May Book 2026 Selection

Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday May 5, 2026. We will be discussing, Last Call at the Nightingale by Katharine Schellman. This is the first book, which takes place in 1920’s New York, featuring Vivian Kelly, who becomes an amateur detective to help her friends at the Nightingale, a speakeasy.

The book description from the publisher’s website is, “New York, 1924. Vivian Kelly's days are filled with drudgery, from the tenement lodging she shares with her sister to the dress shop where she sews for hours every day. But at night, she escapes to The Nightingale, an underground dance hall where illegal liquor flows and the band plays the Charleston with reckless excitement. With a bartender willing to slip her a free glass of champagne and friends who know the owner, Vivian can lose herself in the music. No one asks where she came from or how much money she has. No one bats an eye if she flirts with men or women as long as she can keep up on the dance floor. At The Nightingale, Vivian forgets the dangers of Prohibition-era New York and finds a place that feels like home. But then she discovers a body behind the club, and those dangers come knocking. Caught in a police raid at the Nightingale, Vivian discovers that the dead man wasn't the nameless bootlegger he first appeared. With too many people assuming she knows more about the crime than she does, Vivian finds herself caught between the dangers of the New York's underground and the world of the city's wealthy and careless, where money can hide any sin and the lives of the poor are considered disposable...including Vivian's own.”

We will be meeting at 6:30 PM in the First Floor Conference Room, and on Zoom. For more information, please see Sara at the Reference Desk.

 

April Book Selection

Join the North Providence Mystery and Adult Book Clubs on Tuesday April 7, 2026. We will welcome Vanessa Lillie, local author of Blood Sisters. This is her first book featuring Cyd Walker, an archaeologist for the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

The book description from the author’s website is, “As an archaeologist for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Syd Walker spends her days in Rhode Island trying to protect the land’s Indigenous past, even as she’s escaping her own. While Syd is dedicated to her job, she’s haunted by a night of violence she barely escaped in her Oklahoma hometown fifteen years ago. Even though she swore she’d never go back, the past comes calling.

What happens to the land happens to the women.

When a skull is found near the crime scene of her youth, just as her sister, Emma Lou, disappears, Syd knows she must return to Oklahoma. She refuses to let her sister, or the remains, go ignored as so often happens in cases of missing Native women.

But not everyone is glad to have Syd home. The search for Emma Lou puts Syd in the crosshairs of local drug dealers looking to build an empire and vengeful vigilantes policing the abandoned mines, while government officials silence tribal rights.

The truth will be unearthed.

The deeper Syd digs, the more she uncovers about a string of missing Indigenous women cases trailing back decades. To save her sister, she must expose a darkness in town that no one wants to face—not even Syd.”

We will be meeting in the Community Room at 6:30 pm and on Zoom. For more information, please see Sara at the Reference Desk or Mary at the Circulation Desk.

 

March 2026 Book Selection

 

Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday March 3, 2026, as we discuss Killing Floor by Lee Child. This is the first book featuring ex-Army MP Jack Reacher. This book series is also the basis for the show Reacher.

The book synopsis from the author’s website is “Jack Reacher steps off a bus. He walks fourteen miles in the rain to reach Margrave, a no-account little town in Georgia, in search of a dead guitar player. But Margrave has just had its first homicide in thirty years. And Reacher is the only stranger in town. As the body count mounts, only one thing is for sure. They picked the wrong guy to take the fall.”

We will meet in the First Floor Conference Room at 6:30 pm and on Zoom. For more information, see Sara at the Reference Desk.

February 2026 Book Selection

Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday February 3, 2026. We will be discussing The Cold Dish by Craig Johnson. This is the first book featuring Sheriff Walt Longmire. This is the basis for the television series "Longmire".

