Twelve Angry Librarians

Finished April 2

Twelve Angry Librarians by Miranda James

This is the eighth book in the A Cat in the Stacks series which features librarian Charlie Harris and his Maine coon cat Diesel. I've previously read the fourth book in the series Out of Circulation and the fifth book, The Silence of the Library. 

The books are set in the small town of Athens, Mississippi, and here Charlie has been working as the interim director of the Athena College library. Normally he works in archives and rare books, and he had a career in the public library in Houston. Charlie returned to Athens after the death of his wife, and both of his children live and work nearby. 

As the book opens, it is a few days before the Southern Academic Libraries Association conference which the college is hosting, and Charlie is learning that he will have to make a short speech at the opening ceremony. He is dismayed to find out that the keynote speaker, Gavin Fong, is a man he can't stand, a man he went to library school with, and had a run-in with back then. He is even more dismayed to find out Gavin has applied for the library director position. 

As Charlie looks up what Gavin has been up to since they last me, he finds a pattern of short-term positions. When he sees that a couple of papers cited have other library school friends as co-authors, he decides to contact them to see if they are coming to the conference and if they have any more information on Gavin. 

At the conference Charlie finds out there are a lot of people who don't like Gavin, so when Gavin dies suddenly many people come under scrutiny, including Charlie. 

Diesel shows up often in the story, as Charlie takes him most of the places he goes, including to work, and out in public Diesel is usually on a leash. Diesel serves as a sounding board for Charlie when he thinks out loud, and sometimes inspires a useful idea.

This is an enjoyable series and I like the library content that is included. Gavin makes for an easy character to dislike, and the investigation is one that leads in interesting directions.