Read and Gone (The Haunted Library Mysteries #2) by Allison Brook

Seven-million dollars' worth of missing gems bring Carrie Singleton's long-lost and larcenous dad back into her life and it's up to Carrie to clear his name.

A devoted dad is as precious as diamonds, but Carrie Singleton wouldn't know since her dad Jim's been on the lam most of her life. In an unusual family reunion, she finds Jim breaking into her cottage in the middle of the night. The fun really starts when he begs her to help him recover his half of a seven-million-dollar gem heist he pulled off with the local jeweler, Benton Parr. When she refuses, Jim takes off again.

Carrie finds her father again behind bars for the recent murder of Benton Parr. Who made the connection? Unbeknownst to her, Carrie's boyfriend Dylan, an insurance investigator, has been searching for the gems. Determined to find the jewels herself, she starts examining every facet of Parr's life. She turns up a treasure trove of suspects, one of whom bashes her on the head as she's searching the victim's country cabin.

Retreating to the quiet confines of the library where she works, Carrie watches as Smokey Joe, the resident cat, paws at a hole in the wall. Is he after the library's ghost Evelyn, or something shinier?

If you liked the writing style and mystery in Death Overdue, Read and Gone is for you. Brooks is consistent in her tone, characterizations, and mystery reveal in book two of the series.

Read and Gone picks up right where Death Overdue left off. Allison Brooks didn’t move ahead/fast forward at all. The reader learned of Carrie wanting to have a house warming and birthday party hybrid in the first book. Book two opens with the party. All of the library staff (minus one character I’m pretty sure you can guess...Dorothy) were there to celebrate Carrie, along with her cousins, aunt, uncle, Jared and his new girlfriend Jillian, and Dylan (Carrie’s sort of boyfriend). I was happy to see Jillian left Ryan (Jared’s rude older brother), but I think she can still do better than Jared. Slowly moving up the boyfriend later. Jared is an okay guy, I did appreciate the fact that he promised Carrie he would help with decorations and even though she dumped him (right after they were almost murdered by Helena in book one, talk about bad timing) he kept his promise.

Dylan and Carrie are on good footing at the beginning of the story. Carrie is super happy with how her life is going. Alert. Alert. That is the moment in any story in which things then go horribly wrong. Enter, Carrie’s estranged father, Jim.

Carrie’s father shows up in the middle of the night. (And I do mean the middle of the night, he lets himself into her cabin, while Carrie is sound asleep, and enters like he has every right to. Talk about strange and inappropriate.) He stole rare and expensive gems with a partner, Benton Parr. Apparently, the pair decided that Benton should keep the gems for a little while to ensure their safety, except he never gave Jim his half of the heist. Jim wants Carrie to help him find the gems so he can get his fortune and leave for South America. The next thing we know, Benton is dead and Carrie’s father is the prime murder suspect. Dun. Dun. DUN!

Carrie finds out that her lovely boyfriend Dylan was investigating her father and the gems. Dylan is an insurance investigator and one of his clients were the gem’s owners. Carrie loses it. She gets so mad at Dylan. She thinks he was using her and never really cared about her. This causes a huge rift in their relationship.

Although Carrie isn’t her dad’s biggest fan, she doesn’t think he’s capable of murder. To help clear his name, she decides to find out who killed Benton. As it turns out, that is no short list. Benton was a longtime womanizer, having numerous affairs. His daughter and wife are not pleased with his behavior. The most recent lover (who happens to work at the library’s cafe) becomes a suspect on Carrie’s list. Then there are the people who want the gems, which is somehow an even longer list. Brooks did not hold back on creating an intricate suspect pool. Man.

Just like Helena killing Laura, her husband, Al, and attempting to run Jared and Carrie off the road at the end of Death Overdue, the killer in Read and Gone doesn’t hold back from violence. Soon after Benton dies, the creepy investigator is killed, Benton’s wife is murdered, and Carrie is attacked (she gets hit in the back of the head twice). Carrie’s father, Jim, is attacked but that was by the creepy investigator who dies soon after (if Jim wasn’t in the hospital for that murder, he would have been a suspect). This cozy mystery is cozy, but also a little dark (luckily, all the attacks take place off the page with the exception of Carrie’s since the book is told from her perspective).

I was happy to see Carrie making friends and a life. Her aunt and uncle wanted her close by and Carrie is making the best of things. Her life at the library is going well. She has close friends in Angela and Sally as well as an adorable cat, Smokey Joe. Her drifter ways are behind her. I thought it was a nice touch to see Carrie wanting her father to put roots down, too. She wanted him in her life and hoped to create a closer family dynamic.

I will admit I was annoyed at Carrie a few times throughout the book. The library is doing a secret Santa and she is super ridiculously annoyed that Dorothy is her person. This is brought up a lot throughout the novel. At one point I was like, just buy her a candle and call it a day. But Carrie got Dorothy a thoughtful gift, a silk scarf in her favorite colors. When Dorothy opens the gift, you can tell she appreciates it which is nice. The other annoying moments involved Carrie and Dylan. He clearly looks at Carrie with hearts in his eyes. I think Carrie was looking for a reason to push him way more so than actually believing he was using her to get closer to her father. He asked about her father once. That was it! As her boyfriend that isn’t exactly atypical, wanting to know about your significant other’s family. In my reader opinion, Carrie got scared at their closeness and used this as her reason to push Dylan away. Being the good guy that he is, Dylan doesn’t let Carrie get away with that. They resolve their relationship drama. But I could have done without the prolonged nature of the drama. It felt angsty to me.

I was happy that Dylan told Carrie he loved her. By the end of the novel, their relationship was on super solid ground. SPOILER Dylan spent the night at Carrie’s, with it being a small town, every finds out about them taking their relationship to the next level the very next day. Small town gossip mills at their finest.

MINOR SPOILER
Carrie sort of confronts the killer at the end. (It wasn’t planned. Carrie wanted to keep an eye on him and keep him from getting away.) This is a person killed **three** people. This is not someone to trivial with. Carrie steps in to prevent him from attacking someone else, but, my goodness, not smart. Luckily, Dylan and the cops are on their way and help her out. Carrie was smart enough to call them before intercepting the bad guy.

RANDOM COZY THOUGHT
Smokey Joe is the best library cat ever. There are mice in the library and Sally tasks Smokey Joe with getting rid of them. While on his hunt, he learns how to manipulate the library cafe patrons into giving him food, having his cute routine down pat. Carrie didn’t want anyone feeding Smokey Joe, but he had other ideas. During his cuteness shakedown for food, Smokey Joe leads Carrie to the gems; they were hidden behind the cafe counter under a grate. Technically, Smokey Joe moved the mystery along. Evelyn might be Carrie’s sounding board for solving things, but Smokey Joe knows how to move the mystery along. He is a sleuther in his own right. #smokeyjoeforthewin

Have you read Read and Gone? What did you think?