The Sleuth’s Miscalculation

by Kimberly Rose Johnson

Nancy Daley is a librarian in the small town of Tipton, Oregon. Her mother is the county sheriff as well as the contracted law enforcement for Tipton. Nancy likes to help her mother solve criminal cases, although they both keep it quiet.

Sheriff Daly has just increased her police force by hiring a former LA detective. Officer Carter Malone moves to town with his adopted nephew, Gavin. He is looking forward to the quieter pace of the small community, although his nephew misses the larger city.

A rich and somewhat eccentric friend of Nancy’s, Gloria, has an emergency. The type of emergency that could happen in a small town. She is supervising ten of her five-year-old daughter’s friends at a birthday party in the park, and she forgot to bring the cupcakes. She asks Nancy to break into her home, retrieve the missing cupcakes, and bring them to the park before the five-year-olds rebel. Reluctantly Nancy agrees, not knowing the new deputy is staying at the bed and breakfast next door. So when he catches her in the act, refuses to listen to any explanations and marches her down the police station, their relationship is off to a rocky start.

However, Sheriff Daley insists that they work inconspicuously on solving a rash of license plate thefts. Although the crimes seem petty, they quickly escalate into something far more serious. And Deputy Carter is hiding a secret of his own.

This is a fun light read. I did not know that license plate theft was even a thing, but apparently, it is. Some aspects of the story seemed to be unrealistic to me, but I still enjoyed reading it. It is an interesting concept that the quiet librarian is out to solve crimes, and there are some interesting characters and surprises along the way. It captured my attention enough to finish the book, but probably not enough to continue with the series. But, who knows? Maybe in the future, I will pick up the second book.

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