The Spook in the Stacks

April 9, 2018
Gates (a pen name for Vicki Delaney) graduates from mass market to hardcover with her lively fourth Lighthouse Library mystery (after 2016’s Reading Up a Storm). A few days before Halloween, recently retired multimillionaire Jay Ruddle and his grown granddaughter, Julia, visit the Bodie Island Lighthouse Library in Nags Head, N.C. Jay, an Outer Banks native, is considering giving the library his extensive collection of 16th- to 18th-century documents regarding North Carolina’s nautical history. When he is found strangled in the rare book room a few days later, the police suspect Julia, who wanted to keep the collection in the family and recently quarreled with her grandfather about its disposition. Theodore Kowalski, a rare-book collector who has taken a shine to Julia, begs assistant librarian Lucy Richardson to investigate. Book lovers will envy Lucy’s dream of a life, working in a wonderful library, surrounded by amusing friends, not to mention a fine feline companion and a handsome suitor. Cozy fans will look forward to her further adventures. Agent: Kim Lionetti, BookEnds Literary Agency.

May 1, 2018
Lucy Richardson hates Halloween, but she's coping for the sake of her patrons at the Bodie Island Lighthouse Library, on North Carolina's Outer Banks. Then Jay Ruddle, retired furniture magnate, arrives in town to determine if the library is the right place to donate his archive of historical maritime documents. His granddaughter, Julia, comes along, to the delight of town eccentric Teddy Kowalski; unfortunately, so does the handsome curator, Greg. Then, during a daytime ghost-story program, Jay is found dead in the library's rare-books room. The case is complicated by the arrival of Julia's estranged, newly married mother and the appearance of a ghostly horse?which only Lucy can see?out on the marshes. With the help of Charles, the library cat, Lucy tries to balance her inquiries with her library work and her uncertain relationship with Connor, the town mayor, fighting for reelection. Gates (By Book or by Crook, 2015) creates an atmosphere that perfectly balances the chill of a spooky night with small-town coastal charm in a mystery that will delight bookish cozy fans.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)