While the fourth 42nd Street Library Mystery by Con Lehane doesn’t spend a lot of time in the library, it does spend quite a bit of time with favorite support characters, bartender Brian McNulty and homicide detective Mike Cosgrove. Of course, it’s Raymond Ambler, curator of the crime fiction collection who stirs the pot in Murder By Definition.

When Ray receives a phone call from a belligerent author, he knows he’s talking to Will Ford, a disgraced, scandalous writer who hadn’t published in over a decade. Ford has been called, “A drunk, a drug-abuser, a womanizer, a misogynist, a deadbeat,” and he’ll admit to all of these. But, Ambler can’t resist his writing, and convinces the library to accept five boxes of Ford’s papers. They don’t come without problems. The planned opening turns into a small reception when women’s groups protest. But, it’s an unpublished story, “The Unrepentant Killer”, that causes all hell to break loose for Ambler and his friends.

Ray just can’t resist looking into the facts behind that story. Ford says it was based on an actual incident in the early 1990s when a corrupt cop walked away from the murders of a street thug and his mistress. But, the author doesn’t want Ray to dig into it, saying the story might get him killed because it’s too close to the truth. And Mike Cosgrove warns Ambler. Cosgrove has been in trouble before with the NYPD for exposing crooked cops, and he’s not looking to be raked over the coals again by fellow cops. However, Cosgrove is an honest cop, and he’s not going to let corruption go, even if the case was thirty years earlier.

Yes, people die because Ray Ambler had to know the truth. But, there are some interesting questions that come up in the course of the investigation, questions that pertain to so many amateur sleuths in so many novels. Ray is asked, “Why in God’s name are you snooping around a homicide case from decades ago that has nothing to do with you? What do you get out of it?” Ask that of amateur sleuths as you read about their investigations. Ray himself realizes “He had a role in life besides muddling through murder investigations.” How many amateur sleuths actually realize that?

Con Lehane’s mysteries are not what readers think of when they think of the library. They are complicated stories, and the characters often have troubled backstories. Ray Ambler is one of those characters with a troubled backstory. And, Murder By Definition is darker than readers would expect unless they’ve encountered Lehane’s books before.

Con Lehane’s website is https://conlehane.com/

Murder By Definition by Con Lehane. Severn House, 2022.

FTC Full Disclosure – I read a galley in order to interview the author.