Book Series Rec
Aug. 10th, 2007 07:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cinaedIf any of you on my flist enjoy murder mysteries, check out Jo Dereske's Miss Zukas series. The first book is Miss Zukas and the Library Murders.
Summary: Meet Miss Zukas . . . the very proper, exceedingly conscientious, and relentlessly curious local librarian of tiny Bellehaven, Washington—and one heck of an amateur sleuth!
The Bellehaven police are baffled when a dead body turns up right in the middle of the library's fiction stacks. But Miss Helma Zukas—who never fails to make note of the slightest deviation from the norm of everyday life—is not willing to let this rather nasty disruption stand. Her precious literary sanctuary has been violated, and if the local law cannot get to the bottom of this case, Miss Zukas certainly intends to—with the help of her not-so-proper best friend, Ruth, a six-foot-tall bohemian artist with a nose for gossip and a penchant for getting into trouble. But their research project is bringing them a little too close to a killer . . . who'd like nothing better than to write Helma and Ruth out of the story completely!
My thoughts: It's just a really clever, interesting series. The author is a former librarian herself, and her love of books and knowledge comes across in the series. Helma Zukas is the female equivalent (albeit admittedly a less annoying version) of Monk, and her best friend Ruth is fascinating. It's a quieter sort of mystery series-- there's not as much sex, but plenty of intrigue and fascinating characters.
Summary: Meet Miss Zukas . . . the very proper, exceedingly conscientious, and relentlessly curious local librarian of tiny Bellehaven, Washington—and one heck of an amateur sleuth!
The Bellehaven police are baffled when a dead body turns up right in the middle of the library's fiction stacks. But Miss Helma Zukas—who never fails to make note of the slightest deviation from the norm of everyday life—is not willing to let this rather nasty disruption stand. Her precious literary sanctuary has been violated, and if the local law cannot get to the bottom of this case, Miss Zukas certainly intends to—with the help of her not-so-proper best friend, Ruth, a six-foot-tall bohemian artist with a nose for gossip and a penchant for getting into trouble. But their research project is bringing them a little too close to a killer . . . who'd like nothing better than to write Helma and Ruth out of the story completely!
My thoughts: It's just a really clever, interesting series. The author is a former librarian herself, and her love of books and knowledge comes across in the series. Helma Zukas is the female equivalent (albeit admittedly a less annoying version) of Monk, and her best friend Ruth is fascinating. It's a quieter sort of mystery series-- there's not as much sex, but plenty of intrigue and fascinating characters.
