A Death Long Overdue by Eva Gates is the 7th book in the Lighthouse Library Mystery series, and another great addition. Lucy Richardson is a librarian on the outer banks of North Caroline. The library is in a lighthouse, and Lucy lives above the library. I found this book to be awesome, the clever mystery and the romance with Lucy and Conner. I can't wait for the next book in the series, Ms. Gates never lets me down. I have never been to North Caroline, but the descriptions of the area and light house makes me want to travel there. I strongly recommend this book/series for any cozy mystery lovers. I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Lighthouse Library Director Bertie James's college class is having their 40th anniversary reunion. The opening night reception is held at the Lighthouse Library and Lucy and her colleagues have assembled an exhibit of library artifacts showing how libraries have changed over the years. After the reception, some of the women take a walk down the boardwalk to the pier, and find the former director of the Lighthouse Library floating lifeless in the water. Helena Sanchez, the former director, wasn't much loved and spent the party being rude to almost everyone there. Since this happened at a library function, Lucy feels obligated to try and figure out what happened.

This is a favorite series, and I have read them all. I love all the characters--Lucy, Conner, Bertie, Ronald, Charlene and even the quirky Louise Jane. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read this newest installment.

A reunion of librarians at the lighthouse library. What could possibly go wrong? A woman is murdered while a small group walks along a path outside of the library. Lucy is right in the thick of the action along with her library pals. Her and Connor's relationship advances to the next stage and something very valuable Is found that is enriching. I found Louise Jane to be quite entertaining in this latest segment of the series. To inserting herself into conversations amd standing on top of her van with binoculars, she sort of stole the narrative away from Lucy.

The Lighthouse Library welcomes members of Bertie’s college class for their 40th reunion with a special exhibit honoring the history of libraries in North Carolina. Unfortunately, Helena Sanchez, the library’s director before Bertie, is found dead at evening’s end, a victim of murder.

The story reaches into the past, involving the theft of a priceless diamond necklace and the disappearance of the suspected thief, then boyfriend of the newly murdered librarian.

Eva Gates wraps the colorful community of Bodie Island around an intriguing murder mystery tangled up with a disappearing thief and stolen diamond necklace. Delightful primary characters continue to evolve as red herrings and twists keep the narrative apace. Naturally, Lucy, Bertie’s assistant, is the determined sleuth tracking leads, although she remains clueless when Connor tries unsuccessfully to get her undivided attention. A delightful read.

This is one of my most favorite series. Whether it’s the lighthouse library, the murder that you just know is going to happen at the Bodie Lighthouse Library and the wonderful characters Gates has developed. Cozy mysteries have been a pandemic find, but such wonderful escapes with fun storylines — murders included, with characters that I now look forward to see their next adventure. And now...a wedding coming up in next book — maybe?

A Death Long Overdue by Eva Gates was a great story that I hated to see it end. Thank you Netgalley for the early edition. The book starts out with the Director of Bodie Island Lighthouse Library 40th reunion of the 1st day of undergraduate classes. Lucy and her colleagues decorate the library where the reunion will be held. A few ladies go for a walk and one goes missing. They end up finding her in the water. What will happen next? Lucy helps the police try to find the murderer. After questioning the people that were at the reunion, she starts to put the pieces together. I really enjoyed this murder mystery.

I really enjoyed this cozy. What's not to love, a library inside a lighthouse, a librarian who lives in the lighthouse, and a library cat. So fun. The setting is North Carolina, which sounds beautiful. Lucy and her co-workers are helping at a reunion party for their boss. Bertie has invited women who trained as librarians at the same college. On a whim, she invites her predecessor to come and see how things have changed. After the party, a few of the attendees, including Lucy go for a walk in a marsh next to the library. It's dark, and spooky. The perfect setting for a murder!

The characters are fun, even the grouchy ones. The story moves along and I thoroughly enjoyed the story. It was easy-to-read and a great escape Lots of clues and suspects. The murderer was a surprise.

One of the nicest things about Eva Gates Lighthouse series is that the story can be a stand alone, without having the backstory written over, and over, and over.

Lucy & her library crowd (boyfriend Connor too) are back for Bertie's 40th library class reunion. The plot twists and turns, with no way to pinpoint exactly who the killer is. The story allowed me to jump right in (it's been awhile since I read the last one) & feel as if I was part of the crowd. The characters are very familiar and each have their own quirks. Connor trying to propose at various points, adds a bit of humor & charm. Per usual, all is well that ends well, mystery solved, killer found & a happy ending.

I would recommend this book for cozy mystery fans. A quick & enjoyable read. Thanks to NetGalley for the chance to preview this story as an e-book.

