Mrs. Christie at the Mystery Guild Library

A woman who might be Agatha Christie helps a shy New York City book conservator solve a string of mysteries in Chapman’s delightful debut. At the end of her shift at Manhattan’s Mystery Guild Library, timid Tori Van Dyne is greeted by a posh elderly woman who asks for a cocktail and introduces herself as Mrs. Max Mallowan, the married name of the real-life Agatha Christie. Before a shocked Tori can ask many questions, her cousin, actor Nic Van Dyne, drops by to lament that a dog she’s watching is seriously ill. With some skillful questions, the visitor determines that the dog was inadvertently poisoned by a crushed jewelry bead. Then Nic’s agent turns up dead, and the apparent Mrs. Christie steers Tori, Nic, and the policeman assigned to the case toward a solution with the acuity of Miss Marple. Chapman has a blast with her contemporary New York setting, resettling British mystery tropes among Manhattan’s rare books community, theatrical circles, and eccentric Upper East Siders. Uncovering a killer, it turns out, can be just as fun in the Big Apple as it is in St. Mary Mead. Fans of classic detective fiction are in for a treat. Agent: Sandy Harding, Spencerhill Assoc. (Aug.)