The Broken Spine

Beloved Bookroom Mystery Series, Book 1

By: Dorothy St. James

Narrated by: Allyson Ryan

Length: 9 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's summary

Trudell Becket, known to her friends as Tru, finds herself in a bind when her library in lovely Cypress, South Carolina, is turned into a state-of-the-art bookless "technological center". A library with no books breaks Tru's book-loving heart so she decides to rescue hundreds of beloved tomes slated for the town dump. Under the cover of darkness, Tru, along with her best friends - coffee shop owner Tori Green and mysterious best-selling author Flossie Finnegan-Baker - set up a secret bookroom in the library's basement and prepare to open it to their most loyal, trustworthy patrons.

But as Tru and her crew are putting the finishing touches on their new book room, the town manager, who was behind the big push for the library's transformation, is crushed by an overturned shelf of DVDs. Tru becomes the prime suspect as she hadn't hid the fact that she hated having all of those wonderful books replaced by tablets and computers.

Tru knows she's in a heap of trouble, and it doesn't help that the officer in charge of the case is her old crush from high school, who broke her teenaged heart. To keep herself out of jail and her beloved bookroom up and running, Tru - with the help of Tori, Flossie, and a brown tabby stray cat named Dewey Decimal - decides to investigate.

©2021 Dorothy McFalls (P)2021 Tantor

A great cozy!

Characters are well-written and developed. Narrator is one of my favorites! Looking forward to the next in the series.

FUN READ--I WILL BUY BK 2

"The Broken Spine" was a totally enjoyable read/listen. The characters are easy to imagine and feel you know. The setting of the story is fun and comfortable. The plot was excellently covered and kept you interested until the end.

Allyson Ryan, the narrator, thank you for a wonder job. You presented the story perfectly.

I will be buying book 2

EXCELLENT NEW COZY MYSTERY

LOVED THIS FIRST IN A NEW MYSTERY SERIES. TRU, TORI, FLOSSIE, AND THE ARRAY OF CHARACTERS ARE GREAT. LOTS OF SECRETS, STORIES, AND RELATIONSHIPS AWAIT US. I JUST HOPE THE NEXT BOOK IS RELEASED SOON.
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Not for me

I gave this book a chance and I wish I didn't. The characters were unlikable and the plot was uninspired and unrealistic. I simply can't believe that Tru would be considered the number 1 suspect because the library was becoming bookless. I also find it hard to believe that if a library was to become bookless, they would send the books to a landfill. There are too many used bookstores and too many people who would be willing to buy books. There are also several other things in the book that made me not want to finish it, such as, Tru not knowing about Athens, Georgia. Maybe I'm being picky but I rolled my eyes so much that they started to hurt, so, that was it for me.

Totally Unrealistic

It was so long and drawn out, The plot to destroy library books for no apparent reason is unrealistic. The idea of having cats & criminals running around the library is also unrealistic. People basically living in the library is boring.
I tried three times to finish it but it is impossible.