Showing results by author "Victoria Gilbert" in All Categories

True stories inspired by one of the most iconic, beloved, best-selling books of our time. In the 10 years since its electrifying debut, Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat Pray Love has become a worldwide phenomenon, empowering millions of people to set out on paths they never thought possible, in search of their own best selves. Here, in this candid and captivating collection, nearly 50 of those people, as diverse in their experiences as they are in age and background, share their stories.

Nestled in the historic waterfront town of Beaufort, North Carolina, Chapters Bed-and-Breakfast is a reader's paradise. Built in 1770, the newly renovated inn hosts a roster of special events celebrating books, genres, and authors. It's the perfect literary retreat - until a rare-book dealer turns up dead in the carriage house during a celebration of Golden Age mystery author Josephine Tey. The victim's daughter points the finger at 42-year-old widow and former schoolteacher Charlotte Reed, who inherited the B&B from her great-aunt Isabella.

Sixty-year-old Jane Hunter, forced into early retirement from her job as a university librarian, is seeking a new challenge to keep her spirits up and supplement her meager pension. But as she’s about to discover, a retiree’s life can bring new thrills—and new dangers. Cameron “Cam” Clewe, an eccentric 33-year-old collector, is also seeking something—an archivist to inventory his ever-expanding compendium of rare books and artifacts.

Beaufort, North Carolina, is home to Chapters Bed and Breakfast, owned and operated by former schoolteacher Charlotte Reed. This historic 18th-century inn draws in voracious readers from far and wide with its lovingly curated special events celebrating a host of genres and authors. But when the president of a reclusive writer's fan club is found dead in the harbor by the Beaufort docks - done in by a blunt-force blow to the head - it's up to Charlotte Reed, her neighbor Ellen, and Ellen's trusty Yorkshire terrier to sniff out the killer. 

Booklover Charlotte is delighted to welcome an eclectic group of guests to Chapters Bed and Breakfast for a book-club retreat focused on fairy tales and classic children’s literature. But when one of the guests is poisoned at a Mad Hatter tea party, Charlotte realizes she’s fallen down a rather unpleasant rabbit hole. The victim—an opinionated busybody whose jewelry store sold original designs, along with some possibly “hot” merchandise—had plenty of enemies, spurring Charlotte and Ellen to offer their well-honed investigative skills to assist the local police. 

When Eloise Anderson, the owner of an antiquarian bookshop, arrives at the grand Aircroft estate to ask retired librarian Jane Hunter and eccentric collector Cameron Clewe for help, Jane and Cam expect a bookish inquiry. But the bookseller has a different sort of assistance in mind—clearing her mother’s name of a murder Eloise is convinced she didn’t commit. Eloise’s mother has just died after spending many years in prison for allegedly killing Eloise’s father. Armed with new information found in her mother’s effects, the bookseller is determined to uncover the true killer.

A sleuthing library director is on the case when a patron drops dead in the tenth installment of Victoria Gilbert's critically acclaimed Blue Ridge Library mysteries. When a stranger falls over dead in the Taylorsford Public Library, clutching a crumpled piece of paper inscribed only with the...

Returning to her role as an amateur detective is the last thing library director Amy Muir wants. She's already buried under an avalanche of responsibilities, including sharing the directorship of the local public library, parenting her holiday-obsessed five-year-old twins, and helping her choreographer husband, Richard, present The Nutcracker as part of the town's festivities. With her frosty mother-in-law, Fiona, visiting for the holidays, Amy definitely has enough on her Christmas cookie plate.

It's early summer, and while Richard Muir and his dance partner, Karla, are preparing their new choreographic piece, Richard's wife, Amy, is gathering the dance's source materials. Based on folktales and the music of the Blue Ridge Mountains, the production is set to premiere at an old cinema that has been converted to a theater. But when dancer Meredith Fox—Richard's former fiancé—is found dead backstage, Amy is once again propelled into a murder case that threatens the careers and lives of those she loves.

The transition from high school to college can be incredibly uncomfortable. And still, the transition from college to the real world is abrupt, discombobulating, and not talked about nearly enough. Twentysomethings, best friends, and recent graduates Robert Cain ‘21 and Victoria Gilbert ‘21 finished school in the middle of a global pandemic overly burdened by economic uncertainty and a discouraging job market. In response to these challenges, the creative duo shares personal anecdotes and lessons learned as they live, laugh, and desperately search for clarity and security in the postgrad ...

Taylorsford Public Library director Amy Webber’s friend “Sunny” Fields is running for mayor. But nothing puts a damper on a campaign like an actual skeleton in a candidate’s closet. Sunny’s grandparents ran a commune back in the 1960s on their organic farm. But these former hippies face criminal charges when human remains are found in their fields - and a forensic examination reveals that the death was neither natural nor accidental. 

Hunter and Clewe are back in the third Hunter and Clewe mystery, from acclaimed author Victoria Gilbert, when a closed case is reopened after another member of a prominent family is murdered. Cameron Clewe and Jane Hunter, lovers of all things bookish, are slowly cataloguing Cam’s private...

Jennifer "Jen" Dalton is an author and educator at Clarion University in Virginia. She loves her job, but some of her petty coworkers look down on her for writing genre fiction. As members of the English department, they wish to encourage students to pursue higher literary aspirations. When a humiliating confrontation between an uppity professor and one of Jen’s students, Mia, escalates, no one thinks much of it. Until his dead body is found along with evidence incriminating Mia.

Library director Amy Muir has always been suspicious of wealthy art dealer Kurt Kendrick. As a close family friend, the ties that bind them are strong, but his murky past is concerning, especially since he is the godfather to Amy and her husband Richard's six-year-old twins. When a visitor to their small, historic Virginia town is found dead after publicly accusing Kurt of committing a decades-old murder, Amy is determined to prove that Kurt didn't kill anyone, in the past or the present.