I love libraries and was intrigued by the title. While I
have not yet visited the gracious 42nd
Street Library of
this series, the handsome building is a feature in New
York, serving as a research library. Who could imagine a
MURDER AT THE 42ND STREET LIBRARY among all these
academics?
Author Con Lehane has invented a special collection of
crime fiction, for the story's purposes. I was amused by a
family boxing up all the papers of a deceased cozy
mystery writer and sending them off in the expectation that
the library would want them. Other collections have to be
purchased, sometimes needing a donation of funds. In some
cases, the author is still alive and collects the money.
Cataloguing and preserving all this material is endless
work. And then someone comes along looking to write a
thesis, and the papers have to be produced. In this midst
of all this activity, someone enters and shoots a man who
has just arrived.
The central character is Raymond Ambler. However, he is
usually referred to as Ambler so for a while I was mixed up
thinking that this Amber person was a lady, especially as
another character is Adele. Ambler is a desk-bound
academic, separated, somewhat asexual in middle age with no
relationship at present. One of his colleagues Adele Morgan
has just buried her mother on the day that Ambler witnessed
the shooting, so they try to get over the shock in each
other's company. They find elderly writer Nelson Yates
sitting around bars and parks, with dementia setting in,
and are concerned about his welfare. The library has his
papers, after all.
Quarrels, academic disagreements, funding problems for
running costs, not forgetting plagiarism or the worship of
egotistical lecturers; it's a busy life. Don't imagine that
working for a research library will give you time to read
all day. Adele does get to read through Nelson Yates'
papers, and she becomes concerned for his missing daughter,
who ran away from home. Ambler has his own concerns, nearer
to home.
Naturally, the story doesn't stay in the library building.
We see a good deal of the city and its transportation, the
pleasant sides (Tai Chi, ping pong in the park, the Bronx
zoo) and the unpleasant. This is an adult crime story with
strong language and mature content. MURDER AT THE 42ND
STREET LIBRARY sounds drastic, but don't let it deter you
from visiting New York and enjoying a library. The second
in the series is called MURDER IN THE MANUSCRIPT ROOM,
for those who can't wait to turn the page.
This first book in an irresistible new series introduces
librarian and
reluctant sleuth Raymond Ambler, a doggedly curious fellow
who uncovers
murderous secrets hidden behind the majestic marble façade
of New York
City’s landmark 42nd Street Library.
Murder at the 42nd Street Library follows Ambler and his
partners in crime-
solving as they track down a killer, shining a light on the
dark deeds and
secret relationships that are hidden deep inside the famous
flagship
building at the corner of 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue.
In their search for the reasons behind the murder, Ambler
and his crew
uncover sinister, and profoundly disturbing, relationships
among the
scholars studying in the iconic library. Included among the
players are a
celebrated mystery writer who has donated his papers to the
library’s crime
fiction collection; that writer’s long-missing daughter, a
prominent New
York society woman with a hidden past, and more than one of
Ambler’s
colleagues at the library. Shocking revelations lead
inexorably to the
traumatic events that follow—the reading room will never be
the same.
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