Something Read, Something Dead

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Lucy Richardson's cousin Josie is finally getting married in what she hopes will be a small, simple wedding. In Something Read, Something Dead by Eva Gates that is not to be. With the wedding only one month away, Lucy keeps prodding Josie to purchase her dress. (Something Read, Something Dead will be released on March 13 by Crooked Lane) 

Some of the details have been arranged including a reception at Jake's restaurant, an Outer Banks favorite. When Josie's demanding grandmother arrives from New Orleans with her entourage in tow, she sets Josie's already frayed nerves on fire. It's her plan to help her granddaughter Mirabelle, a would-be wedding planning, plan Josie's wedding in a more extravagant manner, something Josie is dead set against.

Mirabelle aims high. She wants the wedding to be on the cover of a regional magazine, but Josie wants no part of it. She badgers Josie at her shop and it evolves into a shouting match with Josie threatening to "kill her." Worse yet, Mirabelle declares she is gluten-free and requires special treats for the shower.

At the bridal shower in the Bodie Island Lighthouse Library, Lucy is trying to keep everyone from each other's throats and temper the extravagant plans so they are more in line with Josie and Jake's original plans. When Mirabelle falls ill at the shower and dies the next day, the state police are called in to investigate and that makes everyone more nervous.

Was someone targeting Mirabelle or was Josie the main target? Lucy tries to keep the tabloid journalists at bay while she figures out how the crime was committed and how to keep the wedding on track.

Love the lighthouse library and wish it were a real place.

The Spook in the Stacks

A library in a lighthouse would be my favorite place to visit. If only!! In The Spook in the Stacks by Eva Gates (aka Vicki Delany), The Bodie Island Lighthouse Library comes to life. Located in the Outer Banks, North Carolina, the library is the community center for many events. (This book will be released on June 12 by Crooked Lane Books.)

Halloween is no exception. There are plenty of events planned and volunteer storyteller and Outer Banks native Louise Jane will be on hand to try to scare everyone with her sort of true stories about the hauntings in the area.

Librarian Lucy Richardson is lucky enough to live in the lighthouse library and she loves it. When former Outer Banks resident and wealthy businessman Jay Ruddle and his daughter Julia visit the library to decide if he wants to offer his collection of Outer Banks historical documents to them, the staff are super excited. It appears the library is in competition with a local college, but Lucy believes the library will

be the winner.

Before a decision is made, Ruddle winds up dead in the room containing the library's map collection. Although he hadn't put his donation in writing, he'd told Lucy he planned to donate his collection to the library. Now with him dead and no real proof of his bequest, his daughter Julia, the other institution and suddenly Julia's mother are in contention for the collection.

Lucy scrambles to find the murderer and save the collection for the library. The Lighthouse Library Mysteries are fun and the concept of a library in a lighthouse is something I'd love to see.

For a review of the first book in the series, click here. 

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Lighthouse Library Hosts Murder

A library in a lighthouse is such a unique concept, I just had to read it. The Bodie Island Lighthouse Library is on the Outer Banks in North Carolina near Nag's Head. Although there is a lighthouse on Bodie Island, it does not contain a library, but what a great idea.

By Book or by Crook, written by Eva Gates features life on the Outer Banks in North Carolina., beachlife like none other.

Lucy Richardson arrives from Boston to take a job as an assistant librarian just as the library is opening its Jane Austen exhibit. A complete set of first edition Jane Austen books, including Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice and Mansfield Park, has been loaned to the library for three months. At the reception kicking off the celebration, the Library Board president Jonathon Uppiton and his soon-to-be-ex-wife Diane are heard arguing with Diane threatening that she will "dance on his grave."

Before too long, there is a thump, a scream, a dead body and the head librarian Bertie is holding the

neck of a broken beer bottle next to the body.

When the Austen books begin to disappear, the police start looking at Lucy, as the newest resident to the community, as a suspect. With two library board factions arguing about the future of the library and the annoying Louise Jane trying to get Lucy's job and scare her with spooky lighthouse stories, Lucy and her library friends try to clear Bertie, find the Austen books and keep the library open.

I enjoyed this book for several reasons: the plot was clever especially with the Austen books, the location is one of my favorites and the entire concept of a library in a lighthouse is so fantastic. I only wish it were true. I would be sure to visit when I am in the Outer Banks next summer.

The next book in the series (which I am reading) is entitled Booked for Trouble.