Due or Die by Jenn McKinlay

Title: Due or Die

Author: Jenn McKiinlay

Series: #2 in the Library Lover's Librarian Mystery series

Genre: Cozy Mystery

Publisher: Berkley (March 6, 2012)

Source: Purchased

Rating: ☕☕☕☕

Synopsis: Answering tricky reference questions is excitement enough for library director Lindsey Norris. Until a murder is committed in her cozy hometown of Briar Creek, Connecticut, and the question of who did it must be answered before someone else is checked out--for good.

My Thoughts: A good cozy with interesting characters. 

The Good, The Bad, and Everything Else: I'm partial to books with a library setting so this series is right up my alley. An added bonus was to have a group within the book actually discussing books. I loved this. I've read books in the past with the same theme, yet no books are really talked about during the course of the book. It's quite frustrating really.

I thought the murderer was fairly easy to figure out, but most cozies aren't super difficult to figure out the whodunit. It would have been nice if more red herrings had been thrown in rather than one giant glaringly easy to see red herring the author used. It is sad when a mystery book has the reader more interested in the personal relationships between the characters than the actual murder plot. Of course, the murdered victim was only introduced briefly, and we definitely were not supposed to like him. For once I'd like a cozy mystery introduce us to a lovely person that we cared about and then bumped them off. Would this go against the cozy code? Probably.

I liked how Lindsey's potential relationship with Sully is moving forward and it's really sweet. However, I disliked her flippant attitude with going on a date with the new guy in the book because it's super obvious Lindsey and Sully are going to be together. Some might argue the author's way of ensuring we know Lindsey and Sully are supposed to be together is a bit clunky and lacks finesse but when an author spends more time on their characters, I spend more time enjoying it. Tis the life of a character driven reader. Plot becomes secondary (don't hate on me LOL). Anyway, back to the topic of introducing someone new as a potential match to Lindsey creates an unnecessary love triangle and I am not a fan of those (one of the reasons it's taken me so long to read past the 8th Hannah Swensen book by Joanne Fluke to tell the truth.) I hope the books don't continue with adding more love interests as the series progresses because I'm really wanted to read more of them and would have to shelve them on principle.

In a Nutshell: Of course, I'll read the next book. Potential love triangle aside...there are books, crafts, a library, an adorable puppy named Heathcliff (whom I forgot to mention until now), and a hawt man named Michael Sullivan. Yep, I'm hooked.