She’s a book slinging badass, a master of the Dewey Decimal System, and the faster shusher in the West. She’s Agnes Abernathy, Jake Dashing’s overworked, under appreciated research assistant.
Having held the position of reference librarian at the Montoya Branch Library for decades, she’s seen her beloved book haven shift from a bastion of knowledge for the community to a de facto shelter for down on their luck homeless folk with nowhere else to go. Ever the public servant, she puts on the happiest face she can and goes out of her way to help her patrons, even though they heap all manner of abuse on her.
Her most difficult customer as of late is one Jake Dashing. He has no clue how to use computers and bullies Agnes into doing his pop culture homework for him, so much so that Bookshelf Q. Battler often wonders why he doesn’t just fire Jake and hire Agnes, thus cutting out the middle man entirely.
While Agnes routinely reprimands Jake about his laziness and lack of manners, there’s a part of her that doesn’t mind the intrigue that comes with being a pop culture mystery researcher. Between budget cuts that lower the quality of services her library can provide, a population convinced that the Internet has made libraries obsolete, her retirement looming on the horizon and a husband with failing health to take care of, she begins to look at Jake’s research requests as her chance to add some much needed adventure to her life.
Of course, she won’t tell that bum that.
Be on the lookout for “Agnes’ Indie Book of the Month” in which our resident book jockey will promote books she’d like to see in her library.
Pop Culture Mysteries 