The Broken Spine
Trudell Becket, known to her friends as Tru, finds herself in a bind when her library in lovely Cypress, South Carolina, is turned into a state-of-the-art bookless “technological center.” A library with no books breaks Tru’s book-loving heart, so she decides to rescue hundreds of beloved tomes slated for the town dump. Under the cover of darkness, Tru, along with her best friends, coffee shop owner Tori Green and mysterious bestselling author Flossie Finnegan-Baker, set up a secret bookroom in the library’s basement and prepare to open it to their most loyal, trustworthy patrons.
But as Tru and her crew are putting the finishing touches on their new book room, the town manager, who was behind the big push for the library’s transformation, is crushed by an overturned shelf of DVDs. Tru becomes the prime suspect as she hadn’t hid the fact that she hated having all of those wonderful books replaced by tablets and computers. But if she gives the police her alibi, she’ll have to explain about the secret book room and risk losing the books.
Tru knows she’s in a heap of trouble, and it doesn’t help that the officer in charge of the case is her old crush from high school, who broke her teenaged heart. To keep herself out of jail and her beloved bookroom up and running, Tru, with the help of Tori, Flossie, and a brown tabby stray cat named Dewey Decimal, decides to investigate. And faster than you can say “Shhhh!” Tru quickly finds herself on the same page with a killer who would love to write her final chapter.
Series: A Beloved Bookroom Mystery – Book #1
Author: Dorothy St. James
Genre/Category: Cozy – Amateur Sleuth/Library
Publisher: Berkley
Page Count: 320
Rating: 
The Broken Spine has some interesting moments, is written by a seasoned veteran, and has a great plot. Unfortunately, it also has a main character that isn’t very likable, has anger issues, and is on the childish side. The fact that she wants to save print books at the library she works for is terrific, but no one, no matter how much they love books, would risk going to prison for murder if they had an alibi they could prove. This is the main drawback in this story for me, other than Tru herself. I love books, print books imparticular, I would be heartbroken if someone took my books away, especially to the dump. But Tru is obsessed and enraged beyond the norm.
There is no appeal to me of an all-digital library, and apparently, many people in real life and in Tru’s world agree. But when the man behind the change from print to digital is murdered at the library, and Tru is the first person on the scene, even though she shouldn’t have been, Tru becomes the prime suspect. In and of itself, this is a great start to the book; I love the idea of the secret library. It’s only normal for Tru to want to save the books, be angry and even try to find ways to stop the wanton destruction of books. But the way she goes about it causes people to wonder if she isn’t a killer or mentally unbalanced. There are, of course, other suspects, and the killer wasn’t hard to figure out. The motives varied quite a bit from person to person, but in the end, it became apparent that this motive was as old as time.
I am interested to see where the author can take this series. The main characters need to grow and quickly to become more likable. I enjoyed the interaction between the stray cat, Dewey, the library patrons, and Tru; he may even have been the best character in the story. I enjoyed Tori and Flossie but did not care for the detective who is looking like Tru’s love interest. I love the idea of a secret library within a library; I think all libraries should have one. The Broken Spine needed more work, and the characters needed more depth. A plot centered around the love of books can quickly destroy a series if it is the only thing the characters and future books are based on; I certainly hope this is not the case with this new series. I hope that Tru matures in the next addition, becomes more likable, and learns to deal with her past and insecurities.
There are some fantastic library-based cozy series that have been around for a while, and I highly recommend that readers check them out. A couple of suggestions would be Nora Page’s lovely “A Bookmobile Mystery” series or Miranda James’ fantastic “Cat in the Stacks Mystery”.
About the Author:
Mystery author Dorothy St. James (Dorothy St. James is the alter-ego of award-winning multi-published author Dorothy McFalls ) was born in New York but raised in South Carolina. She makes her home on an artsy island community in South Carolina with her husband, a crazy dog, and a fluffy cat. Though writing has always been a passion for her, she pursued an undergraduate degree in Wildlife Biology and a graduate degree in Public Administration and Urban Planning. She put her educational experience to use, having worked in all branches and all levels of government, including local, regional, state, and federal. She even spent time during college working for a non-profit environmental watchdog organization.
Switching from government service and community planning to fiction writing wasn’t as big of a change as some might think. Her government work was all about the stories of the people and the places where they live. As an urban planner, Dorothy loved telling the stories of the people she met. And from that, her desire to tell the tales that were so alive in her heart grew until she could not ignore it any longer. In 2001, she took a leap of faith and pursued her dream of writing fiction full-time.
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