This is a quick and enjoyable read surrounding the death of a young rich man’s girlfriend. The MC, the librarian Jane, is tasked with helping solve her murder. Jane is well written and I’m looking forward to seeing more developments in this series from
Victoria Gilbert. There weren’t any surprises or twists in the book, which I found a bit off-putting as it made the plot dry. Overall, I thought this was a good mystery read!

The mystery solving team of Jane Hunter and Cameron "Cam" Clewe are my new favorite detectives. Jane, a sixtiy-ish former librarian who has a past that still haunts her and Caher in "Cam" Clewe, a thirty something genius billionaire who hires Jane to catalog his extensive art and book collections, find themselves on the trail of a murderer.

I loved this book! The characters (both main and supporting) are wonderfully written and have human faults which make them interesting and appealing. They fit together perfectly and form a team that is determined to solve the mystery surrounding the murder of Cam's girlfriend and keep him out of jail. So many times, I just knew "whodunit" and I was wrong and I loved it! The conversations between Jane and Cam, regarding his past and family were touching and made me like them both even more. For me, having characters that are not perfect makes them seem so real as if they could "jump" off the page. The mystery was fast-paced, believable and fun.

I can't wait for the next book! to find out what Jane and Cam are up to!

I received an ARC from NetGalley and the opinions expressed in this review are my own.

This is the first in what will be a series of mysteries from Victoria Gilbert. As such it introduces the reader to the “librarian” and the “recluse w anxiety” who will become sleuths together. Each of these “lead” characters have an unfolding history that is intriguing and a bit curious. And if you want references for other mystery books, the author includes many for the reader to explore as she describes the librarian’s findings. A good story with multiple characters that I hope we will see in the sequels. And somewhat innocent and “light” in comparison to many of today’s mysteries especially considering it’s a murder mystery.

Thanks to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for the Advanced Review Copy.

Love the story. A librarian who is hired to archive a wealthy man's collection of mystery novels. When the former girlfriend is found dead in the library, the man encourages Jane, the librarian to assist him in solving. Good character development. Good plot. I enjoyed this book. Thanks#netgalley #CrokedLaneBooks for the eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are mine.

This is a "cozy" mystery about a murder in the home of a young rich man, Cam. His new employee, Jane, who has been commissioned to archive the literary works in his home, discovers a dead body in the library, and Cam and Jane become amateur sleuths in order to figure out who killed the girl.

The story is pretty straightforward, and a little slow. I was looking for some excitement and shock along the way, but was disappointed. Ultimately, the book ends on a nice note, but I felt like I was really yawning getting there.

Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read and review A Cryptic Clue.

LOVED this one! I particularly enjoy mysteries with older protagonists that prove life doesn't become boring and pointless. I am eagerly anticipating the next installment.

A Cryptic Clue is the first in a new series of A Hunter and Clewe Mystery. It takes place in the town of Bradfordville. Cameron (Cam) Clewe is a wealthy man who has hired Jane Hunter to work on his inventory and catalog his extensive book collection. Jane is a retired librarian who worked at a local college. She has a daughter, Bailey. Jane sold her house and is now renting a small apartment over a garage in town. Cam lives at Aircroft, a house that was built to look like an old English estate. It is set back from the road and a little isolated. Cam's father, Albert bought the house when the Airling's died and Cam inherited the house when his father died. Jane is there to meet Cam and go over what is expected of her. Lauren Walker is Cam's personal secretary. Lauren gives Jane a tour of the house and grounds. Jane meet Dia Denton the housekeeper and Mateo Marin, chef. While showing Jane the garden they overhear Cam having words with his latest girlfriend Ashley Allen.

Sunday there is going to be a fundraiser for a local hospital hosted by Naomi Wilt and Hannah McKenzie. old friends of Cam's father. Jane meets both of them. Cam also has scholars staying at his estate. Jane also meets Kyle Trent, a sociology professor at Wake and Brendon Sloan, a well known glass sculpturer. Cam says that he will see her on Monday.

When home Jane sees her landlord, Vincent Fisher, a retired reporter. He tells Jane about the history of Aircroft. It was built by Samuel, a industry titan and his wife, Bridget. They had a son, Calin who died at the age of 29. He fell off a cliff on the estate. Calvin told his parents that he wanted to marry a girl that they felt was not good enough. She was pregnant and disappeared. No one has ever known who she was. He died shortly after. There was a rumor that someone might have pushed him or was it murder. Vincent told Jane that he is writing a book about the family and would like her help.

