I'll start by saying ignore the back of the book. The publisher's description is incorrect - although Charlie found the body, he was never one of the prime suspects.

Briar Creek is in an upheaval after a salvage company arrives with plans to dig up Captain Kidd's buried treasure, which can supposedly be found somewhere on Pirate Island. It sounds too amazing to be true, except that Mr. Riordan, the owner of the salvage company, has Captain Kidd's very own treasure map. The treasure hunt could turn Pirate Island into a huge tourist attraction, but it would also cause ecological damage. While Milton Duffy, a well-known and well-liked member of the Friends of the Library, tries to protect the island, Trudi Hargrave, the head of Briar Creek's tourism department, does everything she can to help Riordan's work move forward. Then Trudi turns up murdered, and Lindsey finds herself in the thick of things as usual.

This is probably the best book in the series so far. I loved the way the mystery tied in with Briar Creek's history. If I had one complaint about the way things worked out, it was that it took a lot longer than I expected for Trudi to finally be murdered. Which sounds terrible, but waiting so long for the death I knew was supposed to happen made the book drag a little. Plus, Trudi was kind of annoying.

The fact that Sully and Lindsey were finally dating didn't lessen Sully's appeal. I was happy to see that Sully was still giving Beth rides and waiting to make sure she got into her house okay before driving off. Little things like that really demonstrated that he wasn't just being nice in the previous books in order to spend more time with Lindsey. He also handled the sudden appearance of Lindsey's ex-fiance, John, surprisingly well. I expected aggravating amounts of jealousy, and instead he opted to trust Lindsey, stand back (mostly), and let her deal with John in her own way. Unfortunately,

I continued to like Officer Emma Plewicki - I hope she gets more page-time in future books. The real surprise, however, was Chief Daniels. In the first book he was a stereotypical small town cop, too focused on his initial assumptions to even consider other possibilities. In this latest book, he had visibly mellowed, and I actually found myself liking him.

This was a great entry in the series, although I'm worried about what the ending will mean for the next book. Crossing my fingers that McKinlay doesn't drag this development out too long.

Extras:

• The Briar Creek Library Guide to Crafternoons
• Readers Guide for The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Lindsey's pattern for her cross-stitch sampler ("Books are my homeboys.")
• Recipe for Charlene's cucumber cups stuffed with feta

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)

My gut-level rating is either 3.5 stars or 4. I really liked the way the mystery tied in with Briar Creek's history. John, Lindsey's ex, hanging around was somewhat annoying, but mostly handled in a low-drama way. And Sully continued to be sweet, but, ugh, that ending.

The back of this book makes me wonder how book descriptions get written, because this one is just plain wrong. It states that Charlie becomes the prime suspect in the murder, so I've been waiting for that to happen. There have been two or three prime suspects, but none of them were Charlie.

As of 14 pages ago, we finally have a murder victim. But first:

 

"She holed up in her office planning to work on the staff evaluations that were due to the town's human resources department by the end of the month. She had to evaluate the job performance of each staff member and then meet with them to discuss the evaluation and go over the goals they'd set last year, determine whether they'd met their goals and then assign new ones for the next year." (114)

Evaluations are inescapable, even in fiction. Luckily for the Briar Creek Library folks, no one is forcing them to evaluate themselves.

"She was confident that most of her staff would exceed expectations." (114)

This includes Ms. Cole, despite her ongoing behavioral problems. "Exceeds expectations" is meaningless. But I'm sure that, even in Briar Creek, anything less than "exceeds expectations" results in salary stagnation.

 

"Library school had not really prepared Lindsey for the supervisory portion of her job." (115)

Oof, yes. I feel this.

Now we're moving from digging for treasure on Pirate Island to digging for treasure on Ruby Island, the place where a family died when lightning struck their house and burned it down. Peter Ruby's body was never found.

I have a feeling Riordan, the treasure hunter, is going to be disappointed. Either he'll find treasure and it won't be worth the time, effort, and money he spent looking for it, or he'll discover that the treasure was already found and removed years ago. Maybe by Peter Ruby.