It takes a while for a character's personality to settle, and we need the download of history. It definitely suffers from 'first in series' syndrome, but I always expect that. She knew them years ago and suddenly, both seem like suitable suitors for her too. Thankfully, Lucy has a friend on the police force as well as the mayor himself. Someone else wanted Lucy's job, and it's caused a great divide. The person had been quite difficult and rude, as well as several of the other employees. Then a few are stolen, and at the party, one of the library board directors is murdered. Rich with history and architecture, the building is a beauty, and they're having a huge event with some Jane Austen first editions. She's close with her cousin and becomes friends with the Head Librarian at a new library built in a lighthouse. Lucy moves to a small island town off the coast of North Carolina where her aunt and uncle live. By all accounts, this should've been one of the first series I began reading but fate had led me elsewhere. Lighthouses have enamored me since I was a child, as well as books and mysteries and small towns. I wanted to catch up on most of her current ones (now accomplished) before taking on the Eva Gates' books, and this week, I began with the first book in the Lighthouse Library Mysteries, By Book or By Crook. I've been a long-time fan of Vicki Delany and her multiple cozy mystery series.

But when a priceless first edition Jane Austen novel is stolen and the chair of the library board is murdered, Lucy suddenly finds herself ensnared in a real-life mystery-and she’s not so sure there’s going to be a happy ending. Lucy is thrilled to land a librarian job in her favorite place in the world. But her retreat quickly turns into an unexpected opportunity when Aunt Ellen gets her involved in the lighthouse library tucked away on Bodie Island. But when her ten-year relationship implodes, Lucy realizes that the plot of her life is in need of a serious rewrite.Ĭalling on her aunt Ellen, Lucy hopes that a little fun in the Outer Banks sun-and some confections from her cousin Josie’s bakery-will help clear her head. Get bound up in murder in the first Lighthouse Library mystery!įor ten years Lucy has enjoyed her job poring over rare tomes of literature for the Harvard Library, but she has not enjoyed the demands of her family’s social whorl or her sort-of-engagement to the staid son of her father’s law partner.

By Book or By Crook by Eva Gates