Dang, I didn't know how much I would love a mystery novel set in an archives (and written by an archivist) until I dug into this page turner! Jo Jackson is the archivist in an academic library at a college in the Midwest. Her job is filled with the regular victories and disappointments of a university archivist until a scream in the reading room shakes up the foundations of her work life -- the student worker found a FINGER in one of the archives boxes. The police are called, and the finger is taken away, but the mystery is just getting started. The collection with the finger in it is a fake. The real collection is missing. The donor is dead. The administration, the former archivist, and some odd researchers are giving her contradictory and suspicious information. And no one is equipped or motivated to put all these pieces together and bring closure to this archival mystery like Jo.

This is a tightly written mystery with a satisfying ending that I think would appeal to mystery lovers of all types. As an archivist, though, this book brings some additional joys. Key pieces of the mystery hinge on foundations of archival practice like provenance, donor relations, and processing techniques. We get sentences like: "Working in an academic library had taught her to accept many forms of disappointment, and the ease with which old white men did everything was just one of them." Torres also has a gift for teasing out and describing physical aspects of archives and academic library life that are so spot on and bring a real richness to the text -- for example, the stretching and bending and squinting and squatting involved in searching for something in the stacks; or that familiar feeling of confidently picking up a bankers box of records from a faculty office in one building and then desperately wishing you had brought a cart when you finally get it back to the library. And while Jo's husband may be just a little too supportive and sensitive to ring entirely true, the vulnerability and concern that their relationship shares with the reader help round out and humanize Jo as a character.

I'm hoping that Torres continues with this series, because now that I've jumped into the archives mystery genre, I don't ever want to leave! ( )