The Best Cellar: A Werner-Bok Library Mystery

Werner-Bok Library Mysteries #3

by Charles A. Goodrum

While on the trail of a missing graduate student, Crighton Jones, Steve Carson, and Edward George uncover historical treasures as well as murder

Genres: Mystery, Fiction

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1987

About the author

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/wash...

Of Springfield, Virginia, passed away on Friday, September 21, 2012 at his residence. Beloved husband of Donna Belle Goodrum; devoted father of Christopher Kent Goodrum of California, Julia Belle (Peter) Freitag of Wake Forest, NC and Geoffrey Paul Goodrum of Alexandria, VA; loving grandfather of Gregory, Rachel and Tristan Freitag.
He received degrees from Wichita University and Columbia University. Following graduation, he was hired by the Library of Congress and became the librarian of its Congressional Research Service. In ensuing years, he became the CRS's Director of Research, and later the Director of the Office of Planning and Development for the Library as a whole until retirement.

Reviews

[Bev · Rating 3 out of 5]

In 1981 scholars discovered letters and other documents that seemed to indicate that the original Library of Congress, thought to be destroyed in 1814 when the British burned the White House, Capitol Building, and the Library, may have been saved. At the time, Thomas Jefferson offered up his personal library to replace the books thought lost to the fire and was generously reimbursed. The evidence implied that Jefferson's friends may have created the need for the books, thus also creating a way to funnel funds to a man desperately short of cash.

Enter Charles Goodrum, a former director of planning at the Library of Congress. Using the story as a backdrop for his novel The Best Cellar, he decides to have a graduate student at a Virginia University make the discovery. Durance Steele comes to Washington D.C. to search for the final supporting evidence before she confronts a mysterious someone with her knowledge. She takes up residence in Crighton Jones's spare room. Crighton is the public relations officer at the Werner-Bok Library and no stranger to murder and mayhem. When Steele does not come home after leaving one morning to take revenge on the academic types who had badly burned her, Crighton is a bit worried. As Steele tells her host, "This is an important day for me. I've been working on this for two solid years. This is the pay-off....I'm off for a drive and if I've worked the puzzle right I come back rich and even." She doesn't come back...rich, poor, or otherwise.

Then Crighton intercepts a threatening phone call meant for Durance followed by a letter in the same vein. She decided it's time to try and trace the movements of her missing guest. She calls upon the services of her partners in previous crimes, Steve Carson and Edward George. Using the resources of the Werner-Bok and the Library of Congress as well as their contacts in the research world, the three are able to cut a search that took Durance two years down to size--leading them to the home of one of Virginia's oldest families. Will they be in time to find the missing graduate student? And will they find a missing library along the way?

This is a fascinating mystery--good plot and plenty of juicy historical details sprinkled throughout the narrative without giving the appearance of an info-dump. Library mysteries are almost as addictive for me as strictly academic ones and it is obvious that Goodrum has worked in the field. It's very interesting to watch the researchers do their stuff and use it to solve a 200-year-old mystery, not to mention that of the present day. ★★★

***Finished at 11:30 pm. Last review of 2016.

First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting. Thanks.

[Millie Bentley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was fascinated by the historical part of the story. Having read Dewey Decimated many years ago, I knew I had to read this one too. My husband and I work in a lighthouse in California whose first keeper in 1956 was Theophilus Magruder. I am very curious to find out if his father, in one source listed as Patrick and another as George, could be any relation to the librarian of Congress. More research is involved.

[Lila · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the third in the series, so the character development is weak, but the focus on librarians, archives, and American history is excellent. Here the possibly of a hidden first or original Library of Congress, pre-Jefferson, forms the background.

[Pat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good story and layers of mystery, both modern and historical.

[Andrea Molinet · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very clever book, with enough facts to create in me a desire to find the lost books of Jefferson's library.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The three sleuths who've solved Werner-Bok library crimes in the past--retired librarian Edward George, public relations whiz Crighton Jones, and historian Steve Carson--band together again to find a missing woman who claims to have information that will throw the historians in turmoil. Her track leads to a well-preserved Tidewater Virginia plantation, and some unsavory information on one of the Founding Fathers.

[Krista the Krazy Kataloguer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not quite as good as Dewey Decimated, but I loved the library setting.

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty crummy dialogue, underdeveloped characters almost sink this biblo-mystery but an interesting plot and great settings saved it for me.

[Regine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Flimsy.