The quiet librarian

Library patrons know her as "The Sweater Lady." To Serbians, she's "The Night Mora." Her friends call her Hana Babic. But when this quiet librarian fled Bosnia 30 years ago, she was Nura Divjak, a woman running from war and hiding a deadly secret. Now living a mundane life in Minnesota, Hana thinks her past is behind her until her best friend is murdered, and a detective comes looking for answers. Can Hana find the killer and keep her secret? No typical whodunit, this is an intense and emotional story about grief, loss, and the horrors of war. Hana is a woman who, we learn, had to grow up too fast and whose family experienced horrific violence from those they considered friends. Eskens (Saving Emma, 2023) doesn't hold back in his descriptions of the Bosnian War and the brutality it wrought. Hana is a compelling character readers can't help but root for, even if they disagree with her actions. The Quiet Librarian will make readers contemplate their definition of justice and the decisions humans make when trapped in terrible situations. This book is perfect for fans of intense, bleak mysteries and those who like fiction featuring real-life history.

This uneven dual timeline thriller from Eskens (Saving Emma) toggles between present day Minnesota and the war in Bosnia. In early 1990s Yugoslavia, Nura Divjak lives with her Muslim parents and younger brother in a farmhouse near Tuzla (in what is now Bosnia). When her family is murdered by Serbian soldiers, Nura joins the Bosnian army and falls in love with a fellow soldier named Adem. During an ambush, Nura is captured and meets a woman named Amina Junuzović in prison. After Adem dies in battle, Amina helps Nura escape, and together, the pair flee to the United States, where Amina gives birth to Sara, the daughter of a Serb who raped her, and Nura reinvents herself as a meek librarian named Hana. Thirty years later, when Amina is thrown off her balcony, "Hana" becomes Nura once again, determined to hunt down the killer before he comes after Dylan, Amina's grandson. Nura first teams up with a handsome detective, then takes justice into her own hands, with dramatic results. Eskens strains to connect his past and present timelines, with a weak romance plot and a limp through line about Nura's affinity for building traps--first for hunting food, then for hunting her adversaries--failing to raise the cumbersome present-day sections to the level of the fast-paced, well-researched historical chapters. It's a mixed bag. Agent: Amy Cloughley, Kimberly Cameron & Assoc. (Feb.)