THE LIONS OF FIFTH AVENUE by Fiona Davis

Something about this novel makes me think of a Nancy Drew mystery, although Nancy Drew is a more competent sleuth than the two women who headline this novel.  In 1913, Laura’s husband, Jack, is the superintendent of the main library on Fifth Avenue in New York, and their family lives in an apartment within the library building.  All is well until two things happen:  some rare books go missing from the library, and Laura gets a scholarship to journalism school.  Laura goes on to become a famous essayist on women’s rights, but her family suffers from her negligence.  What?  Laura’s feminist activities lose their impact when one considers what she forfeited, and I object to the author blaming Laura’s pursuit of a career for what happens.  Some eighty years later, Laura’s granddaughter, Sadie, is in charge of a collection of rare items, when, again, rare items start to disappear.  Sadie becomes an amateur detective, alongside a legitimate detective hired by the library, but manages mostly to implicate herself, due to several bonehead moves that are obviously going to come back to bite her.  Sadie decides to investigate the thefts from eighty years ago as well, thinking they may be connected somehow.  Huh?  Despite the implausibility of both of these crimes, I did find myself anxious to know whodunit and how, but the identities of the perpetrators are so ridiculous that I could only sigh with relief when I finished this novel.