The premise really had potential. Unfortunately, the execution was less than stellar. It gave me anxiety how everyone was expecting the (literal) impossible from this poor woman. To the point where I didn't even care who did it, I just wanted her to get out of there. The writing was fine. In the end I just didn't care about the main plot.

When her boss suffers a stroke, Liesl steps in as the interim director of the rare books department at a Toronto university. Preparing for an event showcasing the latest acquisition, six volumes of the Plantin Bible, for university donors, Liesl discovers the bible is missing. At first she believes that the volumes have been misfiled, but comes to realize that the bible has been stolen. Is the thief one of her coworkers? Secrets are uncovered as Liesl learns more about her coworkers. Appearances can be deceptive.
Thanks to NetGalley for a copy.

A death occurs; a rare book goes missing; discussions about fellow employees, good and bad takes place, which all leads to something more mysterious; whodunnit? Sometimes, chapters are a little confusing because they jump from 10 years earlier, then Forty years earlier. Sometimes, a fun read, then a bit slow. Give it a try. It may be your cup of tea.

Ahhh I wanted to love this one and was looking forward to it, but for some reason I had a really hard time getting in to it. I went back to it twice to try again, thinking it was maybe just my mood at the time, but I couldn't do it!! I'm sorry :(.
I'll have to try again maybe later in the year, as I have seen some good reviews.

Thank you for the advanced copy!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an electronic copy to read I'm exchange for an honest review.

There is something about this book that is just so beguiling. The writing seems stilted but it sucks you in to the characters and the story. I love the atmosphere of a scholarly library and a peek behind the scenes of rare collections. I'll be thinking of this one for a long time to come

This was a fascinating read. I felt though, that it had difficulty deciding what it was. Was it a bibliophile's mystery? It works quite well as this, and the sections that fit into the mystery category flow quite well. Was it a story of a woman trying to create space for herself in a male-dominated academic environment? It definitely is that, and sometimes that story gets in the way of the mystery flow.
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Readers of Robertson Davies or Margaret Atwood will recognize the academic characters here. In fact, at times, I wondered if there wasn't a nod to la Atwood herself in one of the characters. If you are familiar with U of T spaces, there will be recognizable settings here. The main character is quite compelling, but at times she is almost too pulled in too many different directions.

This was a denser read than I expected from the cover blurb, and the main character turned out to be quite a bit older than I originally envisioned her to be. I enjoyed the writing, and the academic intrigue, but felt that some of the characters (Miriam and her spouse, in particular) weren't as well developed as they might have been. There are a rather lovely bunch of interesting personalities in this book, and I would have liked to know more about them.

Staff in the university’s rare books and special collections library are blindsided when their director suffers a disabling stroke. Veteran librarian Leisle steps in tentatively to fill her bosses shoes. However, her slight awkwardness turns to horror when she discovers the library’s newly acquired priceless manuscript is missing. The university president refuses to call in the police and Leisle is left to try to determine which of her trusted long term colleagues may have been behind the inside job. Things go from bad to worse when another manuscript is found to have been replaced with a facsimile. Everyone, including Leisle, has secrets that may be revealed as she struggles to relocate the manuscripts before donors suspect or the books themselves are damaged. Mature interesting characters with engaging backstories and the most appealing subject, rare books and their study, make this novel a treat.

It has always been a dream of mine to work in the rare books department in the LOC. What a dream read! It combined all my favorite elements. Books, mystery, and great character development. It was a fabulous read!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book.
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In all honesty, I do not think that I was the target audience for this title. The synopsis had me intrigued, but the pacing was too slow for my taste. I found the central character somewhat tedious, and I was never fully pulled over on to her side. That said, perhaps those who work in the educational and historical library systems will find humor that went over my head, and others will have more fun puzzling out the mystery. I don't think that my opinion will reflect that of all readers, so will avoid publication on retail sites out of fairness to the author and publisher.

The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections follows Liesl Weiss as she adjusts to her new interim position as Library Director. As she struggles to live up to her predecessor's legacy, rare materials and employees start to go missing. The people around her aren't willing to call the police and spook the donors, so she decides to solve the mysteries herself.
The idea of this book is great. There is so much potential to play with the idea of missing materials in a rare book library. However, I didn't love the execution so much.
As someone who worked in a rare book library, the setting of this book made me very happy. I loved that the author took the time to explain the office and stacks and the type of people who worked there. It transported me back in time. I also thought this book did a good job with the red herrings sprinkled throughout. I did not see the end coming but everything made sense in hindsight, which is always a good thing for a mystery book.
With those things said, I had a hard time sympathizing with Liesl in general. She was getting pushed around and bullied by her employees and coworkers, and she just took it. As a woman in academia, I know she had to have a backbone, but we didn't see her step up until the last 30-40% of the book.
The plot twist was also underwhelming to me. I did not see the culprit coming, but I don't often read mysteries, so those who frequent mystery stories may see it coming a mile away. While the whodunit made sense to me, the additional plotlines related to the culprit didn't feel necessary to me. If felt like an afterthought and more like a random office scandal than anything.

