Coded in Death: A Tails Between The Shelves Mystery (Tails Between The Shelves Mysteries)
By Hailey Hartley
When a mysterious elderly patron arrives at the Riverside Public Library requesting books on historical ciphers and cryptography, head librarian Lauren Parker expects nothing more than helping an enthusiastic researcher. What she doesn’t expect is to find him dead between the stacks the very next morning, or to discover the strange coded bookmark he left behind on the circulation desk. While Sheriff Davies initially suspects natural causes, Lauren and her puzzle-loving border collie puppy Cipher can’t ignore the symbols and numbers covering that bookmark, the patron’s nervous behavior before his sudden death, or the fact that his research materials have vanished. When the medical examiner confirms poisoning and Lauren receives a threatening text message, she realizes the coded bookmark isn’t just a curiosity—it’s a message from a dying man who knew he was in danger.
As Lauren enlists her best friend Beth to help decode the cryptic messages, she discovers the victim was actually a retired insurance investigator named Warren Blake, and his codes lead to a forty-year-old armored car robbery, two million dollars in missing bearer bonds, and a man who supposedly died decades ago. With help from children’s librarian Sophie and insights from library volunteer Harold, Lauren begins to piece together Warren’s investigation into stolen bonds hidden somewhere in the library’s historic building. But the closer she gets to cracking Warren’s codes, the more dangerous her amateur sleuthing becomes, and someone is willing to kill again to keep a four-decade secret buried. When Lauren discovers the library’s old bank vault and realizes Warren left clues scattered throughout Riverside, she must use all her research skills and determination to finish what Warren started.
In this compelling fifth installment of the Tails Between the Shelves series, Lauren must decode intricate book ciphers, unravel layers of fraud and deception, and expose a killer who thought their crime was perfectly hidden. With Cipher’s crucial assistance in finding hidden evidence, threatening messages that escalate the danger, and a race to locate bonds that have destroyed lives for forty years, Lauren discovers that sometimes the truth requires both cleverness and courage to reveal. Perfect for fans of puzzle mysteries and stories about libraries as places of discovery, “Coded in Death” proves that a determined librarian with a loyal puppy and a talent for breaking codes can bring justice to those who believed they’d gotten away with the perfect crime.
When a mysterious elderly patron arrives at the Riverside Public Library requesting books on historical ciphers and cryptography, head librarian Lauren Parker expects nothing more than helping an enthusiastic researcher. What she doesn’t expect is to find him dead between the stacks the very next morning, or to discover the strange coded bookmark he left behind on the circulation desk. While Sheriff Davies initially suspects natural causes, Lauren and her puzzle-loving border collie puppy Cipher can’t ignore the symbols and numbers covering that bookmark, the patron’s nervous behavior before his sudden death, or the fact that his research materials have vanished. When the medical examiner confirms poisoning and Lauren receives a threatening text message, she realizes the coded bookmark isn’t just a curiosity—it’s a message from a dying man who knew he was in danger.
As Lauren enlists her best friend Beth to help decode the cryptic messages, she discovers the victim was actually a retired insurance investigator named Warren Blake, and his codes lead to a forty-year-old armored car robbery, two million dollars in missing bearer bonds, and a man who supposedly died decades ago. With help from children’s librarian Sophie and insights from library volunteer Harold, Lauren begins to piece together Warren’s investigation into stolen bonds hidden somewhere in the library’s historic building. But the closer she gets to cracking Warren’s codes, the more dangerous her amateur sleuthing becomes, and someone is willing to kill again to keep a four-decade secret buried. When Lauren discovers the library’s old bank vault and realizes Warren left clues scattered throughout Riverside, she must use all her research skills and determination to finish what Warren started.
In this compelling fifth installment of the Tails Between the Shelves series, Lauren must decode intricate book ciphers, unravel layers of fraud and deception, and expose a killer who thought their crime was perfectly hidden. With Cipher’s crucial assistance in finding hidden evidence, threatening messages that escalate the danger, and a race to locate bonds that have destroyed lives for forty years, Lauren discovers that sometimes the truth requires both cleverness and courage to reveal. Perfect for fans of puzzle mysteries and stories about libraries as places of discovery, “Coded in Death” proves that a determined librarian with a loyal puppy and a talent for breaking codes can bring justice to those who believed they’d gotten away with the perfect crime.