Transcript

Welcome to Mystery Books Podcast, where you’ll discover new mystery books and authors. I’m USA Today bestselling mystery author, Sara Rosett. I’m also a bookworm who specializes in the mystery genre. I love sharing my favorite mystery discoveries, from classic Golden Age novels to contemporary cozies. This episode is all about The Librarian Always Rings Twice by Marty Wingate. The Librarian Always Rings Twice was published in 2022, and it’s the third book in the First Edition Library series.

Blurb

All right, here’s the blurb and interestingly, it is written from the point of view of the main character, Hayley.

It has been nearly a year since I took up my position as curator of Lady Georgiana Fowling’s collection of Golden Age of Mystery writers’ first editions at her library in Middlebank House. I have learned that I need to take the good with the bad. The good: I have finally convinced Mrs. Woolgar to open up the collection to the public one day a week. The bad: although he would not be my first, or even tenth, choice, at the insistence of the board Charles Henry Dill, Lady Fowling’s unscrupulous nephew, is now my personal assistant.

So that gives you a good summary of the set up of this book. All right, so let’s talk about first about the setting and a little bit more about the characters. It’s set in Bath in the UK. And there’s such a rich history around Bath. I really like that aspect of this book.

As far as the characters go, we’ve got the main character, Hayley Burke. She’s the curator of the Library of the First Edition Society.

Then we have Mrs. Woolgar, and she is prim and perfect. She is the exceptional secretary, and she’s also the keeper of the flame of devotion to the society’s founder. And that would be Lady Georgiana Fowling, and she was a society philanthropist and a writer.

Then we also have Charles Henry Dill, and he wants more of the money that came from the estate. He is Lady Georgiana’s nephew, and he really feels like he should have inherited everything and is not above some unscrupulous acts to see that he gets a little bit more of her inheritance.

Okay, so that’s the set up. And then we have the stranger turning up and making claims that threaten Lady Fowling’s legacy, and that is John Aubrey. And he’s making these claims which kind of stirs everything up, and then a murder happens, and then Haley, of course, has to investigate.

Themes and Tropes

So the themes of the story, there’s lots of layers, I would say. In this story. You’ve got the story itself. Lady Georgiana Fowling, she was also, besides collecting first edition mysteries from the Golden Age writers, she was also a writer herself. And so we have the stories and characters she was writing. So we’ve got the main story going on. Then we’ve got the fictional story within the story.

And there are quite a few references to Frenchman’s Creek by Daphne Dumourier. Lady Fowling was obviously impacted by this book. And so there are references to that throughout the story and influences of that in Lady Fowling’s writings. That aspect of the story, we have lots of Gothic elements, very similar to the elements found in Frenchman’s Creek. We have the coaching inn, the moors, grasping characters and smugglers. So there’s lots of allusions to that within the story. So a lot going on on the literary landscape there, both within the story and within the stories within the story.

Another theme of this is identity and image and legacy. That’s three, actually, but they all blend into one major theme. Because the appearance of this man stirs up questions about Lady Fowling’s relationships in the past, her legacy. And did the people that they thought they knew her best, did they not know a certain aspect of her personality? Did she have relationships in other family that they didn’t know about? And if she did, does that change how they feel about her or her legacy or how people will think of her? So, some interesting things to reflect on there.

Okay, so let’s talk about the tropes. Some of these we’ve already mentioned, but I’ll list them here because some of them are so good. The first is books about books with the library setting, this private library of first editions of Golden Age authors. There are just so many references to Golden Age fiction, Golden Age authors. If you enjoy reading Agatha Christie or Margery Allingham or any of the authors of that time, you will really enjoy this book.

Another trope is the story within the story. As we’ve already mentioned, Lady Fowling’s short stories and novels feature this dashing detective character. And we get little snippets of her stories woven into the narrative. And so we get to see the main mystery of what’s going on. And then we have this mystery of what was happening in Lady Fowling’s past. And then we also have her stories that she’s written. And that’s an interesting question. How much did her life impact her stories? How much did her stories reflect what was going on in her life? That’s something that scholars and readers debate about all the time. So very interesting aspects to this story.

Another trope is the classic mystery writers. We’ve got many references and allusions to the Golden Age of fiction.

Another trope is the perfect secretary, Mrs. Woolgar. She is a flashback to another age, even in her clothing style. And she’s just the epitome of the perfect secretary.

And then the last trope that I listed was the Inheritance Trope. This appearance of John Aubrey makes everybody question Lady Georgiana’s legacy and also possibly the inheritance in the way the library is set up. His appearance definitely threatens the status quo.

The Story Behind The Story

All right, a little bit about the story behind the story, some fun facts. This is from Marty Wingate’s website. It says she prefers on the ground research. And she and her husband also travels regularly to England, Scotland. This is a quote where “She can be found tracing the steps of her characters, shopping for tea and a slice of Victoria sponge in a cafe or enjoying a swift half in the pub.” So it sounds like she likes to lean into research and I completely understand that.

Recommendations

Okay, so some of read-a-likes for you. If you enjoy this book, then you would probably enjoy the other series from Marty Wingate. She’s got several series that she writes, and they’re all set in contemporary times with the UK setting. The first one is the Potting Shed series. In the book one in that is called The Garden Plot. And then she writes another one, the Birds of a Feather series. And the book one, and that is The Rhyme of the Magpie. So that’s a gardening and a birding series.

If you like Bath as a setting, then check out the Kurland St. Mary Series. Book one, and that is Death Comes to the Village by Catherine Lloyd. And that is set in Regency England, so that’s a historical, but it’s set in Bath.

And then I’ve also written a book set in Bath and it’s called Death in an Elegant City. And that is a modern day cozy set in Bath, and it is part of the Murder on Location series.

Now, if you like Bath and you’ve been there and you want to kind of revisit it, or if you have never been there and you want to see some of these things that are being written about, you could check out the TV show called McDonald and Dobbs. It is on BritBox, and it features an odd couple detective pairing, an older man and a younger woman. And he has a different investigation style than she does. They’re with the police in Bath, and they investigate crimes in Bath. And you get beautiful scenery of the city and the surrounding area in that show.

All right, if you’re interested in books about books, I’ve listed a couple of that are a little bit older, but you should be able to find these if you search the library or used bookstores or online used bookstores. The first is Death’s Autograph by Marianne Macdonald. And I believe that’s in audio and print only.

And then there’s another one called The Maltese Manuscript by Joanne Dobson, and it’s book one in the Professor Karen Pelletier series. And I believe there’s only one of her books is in ebook, and that’s this one, The Maltese Manuscript.

And her books, so both of these series, you can get your fill of themes about books, and books about books, mysteries about books in these series. The first one, Death’s Autograph, is about a woman who is a rare book dealer in England. And then the second one, The Maltese Manuscript, is a series that features an English professor, and she’s always getting involved in literary mysteries.

So my question for you this week is, do you like books about books? If you do, and you have one that you like to recommend, let me know. You can find me on Instagram @SaraRosett. No H on Sara and no E on Rosett. Or you can leave a comment on the show notes for this episode, which will be at sararosett.com/librarian.

I hope that this podcast has let you revisit a favorite book or perhaps helped you discover a new author to try. If you’ve enjoyed this podcast, I hope you’ll tell a fellow mystery reader. Thanks for listening, and I’ll see you next time. Bye.