I would recommend this book to library lovers, but I'm not sure that the mystery aspect holds up by itself.

Thank you to Poison Pen Press and Netgalley for my ARC copy in exchange for an honest review!

I received an advance copy of The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections by Eva Jurczyk (publication date 1/4/22) from NetGalley, and I am so glad that I did! What a wonderful novel. The setting - the rare book room of a university library - vied with the the story itself for my attention and appreciation. Liesl Weiss, the department’s acting director , is a terrifically written and unique protagonist and the solving of the whodunnit - a stolen manuscript - comes together beautifully with a few extra surprises at the end. Some of the sentences were so gorgeous that I found myself reading them aloud to savor them all the more. Brava to the author. Highly recommended. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections describes how college librarian Liesl Weiss involuntarily takes over as head of the department when her boss falls ill, just as rare, valuable and recently acquired manuscripts go missing. As she strives to do the right thing in trying to find the manuscripts, she encounters issues of secrecy, sexism, and classism while at work. Meanwhile in her personal life, she is faced with an empty nest, a deteriorating marriage, possible troubles with mental health/alcoholism, and feeling like she didn't live up to her goals and dreams in life, as she wondered "what if'" she had made different choices in love and life.

Much like libraries, this book is a quiet mystery and it unfolds slowly. I continued reading as I wanted to discover more about these flawed but interesting characters and their stories. I did anticipate most of the twists that were revealed, but there were a few small surprises that remained at the end. The ending concluded with satisfying results for the main characters and some progress in the leadership in the department to bring it into a more modern, diverse era. I do wish there would have been bit more clarity in how Liesl came to conclude her choices in her private life were the correct ones and the path on which she wanted to continue, as it just seemed to be stated with no real contemplation on her future options.

What book lover doesn’t love books about books? The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections is the perfect novel for people who love books. The story was mostly fast paced, but I did find myself getting bored at some of the slower parts. Overall, the book was interesting and a good time!

This one was a miss for me, but I feel like it has potential for others. I could not get into this book and found it very easy to put down. Often times I think this simply comes down to a reader/writer mismatch. Sort of like dating. The chemistry just wasn't there for me. Books about books and reading and libraries are catnip for me so I am glad I gave this one a shot. But like other reviewers have mentioned it's just kind of a bummer to read and given the world we currently live in I have a hard time willingly reading anything that's much of a downer. Overall, the plot, characters and pace aren't bad. Just not for me. I will definitely keep this in mind for my fellow book loving patrons.

This book had me at “[Liesl] discovers that the library's most prized manuscript is missing”.
Although I honestly thought that this book would have more of a mystery solving plot line that it actually had, it was a really great read.

The characters felt real and believable in their motivation, but a lot of the times it felt like they talked in circles instead off the real problem and thus letting the problem continue instead of finding a solution earlier on.

But all in all, it was an interesting read with insight into the inner workings of a college library and its rare book collection

Liesl Weiss is called back to the library where she works early in her year’s sabbatical. She had taken a year off to write a book about ancient landscaping practices, but the library needed her. The director of the university library has had a stroke, and his latest acquisition hasn’t even been insured yet, and the university president is wanting to show it off to the donors.

Liesl believes the acquisition, a six-volume Plantin Polyglot Bible, is in the safe. But her boss had just changed the combination to the safe, and he hadn’t told her the new combination before he fell into a coma. But Liesl is smart enough to know that she couldn’t tell the university president that, so she defers and deflects until she can get her hands on the Bible. But when the director’s wife shows up at his office with the new combination for Liesl, she is met with worse news—the safe is empty.

Liesl wants to go to the police, but she is discouraged by most everyone from the university. The president and her coworkers in the library tell her not to report the missing books, despite their half-a-million-dollar price. They’re worried about embarrassing the university and the library in front of their colleagues, and (more importantly, at least to the president) to the donors.

There is the possibility that the Plantin was just shelved somewhere by accident, so Liesl starts looking through the stacks, one shelf at a time, to try to find them. But the more she looks, the more she is convinced that the volumes are not in the library. They were stolen.

So when the quiet librarian Miriam stops showing up for work, Liesl is concerned. There have been no calls from her and Liesl’s calls go unanswered. Finally, her conscience can hold out no longer and she calls the police. She tells the detective about the missing books, in case that helps the police find her. But the police can’t investigate the missing books, as there is no official report of a crime on it, and there won’t be unless the university president goes to them about it.

