LATE CHECKOUT by Carol J. Perry

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LATE CHECKOUT
Carol J. Perry

Reviewed by Debbie Wiley
Posted October 3, 2019

October in Salem, Massachusetts, is a busy time of year with all the festivities for the season, attracting tourists aplenty. Unfortunately, this year, it’s also a slow season for Lee Barrett as her hours as a field reporter at WICH-TV have been drastically cut due to a relative of the station manager’s wife needing some broadcasting experience. Lee takes advantage of her extra spare time to put in some volunteer hours at the local library where her Aunt Ibby is a research librarian. Little did she expect to find a dead body in the library, but now she’s smack in the middle of investigating the murder for a story. Can Lee and her boyfriend, Detective Pete Mondello, solve the case?

LATE CHECKOUT is the ninth book in the Witch City Mystery series, but new readers to the series can easily jump right in and enjoy it. There is a slight paranormal twist to LATE CHECKOUT; I haven’t read the other books in the series to know if that’s typical or not. However, the setting itself makes LATE CHECKOUT seem a bit more on the supernatural side.

And speaking of the setting… the setting is perfect, and I love all the festivities Carol J. Perry describes- along with all the detours the locals take to avoid the increase in traffic! The various tv shows with the hosts on-air, including the tarot reading, definitely increase the paranormal factor for LATE CHECKOUT but also work well with the unveiling of the mystery itself.

I also love how Lee and Aunt Ibby use books as well as online research to help solve the mystery. And did I mention the murder scene? A murder in a library is bad enough, but the victim is surrounded by torn and damaged books! As a book lover, I love that Aunt Ibby has a plan to repair the books as well as solving the crime.

LATE CHECKOUT is a fun, slightly paranormal cozy mystery that is perfect to curl up with this Halloween season. I look forward to diving into more of the Witch City Mystery series as Lee, Pete, and Aunt Ibby are a lot of fun solving murders together. If you love cozy mysteries with a hint of the paranormal, don’t hesitate to give LATE CHECKOUT a try!

SUMMARY

A dead ballplayer means foul play in Salem . . .

Field reporter Lee Barrett is not happy that her hours are being cut back at WICH-TV, although it is nice to spend more time volunteering with Aunt Ibby, a research librarian at Salem's main branch. But Lee's least favorite task is going up to the stacks, a spooky, seldom-frequented upper section of the library. On this day she has good reason to be afraid—she finds a dead man, surrounded by hundreds of scattered books and torn-out pages.

Her police detective beau, Pete Mondello, is soon on the scene, and the deceased is identified as a former minor league baseball player—and ex-con—named Wee Willie Wallace, who hasn't been seen in Salem for twenty years. With help from her friend River's Tarot reading, her clairvoyant cat O'Ryan, and Lee's own psychic gifts, she steps up to the plate to catch the killer who took the old ballplayer out of the game . . .