The Vanishing Type

Bestseller Adams’s captivating fifth Secret, Book, and Scone Society novel (after 2021’s Ink and Shadows) finds Nora Pennington, the owner of Miracle Books in Miracle Springs, N.C., helping Deputy Jasper Andrews with a plan to propose marriage to bakery owner Hester Winthrop, whose favorite book is Little Women, during a showing of a film version of the Louisa May Alcott novel. On the big evening at the town movie theater, Nora ensures that the film is paused to allow Jasper to get down on his knee and cite a passage from Little Women to support his proposal, which Hester joyfully accepts. The next day, on a hiking trail outside Miracle Springs, an unidentified dead man is found with a copy of The Scarlet Letter in his pocket. The name Hester has been cut out in places. Another similarly mutilated copy of Hawthorne’s masterpiece turns up in Hester’s bakery. Is someone playing a bad joke on Hester or seriously threatening her? Readers will cheer as Nora, an endearingly imperfect protagonist, and her group of dedicated literary friends, each with their own complicated backstories, search for answers. Bibliophilic cozy fans will be in heaven. Agent: Jessica Faust, BookEnds Literary. (May)