Monday Jane arrives at work and goes into the library where she will be working. Notice something is wrong and finds Ashley Allen on the floor dead. There is something missing from the bookcase, later identified ad a silver plated candlestick. She runs out of the room and collapses on the floor. Lauren and then Cam both arrive. The police are called. This is where the story takes off with much happening. I will leave this for the reader to enjoy. Because Cam feels that he might be a suspect he asks Jane and Lauren to be his eyes and ears in finding out who and why Ashley is killed. The story builds up with the discovery of other things missing. a mistake while at college, etc. The story has a surprising ending that was not expected.

When Cam is at Jane's apartment he tells her that he thinks he is good at solving mysteries and would like to help people. He needed someone he could trust and that would be Jane, They could be partners. Jane asked him if he would do cold cases. Said that the Aircroft mystery of who is the woman is and what really happened to Calvin. Jane agreed. I think this is what the next book will be about. I look forward to reading it.

Thank you NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for this ARC.

Jane Hunter is a librarian who finds herself out of work. She is fortunate to be hired by an unusual but wealthy aristocrat named Cam Clewe. He hires her to archive his extensive collection of mystery novels.

But literature begins resembling real life, when Clewe's former girlfriend shows up dead in his library. Although he is clearly a suspect, Clewe encourages Jane to assist him in discovering who is the murderer. They successfully solve the murder and agree to take on more detection. I think I see a series about to happen!

Gilbert's plot is intriguing, although I wouldn't say that the eventual murderer's identity was a great surprise. The character development was good. Some of the dialogue was a little artificial. But overall, this is a good novel and I look forward to reading more books in the series.

I realise that I am in a minority in not enjoying this book as Victoria Gilbert is a well-established and popular author but I got to the 50% mark all the while hoping that it would start to grab my attention, unfortunately it never succeeded. The dialogue was wooden and the story and characters never came to life. Despite my struggles I failed to make myself care about the outcome.

Forced into retirement from her university job as a research librarian, Jane sells her home, gets a tiny apartment & takes a job working for a reclusive millionaire cataloging his extensive book collection. Jane expectations for her new life involved work that she loved & a laid back existence, but on her first day of work she finds a dead body in the library & everything gets turned upside down. Can Jane help her new boss, Cameron Clewe, solve this murder or is it possible that he is the murderer….

The premise of this story dealt with mystery & books, so it was a no-brainer that I wanted to read it. For the most part I did enjoy it but it definitely wasn’t one of my top favorites that I’ve read this year. I felt like the beginning of the book moved super slowly, the middle started to pick up the pace a bit & then all of a sudden it was over before you even realized it. I also would have liked Jane & Cameron’s relationship to be explored a lot more than it was. You’re basically left wondering if this is going to be a platonic thing, just a professional thing, or if something more is about to become of it despite the 30 year age difference.

Although I do wish there would be been better pacing, I did appreciate Cameron’s character arc & how much Jane appeared to help him come into his own so to speak. Jane didn’t have as much of an arc, in my opinion, but her character did show some development & she was overall quite likable. With all that being said, I’d be willing to give the next Hunter & Clewe book a chance when it comes out. #ACrypticClue

Thank you #NetGalley & Crooked Lane Books for providing me with an ARC for my honest review.

A CRYPTIC CLUE, written by Victoria Gilbert, is a proper cozy, and I recommend adding it to your TBR list. Jane Hunter, a sixty-year-old retired librarian, is hired by Cameron Clewe to work at his estate house to catalog and inventory his collection of rare books. Jane discovers Ashley Allen, Cam’s ex-girlfriend, dead in the estate’s library. Cam doesn’t want to wait to be named a murder suspect. He claims he did not kill Ashley and wants to figure out who did. There’s one problem. Cam doesn’t like to leave the estate, so he enlists the help of Jane to solve the mystery.

The descriptions of setting and characters presented in this cozy mystery are well-written, and the plot is logical and entertaining. I appreciate that the author mentions well-known writers, such as Dorothy L. Sayers, author of the Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries. Both Jane and Cam enjoy amateur sleuthing, and I hope to read another book featuring these two characters in the future.

My thanks go to Crooked Lane Books and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read and review the DRC (Digital Reader’s Copy) of A CRYPTIC CLUE.

I loved the premise of this book, and I really liked Jane’s character. Can even grew on me after a while! The plot worked for me and I loved the characters’ backgrounds. The main issue I had with this book was the dialogue… it felt so unrealistic and stodgy. If the dialogue flowed more naturally and realistically I would have felt more drawn in to the book and would have enjoyed it much more. Excellent potential, great premise, unique characters, but the cardboard dialogue left me disappointed and having to make myself finish the book.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for my complimentary digital copy. All opinions are my own.

I must first say that I love that this book is about a retired librarian, books and a murder. How good is that?

