A great cozy mystery full of twists and turns. Each book let’s the reader get to know the characters better!

I love the Bodie Island Lighthouse Library series and this is another awesome addition! It kept me guessing until the end with some twists and turns! Lucy is a librarian at a library in a lighthouse (totally made up but a fun idea). There is repair work being done on the Lighthouse and the workers find an old metal box with a diary, a map, and a letter with an odd code.. Word gets out that it is a treasure map. All of the area gets involved trying to decipher the code. Then the library gets broken into and someone dies. This book has everything I love about cozy mysteries - likable interesting characters, an intriguing mystery, friendship, and a little romance. There is no bad language or graphic scenes. It is one of the best cozies I have read in a while! I received a copy from NetGalley for an honest review.

Another awesome book in the Lighthouse Library series. I live this series and this book did not disappoint. Great storyline, lots of suspects, nice job of tying the past and present together. Fantastic fun read as always!

A library in a lighthouse? I'm there! Lucy works in a small yet vibrant library in Nags Head, North Carolina, and renovations to shore up the foundation of the lighthouse reveal a tin box with a mysterious notebook. The notebook's content are written in code, so Lucy and just about everyone else in her circle try their hand at decoding it. When someone breaks into the library and then is murdered, Lucy sets out to solve both the cryptographic mystery and the murder. Populated with several eccentrics who've known each other their whole lives and who squabble and interrupt each other like people who've known each other their whole lives, I enjoyed them in all their quirkiness and the setting is a great summer vacation destination, even fictionally.

Read and Buried is another adventure for Lucy and the lighthouse library. Intriguing characters come more alive as history is developed. Lots of twists that will keep you guessing about who dunit.. A map and coded message ans a weather diary are a real puzzle. An enjoyable read.

Another excellent edition to a wonderful series! Full of twists and turns that leaves you wanting more and enjoying each moment until the end when the killer is caught!

I  received a free digital copy of this book from Netgalley for an honest review.

I love this series! Lucy's book club is reading "Journey to the Center of the Earth" (I love that book.) I enjoyed this book and can't wait for the next one.

Read and Buried is a wonderful cozy set in one of my favorite places. I loved the historical info about Nags Head and Outer Banks. We love the area and this books makes me long for Hatteras and the lighthouses. I loved the writing style of Ms Gates, the story moved quickly and the mystery was satisfying. The characters are well developed and interesting. This book is a winner!

I love all the Nags Head history woven into this cozy mystery. Lucy is a smart and likeable character and I really wish this library was a real place that I could visit.

I really enjoyed the book, the characters were well developed the booked moved fast, tons of twists and turns. I believe she has a winner in this book.

This was the first book I have read in the series, and found the historical information about Nags Head and the Outer Banks interesting. The mystery was good. I love libraries and books. But...

At times I didn't find characters engaging or believable. I can honestly say I am on the line about the main character, Lucy Richardson. She didn't come across as particularly friendly or engaging. She was just there at the center of the mystery and everyone's business. She didn't do anything wrong, however she didn't have any special spark, either.

One has to deny any realism about lighthouses when reading this book. Even though the author clearly states the impossibilities about a library in a lighthouse, I was disappointed in the physically impossible building.

I appreciate Crooked Lane Books and Net Galley for allowing me to read a pre-release copy of this book. Sorry I can't give it a higher rating, but it didn't engage me as I had hoped.

Lucy is in the middle of her performance review with library director Bertie. When the owner of the construction company (who were hired to do repairs on the lighthouse) tells them they need to come outside now, it's Lucy who has to enter the pit to see what they've found. It's an old tin box, and Zack, the owner's son, brings it to the surface. What's discovered inside is an old Civil War diary which contains nothing more than weather patterns; but what's odd is it also contains a map with numbers and a piece of paper with coded writing.

When the historical society members arrive at the library, they want to see the diary. But since there's been too much havoc, Bertie tells them they have to wait until tomorrow. Lucy has a date with Connor McNeil, during which they look at the copy Lucy's made of the page with the code. Try as they might, they can't decipher it.

When they call it a night and Connor brings Lucy back to the library (where she lives on the fourth floor) they see the door is completely demolished. Calling to police, they are instructed to wait outside; but Lucy, hearing her cat Charles' wails, rushes in. There they find the body of one of the society's members, Jeremy Hughes, and the two pages are missing from the diary. Now the police are trying to find a killer - someone who wanted those pages badly, and it seems that all anyone else is interested in is figuring out the code.

Trying to fend off questions and figure out what the code means, Lucy must call on all her wits to figure out who wanted it enough to kill...

This is the sixth book in the series, and while, for the most part, I have enjoyed them, I began to wonder about this one. It seems that no one really cares - except the police, of course - who killed Jeremy. All anyone is interested in is the code and what it means. Half the town thinks it's buried treasure. So in essence, the murder takes second place to figuring out the code. Then, with Bertie's blessing, copies of the code are passed around like candy, even though she really doesn't want anyone to have anything to do with it. The townspeople are given copies if they ask, even if Lucy protests.

(The following is hidden on Goodreads because there are spoilers involved:)

But the kicker was the scene in which Louise Jane shows up at Lucy's apartment late one evening. Now I'm going to be blunt and say that I absolutely detest Louise Jane. There's no reason for an 'evil nemesis' in a book. Louise Jane completely ruins the books for me. She's nasty, snide, controlling, pushy, snarky, etc., and I have to wonder what the heck is wrong with Lucy?

