Library director, Christopher Wolfe, suffered an incapacitating stroke and Liesl Weiss is named interim director for the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections at a Toronto university. Under her leadership two prized items have been discovered missing. One item is a Plantin Polyglot Bible which was published between 1568 and 1573. The other is a Peshawar manuscript, an early mathematical document that was found in 1881 in Pakistan. The Plantin was a recent acquisition thanks to generous donors who want to see the item. Is it misplaced or was it stolen? A library staff member is suspected of the thefts when she goes missing. Police are eventually called in to locate the missing staffer and hopefully find the missing documents.
This is an interesting account of fundraising in academic libraries. For a Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, donors are essential and need to be wined and dined. That seemed to be the main focus for library director, Christopher Wolfe, and he was very good at his job. On the other hand Liesl Weiss was content to work behind the scenes and was contemplating retirement. The interim director position is forced upon Liesel with at least 3 mysteries to solve.
An intriguing premise for a debut author.
~Emma
Read it or Weep 