A nice second installment in the "Cat in the Stacks" series that manages to be fresh and natural-feeling continuation of Charlie's and Diesel's life without falling into a rut. Obviously there is still a murder involved, but the manner, focus, approach, and result are different. Charlie the Librarian's personal life and his involvement with the murder all twine together nicely. My only complaint is that the dialogue between Charlie and his broody son Sean is a little too on-the-nose when they have an argument and the resolution wraps it up a little too neat. Also, the wealthy and eccentric Delacorte family is a little TOO weird...in the sense that they aren't quite believable as characters, feeling more one-dimensional than the others. But it's a minor complaint in an otherwise quite enjoyable cozy mystery. It's also nice that, while you really should read the first book beforehand, I could see someone picking up the second book first and not getting lost. I look forward to continuing the series. James Delacorte believes someone is stealing from his rare book collection. He asks Charlie to help him do an inventory to find out which books are missing. Even after meeting James Delacorte's family, Charlie agrees to help him. On the first day of working for James Delacorte, Charlie finds him dead. Someone in his family killed him. Charlie is sure of that. It's going to take Charlie's cat, Diesel, to solve the mystery. Also Charlie's son Sean, makes an appearance. I really enjoyed reading this book, kept me guessing who the killer was!