Anyway, the book itself. I really enjoyed it and found 60 yo Jane Hunter was a fantastic character and one many of us can relate to. And then there is Cam who hired Jane and ends up with a dead body in his library. Well what will happen next. I won't tell!

But what I will tell you is that this is q quirky but very entertaining read, the mystery is there to be solved but it keeps you guessing. The characters where all different and had some quirky personalities and the stry itself is enjoyable and easy to read.

A great cosy mystery that has it all and is fun to read. I highly recommend and feel any lover of mystery would enjoy this book.

I like Victoria Gilbert but this wasn't my favorite book of hers. The mystery was interesting but I never really connected with the characters.
Thank you to NetGalley for the advance read.

I had high hopes for this one. In the end it was fine, but not quite as engaging as I had hoped it would be. I loved the idea of a cozy mystery with a protagonist who fell in between the spry ingenue and the frail little old lady that tends to be the more typical way these stories are set. Add in the quirky eccentric owner of a vast collection who is unexpectedly paired with a wry and very intelligent librarian and it certainly seemed like a recipe for success. Unfortunately I must confess that I found Cam more irritating than quirky and Jane much drier than I hoped she'd be. And the whole plot moved a little more slowly than I expected. Since I like my cozy mysteries very heavily character driven, that combination made this one less engaging to me personally.

it was a little bit boring tbh.

jane hunter is an elderly librarian who finds a job at cameron clewe's house, aircroft estate.
they have a particular interest in common, both of them enjoy mystery and detective stories.
on monday, her first working day after a fundraiser gala that took place on a sunday, she enters the library only to find a dead body on the floor.
clewe and hunter work together to find the murderer and in the process, they find clues that may solve new mysteries.

cam's character was intriguing but we didn't get to know him very well in this book, maybe in the future ones. at one point jane seemed like too much for me. she was irritating and too pushy but i guess that was the point.

it definitely had potential but imo i don't think they reached it.

My thanks to Net Galley and Crooked Lane for this arc to review.

Jane Hunter is a retired librarian hired by Cam Crewe to catalog his book collection when Cam s ex girlfriend Ashley is found dead on the property. Cam asks Jane and his secretary to assist him in finding out whodunit.

Loved this book. Easy cozy read. Shades of Miss Marple. I look forward to more with these characters.

This was an entertaining mystery set in NC. Jane Hunter is 60 and recently retired (forced into retirement by leadership changes apparently) at the university library that she had worked at for some time. She is not left with a huge retirement so as she seeks another job, she is given the opportunity to help Cameron Clewe catalog his huge collection of vintage mysteries and many other things in his mansion. Cam is a somewhat eccentric millionaire, only 33 years old and also a recluse: he never wants to leave his house. You get the impression that he is perhaps on the autism spectrum, but it is never confirmed.
Just as Jane begins her job, she walks into Cam's library and finds a dead body. It's the body of Cam's recent girlfriend who he broke up with recently. Needless to say, Cam is probably the number one suspect. As Cam uses his very considerable brains to try and solve the mystery, Jane becomes his sidekick and leg man [woman?].
This was an entertaining book but there were a number of things that I could pick at (including little things such as, if Jane sold her house and moved into a small apartment, why doesn't she have that many furnishings; what exactly happened to cause her to retire, etc.) but it doesn't interfere with enjoying the story.

I love Victoria Gilbert. First off she has the same last name as my Best Friends Maiden name. But seriously I love her mystery books. I have read all of the Books overseas B&B and loved them, also have read the Blue Ridge library Mysteries. You can't go wrong with anything that she writes and this is included with that. I loved the older main character. She is perfect for me as a character, I find myself looking for older main characters as I myself get older and this did not disappoint. Can't wait for the next installment.
I think that this is the best yet in the series. I am completely obsessed with this group of characters and would buy anything if they were in it by Martin Davis. I read half the book in one sitting or was so good and engrossing. Great Job!! Can't wait to see what lies ahead for the next installment.
I just reviewed A Cryptic Clue by Victoria Gilbert. #ACrypticClue #NetGalley
[NetGalley URL]

I found this to be an easy read. The dialogue felt natural and the character reactions also felt natural, so in that sense, the book felt realistic. I was invested in the plot. However, at times, I felt that it was too fast-paced to follow along. It’s one of those books that I read in one sitting because I needed to know how it ended as fast as possible. The duo of Jane and Cam as a mystery-solving team is nicely set up for future books. That said, I felt like it was a fairly standard murder mystery in the way the clues were assembled and with the red herrings. It’s a solid mystery, though I would like to see how the characters are expanded on in future books.