Sherry Pinkwhistle woke up to the deep silence of snowfall, cozily ensconced in the warmth of her bed and the knowledge that she had just solved another murder.
Sherry Pinkwhistle works as a librarian in Winesap, New York. A quaint little village with a surprisingly high murder rate, and a local sheriff who hates interference from civilians, but begrudgingly admits that Sherry is very, very good at solving murder. But why are there so many murders in Winesap? And why is Sherry somehow always conveniently right there, finding clues no one else noticed and discovering the identity of the murderer before the police?
Despite the name, The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society isn’t really a story about librarians hunting demons. It is rather a deep dive into the common cozy mystery trope of the nice old lady who always solves murders completely unrelated to her, despite living in a tiny, otherwise quaint and peaceful village.
As a cozy mystery lover myself, I am perfectly willing to suspend my disbelief when it comes to quaint village murders and amateur sleuths who somehow always stumble upon a dead body whenever they try to go about their day. But I am also always entertained with novels that are willing to break the fourth wall, and point out the idiosyncrasies of the genre.
This book has been compared to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but if I had to liken it to something I have seen on TV, it would have to be the Truman Show. Sherry’s situation is in many ways similar to Truman’s, as she begins to question the murder rate in Winesap and slowly comes to the realisation that something in her environment and life is very, very odd.
If you’re looking for a traditional cozy mystery, or an action-packed dark fantasy monster story, this isn’t it. But if you’re in the mood for a self-aware, metafiction mystery that lovingly parodies its own genre, I highly recommend giving this one a go.
Do you like when books break the fourth wall, or do you prefer stories that stay firmly within their own universe?
Cozy mystery – Paranormal mystery
Mostly Murders 
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