Molly O’Donnell, bookseller, wakes up to the sound of her Russian wolfhound, Blavatsky, thumping the crate with her tail. Somehow the dog is able to wag her tail in a circle like a helicopter’s blade. Molly cries out, “Good morning, guys!” and opens the crates of Blavatsky and her brother, Dmitri, so they can dash for the back yard through the dog door. Molly checks her emails while waiting for the tea water to boil. Then she waits for the tea in her mug to cool before starting to toast an English muffin. She reads the latest mystery in a series she’s following while eating and then reads more, procrastinating getting to work. As an antiquarian book seller, she is able to work mostly from home, which suits her.
Molly’s emails include several from other book dealers offering books for sale. Sometimes just one book gets featured; sometimes she gets catalogs. She reads these carefully to see if there is anything she’d like to buy. If there is, she’ll contact the seller and hope no one else has bought it. Then it’s time to get to work. Looking at a stack of occult books—from Agrippa to Theosophy—that came from an entire personal library she recently bought, she tackles the volumes that haven’t been catalogued yet. For her data base that she uploads to bookselling sites, she has to describe each book in detail and scan, or take a picture of, each book.
She spends a good amount of time cataloging, so at three o’clock she feels a sense of accomplishment and calls her friend Emma to see if she wants to grab a cup of coffee. Molly and Emma met in line at an estate sale where they discovered their first dead body. They agree to meet at Humdingers and while there, have a lively discussion about Shakespeare, Madame Blavatsky and the Theosophists, gardening, the upcoming library sale, and what book each of them is reading.
Molly eats a late vegetarian dinner and watches political shows at 9:00. Since tomorrow is Thursday, Molly looks to see if there are any estate sales this weekend. If so, she and Emma will probably go together and hope to not find any dead bodies. She looks through her email and gasps, “Oh my god!”
**** Emma’s turn ****
Emma sits on her front porch sipping tea at seven a.m. after her yoga stretches. The stillness is broken by a bird call. She looks around with satisfaction. Her own house, where she can do what she likes, put things where she wants them, sleep and wake when she chooses, read, eat, and drink whatever and whenever she wants. Having taken early retirement, she lives on a small pension, supplemented by savings and freelance editing. Bookselling hasn’t started to pay for itself, but she loves it. She learns something new every day. Specializing in Golden Age of Illustration collectible books (Jessie Wilcox Smith! Charles Robinson! Kay Neilsen!), she has been lost in wonder every time she finds a near fine edition. When she first decided to set up at a bookfair and made her first valuable sale, she was hooked. Now her days are filled with cataloging, making discreet repairs, applying mylar jackets, looking up books online, and going to estate, yard, and library sales to rummage for treasures. Setting up at bookfairs, she has met a community of book people, sometimes eccentric, but mostly easy-going and friendly.
And her best friend Molly O’Donnell, bookseller and collector of rare books on the occult and LGBTQ history. Molly, with her comfortably cluttered house, her two Russian Wolfhounds, and her unquenchable curiosity. Emma is glad she met Molly, and also that they have been instrumental in solving crimes. For instance, they had discovered a missing 400-year-old occult manuscript and solved the murder of a notorious book thief.
Emma swallows the rest of her tea and stands up. Time to start cataloging books. She looks over her yard with its roses, four o’clocks, butterfly bush, cluster of tomato plants guarded by a couple of marigolds, and a huge, sprawling lantana.
She spends the morning cataloging the new books in her stock, stops for a bite of lunch, and starts repairing a few books. She is carefully applying a line of paste/glue mixture to the edge of a page that has become separated from the rest of the text block when her phone rings. She knows who it is by the ring, a delicate ripple of wind chimes.
“Hi, Molly.”
“Are you busy?”
“Well. . .” Emma is busy, but she wants to hear what Molly has in mind.
“Want to go for coffee?”
“Humdinger’s?”
“You read my mind!”
They agree that Molly will come by in fifteen minutes. Emma changes into a denim skirt and a clean tee shirt. She settles her sun hat on her head, knowing it is both practical and flattering.
Emma smiles to see Molly in the doorway, wearing her usual faded jeans, tee shirt that announces, “Book Lovers Never Sleep Alone,” and all-terrain sandals.
Molly says, “We can sit on the patio with the dogs.”
“Great.” Emma has grown to love the large, rambunctious, creatures. As she settles into the passenger seat in Molly’s van, Blavatsky and Dimitri greet her with barks and licks from the back.
Sitting on the patio at Humdinger’s, they sip their lattes and get caught up with each other and have a wide-ranging conversation.
Later, back at home, Emma starts to fix supper when her phone gives its windchime ripple. Picking it up, she sees Molly’s picture on the front. Swiping it, she hears, “Hey, Emma! You’ll never guess what’s happened! I just read on the bookseller’s listserv that some really rare books have been stolen right here in Atlanta …”
Murder at the Estate Sale is the first book in the NEW “Molly & Emma Bookseller” mystery series, released August 15, 2020.
When booksellers Molly O’Donnell and Emma Clarke meet at an estate sale in the posh Sherwood Forest neighborhood of Atlanta, they are both there for the books. But when they venture into a closed-off basement room full of antiquarian occult books and find the dead body of a notorious book thief, they learn that searching for old books may sometimes lead to murder. As they team up to find a killer and a missing manuscript, they discover that their feelings for each other are growing into more than friendship.
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Meet the author
Lily Charles is the pen name of Charlene Ball and Libby Ware. Murder At The Estate Sale is the first in their Molly and Emma Booksellers Series. Under the name Toadlily Books, they sell antiquarian and collectible books. Charlene Ball is the author of Dark Lady: A Novel Of Emilia Bassano Lanyer, winner of the Sarton Award from Story Circle. She has published short stories and articles in academic and literary journals. Until 2009, she worked as a college administrator and instructor. Libby Ware is a member of Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America and president of Georgia Antiquarian Booksellers Association. She is a fellow of The Hambidge Center for Creative Arts and Sciences. Her debut novel, LUM, won the American Library Association’s Stonewall Honor Book in Literature, a gold medal by the Independent Publishers Association, and was a finalist for Lambda Literary’s Debut Novel Award. Visit Lily’s website at lilycharles.com.
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