Megan coerces Ryan into joining a mystery book discussion group at their favorite used bookstore, Time and Again, owned by grandmotherly Agnes Caldwell. Ryan acquiesces, even though he prefers reading westerns, (a secret passion), his feelings for Megan are beginning to run deeper than just friends.

Other members of the group include Rosemary and Lorene, an elderly pair of friends researching a paper on the influence of Dorothy Sayers and Agatha Christie on contemporary mystery writers; Dr. Randel Anderson, an English professor; Candi Hobbs, a graduate student doing a thesis on detective fiction; Herbert Jackson, an attorney who is writing his first courtroom drama; and Lisa Heredia who claims she came out of curiosity. Rounding out the group is Annabel Edgars Crow, a local mystery author of note.

For the first few meetings, the group seems very amicable, but one evening Lisa, quiet up to this point, turns venomous, lashing out at everyone. This is also the night when Rosemary and Lorene have each misplaced a bag of books, making them feel as if they are growing old, perhaps too old to pursue their paper. The group breaks up early with hurt feelings and leave one by one, until only Megan and Ryan remain.

When they leave the store, they find Lisa lying on the sidewalk with her throat slit. Megan is anxious to offer her expertise to the investigation, but the police prefer not to have their number one suspect helping them. Megan, as most amateur sleuths do, ignores the police and begins searching for the killer on her own. As she begins her search, she wonders if the unsolved murder of a cleaning woman, also a customer of Time and Again, several months prior, could be connected, and what is in the old-time mysteries that could be worth killing for?

While I enjoyed this book -- what could be better than a mystery novel about mystery readers and the books they love? -- I had a problem with the heroine’s educational history. Given Megan’s advanced degrees (at one point she mentions she holds degrees in anthropology, archaeology, library science and has studied true crime), her age of twenty-six seems highly unlikely. Also, it seems a person with Megan’s education and background would be more likely found in an academic setting where she would be in a better position to learn of grants, teaching opportunities and field opportunities than in a public library.

The point of view of the novel was very interesting: it alternated between first-person point of view, Ryan, to third person, close to Megan. This gave a good chance to get to know both their characters and how they perceived the events and their developing relationship. Aside from Megan’s extraordinary academic career, she is a spunky, likable character and the supporting characters in the Murder in Volume group are very entertaining and ones I would like to revisit and explore their interests in the mystery genre more.

--Jennifer Monahan Winberry