Death in the Margins: A Blue Ridge Library Mystery

Gilbert’s pleasant seventh Blue Ridge Library mystery (after 2021’s Renewed for Murder) finds Amy Muir, the director of the Taylorsford (Va.) Public Library, excited that her husband, Richard, and his dance partner will soon premiere their Folklore Suite at a theater in nearby Smithsburg. Mixing the region’s Blue Ridge Mountain folktales and music to create the dances should be an enjoyable project, but diva Meredith Fox, whose genius for creating enemies rivals her talent for dancing, is making the production a nightmare for everyone, especially her former dance partner and fiancé, Richard. After Amy discovers Meredith’s body backstage, she partners with Chief Deputy Brad Tucker to investigate. Amy digs into the many ways—berating fellow dancers, spurning lovers, and committing darker deeds—Meredith enraged those around her. The dead woman’s possible involvement in the unsolved theft of a valuable painting from a wealthy local family adds suspects to an already busy plot. Indeed, with so many people with so many motives, readers will struggle to keep them all straight. This one’s for fans who have become enamored of a town that evokes Disney’s Main Street, U.S.A. Agent: Frances Black, Literary Counsel. (Dec.)