The Lighthouse Library Mystery series is my absolute favorite cozy mystery series. Author, Eva Gates, has allowed her imagination to run wild by setting her novels in the Bodie Island Lighthouse, located in the Outer Banks, North Carolina. The Outer Banks is a special place for me; I used to live in North Carolina and have vacationed in the Outer Banks several times. Bodie Island Lighthouse is the first lighthouse I saw in person, which is likely why it’s my favorite of the lighthouses on the Cape Hatteras National Seashore. A few years ago, I learned about the Lighthouse Library Mystery series while browsing the Litsy app (you can find me on Litsy here.) I was immediately sold and on the search for the first three books that had been published at that time.

Eva Gates has created an idyllic setting; a library inside the Bodie Island Lighthouse with a tiny apartment. Lucy, the main character works in the library and lives in the apartment, while also taking care of the library’s cat, Charles. Lucy moved to the Outer Banks from Boston to escape relationship drama. Lucy’s mother is from the Outer Banks, so she has an aunt, uncle, and cousin in the area who are regular characters in the series.

In Something Read, Something Dead, Lucy’s cousin...

I have photos and additional information about the Outer Banks that I'm unable to include here. It can all be found on my blog, in the link below.
A Book And A Dog ( )

4 stars
This book is worth reading just for Lucy’s denouncement scene alone. I thought that the killer would wind up being Aunt Gloria’s daughter Mary Anna, because Florence really didn’t want the victim killed because she needed her. It never occurred to me that Florence’s target was Gloria because of her ill treatment of her.

I really liked the plot of this book, you had two things to care about
Josie is a great character and I really wanted Lucy to solve the crime to clear her cousin and the subplot that put the library itself in danger was almost as important to me as the actual murder.



Cozies Reading Challenge ( )

As captured in my review of the 4th novel in this series, "There are multiple cozy mysteries with the librarian as amateur sleuth but this series continues as my all-time favorite as I am simply enthralled by the library setting. The library is in the Bodie Island Lighthouse on the Outer Banks in North Carolina. Using this picturesque setting the author has created an extraordinary library within the interior that also provides accommodation of a studio apartment for the assistant librarian Lucy Richardson complete with a reading nook with bench seat and ocean view at the window. Add to this idyllic setting a handsome Himalayan cat named Charles (in honor of Mr. Charles Dickens) to supervise library activities and provide purrs and company during apartment time."

Even though the title implied there would be another opportunity for Lucy to put her investigative skills to work I wasn't sure if there would be a murder as concentration of this novel in the series was focused on the upcoming wedding of Lucy's cousin, Josie O’Malley and fiancé Jake Greenblatt. As owners of Josie's Cozy Bakery and Jake's Seafood Bar respectively they have both appeared in previous novels in the series and the event of a wedding is always special to enjoy. Simultaneous to wedding planning, there is also a structural concern at the library that may endanger the future of the library not only for the community but librarian and staff jobs, and residences for Lucy and Charles. Lucy's relationship with the mayor is also in danger as Mayor Connor McNeil tries to navigate being impartial to keep clear of a conflict of interest. As with many conflict of issues it's easy to understand intellectually but Lucy's having a hard time keeping her emotions in check.

My enchantment with this book is that it is not merely a cozy mystery title in a favorite series but a novel that has multi-dimensional layers in the sub-plots from the stress of wedding planning for business owners even in the off-season tourist location and especially with overbearing relatives that think they are entitled to change the desired plans of the bride and groom, family dynamics of competing cousins, the progression of relationships with conflicts of interest, the effect of social media on businesses when headlines are more important than facts, a past relationship partner not accepting that the past is the past, and the effect that weather and climate can have on older structures such as the lighthouse library. The descriptive writing made the imagery of January in Nags Head, North Carolina simply picturesque and charming.

I can't wait to read what's next for all of the characters of this endearing series. ( )

I am really enjoying the Lighthouse Library series. I like the characters, and Lucy is very endearing. I especially like Charles the Himalayan cat. In this book, which I enjoyed as an audiobook, Lucy is getting her cousin ready for her wedding. Josie's family arrives in Nags Head saying they are coming to "help with her wedding plans", but her southern grandmother and daughter and grand-daughter do no have the same ideas for a wedding that Josie has. The whole town is in a turmoil when the "New Orleans mafia" arrive, and dissension begins. And then a death and an attempt on Lucy's life occurs. All is not going well, especially because Lucy's cousin Josie is a suspect in the murder case. It's so much fun visiting the Outer Banks with these books. I look forward to the next one. ( )

Something Read, Something Dead (Lighthouse Library Mystery #5) by Eva Gates

This is the fifth book in the Lighthouse Library Mystery series.
Lucy Richardson is helping her cousin, Josie plan her wedding. But Josie’s Grandma Gloria makes a visit and brings along cousins and a wedding planner, as well as all of her overbearing demands on the wedding plans that everything must be big and better, even down to the cake.
When Josie can’t take any more of her grandma’s overbearing demands and watches her cousin Mirabelle openly flirts with her soon to be husband, Josie says a few heated words and storms out.
What a wonderful, well-planned story with plenty happening with over the top Grandma Gloria who has to have the best, The humour and lightheartedness, and poor Josie who wants nothing more than a small simple wedding. ( )