As the son and brother of librarians, I felt drawn in a strange sort of way to a book that features a brainy PhD candidate who suddenly leaves her treasured job at the Harold Washington Library in Chicago to enter the federal witness protection program (or WITSEC). I’m pretty sure that neither my mother nor sister ever lived a life remotely like that of the librarian known through much of this work as Cam Baker. However, I can’t be totally sure . . . as this book is all about people who are not what they seem to be.*

It’s Not Even Past (2025) by Anna Scotti is a brilliantly conceived set of murder mysteries involving the librarian originally known as Lori Yarborough. Lori moves through several aliases, multiple locations across the U.S., and a variety of rather menial jobs in order to stay a step ahead of her ruthless ex and his cartel henchmen. In each place our protagonist has an uncanny ability to find herself in the midst of trouble and murder; her ingenuity in solving those crimes inevitably forces her to move on, often to a new city with a new WITSEC-provided identity. Nine of the eleven chapters were originally published as short stories in the Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine where they received wide critical acclaim. In this wonderfully crafted work those original stories are book-ended with two new pieces, the first to help set up Lori/Cam’s saga and then the final one which adds a coda to this part of her life after the years have so fundamentally changed this once naive librarian.

In a thoughtful online post from earlier this year, Scotti writes of the origin of Lori/Cam and how the librarian’s character developed over time. She set a fictional murder mystery amongst the “vital, vibrant senior folk” in her parents’ assisted living facility, not realizing that she “would fall in love with the brainy, erudite librarian at the center of the story.” She did, however, and thus this brilliant series was born.

Scotti’s writing is spare in style but it easily brings the reader along to see how Cam will find the truth about the murder at hand. Ultimately it also leads us to fall in love with this constantly evolving librarian. One story element that is present from the beginning of the series is this bibliophile’s love of literature. The quotations that pop into Cam’s mind—and, often at inopportune moments, out of her mouth—are delicious morsels in this feast. In fact, I had wondered if the one from which the book takes its title was the quote well known to historians and lovers of Southern literature alike.

It was, indeed.

Here’s the full quote, from William Faulkner’s Requiem for a Nun.

“The past is never dead. It’s not even past. All of us labor in webs spun long before we were born, webs of heredity and environment, of desire and consequence, of history and eternity.”

Truer words were never spoken.

Anna Scotti has created a character and a book that is sure to delight fans of murder mysteries and many others who simply relish a well-told story . . . or, perhaps, have a librarian in the family and have wondered about their secret lives.

More to come . . .

DJB

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*The note about my mom and sister is clearly written with tongue firmly planted in cheek, just in case you were wondering.

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My years of reading dangerously

As I have explained before, I didn’t begin reading murder mysteries until I retired and the pandemic hit. Since then I’ve tried to make up for lost time, always including several from the genre as part of my intention to read “five books per month.”

Here’s an up-to-date list by year with links to my reviews. A couple are more historical fiction than traditional murder mysteries, but I’ve included them here since somebody dies along the way. You can also find the full list with links in the Reading Dangerously (AKA Murder Mysteries) category of MORE TO COME.

2022

• Raven Black (2006) Ann Cleeves
• Magnus (1973) George Mackay Brown
• Lemon (2021) Kwon Yeo-sun

2023

• The Spy Who Came in From the Cold (1963) John le Carré
• And Then There Were None (1939) Agatha Christie
• The Murder on the Links (1923) Agatha Christie
• Funerals are Fatal (1953) Agatha Christie
• Dead Man’s Folly (1956) Agatha Christie
• The Fourth Man (2005) K.O. Dahl
• Death in a Strange Country (1993) Donna Leon
• The Thursday Murder Club (2020) Richard Osman
• Whose Body? (1923) Dorothy L. Sayers
• Maigret and the Lazy Burglar (1961) Georges Simenon
• Eight Perfect Murders (2020) Peter Swanson

2024

• The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920) Agatha Christie
• The Mystery of the Blue Train (1928) Agatha Christie
• The Dirty Duck (1984) Martha Grimes
• Magpie Murders (2016) Anthony Horowitz
• Small Things Like These (2021) Claire Keegan
• Death at La Fenice (1992) Donna Leon
• Willful Behavior (2018) Donna Leon

2025 (through June)

• A Refiner’s Fire (2024) Donna Leon
• The Death of Shame (2025) Ambrose Parry
• Still Life (2005) Louise Penny
• A Better Man (2019) Louise Penny
• Troubled Waters: A Sea Story (2024) Syd Stapleton

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Photo of a mysterious street by Adrien Brunat on Unsplash