Hayley Burke, curator of Lady Fowling's collection of first edition mysteries, is settling into her position at the First Edition Library in Middlebank House. She's even made progress with Lady Fowling's former secretary, the ornery Miss Woolgar. The women are busily preparing for an exhibition that will showcase Lady Fowling's life and letters. Hayley knows the exhibition is a huge undertaking and decides, against her better judgement, to hire Oona Atherton, her former boss from the Jane Austen Centre to help with the planning.
Oona is known for being difficult, but all seems to be going swimmingly until she and Hayley uncover a one-page letter that alludes to a priceless edition of MURDER MUST ADVERTISE signed by several Golden Age of Mystery authors. Oona feels this book could be the focal point of the exhibition and becomes obsessed with finding it.
When they find clues that appear to point to the book being somewhere in the First Edition Library, Oona is certain she's unraveled the mystery and texts Hayley the good news, but upon arriving back at Middlebank, Hayley finds her old boss dead at the bottom of the stairs. Did her discovery of the rare book get her killed or was it some angry shadow from her past? Hayley must read between the lines to catch a malicious murderer.
Hayley Burke is moving on with fundraising ideas for the First Edition Library, starting with a set of literary salons and she hopes to also have an exhibition showcasing the life and work of Lady Fowling, The latter suddenly is brought into sharp focus when Hayley is allowed to take a cancellation at the best exhibition place in Bath. the problem being that the cancellation is only 3 months away! Luckily Hayley manages to get the board's agreement and also she manages to hire Oona Atherton, a rather irascible and yet brilliant exhibition manager. The problems start over though when Oona is killed in a life imitating art method aligning with the killing in Murder Must Advertise, now Hayley needs to try and get the replacement manager to commit to a decent plan, help the police find the killer, oh and find a book signed by all the Detection Club members!
The fact that her male friend's twin (24 year old) daughters seem to be anti Hayley is the least of her worries at the moment! Can she keep sane, get the exhibition dealt with and have time to spend with Bunter the cat?
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