A PhD candidate who can quote Shakespeare, Beaudelaire, and Louis Leakey with ease, the brainy but naive librarian we know as "Cam Baker" must go on the run, trusting Witness Protection to keep her alive as she jumps from one alias to another, always just a step ahead of her ruthless ex and his cartel henchmen.
Hiding her intelligence and education, Cam accepts menial jobs that will let her stay on the down-low, experiencing the best and worst of the human condition along the way. From her first placement as nanny to two over-achieving teenaged girls in Billings, Montana to her final adventure living rough on the streets of L.A., Cam solves murders, confounding her WITSEC handlers and the handsome police detective who tries to befriend her.
It's Not Even Past takes Cam from a shack in the mountains to the sunlit beaches of South Carolina and Hawaii, from pastel sweater sets to hacked-off yoga pants and a tattoo. But even as she grows sarcastic and street-wise, Cam never really loses her innocence, and gets her heart broken more than once.
With three inclusions in "The Best Mystery Stories of the Year," these tales, many of which first appeared in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, will have readers checking the backseat and behind the shower curtain as Cam's erudite, intellectual persona slips away and a cynical, world-weary woman takes charge of her own life-nearly losing it in the process. This collection includes two new, never-before-published stories from the early and final days of the "librarian on the run!"
Critical Acclaim for It's Not Even Past:
"Anna Scotti's It's Not Even Past is filled with razor-sharp prose and unforgettable intrigue. These 'librarian on the run' tales-many celebrated by Best Mystery Stories of the Year-are as intelligent as they are riveting, cementing Scotti as a literary powerhouse." -Jean Kwok, New York Times and international bestselling author
"My annual search for the best mystery stories of the year has become easy. Anna Scotti is consistently one of the best short story writers in the world." -Otto Penzler, Proprietor, The Mysterious Bookshop; Publisher, The Mysterious Press
"Anna Scotti's 'librarian on the run' series matches thrilling action with tight characterization, surprising twists, important themes, and a poetic sensibility. Scotti's imagination and the power of the series' heroine gives the future of the series a seemingly unlimited trajectory, and we hope that means there will be many more volumes to come." -Jackie Sherbow, Editor, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine
"Anna Scotti is a glorious American poet and writer. Her poems have graced the pages of The New Yorker, while her stories, including the 'librarian on the run' collection, have delighted readers everywhere." -Adriana Trigiani, bestselling author of The View from Lake Como