As the school semester ebbs away, Liesl has to face the idea that one of her colleagues has taken the books. But who? Francis, the ex-spy and the man Liesl had an affair with decades ago? Or Max, the former priest who had to give up his collar when he’s been caught stealing money from the church? Or was it awkward Miriam, who had been getting increasingly distant from her colleagues and has since gone missing? Liesl is the one who has to figure out what’s been happening in the library, or she could lose everything she’s worked so hard for her entire career.

The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections is a unique mystery, smart and moving, part chilling whodunnit and part women’s fiction about a woman trying to figure out who she is now that her depressed husband is better and their daughter is in college. Her quiet year of sabbatical writing a book is thrown into chaos, and she has to figure out how to leave the library in good shape before she heads into retirement.

If you’re expecting this to be a book about bespectacled librarians in buns and tired suits from decades past, shushing library patrons over half-glasses and offering stern looks to anyone who might dog-ear a page in a book, then you are in the wrong library. These characters are real and uncertain, quick with the wine and slow to call the police. They spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in the blink of an eye and worry more about their reputation with the university donors over a thief being in their midst.

Now, if you read that and think that I was disappointed in this book, please hear me when I say that this book is amazing. It’s just unexpected, and that makes it a great choice for a book club or to read with a friend. The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections brings up a lot of feels and thoughts, and you’ll want to have someone to talk to them about, probably over a glass or two of wine. And that will just make the book twice as fun.

Egalleys for The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections were provided by Poisoned Pen Press through NetGalley, with many thanks.

A very cool mystery about a missing text. This had lots of bonus points of following Liesl who honestly is kind of unlikeable and the pro of being set in Toronto! I really like how this played out and how it ended as well.
Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an arc for an honest review!

Visit the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections. You will learn a lot about ancient manuscripts, the appearance of a beautiful library and the (not always savory) ways of academia, especially when donations are needed.

Spend time with Liesl who has (finally) moved up from second in command to temporary head of the collection. Her boss, Christopher, has had a stroke and is unable to help Liesl with the many problems that she faces. Those she works with may or may not be trustworthy and one of these employees, Miriam, has disappeared just as mysteriously as the library’s newest acquisition. Will Miriam be found and found alive? Will everything be solved? Read this book by an accomplished first time novelist to find out. The author creates a good story and, at times, skewers university life.

One thing that I liked about the recently published novel, The Maid, was that the main character was so very much herself. I felt the same way about Liesl. She is of a certain age and temperament, deals with life and relationships in her own way. I hope to see her again.

Note that there both a reading group guide and a conversation with the author at the end of the book. These added to my enjoyment and understanding.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this title. All opinions are my own.

The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections gives us a realistic hero in Liesl Weiss. She is good at her job, a stickler for detail and organization as any good librarian should be, but she worked mostly behind the scenes, making her boss look good as he sought donors and exciting acquisitions for the library. When he has a stroke just before an event showing of his newest star in the collection and Liesl is thrust into leadership, there are far more challenges than she expected.

While having to spend more time with donors and dealing with jealous colleagues are to be expected, opening the safe to find it empty was not. Has it been stolen or misplaced? It hardly seems fair to blame Liesl when she never even saw the books, but she is in charge and no one wants to blame a man in a coma in the hospital. It’s imperative Liesl find the missing books and the suspiciously absent colleague who now seems a likely book thief. But Liesl isn’t so sure.



I enjoyed The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections very much. Liesl is my kind of hero, the one who would not go down in the basement if they thought someone broke into their home but who would, instead, sensibly call the police. In fact, one of the central conflicts is between Liesl, who wants to call the police, and all the people who urge her not to, certain that it is better to lose books secretly than to get the books back with the help of the police. Appearances are everything in fundraising.

There are plenty of complications for her to deal with. Additional missing books, the absent colleague, the echoes of past romance, her drinking, her husband, the dean, and most of all her boss in the coma, exuding power just by existing. There are no car chases and killers in the basement, but there is plenty of intrigue and suspense. It’s a fun book for book lovers.

I received an e-galley of The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections from the publisher through NetGalley.

The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections at Poisoned Pen Press | SourceBooks
Eva Jurczyk author site

A book about the behind-the-scenes world of books, academia, and libraries! As a former university employee and now librarian, it never dawned on me that the setting and characterizations might not appeal to everyone, but it felt familiar and engaging to me.

I've read a number of the 4 and 5 star review, and many of the 2 stars, and agree with them all. Yes, many of the characters are unlikable and odd, but they're spoofs of university stereotypes (and that clown of a university president might be a little overdone). Yes it's slow going and not a edge of your seat thriller, but it's a plausible workplace mystery. Yes, Liesl is a bit of a dishrag and is bullied by her male colleagues, but we have an older female protagonist who is quietly subversive and doesn't spend pages lamenting her looks or weight.

And, yes, there's a lot of drinking and depressive episodes. Which I didn't enjoy, but life. But now I need to go find a falafel truck.