The Department Of Rare Books Review

The Department Of Rare Books and Special Collections
By Eva Jurczyk    

There are several keys to a good mystery. It includes an enticing problem to solve, suspects, clues scattered for the detective – and reader – to solve,  and a satisfying conclusion. The problem is solved, the clues used to figure out what happened are revealed, and the solution is satisfying.

The Department Of Rare Books and Special Collections is a good mystery.

Liesl Weiss is called back from sabbatical after her boss suffers a stroke, and she temporarily takes over supervising the rare books department at a large university library. She quickly discovers that the library’s most recent acquisition is missing, The university president doesn’t want donors upset by the disappearance of the Plantin and does not allow Liesl to bring in the police. It’s up to Liesl to find the book and keep the donors from finding out about the missing book and library scandals that are uncovered in her investigation. The staff, including Liesl, are hiding big secrets, but do any of their secrets connect to the mysterious disappearance?

The mystery makes sense. The characters’ actions and motivations make sense and are consistent. The plot unfolds well and leads to a solid tying up of loose ends. It succeeds as a good basic mystery.

What keeps the book from being a great story is the amount of exposition. I’ll read a paragraph of lovely exposition…but there’s another one. Then another one. I ended up skimming some of those passages because I was tired of saying “we get it” during a lengthy exposition. The author has a nice writing style that I easily connected with, but I think it would have been more effective in smaller doses. Too much exposition draws attention away from the plot.

Overall, I liked The Department Of Rare Books and Special Collections, and I look forward to reading more of Eva Jurczyk’s books.

Thanks to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for a copy of the book.