Library’s book detective has a 30-year-old mystery

by: Jeff Hicks

WATERLOO — After 30 years at Waterloo Public Library, Deb Reinhart is so good at bounty hunting books that purloined or misplaced tomes find her on their own.

"We kid her she's our Mr. Bookman," said colleague Sandi Hall, referring to a Seinfeld episode about a crusty library cop on the trail of Jerry's overdue book from 1971.

"She's our book detective."

You want proof? On Wednesday morning, a time-capsule gift slid right down the overnight return chute and into her hands.

"Things pop up in odd places," Reinhart said.

It was an overdue book about the War of 1812. Seriously overdue.

The due date? Nov. 9, 1984 — the same day Freddy Kruger's first Nightmare on Elm Street appeared in theatres, the same week Ronald Reagan settled into a second term at the White House (which, incidentally, was torched by British troops two centuries ago in the War of 1812); and the same year Reinhart started at the library.

In all that time, she'd never seen a book returned to the library this overdue.

No explanation. No calling card. Just frantic footsteps down Albert Street in the dark of an April night.

"Holy blast-from-the-past!" said Reinhart, the library's longtime circulation sleuth, as she showed Hall the hardcover copy of Wesley B. Turner's War of 1812and examined the still-crisp T-card with the date stamp.

"We don't have records as to who borrowed it," Reinhart said.

Maybe the mystery book returner feared a whopping fine. When Hall and Reinhart calculated the fine, a penalty of 10 cents a day, it came to more than $800. But that wouldn't apply. The top fine would be something less than the $8.95 the library paid for the book in the first place.

With the exception of the back cover, the 1982 work of a now-retired Brock University history professor is in pretty good shape.

Maybe it's already been paid for by a library patron who 'fessed up to losing the hardcover volume long ago. Maybe someone simply discovered the book buried in a back room of some old Waterloo home.

Or maybe it was just a really difficult read. The War of 1812 lasted less than three years. This book has been out for nearly 30.

But the mystery of where it's been the last three decades gnaws at Reinhart. She wants to know more. Amnesty is offered to the person who returned the book. All charges will be dropped.

Reinhart herself could have been the staffer on duty when the book was checked out in 1984. She needs closure. Identify yourself and they'll show mercy, she promises. Keep your nine bucks, she says.

"We'd have a laugh and probably just say 'No, thanks

from: Durham Region