Meet Miss Zukas, the very proper, exceedingly conscientious, and relentlessly curious local librarian of Bellehaven, Washington. The Bellehaven police are baffled when a dead body turns up right in the middle of the library's fiction stacks. But Miss Helma Zukas - who never fails to make note of the slightest deviation from the norm - is not willing to let this nasty disruption stand. If the local law can't open the book on this case, Miss Zukas certainly intends to - with the help of her not-so-proper best friend, Ruth, a six-foot bohemian artist with a nose for gossip and a penchant for trouble.

This is the first entry in the 12-book series originally published by Avon/HarperCollins.