In book 7 of the Lighthouse Library series, the current library director, Bertie, is having a library school reunion, and has invited the former director, Helena, to attend as she’ll be in town at the same time. But the night of the opening reception, Helena is found dead in the marsh near the boardwalk after a group of alumni go on a spooky walk.
Lucy does not intend to get involved but the police keep asking her questions (even calling her as she’s on a beach day with Connor, some rare alone time). Helena wasn’t well liked and there’s no shortage of people who are relieved she’s dead. There’s a tie in with a book they found and put on display and a historical jewel theft. It fits in with this month’s book club book, The Moonstone.
The mystery in this worked really well. Lucy kept digging for info in different places and used it to put together the full picture, which spans years and relies a lot on memories rather than evidence.
I’m enjoying the character development throughout the series with one notable exception. Louise Jane is insufferable. I can’t tell if the author is trying to redeem her by forcing a friendship but she is a perfect example of someone who should’ve been told no a long time ago. Her serving as a constant disruption to all plans to get what she wants is irritating and weakens the overall story. Like the characters, I get irritated by the mere mention of her name.

I love a good cozy mystery, and one set in a library? How could I pass up a chance to read that?
This is book 7 in the lighthouse library series, and while it can be read as a standalone, I think I would have liked it even more if I had started from the beginning.
Lucy and her cat Charles have been living in the apartment above the library for about a year now, and she has been working on a cool display for the library. It has to do with things from the past, like the showcased a book that had the signature card on the inside cover. where you used to sign your name, and the librarian stamped it with the return date.. Which I thought was funny because I totally remember those..
So Bertie the Director for the library is having a 40 year college reunion at the library, she also invites the libraries old director Helena Sanchez, thinking she would like to see the display and just check out the place where she used to work.
Things start to go a little weird with Helena and a couple of the guests right from the beginning. I guess Helena was not a nice person when she worked there before. When everyone goes out on the boardwalk for a night time walk. They find Helena dead..
Now Lucy is working on her own, and kind of with the police to figure out the mystery of well not really who wanted Helena dead, because it seemed like lots of people didn't like her. But who actually did it and why..
This story had me guessing from the beginning, I didn't figure out who did it until it was revealed.
If you like cozy, murder mysteries. or books that take place around or in libraries I would definitely check out this series..
Thank you Netgalley for letting me read an arc of this book, for my honest review.

Wonderful characters.

Bertie, the director of the Lighthouse Library, is hosting a college reunion of librarians. Some of the librarians are no longer librarians. Bertie runs into her predecessor and invites her to the reunion party at the lighthouse. Most people did not like the predecessor. Lucy's Aunt Ellen, who rarely dislikes anyone, was on the verge of quitting the Friends of the Library volunteer program because of the predecessor's behavior.

They stumble on a dead body and the police asks for Lucy's help in solving the murder. There is also a missing library book, which may or may not have a connection to the murder.

The Library Lighthouse series is one of my favorites, and this new installment does not disappoint. The characters have grown in interesting and intriguing ways and I cannot wait for more from this author!

I loved this book!! Great story!! 1st book I have read by this author will read more of her books!! Received this book from netgally!!

This is the first book by Eva Gates that I've read, and it was chosen partly at random - I'm starting a monthly newsletter for my business, Beginning Cataloguing, and as one of my ongoing research projects is looking at crime fiction set in libraries, I looked on NetGalley for ARCs of books in that genre that were due out at the end of September or beginning of October. A Death Long Overdue is listed with a publication date of 6 October, is part of an ongoing series of library-set mysteries, and includes a classic crime novel (The Moonstone) as part of its plot. It even has a library cat. From the blurb alone, it sounded like the ideal choice for my first Bodies in the Library Feature Title.

And, oh my goodness, it *is* the ideal book choice for me. Although I hate the term "cosy crime" I cannot deny loving what it stands for - you know you're going to get a good puzzle to solve, characters who have good, perhaps old-fashioned family values, a setting that is not unlike the little town in which I grew up (albeit in this case in North Carolina, not Scotland), and nothing too gratuitously violent or sexually explicit. Not that I don't love a good domestic noir too. But there's a mood for thrillers and a mood for traditional whodunnits, and libraries are, thankfully for me, often the setting for both styles of murder story.

In any case, Eva Gates ticks all of the boxes for a great cosy crime novel: great central character, believable supporting cast, who are all "good people" (even the necessary annoying one who acts as a thorn in the side of the main character but often helps drive the plot), picturesque setting, good balance of amateur sleuthing and police work (with our knowing at the back of our mind the police wouldn't *really* tell a member of the public all they do, but suspending our disbelief as it's such a good story), murder that happens quite quickly (we don't want to wait around - we've come for the dead body and to work out who killed it), and, crucially in this genre, which it's possible for us to solve from the comfort of our armchair or bed. And, for a murder mystery with a librarian as the protagonist, we need the right amount of believable details about their work, their shift pattern, and the library patrons.

