“No two persons ever read the same book.” – Edmund Wilson
This book club is ideal for anyone who enjoys suspense and unraveling the mystery of whodunit. Visit the library to grab a copy of the featured book and participate in the discussion. Explore the books the group has read over the years.
2nd Wednesday of Each Month | usually 10:00 am | location varies some
Wednesday, January 8 | 10:00 - 11:00 am
Louisburg Library | 206 S. Broadway St., Louisburg
Girl Waits With Gun by Amy Stewart
Kopp Sisters #1
From the New York Times best-selling author of The Drunken Botanist comes an enthralling novel based on the forgotten true story of one of the nation's first female deputy sheriffs. Constance Kopp doesn't quite fit the mold. She towers over most men, has no interest in marriage or domestic affairs, and has been isolated from the world since a family secret sent her and her sisters from city to country fifteen years ago. When a powerful, ruthless factory owner runs down their buggy, a dispute over damages turns into a war of bricks, bullets, and threats as he unleashes his gang on their family farm. The sheriff enlists her help, and it turns out Constance has a knack for outwitting (and disarming) the criminal element which might just take her back out into the world and onto a new path in life. Quick-witted and full of madcap escapades, Girl Waits with Gun is a story about one woman rallying the courage to stand up for and grow into herself--with a little help from sisters and sheriffs along the way. Through Amy Stewart's exuberant storytelling, Constance Kopp catapults from forgotten historical anecdote to unforgettable historical fiction heroine-- an out-sized woman not only ahead of her time, but sometimes even ahead of ours.--Dust jacket.
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Wednesday, February 12 | 10:00 - 11:00 am
Louisburg Library | 206 S. Broadway St., Louisburg
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
One Book, One Burg: Louisburg Reads 2025
Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer, yet her cells--taken without her knowledge--became one of the most important tools in medicine. The first "immortal" human cells grown in culture, they are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years. HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer and viruses; helped lead to in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions. Yet Henrietta Lacks is buried in an unmarked grave. Her family did not learn of her "immortality" until more than twenty years after her death, when scientists began using her husband and children in research without informed consent. The story of the Lacks family is inextricably connected to the dark history of experimentation on African Americans, the birth of bioethics, and the legal battles over whether we control the stuff we are made of.--From publisher description.
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Wednesay, March 12 | 10:00 - 11:00 am
Louisburg Library | 206 S. Broadway St., Louisburg
Two Days Gone by Randall Silvis
Ryan Demarco #1
The perfect family. The perfect house. The perfect life. All gone now. What could cause a man, when all the stars of fortune are shining upon him, to suddenly snap and destroy everything he has built? This is the question that haunts Sergeant Ryan DeMarco after the wife and children of beloved college professor and bestselling author Thomas Huston are found slaughtered in their home. Huston himself has disappeared and so is immediately cast as the prime suspect. DeMarco knows--or thinks he knows--that Huston couldn't have been capable of murdering his family. But if Huston is innocent, why is he on the run? And does the half-finished manuscript he left behind contain clues to the mystery of his family's killer?
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Wednesday, April 9 | 11:00 am - 12:30 pm
Miss B's Cafe | 1006 S. Metcalf Rd., Louisburg
Share a "teaser" (short description) about a book from this year's Mystery Author List.
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Wednesday, May 14 | 10:00 - 11:00 am
Cheryl B's Home | ask library staff for the address
Assaulted Caramel by Amanda Flower
Amish Candy Shop #1
Assistant chocolatier Bailey King leaves New York City for Harvest, Ohio to help out in her grandparents' Amish candy shop when her grandfather's heart condition worsens. His health is better than she feared, but the police suspect him of murdering a local developer found dead in the candy shop kitchen. Bailey determines to clear her grandfather.
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Wednesday, June 11 | 10:00 - 11:30 am | Potluck Brunch
Fox Community Hall | 201 S. Broadway St., Louisburg
Dark Roads by Chevy Stevens
"For decades, people have been warned about the Cold Creek Highway. Hitchhikers have vanished along it over the years, and women have been known to have their cars break down... and never be seen again. When Hailey McBride decides to run away from an unbearable living situation, she thinks that her outdoor skills will help her disappear into the Cold Creek wilderness, and she counts on people thinking that she was the victim of the killer. One year later, Beth Chevalier arrives in Cold Creek to attend a memorial for the victims of the highway, but it might as well be one week for the amount of pain that Beth is still dealing with after her sister, Amber, was murdered the previous summer. Beth has quit university, is lying to her parents, and popping pills like Tic Tacs. Maybe this will finally bring her peace. When she gets a job at a local diner where Amber once worked, she connects with people who knew her sister. Beth wants to find who killed her sister and put her own life back together, but as she gets closer to the truth, she learns that there is more than one person lying in Cold Creek"-- Provided by publisher.
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Wednesday, July 9 | 11:00 - 12:30 am
Timbercreek Bar & Grill | 14 E. Amity St., Louisburg
The Spellman Files by Lisa Lutz
Izzy Spellman #1
-- Get Smart Izzy walks an indistinguishable line between Spellman family member and Spellman employee. Duties include: completing assignments from the bosses, aka Mom and Dad (preferably without scrutiny); appeasing her chronically perfect lawyer brother (often under duress); setting an example for her fourteen-year-old sister, Rae (who’s become addicted to “recreational surveillance”); and tracking down her uncle (who randomly disappears on benders dubbed “Lost Weekends”). But when Izzy’s parents hire Rae to follow her (for the purpose of ascertaining the identity of Izzy’s new boyfriend), Izzy snaps and decides that the only way she will ever be normal is if she gets out of the family business. But there’s a hitch: she must take one last job before they’ll let her go—a fifteen-year-old, ice-cold missing person case. She accepts, only to experience a disappearance far closer to home, which becomes the most important case of her life.
