Killer Librarian

OK... how could I possibly resist a book with this title. Mary Logue, writing as Mary Lou Kirwin, author of both fiction and non-fiction works, has started a new series featuring Minnesota librarian, Karen Nash. Karen is all packed and ready to go on her dream trip of a lifetime--a trip to London with her long-time boyfriend Dave, a plumber. When Dave calls just hours before they are to leave for the airport and tells her they are through, does this intrepid woman have a meltdown? No, she books a ticket for herself and goes anyway. On the plane she discovers that Dave is also still making the trip, but with a much younger and very slender blonde. Since Karen fortuitously gets bumped to first class, they never see her on the plane, but she follows them once they all arrive in London.
On her first night, her B & B owner, Caldwell, takes her to the local Indian restaurant for a curry and follows that up with a visit to his favorite pub. Becoming a bit tipsy due to the rather strong British brew that Caldwell and his friends keep putting in front of her, she confides in the man standing next to her at the bar about the wretched way Dave has treated her and her fantasies of killing him.
Next morning, Karen discovers one of the B & B's elderly guests dead in a sitting room chair. She's not so sure it was just an accidental heart attack and everyone, including Caldwell, the dead man's younger wife, and the dotty sisters who come every year for the Chelsea flower show are suspects in Karen's mind.
Meanwhile, Karen is loving London, but also hearing that the confidante of her drunken ramblings may have connections to the criminal elements, and she is alarmed when she sees him talking to Dave's new girlfriend outside the National Gallery. What has she set in motion? This is an engaging character, a fond portrait of London, and an entertaining cosy for book lovers. I will definitely keep my eye out for the next book, Death Overdue.