The Body in the Law Library

Hooray! Our book, Death Among the Stacks: the Body in the Law Library, just received a five star rating on Goodreads!

It is the first book that my husband and I wrote together. It is loosely based upon something I witnessed while working at a library. My nieces helped us with the cover: Allison posed as the shushing librarian and her sister took this great picture. I love the way it looks as if the shelving is closing in on her, which was perfect because that is how the victim in our whodunit died.

Here is a description of our murder mystery: Why did an Inspector from the Government Printing Office get crushed between two rows of electronic compact shelving? Find out in this murder/mystery, an Agatha Christie-type whodunit with multiple suspects whom the book's detective assembles together in the final chapter for "the big reveal." Death-by-compact-shelving may seem like a stretch, but it actually almost happened at a library where I worked. You will never look at librarians and library shelving the same after reading this whodunit. 

Only $2.99. Available at Amazon, iTunes, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Smashwords, Kobo and Scribd.  Also available in paperback at Amazon.

Agatha Christie Whodunit

Why did an Inspector from the Government Printing Office get crushed between two rows of electronic compact shelving? Find out in this murder/mystery, an Agatha Christie-type whodunit with multiple suspects whom, in the last chapter, the book's detective assembles in one room for "the big reveal." Death-by-compact-shelving may seem like a stretch, but it almost happened at a library where this book's author worked. You will never look at librarians and library shelving the same after reading it.

Death Among the Stacks: The Body in the Law Library

By Louise Hathaway

Only $2.99 at most online bookstores

Paperback version available at Amazon

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Agatha Christie

I've been watching the new season of Miss Marple on PBS and once again I've been filled with wonder when I see how complicated Agatha Christie's plots are.  Just when I think I've figured out "whodunit", she pulls the rug out from under me once again.  It seems like everyone has a motive in her stories and I love when her Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot, gathers all of the suspects together in one room at the conclusion of the stories and drills them one by one in front of everyone else.

The first book my husband and I wrote together was in the spirit of Agatha Christie.  We took my experiences of working in a library and put together a cast of suspect librarians, each of whom has a motive for killing the U.S. Depository Inspector who comes to see if the library meets the exacting requirements of the depository program.  In our story, the victim dies when the mechanism that electronically opens and closes the compact shelves malfunctions and crushes him.  I was witness to a friend almost getting crushed between them, so it does happen.  I'll never forget her blood-curdling scream; luckily we were able to save her!  You will never look at librarians and library shelving the same after reading our homage to the "Queen of Mystery".

Death Among the Stacks: the Body in the Law Library

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How common are husband/wife writing teams?

I received a special package in the mail today: the first paperback version of our book, "Death Among The Stacks: The Body in the Law Library," which has just arrived hot off the press.  This was the first book I ever wrote with my husband.  Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I'd be writing murder/mysteries, let alone be writing them with my husband.  I'm an English Literature Major and spent years reading long Dickens' novels and complicated essays like Mathew Arnold's "Culture and Anarchy".  I didn't even read mystery novels; but my husband and I both like to watch the PBS Masterpiece/Mystery series. 

We fell in love with the Agatha Christie stories, so I set out to write a mystery about what would happen if someone was murdered in a library by electronic compact shelving.  It's not as far fetched as it sounds: I actually witnessed someone almost getting crushed to death when they malfunctioned.  Even quiet libraries have drama and office politics can get really dramatic, especially when the librarians start pointing their fingers at each other when the police come asking questions.  We tried to make it humorous and a bit of a farce.  Just as in the conclusion in "Murder on the Orient Express," we have our detective gather all the suspects into one room and reveal each person's potential motives in front of everybody else, with the final "big reveal" of "who dunnit" coming at the end.  We asked my niece Allison to pose for the cover as a "sshing librarian". 

Take a look:  Death Among the Stacks: The Body in the Law Library