Curran, Terrie. All Booked Up (Toronto, New York: Worldwide, 1989) 219 p.

The Smedley Library, a small research institution in Metropolitan Boston, is losing rare books. More puzzling, it is gaining worthless copies of Tottel's Miscellany, a 16th century anthology of English verse. The library is inhabited by the usual stereotypes with some interesting twists. Edwina Gluck is the dour, skeletal circulation librarian who's goal is to prevent books from falling into the hands of patrons. Winifred Sisson is the reference librarian but is too timid to play much of a part in the story. Dr. Sara Tewksbury, the assistant director, is the most well developed character (no pun intended, read on). Sara sports a pair of "braless breasts" and likes to dress in a colorful eye-catching manner, although she probably overdoes her accessories. She doesn't get along too well with the director and had to sue the library for her job, but she is the competent administrator who holds things together. The director is Giles Moraise, a short fat toad of a man who hates all of his subordinates and turns out to be dishonest. Cyril Prout, the rare books curator, is bald and timid but professional and dedicated. The first victim of murder is the library's auditor, Leon Boehm. Predictably, none of the staff are too sorry about his death. The library is also inhabited by an entertaining assortment of patron's including researchers, a little old lady, and a young pimply-faced man whom no one realizes is a library employee. Anyone who has worked in a library will find something here that rings true.