No, I don't mean Librarians who work in Cozy Libraries! I mean…. cozy mysteries that feature sleuths who just happen to be librarians, also. (Or should I say sleuths who sometimes are librarians?!?) Here is the list of the cozy mystery authors (on the Cozy Mystery Site) who keep us entertained with librarians:
Jeff Abbott: His Jordan Poteet Series features a librarian in Texas…
Deborah Adams: Her Jesus Creek Mysteries feature volunteer librarians…
Lydia Adamson: The Lucy Wayles Series features a retired librarian…
Claudia Bishop: Hemlock Falls Series has one less librarian, and one more inn….
Lillian Jackson Braun: No, The Cat Who *** Series is not about a cat librarian… but Jim's friend Polly fills that part…
Elizabeth Lynn Casey (aka Laura Bradford): Southern Sewing Circle Mystery Series… Tori Sinclair is a librarian/sleuth who is also a member of the Sewing Circle in South Carolina…
Shirley Damsgaard: Ophelia of the Ophelia and Abby Series fills the librarian position…
Jo Dereske: Helma Zukas of the Miss Zukas Series is the librarian in this series…
Amanda Flower: The India Haye Mystery Series features a college librarian…
Jeanne Glidewell: The Lexie Starr Mystery Series features an assistant librarian…
Charlaine Harris: Her Aurora Teagarden Series revolves around Aurora, a librarian…
Patricia Harwin: The Far Wychwood Mysteries' retired librarian moves to England to be close to her daughter…
Marion Moore Hill: Scrappy Librarian Mystery Series…
Miranda James (Honora Hartman, Jimmie Ruth Evans, & Dean James): Cat in the Stacks Mystery Series…
Sofie Kelly: Magical Cats Mystery Series…
Jess Lourey: Her Murder by the Month Mysteries feature a librarian/reporter…
Charlotte MacLeod: Her Peter Shandy Mysteries quickly added Helen, the librarian, to the list of main characters…
Jenn McKinlay (aka Lucy Lawrence): Library Lover's Mystery Series…
D. R. Meredith: Megan Clark, from the Murder by the Yard Series, is the librarian…
Miriam Grace Monfredo: The Seneca Falls Historical Mystery Series features a 19th century librarian…
Shirley Rousseau Murphy: Her Joe Grey Cat Series features Dulcie, the library cat…
Elizabeth Peters (aka Barbara Mertz, Barbara Michaels): The Jacqueline Kirby Series features an ex-librarian who now is a romance novelist…
R. T. Raichev: Antonia, from the Country House Mystery Series, is not only an author, but also a librarian…
Ian Sansom: The Mobile Library Mystery Series follows sleuth Israel Armstrong in Northern Ireland…
J. B. Stanley: The Supper Club Mystery Series features an ex-professor who currently is a librarian/sleuth…
Fran Stewart: The Biscuit McKee and Marmalade Mystery Series has a librarian/sleuth
Judith Van Gieson: The Claire Reynier Mystery Series…
Gayle Wigglesworth: Claire Gulliver Mystery Series…
Eric Wright: The Lucy Trimble Brenner Series revolves around a librarian who inherits a detective agency…
♦To access more Cozy Mysteries by Theme click on this link.♦
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Don’t forget R. T. Raichev’s Country House Mystery series. Antonia is a librarian in the Military Club when we first meet her in “The Hunt for Sonya Dufrette.”
Mary Ann,
Thanks for the reminder! I am going to go add Raichev to the page right now… (Which will make our comments look a little odd… since I’m adding that series after the fact!)
I have just finished the fifth Megan Clark book by D.R. Meredith. Do you know if she is still writing these? I do like the wasy she has written the series. Thanks.
Hi Dennis,
I tried to find out about D. R. Meredith, and came up with nothing, nada, zilch… Sorry about that! Hopefully, a site reader will know the answer.
(I always feel bad when I am not able to track down information… But, I have found that actually writing the author’s last known publisher is not very fruitful… actually, it’s not at all fruitful!)
YAY! I love to see my fellow librarians in books! Thank you for this fantastic website!
Hi Suzanne,
And a big thank you to all the librarians out there!
(Let’s face it, our love for books probably started way back when we got to make our weekly visits to the libraries at our elementary schools…)
How about adding a “law enforcement” theme..police officers, lawyers, judges, bounty hunters, park rangers, private detectives?
