In Tokyo’s Himonya district lives Kaede’s grandfather, a former school principal with a love of mystery novels that he has passed down to his granddaughter.

My Review: I picked this up for the obvious. It’s clearly a story about a cat, and books, and at least one library, and I’m there for all of those things. That it’s also the follow-up to The Cat Who Saved Books, which I enjoyed very much for all the above reasons - although that’s about a bookstore rather than a library - certainly helped push this book to the top of my virtually towering TBR pile.

Recommendations from five Paris Review fiction writers, three translators, one poet, one poetry editor, and two interns.

Upon being arrested for the gruesome murder of her father, all college student Kanna Hijiriyama tells the police is “It’s up to you to find the motive.” Amidst the media frenzy about the woman “too be...