A note from bartender Brian McNulty, Raymond Ambler’s friend, confidant and sometimes adviser, sets the librarian sleuth off on a murder investigation, one that he pursues reluctantly until a second murder upends the world as he knows it. The second victim is a lady friend of McNulty’s --- and the prime suspect is McNulty himself. As Ambler pursues his investigation, he discovers that the murdered woman had a double life. While Ambler looks into the past of Dr. Sandra Dean to understand the murder of Shannon Darling in the present, NYPD homicide detective Mike Cosgrove investigates the men in Darling’s life. Yet, no matter which way he turns, McNulty emerges as a suspect.

When a murder desecrates the somber, book-lined halls of New York City’s iconic 42nd Street Library, Raymond Ambler, the library’s curator of crime fiction, has a personal interest in solving the crime. His quest to solve the murder is complicated by personal entanglements involving his friend --- or perhaps more-than-friend --- Adele Morgan. Ambler suspects that the murder of the young woman, who had been working at the library under an assumed name, and the curious intervention of NYPD’s intelligence division are connected. The trail of intrigue leads to a seemingly unrelated murder in an upstate prison and a long-ago murder of a trade union reformer.

MURDER AT THE 42nd STREET LIBRARY follows librarian (and reluctant sleuth) Raymond Ambler and his partners in crime-solving as they track down a killer, shining a light on the dark deeds and secret relationships that are hidden deep inside the famous flagship building at the corner of 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue in New York City. In their search for the reasons behind the murder, Ambler and his crew uncover sinister, and profoundly disturbing, relationships among the scholars studying in the iconic library.