Book Log 2022 #48: The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections by Eva Jurczyk

Liesl Weiss works behind the scenes in the rare book department of a large university's library. She's put front and center when her boss has a stroke and she has to run the department, which would be fine except she makes a discovery pretty early on that would cause scandal and potentially see someone go to jail.

Liesl has to balance what's best for the department with what will keep the donors giving money to the school, all while trying to solve the mystery she's uncovered (as well as a second mystery that is coincidental to be unrelated).

As someone who's made a career in higher education - including a stint in a school library - the subject matter was very appealing. The author, herself a librarian, brings a lot of that experience to bear, and there was a lot of familiarity to the college politics and the personalities involved. I liked the book well enough but had a non-specific feeling of it not being 100 percent what it could be. I don't have a good explanation of where that feeling came from, honestly. It's definitely worth giving a try if you like campus novels.