Today is two for one day.

Abbott, Jeff. Promises of Home (New York: Ballantine Books, 1996) 271 p.

We get small glimpses of Jordy's library work one again. He does the layout for a library newsletter. He listens to "a very eager salesman from Austin ... pitch unaffordable booktracking software" (p. 24). He is lenient with "no coffee" rules and overdue book fines. We also learn of "a terror so complete, so utter, and so deep that no adult should have to withstand it.

Friday is Story Day. The kids start arriving about eleven-thirty. And once they're inside their volume controls never seem to get adjusted. Games of tag in the stacks are extremely popular, as are attempts to smuggle in crayons, either for vandalism or a delicious prelunch snack. The periodicals section, usually habituated by the elderly, clears out faster than an after-hours beer joint when the sirens approach. Whoever said old folks crave the company of children needs to come into this library on a Friday and see how spryly these eldsters get away from the little tykes." (p. 32-33)

-------. Distant Blood (New York: Ballantine, 1996) 334 p.

Another Jordan Poteet mystery, but the library doesn't really enter into this one.