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Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2400 KP) rated The Library Game in Books

Apr 18, 2025 (Updated Apr 18, 2025)

The Library Game

Gigi Pandian | 2025 | Mystery

9.0

(1 Ratings)

Book Rating

Murder Strolls into a Library

Tempest Raj and the rest of the team are working on turning a house into a new library in Hidden Creek, this one focused on classic mysteries. While the library isn’t ready to open yet, they are participating in the Summer Stroll program that kicks off in a few days. Their contribution will be an escape room and an interactive mystery play that Tempest wrote with her best friend, Ivy. Naturally, Tempest is there for a dress rehearsal. Unfortunately, it goes horribly wrong with one of the actors turning up dead after a scripted power outage. However, by the time they call the police, the body is gone. Is he really dead? If so, who moved the body?

The case is even more impossible than I was able to work into my teaser, and I had fun watching Tempest lead us to the logical solution. The pacing might have lagged a bit in the middle, but that might be me. It was fantastic to spend time with all the regulars again, and I’m curious where some of the relationships will go from here. The suspects were good, too. We get a delicious sounding recipe for Blackberry Crumble Cobbler and more references to classic mysteries. I really need to find a time to read some of them. This book will work well as an intro/standalone if you haven’t read the earlier books in the series yet. But you’ll want to go back to read them after the fun you’ll have here. Fans will be glad they picked up this book.

Kudos

Hazel (1853 KP) rated The One Safe Place in Books

Dec 7, 2018

I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads.

Review of an uncorrected bound manuscript.
The One Safe Place is a gripping tale by Tania Unsworth aimed at older children, although completely enjoyable by teens and adults too. Written in the third person and set in the not so distant future, we follow Devin’s story.

In the future the climate has changed, the temperature has risen and rain is very rare. The opening scene reveals Devin, a young boy, on a farm, digging a grave to bury his grandfather who has recently died (presumably of old age and not something sinister). Devin, now alone, decides to head to the city, a place he has never visited, in order to find some help for the farm. The problem is he has never once left the farm and knows nothing of the real world. Here he meets Kit, a young girl on her own living on the roof of a building, and decides to tag along with her. But then they meet Roman who promises them a safe home. Although skeptical, they decide to trust him and thus they arrive at the Gabriel H. Penn Home For Childhood. The place is amazing and has everything a child could want: toys, games, clothes, individual bedrooms, a swimming pool, and most importantly, food and drink. So why are all the other children walking around in limbo, uninterested in everything around them?

Devin, with the help of his friends, and his synesthesia, soon discovers and pieces together what is wrong about the home. The pace picks up as they plan their escape leading to the exciting ending.

The One Safe Place is a book young readers will love. Well what child would not love a book where the children outsmart the adults?