Review by Booklist Review
Lucy Richardson, assistant librarian at the Bodie Island Lighthouse Library on North Carolina's Outer Banks, has worked with her colleagues to plan a fortieth library-school class reunion for their director, Bertie James. They have even prepared a small display of library history, with such relics as a small card catalog, a typewriter, and a returned book with a date-due slip with actual signatures and names. By chance, Bertie's predecessor, Helena Sanchez, is in town, so Bertie includes her in the festivities. The party is going well, though Helena gasps when she sees the date-due slip. Louise Jane, a library staffer and storyteller with an interest in the paranormal, offers to take the assembled group for a nighttime walk on the boardwalk by the ocean, telling stories along the way. Except Helena Sanchez does not come back from the walk. Solving Helena's murder isn't quite a closed-house mystery, but the remote location of the lighthouse limits the pool of suspects to the party guests. As Lucy talks with them, she learns of connections among the group that have been long hidden. A fine addition to the growing shelf of library-themed mysteries.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Early in Gates's exceptional seventh Lighthouse Library mystery (after 2019's Read and Buried), Lucy Richardson, the Bodie Island Lighthouse Library assistant director, hosts a reception for the director's 40th college reunion at the library in Nags Head, N.C. An unwelcome guest is disgruntled, demanding Helena Sanchez, a former director of the library, who becomes upset after examining the withdrawal slip inside an old book that's part of a display of library artifacts. After the reception, Lucy, Helena, and a few others go out for a walk along the shore. Helena disappears in the dark, and a short time later the others find her body floating in the water beneath a pier. Unwilling to leave a murder connected to her beloved library to just the authorities, headstrong Lucy sets out to discover who killed Helena. Lucy and her clever cat, Charles, form an amusing sleuthing team, and the lively and endearing supporting characters add to the fun. Cozy queen Gates (a pen name of Vicki Delany) is at the top of her game. Agent: Kim Lionetti, BookEnds Literary. (Oct.)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
Murder kicks off a gathering of past and present librarians. Lucy Richardson loves her job at the Bodie Island Lighthouse Library on North Carolina's Outer Banks. Happy to help plan the 40th reunion of her boss Bertie James' college class, she curates a special exhibition of artifacts from libraries of the past. At the group's welcoming cocktail party, Lucy notices tension between some of the old friends. When the party ends, a small group goes for a stroll on the nearby boardwalk, encouraged by a local woman who claims psychic powers. Separated in the dark, they're startled by a splash and soon find the body of Helena Sanchez floating in the water, stabbed, most likely with a letter opener from the display. Helena was rude and unpopular, but those qualities hardly seem an adequate motive for murder, and Lucy's only clue is Helena's response to a withdrawal card from a book in the display containing the name Jeff Applewhite. Research shows that Applewhite vanished 25 years ago, possibly with an extremely valuable necklace stolen from a local woman. In addition to the ladies on the walk, Lucy suspects Helena's twin sister, who lives nearby and hated her sibling. But proof that any of them did the deed is hard to come by. A tricky mystery and charmingly quirky characters. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
