The Labor Day holiday is one of the two (the other being Memorial Day) where the library shuts down for an extended period of time. Library staff get to briefly luxuriate in the glories of a long weekend. While this may be somewhat of an inconvenience for our wonderful patrons who rely on our services, rest assured that a little rest will make us that much brighter and bushy-tailed to serve you when we re-open on Tuesday.

But what’s life without a touch of whimsy? So this week, in celebration of the holiday that encourages no work, I offer books with “work” in their titles.

Body Work by Sara Paretsky

Paretsky is a somewhat underrated crime novelist. This is one of her books with the central character of V. I. Warshawski, a tough, female P.I. whose storylines often feature a social commentary embedded within the mystery. In this book, a shooting in Chicago embeds Warshawski in the politics of the Gulf War as a veteran accused of the murder hires her to clear his name. If you’re a fan of J.A. Jance, Sue Grafton, Faye Kellerman or Val McDermid, you may want to give Paretsky a try.

Blood Work by Michael Connelly

Unlike Paretsky, Connelly is a sure-fire favorite with the South patrons. This is one of his older works in which doesn’t feature Harry Bosch. Instead, ex-FBI agent Terrell McCaleb is forced out of retirement by a woman who begs him to help solve her sister’s murder.

Dirty Work by Stuart Woods

Stuart Woods is an acquired taste, but for those who love him, they simply can’t get enough. While most of his content, were it on the Internet, would be classified as NSFW (not safe for work), he knows how to thread a suspenseful tale. In this book, series star Stone Barrington goes undercover to prove infidelity in a young heiress’s marriage.

Work Song by Ivan Doig

It’s not particularly common to find Westerns in the library and while Doig’s book isn’t in the tradition of Spaghetti Western movies, this one captures some of the American spirit found in most Westerns. Morrie Morgan seeks his fortune in copper mining in 1919, but finds himself clashing with the major mining company in the area and getting involved with the mining workers disputes.

Dirty Work by Gabriel Weston

This is a debut work by Weston, who writes of an obstetrical surgeon in crisis as she botches a surgery and puts her patient in a coma, but rather than making this a novel of suspense, it ends up a deep character study as the doctor revisits her life. Weston manages to make palpable the tension as the doctor worries about her future in her profession and she faces a tribunal to decide whether or not she will get to keep her license after her mistake.

Till next week, dear readers, I hope you are able enjoy the Labor Day holiday and don’t forget, even when the library is closed, you can always borrow ebooks and audiobooks on Overdrive and now you can watch movies on Hoopla, so the library is never truly closed…