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Wednesday, August 13 | 10:00 - 11:00 am
Louisburg Library | 206 S. Broadway St., Louisburg
Insomnia by Sarah Pinborough
"In this twisty, mind-bending thriller from the bestselling author of Behind Her Eyes, Emma Averill worries that her crippling insomnia is a sign that she's slowly going insane-like the mother she's worked so hard to leave in her past"-- Provided by publisher.
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Wednesday, September 10 | 10:00 - 11:00 am
Louisburg Library | 206 S. Broadway St., Louisburg
The Hangman's Daughter by Oliver Potzsch
Hangman's Daughter #1
Germany, 1659: When a dying boy is pulled from the river with a mark crudely tattooed on his shoulder, hangman Jakob Kuisl is called upon to investigate whether witchcraft is at play in his small Bavarian town. Whispers and dark memories of witch trials and the women burned at stake just seventy years earlier still haunt the streets of Schongau. When more children disappear and an orphan boy is found dead, marked by the same tattoo, the mounting hysteria threatens to erupt into chaos. Before the unrest forces him to torture and execute the very woman who aided in the birth of his children, Jakob must unravel the truth. With the help of his clever daughter, Magdelena, and Simon, the university-educated son of the town's physician, Jakob discovers that a devil is indeed loose in Schongau. But it may be too late to prevent bloodshed.
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Wednesday, October 8 | 10:00 - 11:00 am
Louisburg Library | 206 S. Broadway St., Louisburg
One Rough Man by Brad Taylor
Pike Logan #1
They call it the Taskforce. Their existence is as essential as it is illegal. Commissioned at the highest level of the U.S. government. Protected from the prying eyes of Congress and the media. Built around the top operators from across the clandestine, intelligence, and special forces landscape. Designed to operate outside the bounds of U.S. law. Trained to exist on the ragged edge of human capability. Pike Logan℗ was the most successful operator on the Taskforce, his instincts and talents unrivaled-until personal tragedy permanently altered his outlook on the world. Pike knows what the rest of the country might not want to admit: The real threat isn't from any nation, any government, any terrorist group. The real threat is one or two men, controlled by ideology, operating independently, in possession of a powerful weapon. Buried in a stack of intercepted chatter is evidence of two such men. The transcripts are scheduled for analysis in three months. The attack is mere days away. It is their bad luck that they're about to cross paths with Pike Logan. And Pike Logan has nothing left to lose.
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Wednesday, November 12 | 10:00 - 11:00 am
Louisburg Library | 206 S. Broadway St., Louisburg
The Cracked Spine by Paige Shelton
Scottish Bookshop #1
"In need of a good adventure, Delaney Nichols takes the leap and moves to Edinburgh, Scotland to start a job at The Cracked Spine. She doesn't know much about what she's gotten herself into, other than that the work sounds exciting, and that her new boss, Edwin MacAlister, has given her the opportunity of a lifetime. Edwin has promised that she'll be working with "a desk that has seen the likes of kings and queens, paupers and princes," and Delaney can't wait to get started. When she arrives, she meets her new Scottish family; also working at the Cracked Spine are Rosie, perpetually wrapped in scarves, and who always has tiny dog Hector in tow; Hamlet, a nineteen-year-old thespian with a colored past and bright future; and Edwin, who is just as enigmatic and mysterious as Delaney expected. An unexpected bonus is Tom the bartender from across the street, with his piercing eyes, and a rolling brogue and it doesn't hurt that he looks awfully good in a kilt. But before she can settle into her new life, a precious artifact a previously undiscovered First Folio of Shakespeare's plays goes missing, and Edwin's sister is murdered, seemingly in connection to the missing folio. Delaney decides to do some sleuthing of her own, to find out just what the real story is behind the priceless folio, and how it's connected to the tragic death, all without getting harmed herself"-- Provided by publisher.
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Wednesday, December 10 | 10:00 - 11:00 am
Louisburg Library | 206 S. Broadway St., Louisburg
Safe and Sound by Laura McHugh
"Amelia and Kylee, two young sisters, were found unharmed in their upstairs bedroom the night their teenage cousin Grace, who was babysitting them, vanished from the farmhouse in rural Missouri, leaving behind evidence of a violent struggle. Grace had been on the verge of escaping their dead-end town--the first in their family to go to college instead of getting married and going to work at the meatpacking plant. Her disappearance is a warning to any local girl who dared hope for better. Now about to graduate high school, Amelia and Kylee dream about getting out of their small town of Beaumont one day, but the likelihood of that happening seems as low as that of Grace being found. When a discovery of human remains reveals a disturbing connection to Grace, the sisters think they finally know who took her, but as they dig deeper into Grace's past, they unearth long-buried secrets and a growing list of suspects. In a town no one ever leaves, there are only so many places to hide, and the sisters vow to find Grace, dead or alive"-- Provided by publisher.
