Review: Murder at the 42nd Street Library by Con Lehane

The book opens with one murder and a seeming attempted murder. Librarian and curator of the crime fiction collection, Ray Ambler, finds himself working to solve the crime alongside Detective Mike Cosgrove. That's only the first murder and just the beginning of the lives who will be touched by these crimes.

There are a lot of connections between characters that are using the library. Ambler discovers these and slowly makes Detective Cosgrove aware of them.

It's a good murder mystery. The story moves along at a steady pace. There are a lot of coincidences including a major one at the end of the book. There is a romantic subplot, but it doesn't really get much page time as such. It is more about building the relationship between the people than really an out and out romance.

On the one hand, I enjoyed the story. On the other hand, I felt like the pace was on the slow side and didn't vary much. And the number of coincidences seemed high. The last coincidence in question comes across as an extremely convenient way to wrap things up.

I give this book 3 stars out of 5. It's a good murder mystery, but mostly slow and has an abundance of coincidences.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.