Crooked Lane
Published August 4, 2026
Reviewed by Meredith Frazier
Author Victoria Gilbert spent more than 30 years as a librarian, so it’s no wonder she is able to capture the normal, day-to-day details in the life of her character Amy Muir. Those details create a nice balance to the other side of Amy’s life, that of amateur sleuth. So while Amy juggles time with her husband and twins, researches questions for library patrons, cleans house, and pets her cats, there’s also always a line of tension running beneath the surface—and sometimes erupting right into the midst of Amy’s life.
In Death on the Books, the latest in Gilbert’s Blue Ridge Library series, a man stumbles into the library and dies on the very first page. Amy, of course, is immediately involved but tries to keep a bit of distance from what turns out to be a murder. However, Kurt Kendrick, godfather to Amy’s twins, was the murdered man’s host, and the more Amy learns about the victim, the more ties to people Amy cares about turn up. By the time a second death occurs, Amy is well and truly in the thick of the investigation, especially when it seems that her Aunt Lydia may hold a clue to a lost Fabergé egg and is, therefore, in grave danger.
Although there are a number of recurring series characters, Death on the Books is easy to read as a standalone. Amy and her family are all well-developed characters, but this is a plot-driven novel, and the plot is satisfyingly complicated. And while the pacing and general life in Taylorsford is gentle enough, there are some truly bad players at work, which makes the murders believable. At the same time, the level of threat posed by some of the characters does make it a bit unbelievable that a librarian could pull off a coup, but for the most part, it’s easy to go along with the situation. The murderer is a surprise because Gilbert does a lot of misdirection, but that, too, seems to work. Overall, Death on the Books is an entertaining addition to a long-running series, and Amy Muir proves she’s a character with plenty of staying power.