Shadow in the Glass by M. E. Hilliard

Shadow in the Glass (A Greer Hogan Mystery, #2)

by M. E. Hilliard

Murder rocks a wedding celebration at an idyllic lakeside home—and librarian-turned-sleuth Greer Hogan could be next on the killer’s guest list in this second exciting installment, perfect for fans of Louise Penny.

Librarian Greer Hogan is on hand to celebrate her old friend Sarah Whitaker’s nuptials at the Whitaker summer home on beautiful Mirror Lake, just outside the upstate New York village of Lake Placid. But Greer has an ulterior motive—to gather information that could reopen the investigation into her husband’s murder, a crime for which she believes an innocent man went to prison. Her plans come to a shuddering halt when a wedding guest goes missing and turns up dead in the lake. The guest, Brittany Miles, was an employee of the Whitaker family whom Sarah had long suspected was up to no good at work.
 
The police have no leads, but Greer—an avid reader of crime fiction who possesses an uncanny knack for deduction—begins her own investigation. She learns that the victim was seen with a mystery man right before she disappeared. Then the autopsy reveals that she didn’t drown in the lake after all, but in the reflecting pool in the Whitaker garden.
 
The suspect list is as long as the guest list itself, with no apparent motive. Now, Greer must rely on the wisdom of her favorite fictional detectives to tease out truth from lies—and keep herself out of the killer’s sights.

Reviewed by annieb123 on

4 of 5 stars

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Originally posted on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

Shadow in the Glass is the second book of a new cozy series featuring a librarian by M.E. Hilliard. Released 5th April 2022 by Crooked Lane, it's 336 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. Paperback out in 1st quarter 2023. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.

This is a promising second book from a new author who has worked as a librarian and seems to have a similar background in high-end retail fashion as protagonist Greer. The librarian-dog-cozy-murder-smalltown-mystery sub-subgenre is always fun and this is a nice addition to the promising start in book 1. The murders are off-scene and mostly bloodless, there's no graphic content, the language is fairly clean, the characters are (mostly) likeable and intelligent and there are a plethora of suspects and lots of red herrings. I got a slight Agatha Raisin vibe. She's smart and fashion conscious and sophisticated as well as vulnerable and not so perfect that she becomes insufferable.

Since it's a librarian cozy, there are of course book tie-ins and title name-dropping. One of my favorite features of librarian cozies is the suggestions for titles, series, and authors with which I was previously unfamiliar. I found a couple of good ones in this book to follow up on as a nice bonus. I suspect most of the titles and series mentioned will be familiar to most readers. The Mary Roberts Rinehart mention was especially nice, and I've been revisiting her oeuvre because of the mention, especially since she was a local author for me, albeit departed before my time.

The climax and denouement are well done. It's a fun, slightly melancholy cozy and full of the things which we all love about small-town cozies. Sadly in this installment landlord Henri barely gets a look-in, and Pierre, the adorable French bulldog is entirely absent. I hope they figure more prominently in the next book.

Four stars. Highly recommended to fans of the genre.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes

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