Librarian Carrie Singleton sleuths a murder at her best friend's wedding in Agatha Award nominee Allison Brook's fifth Haunted Library mystery.

Clover Ridge librarian Carrie Singleton is thrilled to attend her best friend Angela's wedding, but Angela's family can be a bit...much. Angela’s wealthy cousin Donna hosts an extravagant bridal shower at her resplendent home, but the celebrations turn to gossip as the guests notice Donna's surgeon husband, Aiden, spending a bit too much time with Donna’s cousin Roxy. At the wedding reception, the sweet occasion turns darkly bitter when Aiden topples into the chocolate fountain--dead.

The suspect list is as long as the guest list, and as difficult to sort out as the seating chart. A few of the top contenders on Carrie’s suspect list are the flirtatious Roxy, emotionally unstable since her recent divorce; Angela's grouchy brother, who feels Aiden betrayed him; and Roxy's scorned ex-husband. Even Donna may have had reason to want her husband dead. And Aiden's gossipy office manager has plenty to say about them all.

Then another member of Angela's family is murdered, making Carrie more determined than ever to find the killer. Can library ghost Evelyn and library cat Smoky Joe help Carrie solve the murders before she becomes the next of Angela’s wedding guests to head to the grave?

The wedding reception of Carrie’s best friend is spoiled when a guest keels over dead into the chocolate fountain. Soon Carrie is hip deep in trying to determine which, if any, of her best friend’s family did him in. She also has a mission from the library’s resident ghost to find the ghost’s missing (living) brother and thus help his daughter.

This is a pretty typical cozy mystery with a paranormal bent, pleasant characters, a cat, a ghost, a supportive boyfriend and some family drama for the main character. Events from prior books are alluded to but not really explained so there is some lack of understanding of Carrie’s feelings on some issues. The ghost, at least in this one book, seems just sort of tacked on for the paranormal twist and really does not play much of a role in anything. A quick pleasant read but not enough to hook my interest that I feel compelled to look for others in the series. ~~ Stephanie L Bannon

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