Award-winning cozy mystery, first in a series of mystery novels about feisty Oklahoma librarian Juanita Wills, judged best mystery novel in contests held by Oklahoma Writers’ Federation, Inc., and Panhandle Professional Writers.
Synopsis:
In BOOKMARKED FOR MURDER, the beating of a gentle minister inside his church and threats against her Vietnamese neighbors launch nosy but kind-hearted librarian Juanita Wills on a quest to learn who is shattering the peace in her small Oklahoma town. Defying her longsuffering policeman boyfriend Wayne’s prohibition against amateur sleuthing, the heroine of this witty “cozy” whodunit decodes a mysterious cipher bookmark, goes on “stakeout,” tracks a secret local militia, and even finds danger while volunteering for charity. A “war” of quotes posted in her office by sparring assistant librarians Mavis and Meador seems harmless fun to Juanita until Meador’s quotes take a decidedly sinister turn. Ultimately she must face down a killer menacing both her and a teenaged friend.
Read excerpt… from BOOKMARKED FOR MURDER
Reviews:
“BOOKMARKED FOR MURDER is beautifully written and richly detailed. Librarians make such intelligent sleuths!”
– Linda S. Bingham,What the Librarian Heard
“Move over, Cassandra Mitchell, Helma Zukas, and Jordan Poteet; Juanita Wills has joined you at the checkout desk! Today’s libraries are not quiet, safe havens and librarians aren’t shy folk, afraid to face the dangers their inquisitiveness may bring their way. Librarian Juanita Wills takes on the local militia, racism, murder and the petty squabbles of the library staff in a mystery that mixes the coziness of small town mores with the hard-boiled edge of big city crime. But forget about a bookmark-–you won’t stop reading long enough to need one!”
– Jeanette Larson, Librarian, Austin (Texas) Public Library
“Juanita Wills is reminiscent of Anne George’s Southern Sisters, and the cultural tone of BOOKMARKED FOR MURDER is Southern with an Oklahoma twist.”
– Sharla Frost, Texas attorney and mystery fan