You might add “and educators” to librarians. When I was helping at the circulation desk at our library a woman was checking out a “Miss Zukas”. I told her that series was one of my favorites, and although she agreed it was good, she said she preferred a series about a college professor. Because the library was so busy, we didn’t have a chance to chat, and all the information I got was that the professor was an older man. I have not been able to find a series about a college professor, and I would like to read something like that.
Hi Sue,
Thanks for all of the theme ideas. I have some of them already started (I compiled a list a while back… going through each of the authors on the Cozy Mystery Site.)
Also, I wonder if she wasn’t referring to J. B. Stanley‘s Supper Club Mystery Series…
Maybe it was the Peter Shandy series.
Definitely could be Charlotte MacLeod’s Peter Shandy series… Sorry, I misunderstood… I thought it had a library tie-in…
Sarah Shaber does an academic cozy about a college professor in Raleigh, North Carolina. They are called the Professor Simon Shaw mysteries.
Hi Karen,
I have Sarah R. Shaber on my “teachers theme” list… and I really should get that done… Thanks for reminding me!
Anyone ever heard of Bonnie Chesterfield? Not sure if she is the author or the librarian?
Thanks so much!
Hi Kate,
The best I can come up with is this:
Lorna Barrett‘s Bookmarked for Death mystery novel has a character in it named Fiona Sample who supposedly writes the Bonnie Chesterfield, librarian mystery series…
There is mention above to Peter Shandy (series by Charlotte MacLeod). His wife Helen is a librarian.
– lss-r
Yes, Lynn, you’re right… Helen is a librarian in the Peter Shandy series…
Whatever happened to Jo Dereske? I love her books (both series), but it’s been a long time since there was a new one. (Of course, I want a new book each month by my favorite authors. lol) Thanks!
Janie, I just went to Jo Dereske’s home page and this is a direct quote:
“FAREWELL,MISS ZUKAS, the twelfth and –gulp – final Miss Zukas mystery will be available in June, exact date to be determined. It will be available in both paper and as an ebook.”
I can’t remember the author or the name of the main character, but she’s a retired librarian who lives outside a town in Ohio. She has a horse that she keeps in a corral on her property. She has a good friend who is also retired–I don’t think there’s a romance between them but he helps her solve mysteries. It’s very well written & there are several books in the series. Sorry that I can’t recall any more info’.
Ann, I have copied and pasted the information you gave us into my “blogs to write” list. Hopefully, I will get to it soon…
A new series: Miranda James writes Cats in the Stacks with a librarian and cat. 2 books have been published so far.
Thank you, Alicia, for reminding me to add Miranda James to the list. Good grief! I am getting more and more forgetful now that my piles of notes are getting higher and higher.
Thanks, again… I am going to go add Miranda James to the lists of librarians… and cats!
Actually, I just checked and see that at least I remembered to add Miranda James to the Cats in Mysteries list…
Hoping someone can help me. I’ve been searching for years for a book I read around 1969 or thereabouts. A woman goes in search of her sister, taking her cat with her. The cat likes a saucer of beer once in awhile. The woman develops pleurisy and has her ribs taped up. When she finally locates her sister, it turns out that the sister is the ‘bad guy.’ The woman might be a librarian (not sure) and she drives an old car (might be a volkswagen, not sure).
Dell Shannon’s character “Louis Mendoza” would give one of his cats a shot of rye! These were great books. I loved these books and the story lines. The characters were down to earth. The plots were very interesting. The character building were great. This was a great series of crime solving by people that did become my friends. I hated when some of them were either killed off or moved on. Great seriers. One of my all time favorites.
Sue, the mystery book you have described doesn’t ring a bell for me, but I have copied your comment and put it into my “BLOG” file. I will post a future entry asking for help on your specific book.
Danna, Ed McBain and his 87th Precinct series aren’t ‘Cozy’s?
Linda, I don’t know if Ed McBain’s 87th Precinct series is Cozy or not… I haven’t read any of them…
Danna, I don’t think the Ed McBain series could be classified as ” Cozies” either. I found.this author listed in the police proceedure section of murder mysteries on the internet. But I started reading these several years ago. This series has a very good character development theme to it. Dell Shannon also wrote this type of series. I enjoyed both of these series very much.
What do you know about:
Linda S. Bingham – What the Librarian Heard
Thanks for any information. I enjoy your blog!!!
I was a childlren’s librarian in Pittsburgh and Honolulu over 50 years ago. Then a special education teacher.
Sorry, Eleanor, I’m not familiar with Linda S. Bingham.