Author Miranda James eases into the murder mystery in her novel OUT OF CIRCULATION. She introduces all the players, from amateur sleuth Charlie Harris and his famous cat, Diesel, to the half-dozen people who can't stand the victim. When the most hated woman in Athena, Mississippi finally turns up dead, you know the suspects, and any one of them could have done it.

I've spent most of my life in the south, and while a couple of idiosyncrasies must be particular to Mississippi, I recognized many of the customs and character types in this very southern novel. Charlie visits with family, friends, and members of the Friends of Athena Public Library. He soon sweeps the dirt off a few long-buried secrets that make life very uncomfortable for him, but serves to give us more insight into the close-knit and sometimes close-mouthed families in the town.

The first half of the book, I was guessing who the victim and the killer were going to be. I figured out the victim pretty quickly, but even after the murder I wasn't entirely sure who did the deed until near the very end. I like that in a mystery. I very much enjoyed the individuality of the characters -- good and bad -- throughout the story.

This is the first Miranda James novel I've read, but it's the fourth in her Cat in the Stacks series, so if you enjoy OUT OF CIRCULATION as much as I did, your reading list will expand very quickly.

I recommend OUT OF CIRCULATION for fans of mysteries, southern fiction, and books about librarians, as well as any cat lovers.