My 100% human written Readers Guide to The Librarians by Sherry Thomas discusses that I went into this book expecting a cozy Aurora Teagarden sort of book and got a very complicated story about four librarians with a LOT of secrets. This guide will have a character list, spoilers and the ending explained. Let’s discuss!
Readers Guide to The Librarians
Table of Contents:
- Jen’s Quick Take on The Librarians by Sherry Thomas
- Character List for The Librarians
- The Librarians: Spoilers and The Ending Explained
Jen’s Quick Take on The Librarians
- The Librarians sounds like, and does have some of the elements of a cozy mystery: amateur detectives, and a cozy library location.
- But it feels more like Tess Gerritsen’s Martini Club series than Aurora Teagarden: there’s international intrigue, a choppy timeline, and EVERYONE has high stakes secrets
- I agree with the readers who found the book confusing at times. There is a LOT going on, both in the past and the present.
- Maybe this was intended to be a standalone, because it felt like every bit of the four main characters’ backstories got crammed into the one book. It was too much!
- By the end, I was satisfied if a bit exhausted by it all. But some readers gave up and I don’t blame them.
- Sherry Thomas is a NYT Bestselling author of romance, historical mystery, and YA fantasy. There is some romance in here, but not so much that I’d call it romantic suspense.
- Release date: September 30, 2025. Thanks to Berkley for the advance copy!
Spoiler Free Character List for The Librarians
The Librarians:
- Hazel Lee: tragic young Asian American widow; new librarian
- Astrid Sorenson: librarian
- Sophie Claremont (branch administrator): Black lesbian single mom
- Jonathan (program director): former college football player, former military; gay
Friends and family
- Elise Claremont: Sophie’s sixteen year-old daughter
- Ryan Kaneshiro: Jonathan’s former classmate and crush; a forensic pathologist
- Conrad: Ryan’s roommate
- Lillian Kuang: Hazel’ mother
- Nainai: Hazel’s grandmother
Other characters:
- Maryam Shariati: police detective and Jonathan’s ex
- Branson Jones: police detective
- Kit Asqueath: embezzler
- Gus Anderson: library patron
- Perry Bathurst: library patron
- Jeannette Obermann: library patron
- Tarik Ozbilgin: library patron
- Ahmed and Ayesha Khan: Pakistani-American library patrons
Character List With Spoilers
Secrets of the Librarians
- Hazel Lee: tragic young Asian American widow; wife of Kit Asquith; granddaughter of Singaporean tycoon Bartholemew Kuang.
- Kit Asquith: died in a plane crash after stealing $25 million dollars; was at the library shortly before he died.
- Brittany “Astrid” Sorenson: faking a Swedish accent to be more interesting
- Sophie Claremont: Black lesbian single mom who kidnapped Elise, the infant of her ex-girlfriend Jo-Ann rather than have the baby’s homophobic grandmother get custody.
Other Secret Identities Etc.
- Conrad: actually An-Nian Lo, aka Valerian de Villiers, son of a French diplomat. Also the man that Hazel met (and fell in love with) before her wedding on a trip to Madeira.
- Perry Bathurst: actually Heneage Pericles Bathurst; a titled British guy; partner in a business venture with Valerian de Villiers aka Conrad. Was swindled out of $3 million by Kit Asquith. Killed by “Ahmed” and “Ayesha.”
- Jeannette Olbermann: came across Ahmed and Aleena after Perry’s murder and killed by them.
- Tarik Ozbilgin: an assasin played by Ahmed using fake ID to kill Perry with a fentanyl patch
- Ahmed and Ayesha Khan: Russian mercenaries who work for the FSB. Might have been freelancing as recovery agents of stolen property. Ayesha’s name is Aleena Kadeev.
Spoilers for The Librarians and the Ending Explained
The book starts and ends with Kit and his mysterious visit to the library. Kit embezzled $25 million from his employer, his business partner (Perry), and other people Kit swindled.
Hazel thought that Kit died with a hidden stash of bitcoin. As a diversion, Kit writes a fake bitcoin key inside her yearbook.
But Kit really hid a stash of rare and extremely valuable books in a box among all the library donations.
Hazel sells the books and pays back the people Kit embezzled from to restore her family’s honor.
I think Perry died trying to get his money back. Conrad was (I think) there to follow Perry. Or rekindle his romance with Hazel. If you know, leave me a comment.
Jeannette died because she stumbled on Perry’s murder.
Elise knew that she was Jo-Ann’s daughter all along.
Conrad/An-Nian/Valerian and Hazel resume their romance.
Jonathan and Ryan get together.
If you have other questions or think I missed anything or got anything wrong, please leave a comment!
I was so excited when I read about this book – the description made it sound so appealing. Unfortunately, I found it impossible to follow, too many characters, too much information, too many back stories, just too much of everything.
I agree. I think it was just too complicated and didn’t need to be.