MURDER AT THE 42ND STREET LIBRARY by Con Lehane

"A crime at the heart of a New York research library..."

Murder at the 42nd Street Library

Genres: Mystery | Mystery Amateur Sleuth

Posted: August 5, 2018

I love libraries and was intrigued by the title. While I have not yet visited the gracious 42nd Street Library of this series, the handsome building is a feature in New York, serving as a research library. Who could imagine a MURDER AT THE 42ND STREET LIBRARY among all these academics?

Author Con Lehane has invented a special collection of crime fiction, for the story's purposes. I was amused by a family boxing up all the papers of a deceased cozy mystery writer and sending them off in the expectation that the library would want them. Other collections have to be purchased, sometimes needing a donation of funds. In some cases, the author is still alive and collects the money. Cataloguing and preserving all this material is endless work. And then someone comes along looking to write a thesis, and the papers have to be produced. In this midst of all this activity, someone enters and shoots a man who has just arrived.

The central character is Raymond Ambler. However, he is usually referred to as Ambler so for a while I was mixed up thinking that this Amber person was a lady, especially as another character is Adele. Ambler is a desk-bound academic, separated, somewhat asexual in middle age with no relationship at present. One of his colleagues Adele Morgan has just buried her mother on the day that Ambler witnessed the shooting, so they try to get over the shock in each other's company. They find elderly writer Nelson Yates sitting around bars and parks, with dementia setting in, and are concerned about his welfare. The library has his papers, after all.

Quarrels, academic disagreements, funding problems for running costs, not forgetting plagiarism or the worship of egotistical lecturers; it's a busy life. Don't imagine that working for a research library will give you time to read all day. Adele does get to read through Nelson Yates' papers, and she becomes concerned for his missing daughter, who ran away from home. Ambler has his own concerns, nearer to home.

Naturally, the story doesn't stay in the library building. We see a good deal of the city and its transportation, the pleasant sides (Tai Chi, ping pong in the park, the Bronx zoo) and the unpleasant. This is an adult crime story with strong language and mature content. MURDER AT THE 42ND STREET LIBRARY sounds drastic, but don't let it deter you from visiting New York and enjoying a library. The second in the series is called MURDER IN THE MANUSCRIPT ROOM, for those who can't wait to turn the page.

Book Summary

This first book in an irresistible new series introduces librarian and reluctant sleuth Raymond Ambler, a doggedly curious fellow who uncovers murderous secrets hidden behind the majestic marble façade of New York City’s landmark 42nd Street Library.

Murder at the 42nd Street Library follows Ambler and his partners in crime- solving as they track down a killer, shining a light on the dark deeds and secret relationships that are hidden deep inside the famous flagship building at the corner of 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue.

In their search for the reasons behind the murder, Ambler and his crew uncover sinister, and profoundly disturbing, relationships among the scholars studying in the iconic library. Included among the players are a celebrated mystery writer who has donated his papers to the library’s crime fiction collection; that writer’s long-missing daughter, a prominent New York society woman with a hidden past, and more than one of Ambler’s colleagues at the library. Shocking revelations lead inexorably to the traumatic events that follow—the reading room will never be the same.