Murder at the Library of Congress
I was attracted to Murder at the Library of Congress by Margaret Truman because of the title. I am a retired librarian, enjoy mysteries and thought this book would be a perfect fit for me. It is interesting how we pick out books to read, isn’t it?
I was also intrigued because the author is Margaret Truman, the only child of our former president and first-lady, Harry and Bess Truman. This is book 16 in her series called “Capital Crimes”.
Summary:
The somewhat complex plot involves Bartolome de Las Casas, a Spanish Dominican priest, and missionary who sailed with Christopher Columbus. He supposedly wrote a diary about their crossing. Does it exist and where is it located?
Annabel Reed-Smith is commissioned to write about this missing diary for a publication called Civilization. We first meet her while she is doing research in the Library of Congress for the article.
She is stunned and drawn into an investigation when a murder takes place in the cubicle next to her. The victim was a researcher and an employee of the Library of Congress. In addition, one art theft in Miami is somehow tied to the murder.
We learn about a rare-book black market for this diary and meet an overly aggressive TV journalist who likewise keeps getting in the way of the murder investigation. Meanwhile, it seems like everyone is looking for hidden documents to point to this diary and solve this murder.
My review of Murder at the Library of Congress:
I loved reading about this classic institution. Okay, I am a library geek but who doesn’t love the Library of Congress? I do not even want to know if you don’t:-).
Margaret Truman does a great job of explaining how the Library of Congress works. In short, it made me want to go there and spend extended time researching. The description of how research is done is fascinating.
I found the story itself okay, but not great. The mystery is very involved and the writing is fine but not wonderful. At some point, I will probably pick up another of the books in this series. If you enjoy mysteries then you will most likely enjoy this book.
I give it 3 stars out of 5.
- Other mystery books I have reviewed and can highly recommend are:
- Where the Crawdads Sing
- The Girl in the Red Coat
Book Reviews:
Something about the author:
- From the Harry S. Truman Library and Museum.
- From the Encyclopaedia Britannica.