The Broken Spine

The first in an exciting new series featuring Trudell Becket, a spunky librarian who will stop at nothing to save her beloved books and catch a killer, now in paperback!Trudell Becket finds herself in a bind when her library is turned into a state-of-the-art bookless "technological center." A library with no books breaks Trudell's book-loving heart, and she decides to rescue hundreds of beloved tomes slated for the recycle center. Under the cover of darkness, Trudell sets up a secret book room in the library's basement and opens it to her loyal patrons.When the town councilman, who was a vocal supporter of the library's transformation, is crushed by an overturned shelf of DVDs, Trudell becomes the prime suspect. She was the only person in the library at the time of his murder, or so the police believe. But the visitors to Trudell's secret bookroom were actually all there, too.If she tells the police about the backdoor patrons who were in the library at the time of the murder, she'd have to explain about the secret book room and risk losing the books. To keep herself out of jail, Trudell-with the help of a group of dedicated readers-decides to investigate. She quickly finds herself on the same page with a killer who would love to write her final chapter.Story Locale: Cypress, South Carolina (fictional)Series Overview: When small-town librarian Trudell Beckett sets up a secret book room in her newly modernized library, she discovers that protecting the printed word is harder than she'd ever imagined. In fact, it's murder.