Gates not only does all this (with Charles the cat for bonus library points), but also captures an area of the world with which I'm guessing people outside North Carolina - and certainly most of my fellow Brits - aren't familiar. I'd never heard of the Outer Banks, and had fun librarianing about them to find out more. There's a great author note at the end of the book which confirms what I found -the Bodie Lighthouse that is the setting for the library and the murder, and is also the home of Lucy Richardson, the protagonist (How cool is *that*? Living in a lighthouse above a library!), is a real lighthouse, but it's not a library. "Within these books," Gates writes, "the interior of the lighthouse is the product of my imagination. I like to think of it as my version of the TARDIS, from the TV show Doctor Who, or Hermione Granger's beaded handbag: far larger inside than it appears from the outside."

Gates finishes, "I hope it is large enough for your imagination also." Yes, thank you, Eva Gates, it very much is. I have ordered the first books in the Lighthouse Library Mysteries, and I can't wait to tell my library colleagues about it. Having selected what I assumed would be at least a 3 or 4 star "safe bet" for my newsletter, I am delighted to have found it instead to be an easy FIVE.

If you want to know more about why this book is a ready-made classic in the subset of crime fiction that includes bodies in the library, I'll be sharing around 500 words in our first newsletter, alongside links to some other books and a *lot* of cataloguing chat: http://tinyletter.com/beginningcataloguing.

Love this series! It is alway nice to read one of the Lighthouse Library Mysteries. The mystery always keeps me guessing and Lucy and Connor’s relationship continues to grow, despite Lucy being better at find clues than reading romantic signals.

A Body Found Floating.....
A new entry in the long running Lighthouse Library series of mysteries. A dead ex director found floating on reunion night at the Lighthouse gives librarian Lucy cause for consternation. With a closed group of suspects and a disliked victim, can Lucy get to the bottom of the death? Enjoyable cosy mystery with a likeable protagonist and a colourful cast of supporting characters. A fun read and a worthy addition to the series.

Another enjoyable entry in the series. I'm always happy for a new adventure at the Lighthouse Library.

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

A Death Long Overdue: A Lighthouse Library Mystery by Eva Gates
My Rating: 4 of 5 Stars

Although I have read the occasional cozy, it is not the kind of mystery I usually choose, but how could a retired librarian overlook a story set in a lighthouse which also houses a library? It's obvious why this is a well-loved series. The plot, characters, and setting are all charming. We wish we were there.

THE STORY: In book #7, assistant library director Lucy Richardson, living in an apartment way up in the lighthouse, is helping her director Bertie get ready to host a 40th reunion for college library friends. An historical exhibit at the gathering elicits unusual reactions from several attendees and when a tragic event happens, the gossips of the small Outer Banks community get to work.

P.S. There is also a love interest and a cat.

FIRST LINE: "Reunions can be tricky things."

WHAT I THOUGHT: Eva Gates knows what her readers want and she gives it to them in a well-written way that doesn't talk down to readers but includes them in the fun. Along the way she works in the names of books and bits of information the reader will recognize. It's not a unique approach but it's well-done here. Loved the fact that the book club was reading The Moonstone and that The Celestine Prophecy figured in the story as well.

BOTTOM LINE: There is nothing more delightful than an enjoyable cozy series. I'm guessing that starting at the beginning with #1 and getting to know the characters would be even more rewarding. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for cozy mystery readers!

Disclaimer: A copy of A Death Long Overdue was provided to me by Crooked Lane Books/Net Galley for an honest review.

Hardcover: 372 pages
Publisher: Crooked Lane Books (October 6, 2020)
ISBN-10: 1643854585
ISBN-13: 978-1643854588

THE AUTHOR:Eva Gates is also known as Canadian crime writer Vicki Delany, "one of Canada's most prolific and varied crime writers." You might want to check out some of her other series: Sherlock Holmes Bookshop; Year Round Christmas Mysteries; Klondike Gold Rush; and novels of Gothic suspense.

"Having taken early retirement from her job as a systems analyst, Vicki enjoys the rural life in Prince Edward County, Ontario."

A Death Long Overdue is a wonderful cozy mystery with an intriguing plot that kept me guessing until the culprit was revealed. The characters are very likeable and make you want to return to this series with every release. The romantic subplot was sweet, and made for a good respite from the suspense in the story. I received an advanced reader's copy from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC. I have read several books in this series but not all. This one was a very enjoyable addition to the series. I also thought it was funny that in the story the author referred to the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop series by Vicki Delany since she is the same person as Eva Gates. But really, books, librarians, a cat and a lighthouse. What more could anyone want from a cozy mystery?