Rumors of fraud, forgeries, and murder at the Werner-Bok, one of the world's greatest rare-book libraries attract an illiterate cop and three extra-literate librarians and scholars, who test their wits against some very unprofessional adversaries

A set of library staffers meets with a collection of coin collectors in a whodunit involving the realms of rare coins and everyday books and three unusual sleuths

While on the trail of a missing graduate student, Crighton Jones, Steve Carson, and Edward George uncover historical treasures as well as murder

When Nelson Brooks, director of the prestigious Werner-Bok library, takes time off and heads for the West Coast, he is confident that his bright, urbane colleague Crighton Jones will keep the lights lit, the heat on, and the staff alive. But something is awry in the Asian reading room, where staff members, one by one, fall victim to murder. Crighton enlists her mentor Edward George, emeritus librarian at Yale, and her old flame, Steve Carson, an archaeologist at Colonial Williamsburg, to pursue the murderer with intelligence and impeccable research. Their search for the killer - and for certain rare Chinese volumes that threaten to cause an international political storm - entangles the Werner-Bok detectives with the local tong and exposes the mysteries of the not-so-serene world of rare books.