Coulter, Catherine. The Edge (New York: Putnam, 1999) 388 p.

The narrator of this thriller tracks a suspect to the Salem, Oregon Public Library.

Once inside you forgot how ugly the outside was. It was airy, lots of lights, the floor covered with a turquoise carpeting. The shelves were orange. Not what I would have picked, but it would keep students awake. (p. 78).

Here he finds Laura Scott, the senior Reference Librarian.

I took one look at her and felt a bolt of lust so strong I had to lean against the nineteenth-century English history section. ... She was slender, tall, and even though her suit was too long and a dull shade of olive green, it simply didn't matter. She'd look great in a potato sack. Her hair was made up of many shades of brown, from dark brown to a lighter brown to ash blond. It was all coiled up and smashed close to her head with lots of clips, but I could tell that it was long and thick. Lovely hair. I wanted to throw all those clips in the wastebasket under her desk....

Actually Laura Scott looked restrained, very professional, particularly with her hair scraped back like that, and she shimmered. (p. 79).

It turns out that Laura is not a real librarian, but an undercover drug agent. She claims, nonetheless, to have become a pretty good reference librarian.