Public libraries are not often thought of as the scene of serious crimes. That is why when the body of a librarian is found strangled in her office with over fifty people just outside in the adjacent reading room, the case attracts so much attention. Yet the crime seems to have no reason, no motive. After all, why would anyone want to kill a sixty year old spinster, particularly in such a public place. With the newspapers clamoring for action, the police chief finds himself turning to his old friend, Harley Manners, professor of abnormal psychology, with the hopes that he can shed light on the mystery of the . . . Murder in a Library