A Death Long Overdue

August 7, 2020

It's reunion weekend for Bertie James, director of the Bodie Island Lighthouse Library in Nag's Head, NC. She and her librarian classmates are celebrating their 40th anniversary. Bertie's staff puts together a surprise display of historical memories of librarianship. Assistant Director Lucy Richardson enjoys the excitement when the women arrive for the opening reception, but some of the women are upset when former library director Helena Sanchez shows up. Bertie invited her predecessor, but many didn't like the critical, stiff woman. Then Helena goes missing during a walking tour into the marsh after the reception. Lucy and the children's librarian wade into the marsh when they see Helena's body. No one knew Helena well, but which librarian hated her enough to kill her? Missing clues from the historical display include a copy of The Celestine Prophecy. Lucy insists Helena was shocked by a name on the checkout slip in the book. When the torn slip shows up, clues lead back to Helena's days as director, long before her retirement. The character-driven mystery has unexpected links to the Lighthouse Library. VERDICT This follow-up to Read and Buried features a huge cast of librarians, and sometimes it's difficult to keep everybody straight. Series fans will be excited to catch up with Lucy, her romantic partner, the mayor, and Lucy's friends.--Lesa Holstine, Evansville Vanderburgh P.L., IN

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Starred review from August 17, 2020
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.

August 15, 2020
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.

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October 23, 2020
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.

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