Mysteries are among my least favorite genres. People love to recommend mystery novels to me though because, apparently, a lot of fictional librarians love to solve mysteries. The Lost Library is a light mystery chapter book that I did enjoy. There was no murder (although there were some friendly ghosts).
The book is told from several points of view:
- Mortimer - a cat (also known as Goldie, Sunshine, Buffy, and Dear Cat)
- Evan - a fifth grader who is a bit worried about going to middle school next year
- Al - Assistant Library at the History House
The town of Martinville has been without a public library ever since a fire burned theirs down twenty years ago. When Al decides to install a Little Free Library on the town common Evan is intrigued by that fact that almost all of the books in it were checked in to the town library on the date of the fire. He is especially interested to discover the name of famous mystery author (H.G. Higgins) written on one of the checkout cards. He is determined to find out where the books came from, and if Higgins ever lived in Martinville.
Something I do like to see in books is a bit of metafiction. One of the first books Evan takes out of the Little Free Library is How to Write a Mystery Novel. Rather than penning his own book though, Evan uses the suggestions for writing a novel in order to solve a mystery.
Now that I have finished with the book (and my blog post) I will place this in one of the dozen Little Free Libraries in my own town for someone else to discover.
