by Jo Dereske
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Product Description
The crime-solving doyenne of the Dewey Decimal System, Miss Zukas is back in circulation! Librarian extraordinaire Miss Wilhelmina "Helma" Zukas wakes up on the morning of her forty-second birthday in the throes of more than one midlife crisis. Her championing a collection of local authors' works ignites a dangerous firestorm of jealousy and anger in tiny Bellehaven. She's blackmailed by her conniving boss, library director May Apple Moon, into attending group counseling sessions -- and two of the participants turn up dead. An obnoxiously bubbly new librarian is turning the head of Helma's longtime admirer, Police Chief Wayne Gallant. And worst of all, her uncuddly feline companion, Boy Cat Zukas, disappears. Though she's been expressly forbidden to investigate (by the scheming Ms. Moon), it's Helma's nature to delve and research, and she figures there's nothing else now that she can lose. But too much nosing around in this case, and she's not going to make it to forty-three!
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 A Good One, 2007-04-13
Although it alarmed me at first to find newly 42 year old Miss Helma Zukas off kilter and feeling in a "crisis" mode, it turned out to be a refreshing change of pace. I was, however, extremely relieved when she got her usual savoir-faire back late in the book.
I have come to rely on and be inspired by Helma's great supply of organization, tidiness, diligence, and what I think of as the Three C's: common sense, calmness, and civility. She sets clear boundaries and doesn't have to succumb to rudeness or vulgarity to preserve them. When is someone going to start a Miss Helma Zukas Fan Club?
I did find this book a bit worrisome, as I feared for Boy Cat Zukas's life.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Troubles for Miss Zukas, 2006-08-17
Erstwhile librarian, Helma Zukas awakens one day with a feeling of depression. Things go downhill from there as Helma's boss threatens to take away her pet project on local authors, male companion Police Chief Wayne Gallant becomes decidedly cool towards her, and Helma's cat is nowhere to be found. Helma's boss, Miss Moon, suggests that she begin attending counseling groups for the various problems which Miss Moon perceives that Helma has. While she begins attending the groups, Helma meets some local authors and some counselors who lead the groups. When two local authors are killed, Helma begins to investigate, despite the objections of Chief Gallant. Just to complicate matters, Helma's free-spirited friend Ruth comes to stay with her for awhile so that she can ponder the future of her marriage. This is the first new book in this series in 5 years, and will be welcomed by Jo Dereske's many fans.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Triumphant Return of Miss Zukas, 2006-07-07
In the 9th book in Miss Zukas Mystery series, we finally are able to return to the life of Ms. Helma Zukas, the exacting librarian who solves mysteries. After what seemed like an eternal wait for the next book in the series, Helma has returned...but a bit different from previous books in the series. She is a bit out of sorts, and seems to have a cloud covering her normally sharpened senses. She has just turned 42-years-old, and after her birthday, Helma has a hard time focusing on her work and her private life. Her co-workers and friends quickly notice, and it is not long before her therapy-fanatic boss, Ms. May Apple Moon, blackmails Helma into attending group counseling sessions to find "inner peace". Adding to Helma's confusion is that Helma's best friend, Ruth, has run away from Minneapolis and her live-in boyfriend, Paul. She quickly takes up residence with Helma, saying she was unable to paint while living with Paul. Helma is not one for a roommate, especially one so creative, messy, and free-spirited as Ruth, and her muddled state quickly goes from bad to worse. When a member of the first group therapy session that Helma attends is found murdered, Helma quickly jumps in to find a murderer. With the help of her long-time friend, Ruth, and in spite of the surprising absence of love-interest police chief, Wayne Gallant, Helma is able to stop a murderous spree with grace and precision.
This has always been a great series, and I had missed it in its absence. I love the character of Helma, and her precise mannerisms. She is very tidy, particular about how things are done, and very loyal to her friends. I loved how she allowed herself to have a growing fondness for her cat, Boy Cat Zukas, (what a great name!) in this book, and how she was such a great friend to Ruth. I was a bit dismayed at how small of a role that Wayne Gallant played in this book, and the misunderstanding that seems to hang between them. It was nice to see a small flicker of romance with a new character for Helma, and I am very interested to see how that might play out in future installments. I love this series, and am extremely happy to see its return.
The next book in the series is due out in April, 2007 and is titled "Catalogue of Death". The first book in the series is called "Miss Zukas and the Library Murders". Enjoy!
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
 Welcome back Miss Zukas!, 2006-06-26
I am thrilled to have Miss Zukas back - this is one of my favorite series! I love the stories, I love the humor, I love the evocation of place, and I love the writing, but I have a strong preference for character-driven stories, especially series, and that is one of the best part of these.
Wilhemina "Helma" Zukas has a very unusual personality, especially for the protagonist of a story. Methodical, meticulous, extremely neat and not particularly an animal lover, it is very unusual to have a character like this sympathetically portrayed. Authors generally to to either "cure" characters like this, having them discover that they really want to be loud, boisterous and reckless; or they turn out to be psychopaths.
Miss Zukas is an interesting mixture of individual certainty and slight social ineptness, especially when it comes to intimacy. She is certain of her values, her preferred way of life, and fearless in pursuit of matters of principle. She deals well enough enough with her colleagues, although she is not close to them, she is a perfect public servant to the patrons, and can be quite firm and forceful, but she is uncertain when it comes to close relationships, especially romantic, which in this book add greatly to her confusion.
Miss Zukas is balanced by her rather wild, artist friend, Ruth in what is in someways an unlikely pairing, but in other ways an understandable attraction of opposites. It supplies a great deal of the humor and human interest in the book. There is a nice cast of continuing minor characters as well.
Her reluctant relationship with the stray Boy Cat Zukas supplies a great deal of understated humor. Her mixture of fastidious relectance to have a pet and her inability to abandon an animal in need are very true to life.
There has been some concern about Miss Zukas as a librarian stereotype - being a librarian myself, I understand the concern. While someone like Miss Zukas might be likely to choose to be a librarian, I think that her colleagues are varied enough to make it clear that all librarians are not like Miss Zukas. The office politics, expecially with the library director, Ms. Moon, are only too real and too funny. The one thing that strikes me as odd is that Ms. Zukas seems to be able to get away from the library a lot, but she still works more than most literary characters.
In this story, Miss Zukas is having a midlife crisis and Ms. Moon leaps in to "help". Meanwhile, Boy Cat Zukas disappears, and Helma, although she really didn't want him in the first place, is still terribly worried. Just to add to her stress, her friend Ruth drops in for a visit while she resolves her own issues, nearly trashing Miss Zukas's apartment in the process. And this is before anyone gets killed!
I hope that this is only the beginning of a renewed spate of books.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
So happy Miss Zukas is back, 2006-06-26
Three cheers! After a long wait, Miss Helma Zukas is back in our lives. The reviews below are more specific about the story line than I need to be here.
In real life, the author, Jo Dereske, has gone through the death of her husband since the last Miss Zukas mystery. In this book, there are touches of the author's personal grief and courage as she has Helma overcome deep personal feelings (unspecified) to reclaim the vigor of her life. I was very happy with the book and the promise of a new love in Helma's life.
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