The Book Case - An Emily Lime Mystery #1

Yet another new series!  I know, I know - I certainly have enough series that I read on a regular basis, so why am I adding another? Well, let's face it - the title is clever enough (The Book Case - so many meanings there!), a female protagonist, a mystery set in a boarding school, and a mystery involving books ("A break in. A librarian detective. A missing book with the key to it all." This tag line is a definite hook for mystery fans like me!). Add all of those up, and they equal a certain-to-be-entertaining mystery that I couldn't pass up. 

There is one thing I should clearly note up front - while the book is advertised as an Emily Lime Mystery - that is not exactly the case. While Emily Lime is in the book, and as the assistant librarian at St. Rita's School for Spirited Girls, she is most certainly involved in the mystery, she is not the true protagonist of the book. Daphne Blakeway, a young girl who was expelled from her last school and has come to St. Rita's on a scholarship to be the assistant assistant librarian, is the true protagonist of the tale. It is Daphne who the readers follow through the story, and it is Daphne who truly figures out the clues to ultimately solve the mystery (even though she is merely Emily's assistant-in-training for the school library).

Author Dave Shelton introduces his readers to the unusual and, in many cases, threatening and off-beat world of St. Rita's School for Spirited Girls, and the readers get to discover its oddities and eccentricities right along with Daphne.  Like the large crater in the driveway at the front of the school.  And the broken panes of glass in the second story windows, having been broken from the motorcycle incident (don't ask!).  And the peeling wallpaper throughout the hallways of the school. And the large hole in the floor of the girls' room upstairs that happened when Marion's cannonball fell threw it (again - don't ask!). And the magnificently large library, with a maze of bookshelves - - shelves that are all empty save for the nearly complete set of Smeeton Westerby mysteries by J.H. Buchanan (hardly proper reading material for already troubled girls - but that's a whole 'nother story...)

Oh, yeah, and there is the mystery, too...

It starts with something innocent enough - as Daphne is boarding the train that will take her to St. Rita's a mysterious stranger gives her a book to return to the school library - Scarlet Fury, a Smeetong Westerby mystery.  Unsure what to do, she takes it.  On the train however, she receives strange looks at the subject matter, so she trades the dust jacket with a children's book she has brought with her.  Oh, any mystery fan will tell you that is a huge signal that something is going to come of that - and sure enough, it does!  It seems someone is willing to break into St. Rita's, trash the library, and for what?  What are they looking for?  And what does Daphne's book have to do with it?  Of course, when a fellow student steals the Scarlet Fury book (well, not really, since she switched dust jackets, but, hey, that's all part of the fun of this mystery!), Daphne begins to realize that something is clearly important about that book.

Meanwhile, she has to prove herself to the assistant librarian, Emily Lime, in order to be taken on as the assistant-assistant librarian.  Plus, she has somehow endeared herself to pudgy George, who also helps out in the library.  Soon enough, it's Nancy, Bess and George...er, oops...I mean Emily, Daphne, and George (hey, at least I got one name right!) on the case, as they set a trap to try and capture the culprit who is breaking into the school.  And how in the world is a bank robbery connected to all of this?

Shelton writes a magnificent mystery with fun, eccentric, wacky, and all the time enjoyable characters that will keep every reader turning page after page to see just how all of this is going to turn out.  I just hope that Emily, Daphne, and George return for more mysteries, and this is not just a one-off story!

RATING:  10 scratched enamel badges out of 10 for creating a unique new sleuthing team that keeps reading mystery stories fun!