Mystery
Age Category: Adult
Type of romance: m/f

Blurb:
It’s National Library Week, and the Athena Public Library is planning an exhibit to honor the centenary of famous novelist Electra Barnes Cartwright-creator of the beloved Veronica Thane series. Charlie has a soft spot for Cartwright’s girl detective stories (not to mention an extensive collection of her books!). When the author agrees to make a rare public appearance, the news of her whereabouts goes viral overnight, and series devotees and book collectors converge on Athena. After all, it’s rumored that Cartwright penned Veronica Thane stories that remain under wraps, and one rabid fan will stop at nothing-not even murder-to get hold of the rare books…

My Review

I received an audio copy from Tantor Audio and voluntarily reviewed it.

I am enjoying this series and was excited to see what book 5 would bring. The Silence of the Library again follows amateur sleuth Charlie and his Maine Coon cat Diesel as he solves another mystery. Despite reading this during a stressful time and not always being able to pay as much attention as I would like I still had a great time listening to this one and seeing where the mystery would go.

The mystery in this one is close to Charlie as the library he volunteers for is organizing an exhibit for a children’s mystery author who happens to live close by. And then once they announce the event involving the author fans of her descend upon the town and one of the fans gets killed. Charlie again gets involved in solving the mystery. I felt in this one it was quite obvious early on who was involved, I didn’t figure out all the pieces, but my first thought of who might be the killer and why was pretty spot on. There was an interesting twist toward the end that I had not figured out, but made sense and there were plenty of clues pointing in that direction once the main character realizes what’s going on, which was fun.

There are some parts in this book from the fictional mystery book by the children’s mystery author that Charlie is reading. This felt a bit odd at first and I wasn’t sure why these sections were in there. After reading a review and realizing it would tie in with the mystery Charlie is solving I paid these sections a bit more attention, but even so I am not sure if I really think they added much and needed to be written out like this. It sure was unique though.

I enjoy reading about Charlie, his cat Diesel and the friends and family around him. There’s less about his family and boarders in this book than in some of the previous ones, but most of them still make a few appearances. The focus really stays on Charlie, his cat and the characters directly involved in the mystery. I hope there is more about them again in future books. Charlie’s romance is going steady and like seeing them are there for each other. The narrator for this one was the same one as for the previous books and I enjoy her narration for this series.

To summarize: I had a great time listening to this one. I listened during a stressful time, so my attention wavered at times, but I still enjoyed the story and was eager to find out how was the killer. I did think the mystery and who had done it was a bit more obvious in this one and my first guess was pretty spot on for motive and murderer. There was a fun twist and reveal at the end I hadn’t predicted and I thought it was fun seeing all the little clues that pointed towards it. I like reading about Charlie and his cat Diesel as well as his romance. There was a bit less about his usual family and friends in this one, but most still make a few appearances and I hope to see more again in future books.

Links:
– Goodreads
– Bookbub
– Amazon
– B&N
– Kobo

You can also read my review on Goodreads and Bookbub.