Retrieval, a fast-paced academic murder mystery, opens when the library's book storage system delivers up not a book but a body. The police identify the victim as the president's long-time assistant, LouAnn Bond, a powerful woman who is universally disliked. The detectives' ignorance of university operations soon stymies their investigation. At this point, Maureen Shaughnessy, the university provost, asks Celeste Brinkman, an English professor, to join her staff and look into the murder. Celeste welcomes the boost to her paycheck, but then a second body turns up in the library, and she discovers that the university's reputation is not Shaughnessy's only concern. Caught in the trap of her affection for Shaughnessy and other suspects, the evidence she has uncovered, and her loyalty to family, Celeste pursues the investigation as her research leads her into a deadly trap.
