OUT OF CIRCULATION by Miranda James

"The toughest part of solving a wealthy harridan's murder is narrowing down the long list of suspects"

Out Of Circulation

Posted: August 12, 2015

Author Miranda James eases into the murder mystery in her novel OUT OF CIRCULATION. She introduces all the players, from amateur sleuth Charlie Harris and his famous cat, Diesel, to the half-dozen people who can't stand the victim. When the most hated woman in Athena, Mississippi finally turns up dead, you know the suspects, and any one of them could have done it.

I've spent most of my life in the south, and while a couple of idiosyncrasies must be particular to Mississippi, I recognized many of the customs and character types in this very southern novel. Charlie visits with family, friends, and members of the Friends of Athena Public Library. He soon sweeps the dirt off a few long-buried secrets that make life very uncomfortable for him, but serves to give us more insight into the close-knit and sometimes close-mouthed families in the town.

The first half of the book, I was guessing who the victim and the killer were going to be. I figured out the victim pretty quickly, but even after the murder I wasn't entirely sure who did the deed until near the very end. I like that in a mystery. I very much enjoyed the individuality of the characters -- good and bad -- throughout the story.

This is the first Miranda James novel I've read, but it's the fourth in her Cat in the Stacks series, so if you enjoy OUT OF CIRCULATION as much as I did, your reading list will expand very quickly.

I recommend OUT OF CIRCULATION for fans of mysteries, southern fiction, and books about librarians, as well as any cat lovers.

Book Summary

Everyone in Athena, Mississippi, knows Charlie Harris, the librarian with a rescued Maine coon cat named Diesel. He's returned to his hometown to immerse himself in books, but when a feud erupts between the town's richest ladies, the writing on the wall spells murder.

The Ducote sisters are in a tiff with Vera Cassity over the location of this year's library fundraising gala, and Charlie would rather curl up in a corner than get into the fray. It seems everyone--even his housekeeper Azalea--has it in for Vera. And at the gala, she gives them good reason, with a public display of rancor aimed at anyone who gets in her way.

But those bitter words wind up being her last. When Charlie discovers Azalea standing over Vera's dead body, it's up to him--with a little help from Diesel--to clear Azalea's name, and catch a killer before his last chapter is finished.