Review of The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections by Eva Jurczyk

In The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, the assistant director of a library collection at a university becomes a reluctant amateur sleuth when the library’s newest acquisition goes missing.  Liesl Weiss, said assistant director, was enjoying her sabbatical and contemplating retirement when she’s called back to work after her boss becomes incapacitated following a stroke.  The library is having a gathering of its major donors to reveal the acquisition, but the rare book is nowhere to be found.  Soon, other rare books are discovered missing from the collection, and Liesl is in over her head.  However, the university’s president forbids her from seeking help from the police.  Then one of Liesl’s coworkers goes missing, and Liesl has no choice but to defy the president’s orders.

If you’ve ever wondered about the pressure put on universities by their donors, then The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections may be an interesting read.  I’ve never experienced that type of pressure, but I think this book does a good job of showing what it possibly feels like.  The characters are professional but quirky.  The relationships are tense.  The plot is dramatic.  Yet, I really felt out of sorts reading this book.  It almost felt like I wasn’t intelligent enough to be able to read about these characters.  I guess what I’m trying to say is that the characters came off as more intellectually snobbish than I think the author wanted them to be.  Or maybe she did wish to portray them that way because that’s how academics behave in real life.   Either way, I pushed onward and finished the book.  In the end, the thief’s identity made sense, and Liesl’s future at the university was nicely settled.