Mrs. Christie at the Mystery Guild Library by Amanda Chapman was delightful. It’s filled with chapter headings and quotes from Agatha Christie novels. I loved Tory Van Dyne and her friends. Most of all I loved Agatha Christie and eleven-year-old Maired Butler.

Tory Van Dyne is a book conservator at New York’s Mystery Guild Library. She’s part of an eccentric Old New York family, and she inherited the house overlooking Greenwich Villages’s Washington Square Park from her grandmother, who understood Tory’s fears and need for a quiet environment. The bottom two floors house the library while Tory lives in the top two floors. Tory’s favorite room is the Agatha Christie Room, a close replica of Christie’s personal library in Greenway House in Devon, England. That room is Tory’s refuge until the day she finds a woman there who claims to be Mrs. Max Mallowan, Agatha Christie. She says she’s there to help Tory solve a murder mystery.

Tory doesn’t want to admit Mrs. Mallowan might be a ghost. Instead, she guesses she’s an eccentric patron of the library who stayed there after the library closed. But, when Tory’s cousin, Nic, an actress, shows up in tears, claiming her theatrical agent’s dog, Bertram, was poisoned, Mrs. Mallowan seems to recognize the poison.

Nic is relieved, and her agent seems to accept the resulting story of the accidental poisoning. But, when the agent is pushed in front of a subway train by an unknown assailant, Nic is a wreck. Detective Sebastian Mendez-Cruz delivers Nic to Tory’s doorstep, and becomes one of the group that assembles in the Agatha Christie Room, along with the librarian, and a precocious eleven-year-old, Maired, who reminds Tory of herself as a child, fascinated by books and mysteries.

As Nic’s friends and fellow actresses die of poisoning, it seems that Agatha Christie is steering the case in the right direction. She also seems to steer the shy Tory towards Detective Mendez-Cruz.

Mrs. Christie at the Mystery Guild Library is a delightful cozy mystery that capitalizes on books and Agatha Christie’s knowledge. I hope it’s the first of many to feature the amateur sleuth and Tory Van Dyne.

Amanda Chapman’s website is https://amandachapmanauthor.com/

Mrs. Christie at the Mystery Guild Library by Amanda Chapman. Berkley, 2025. 368p.

FTC Full Disclosure – I received a galley from the publisher through NetGalley, with no promise of a positive review.