Why did she just allow Louise Jane into the lighthouse when she was in bed in her pajamas? Since she knew she was downstairs via an intercom, why didn't she tell her no, she wasn't going to allow her in. Why did she go along with it when Louise Jane pushed her way into her apartment and said she was going to conduct a seance? Why, when Teddy and Grace found out Lucy didn't know about it, do the right thing, apologize and go home?

Lucy has no backbone. She allows Louise Jane to steamroll over her every chance she gets. Lucy needs to grow a pair and tell her she’s not going to allow her to push her around any more. Honestly, Louise Jane adds nothing to the story line, and detracts from it constantly. She's like having an insect fly around your head. It's annoying, you want it gone, but it won't leave. She's annoying right to the end of the book. Even when Louise Jane makes herself finally useful to Lucy toward the end, she doesn't do it without self-aggrandizement. I also thought it would have been better without the slapstick It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World scenario, but that's neither here nor there.

The murderer was found of course, and everything came together nicely; and while I did like the resolution of the murder and the reason for the diary, it was the presence of Louise Jane who ruined the book for me - without her antics, this would definitely have been a four- or five-star book. Sorry.

I received a copy of Read and Buried from Crooked Lane Books in exchange for an honest review.

In all honesty, I wasn't really thrilled with the mystery and I didn't really feel a connection to Lucy.

I really did enjoy Charles the Cat, though!

I hadn’t read any of the previous book s in this series. I have to say having a library in a lighthouse sounds like a dream come true to me. Not to mention Charles the cat is awesome! The library is working on the foundation and getting repaired while reading Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne.

In the middle of the work going on the foreman comes demanding that Lucy and Bertie come to the site. Something has been discovered and no one will touch it until they have seen it for themselves. The ladies discover a box with a small diary inside. The diary only has the tides and weather for each day listed in it. 2 pages have fallen out, one which is a map and the other is written in some sort of code.

This sets the mystery up nicely and everyone wants to see the papers. If that isn’t enough one of the historians is found dead in Bertie’s office. The map and coded paper are missing. Lucy was such a wonderful character and I loved this book so much. It is another one of those I am so glad I took a chance on and will be reading the previous in the series.

Lucy is overseeing the repairs to the lighthouse library's foundation when the foreman informs Bertie and Lucy that a strange tin box was found at the dig site. Inside the box is a small dairy that seems to consist almost entirely of recordings of the tides and weather over time. Two pages that have fallen out contain a map with numbers on it and another with what looks like a secret code written on it. Everyone in town is fighting to see the journal and the strange documents however as it is close to closing time, Bertie insists they come back tomorrow to view the items. One of the most outspoken of the group insistent on viewing the documents however is found dead in Bertie's office. Although Lucy tries valiantly to not get involved in the case, of course she can't help herself. Lucy, alongside of library staff members are determined to use their skills to decipher the code and help solve the mystery.
The newest addition to the lighthouse library mystery series just might be the best one of the bunch thus far. The mystery was very intriguing and the historical lesson that was expertly weaved throughout was a delightful bonus. Lucy is en expert at sussing out clues and I never feel as though I quite have everything figured out by the end. Lucy's library coworkers and the other members of the small coastal town are a quirky bunch that bring extra humor and warmth to the plot. The ending was strong and tied the story together nicely, leaving room for further adventures featuring Lucy and the gang, which I thoroughly look forward to.

I understand this is the sixth book in the series. Perhaps if I had read the previous books I might have enjoyed it more. In places I got confused by all the characters thrown at me very quickly. It was an enjoyable read but it didn't make me want to read any others in the series.

Another winner in one of my favorite cozy series.

*Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing an e-galley in exchange for an honest review!

The Eva Gates Lighthouse Library series is among my very favorite cozy series (I also enjoy the cozies she writes under Vicki Delany, particularly the Year Round Christmas series). This 6th Lighthouse Library book does not disappoint.

Gates has a great knack for tying in Outer Banks history with present day mysteries for librarian Lucy Richardson and her cohorts to solve.

Great characters, clever plots, this series has it all.

Highly recommended!!

The Lighthouse Library series continues to be one of my favorite series. I like all of the characters, especially Charles.

A nice and friendly library mystery with a library cat to boot filled my days at the beginning of summer. The sixth book in the series, it is easy to read without the background material that may have been present in earlier books. The lighthouse housing the library actually exists in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, though the author has added a full-service library and a fourth story apartment to the contents of the actual building. The author compares the library to Dr. Who’s Tardis - larger on the inside than it is on the outside. The lighthouse/library is supposed to be haunted - but only one rather strange library board member really believes that story.

The mystery begins with the discovery of a strange tin box containing a diary, a hand-drawn map, and a cryptic note. Dating from the time of the Civil War, no one is sure whether the contents are significant or just the result of a young boy’s imagination - but, regardless, it leads to murder.

The story is a great cozy mystery with enough history woven in to allow the reader to follow his or her own research path if they choose to do so. Though understanding the history is not critical to following the story, it meant spending a few extra minutes in Google in order to better understand the history of the Outer Banks.

Whether the reader is a cozy mystery lover, a civil war buff, or library connoisseur, the book will be a fun read for a couple of days and nights.
______________
This review is based on a free electronic copy provided by the publisher for the purpose of creating this review. The opinions expressed are my own.