The book synopsis from the author’s website is “The body of a young man is found in Absaroka County, Wyoming. It is possible that Cody Pritchard is the victim of a hunting accident, or is he? After all, he was one of the four boys who lured Melissa Real Bird, a Cheyenne girl with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, into a basement and raped her. Cody and his friends received what amounted to suspended sentences. Is someone seeking revenge? Will the specter of race relations and lingering retribution claim more lives? Or will the only thing that stands between them and a Sharps .45-70 buffalo rifle be Sheriff Walt Longmire?  On the autumnal side of twenty-four years as sheriff of Absaroka County, which is located at the base of the Big Horn Mountains and next to the Northern Cheyenne Reservation, Walt is looking for a quiet period to finish out his tenure but instead finds himself embroiled in the most volatile and challenging case of his career. With lifelong friend Henry Standing Bear, Deputy Victoria Morretti, and a cast of characters tragic and humorous enough to fill in the vast emptiness of the high plains, Walt Longmire attempts to see that revenge, a dish best served cold, is never served at all”

We will be meeting in the First Floor Conference Room at 6:30 pm and on Zoom. For more information, please see Sara at the Reference Desk.

 

January 2026 Book Selection

Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday January 6, 2026. We will be discussing Gin and Daggers by Donald Bain. This is the first novel featuring Jessica Fletcher the character from the television series “Murder She Wrote”. The character is also listed as the author.

The book description from the publisher’s website is, “Jessica Fletcher is off to London to deliver the keynote address at a mystery writers convention. She's also looking forward to seeing her mentor, Marjorie Ainsworth, who's hosting a party on her estate to celebrate her latest book. But a routine business trip becomes murderous business—when Jessica discovers Marjorie stabbed to death in her own bedroom...".

We will be meeting in the First Floor Conference Room at 6:30 pm and on Zoom. For more information, please see Sara at the Reference Desk.

 

December 2025 Book Selection

Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday December 2, 2025. We will be discussing A Bad Day for Sunshine by Darynda Jones. This is the first book featuring Sunshine Vicram, the newly elected sheriff in her hometown.

The book description from the author’s website is “Del Sol, New Mexico is known for three things: its fry-an-egg-on-the-cement summers, it’s strong cups of coffee―and a nationwide manhunt? Del Sol native Sunshine Vicram has returned to town as the elected sheriff—an election her adorably meddlesome parents entered her in—and she expects her biggest crime wave to involve an elderly flasher named Doug. But a teenage girl is missing, a kidnapper is on the loose, and all of it’s reminding Sunny why she left Del Sol in the first place. Add to that trouble at her daughter’s new school and a kidnapped prized rooster named Puff Daddy, and Sunshine has her hands full.

Enter sexy almost-old-flame Levi Ravinder and a hunky US Marshall, both elevens on a scale of one to blazing inferno, and the normally savvy sheriff is quickly in over her head. Now it’s up to Sunshine to juggle a few good hunky men, a not-so-nice kidnapping miscreant, and Doug the ever-pesky flasher. And they said coming home would be drama-free.”

We will be meeting at 6:30 pm in the First Floor Conference Room and through Zoom. For more information, please see Sara at the Reference Desk.

 

November 2025 Book Selection

Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday November 4, 2025. We will be discussing Think of a Number by John Verdon. This is the first book featuring retired detective Dave Gurney.

The book description from the publisher’s website is, “Threatening letters arrive in the mail over a period of weeks, ending with a simple declaration: “Think of any number . . . picture it . . . now see how well I know your secrets.” Those who comply find that the letter writer has predicted their random choice exactly. But when oddities that begin as a diverting puzzle quickly ignite into a massive serial murder investigation, police are confronted with a baffling killer, one who is fond of rhymes filled with threats and warnings, whose attention to detail is unprecedented, and who has an uncanny knack for disappearing into thin air.

Brought in as an investigative consultant, Dave Gurney, a recently retired NYPD homicide investigator, soon accomplishes deductive breakthroughs that leave local police in awe. Yet, even as he matches wits with his seemingly clairvoyant opponent, Gurney’s tragedy-marred past rises up to haunt him, his marriage approaches a dangerous precipice, and he wonders if he’s met an adversary who can’t be stopped.”

We will meet at 6:30 pm in the First Floor Conference Room, and through Zoom. For more information, please see Sara at the Reference Desk.