Estella grew up in a mansion on a rocky cliff overlooking the Hudson, but her childhood was hardly a fairytale. Her father was an arrogant man with a violent temper and a habit of discouraging his daughter from following her creative streak. As soon as she is able, she leaves home for college and an academic career that allow her to focus on the literature she loved so much. She ultimately earns a Ph.D. and finds a position teaching high school in Boston. She has carved a small life for herself, but is unexpectedly called back to Rockfell House. When she answers that phone call, she knows her life is going to take a strange new path.
After a short train ride home, she arrives to learn her parents had some kind of argument. Her mother is missing, presumed dead. Her father collapsed soon after their mysterious fight and is unable to speak. When he passes away two weeks later, Estella (E, as she prefers to be called) has just two connections to her old life remaining–the imposing Rockfell House and her beloved nanny-turned-housekeeper Annie. E moves home, takes a position at the local college, and does her best to earn enough money to keep house and home together. With her mother still missing, what little inheritance she might receive is tied up. As E puts together the pieces of that last evening when her parents fought, she finds clues to how her father spent more money than he earned and what might have happened to her mother.
You don’t spend eleven years convincing lions of literature at Yale that you deserve a doctorate, despite your unfortunate femininity, without being dogged. And now I had amused myself by smashing together the images of literary lions and a yappy dog into one sentences, so I was ready to face Annie with a smile. …
The terraces had been spectacular until Annie and I gave up on keeping it all weeded. Like all my father’s accomplishments, his fantastical gardens had started to decay as soon as he wasn’t around to prop it up with money and megalomania. ~Pg. 70-1
She enlists the help of her friends — a librarian, a fellow scholar, a dressmaker, and a young man who just might be worthy — to hunt for clues. The result is a grown up Nancy Drew adventure. It makes for a very fun read. The WWII homefront setting adds another layer of interest.
When your battlefield is a library, paper and ink are your weapons. ~Pg. 140
If there are any weaknesses, it is the author’s habit to rush through pivotal scenes. When we first learn how E’s father is earning dirty funds, the discovery takes place over a handful of lines, with no lead up. It just sort of…happens. This is a pattern throughout the book — important moments not being given enough context, seeming to come out of nowhere.
The mystery is different enough to hold the reader’s attention, but reasonable enough to be believable. The characters are individual enough to make for an interesting story and most importantly (for me, anyway), none of them makes dumb decisions or is useless just to serve the plot. All in all, The Dark Library is a refreshing read.
My thanks to Poisoned Pen Press for the review copy.
Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press (June 24, 2025)
Language: English
Paperback: 384 pages
ISBN-10: 1728293677