In this bookish mystery, the president of a university library has a stroke and his second-in-command, Leisl Weiss, is called back from her sabbatical to fill his role in the interim. Just days before his hospitalization, Leisl’s boss had overseen the delivery of a recently-acquired precious artifact. When Leisl takes the helm, she finds that the manuscript is missing. She must find it quickly in order to prove her competency & prevent donor backlash.

Let’s start with what I enjoyed about this book: a nerdy library setting with bookish characters will always appeal to me. Leisl is a compelling protagonist — thoughtful and principled, but flawed and a bit self-centered. Also, I was engaged through the whole story and was invested in the outcome.

Now, where the book fell short for me lies mostly in the secondary characters. They all had the building blocks of fascinating ensemble players, but none were fully developed enough. In particular, there is a side storyline of a librarian who, in the midst of the whole drama, goes missing. Her story had such potential to add richness to the narrative, but unfortunately it came off to me as a flippant use of mental health distress.  

I kept wanting all the hints about Leisl’s husband’s mental fragility to amount to either a relapse on his part or a lesson on her part that translated to her treatment of Miriam. Neither happened and it left me feeling like they were dehumanized.

On the whole, not a bad read, but not one I’ll quickly be recommending.