Arsenic and Old Books (A Cat in the Stacks Mystery #6)

Author:  Miranda James
Genre:  Mystery

Hardcover; Mass Market Paperback; Audio CD; Paperback (LP); Digital Book
ISBN #:  9780425257296; 9780425277539; 9781452618883; 9781410482273
Berkley Publishing
320 Pages
$18.78; $7.99; $30.52; $26.99; $7.99
February 2, 2016

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Lucinda Beckwith Long, the mayor of Athena, Mississippi, has donated a set of Civil War-era diaries to the archives of Athena College.  She would like librarian Charlie Harris to preserve and substantiate them as a part of the Long family legacy - something that could benefit her son, Beck, as he prepares to campaign for the state senate.

Beck's biggest rival would like to get a look at the diaries in an attempt to expose the Long family's past sins.  Meanwhile, a history professor is also determined to get her hands on the books in a last-ditch bid for tenure.  But their interest suddenly turns deadly, leaving Charlie with a catalog of questions to answer.  Together with his Maine Coon cat Diesel, Charlie must discover why the diaries were worth killing for before he too reaches his final chapter.

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Charlie Harris, librarian, is surprised when Lucinda Beckwith Long, mayor of Athena, Mississippi, appears in his office one day with a bag of Civil War-era diaries written by an ancestor of her husband's.  She wants to donate them and have Charlie preserve them for future reference, and she also thinks it will help her son Beck win an election, although Charlie has no idea how.

He's also surprised when a young reporter, Kelly Grimes, shows up shortly after requesting to see the diaries, and not happy when he tells her that they aren't ready for public viewing as yet.  But then he's stunned when Professor Marie Steverton, a professor in the history department, also shows up and demands access to the diaries.  Again, Charlie tells her she needs to wait but Marie refuses to accept that answer and tells him that she will speak with Mayor Long herself to get access.

Charlie is still nonetheless surprised even more when the mayor calls him and tells him that Marie should have access to the diaries - so they strike a bargain:  give him one week to verify the diaries and then he will allow Marie first access, which seems to work for Charlie.  But before anything can be done, someone breaks into Charlie's office and steals the diaries.

While Charlie is pretty sure the thief is either Marie or Kelly, he has no proof.  And any further questioning of Marie isn't going to happen:  she's killed in a hit-and-run accident the night Charlie questions her.  But stranger still: the diaries are returned to Charlie's office as quickly as they disappeared.

Then Mayor Long appears with another diary in tow, one she insisted was hidden in another compartment in the trunk where her son found the others.  But what this diary contains could change everything for Beck's opponent Jasper Singletary and perhaps change the stakes in the election...but change it enough to kill?

In the end, the story wasn't riveting and it didn't seem to be enough to completely hold my attention.  It was fine as far as mysteries go, but the ending fell slightly flat for me.  Still, I've bought others in the series so I will read them but I won't purchase any new ones that haven't yet been published.

As it is, I've read six books in the series so far and at the least, found them semi-enjoyable, but something has been niggling at me yet I couldn't quite place it - until now.  I've added a spoiler regarding this, and be aware that it concerns all the previous books in the series including this one.  If you haven't read them and don't want to know the outcome, I urge you not to read it.

I have recently noticed after reading the first five books in this series that the women portrayed (aside from those close to Charlie) are always gossips or just plain nasty, evil people (even the 'nice' women have a ruthless streak). Yet when the man is supposedly evil, we never see any of it. In the first one, we are told that Gerald was mean, but never hear any first hand conversations. Ditto with Connor, the director. Only one occasion where he snapped at actors, but then he was defended by Charlie’s daughter Laura as just being stressed and how he was actually a nice person. But yet the women? We are treated to conversations that are anything but nice, and if you look back at the series thus far, you will see this.

The killers? Almost always women when statistics show that most murderers are men; all you have to do is read a newspaper to know this. But not in his books. Then there was the one time that a man who killed someone was unexpectedly ‘thrown into’ the story - and I say thrown in because we didn’t see him at all nor have any conversations with anyone, and he was only involved because his mother was...the killer. HE didn’t even have any reason to kill anyone, and it didn't make sense.

Of the two 'nice' women: his daughter Laura is so sweet to be almost saccharine; and Helen is alright; she's a baker who spent time in France learning to bake. Soooo....at random moments she spouts French phrases. Really? She's not French. Who does this? It seems pretentious somehow, especially in a small town, to just throw out foreign phrases if you're not a foreigner. What is supposed to be cute is annoying and pompous. (as in: 'I spent time in France. Have you?')

But what bothers me the most is we never get to know the male victims - we are told they’ve done horrible things, but are never privvy to any real conversations, yet with the women we’re given conversations and actions that go on for pages. When male victim #1 was killed, we were told of his bad actions, I never saw anything evil that he did to deserve dying. For male victim #2, he seemed like a nice man (he was nice to Charlie) even though we were told how horrible he was to everyone, but again didn't see any of it. When male victim #3 was killed, he had a bad temper, which directors often do. Nothing he did warranted death. We're not privvy to any real conversations that show us how truly horrible they are. But when the women are victims, there are conversations containing threats (even against his cat), physical violence, women screaming at Charlie, etc., as if to show us how bad these females are and how they deserve their fate. It's almost as if the author doesn't like women and has to put it to page to show us how truly disgusting they are.

Since I have several more books in the series (which I wish I'd never bought) I will finish them; but just out of curiosity, I glanced at the next in the series to see who the murderer was - and I wasn't surprised at all when I read it. Draw your own conclusions.

If you've read the spoiler, then perhaps you'll understand why I'm not thrilled with these books.  As I stated above, I've already bought a few more in the series (which I often do ahead of time) so there may be more reviews to come.  Please be aware that these are my own personal observations and my own opinions.  I am also aware that there are others who will disagree, and that's perfectly fine; there's always hope in a series that it will get better, so we will see.

https://www.amazon.com/Arsenic-Old-Books-Stacks-Mystery/dp/0425277534/

Goodreads:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2295975910 

More on Miranda James's Books:  https://www.fantasticfiction.com/j/miranda-james/