I loved this newest one in the Lighthouse Library Series. It's always a pleasure to 'visit' with Lucy and Connor and the rest of the Library staff and family.

The mystery kept my attention and I hated to put this book down. It was well-crafted and one that I had to keep reading. I'm looking forward to the next one in the series!

Death by Beach Read by Eva Gates

This book wasn't for me. It was not offensive or even bad. I was bored, and I thought just not for me. But here are some good things about this book:

I love the setting: It's on a beach, there is a lighthouse library, there are book clubs at that library and such. There were a lot of opportunities for rainy beach weather and I loved that. Eva Gates also gave a great overview of Nags Heads (aka island) life, including fishing and small town gossip.

There was a cat named Charles, who is a badass. The main character, Lucy, is a librarian!

Other than that, the story lacked diversity. As far as I can tell, there was no racial, gender, sexual and barely any income diversity (except the "criminal types" who looked criminal). Even the gender roles were pretty strict for each character except our main character, Lucy, was not a perfect cook but she is going to learn!

I also didn't care about the writing style. I thought it was a repetitive. Yes; I remember that happened. Do you writer? And I thought the dialogue didn't read like real people talking.

The mystery was fine, and the plot was solid. So, this is a fine cozy mystery if you want something traditional, atmospheric and light,

Lucy and Connor move into a historical beach house that comes with murder, lots of mystery and gossip, secret entrances, and hidden treasures.
I loved the storyline and couldn't stop reading! I especially loved reading all the secrets and mysteries around what happened to Jo all those years ago. I also loved how the author often shifts the reader's thinking to a new suspect just when you think you have solved the mystery. I would never have guessed the reveal at the end!
Thank you to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!

Fairly typical cozy - perfect for reading on the beach.

The main characters have recently purchased a new house, rumored to be haunted. After a body shows up, they start investigating. As I said, typical cozy, with as much focus on the characters as the actual mystery while still being highly entertaining.

Recommended.I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley.com and voluntarily chose to review.

This was a fun beach read. There was good mystery and the characters were interesting. I look forward to more by this author.

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ Thanks for the ARC. What can I say? I didn't want to put this book down once I started reading it. I did but could not wait to get back to reading it. Love a great cozy mystery. Will recommend!

This is the ninth addition to the Lighthouse Library Mystery series. I have not read any books in this series and found that this book can stand alone. I was engaged from the beginning and didn’t want to stop listening. I found the characters to be well-developed and, for the most part, realistic. The setting was easy to imagine and sounds lovely. The plot moves at a steady pace. The subplots of the various characters are also interesting. I will definitely go back to book one and read this series. I recommend this book.

Another winner in this series! Old mysteries that need solving, to keep Lucy and Connor safe, and we meet at few new and old "friends" along the way. I really enjoyed this one!

Death By Beach Read makes me want to spend time at the beach and a library. I am happy to read about Lucy and Connor’s upcoming wedding, and their new family home sounds charming. Even Charles, the library cat, seems to love his new place. But when rumors of hauntings surround them, Lucy and Connor do their best to ignore the stories. But not long after moving in, they find a stranger's body on their kitchen floor, and Lucy cannot relax until she solves the mystery of the man’s identity, how he got into their house, and who killed him.

Lucy is always a bit hard to take as a character; she can sometimes be a bit on the foolish and unintelligent side. She doesn’t always say and do the right thing and never seems to learn from past mistakes, but… it is easy to love her despite her faults. Connor would make an outstanding mayor; any small town would be thrilled by his dedication and hard work. The lighthouse library would be a dream for readers and writers to enjoy. And of course, Charles, the library cat, who now appears to be a permanent fixture in Lucy’s home, is a cat lover's dream come true. I would love to spend my evenings in their new family home enjoying the view.

There are stories of how the old family home was haunted and how the owner's teenage daughter was terrified one night and never stepped foot inside the house again. The body Lucy and Connor find is not anyone they recognize, and they can’t figure out how he got into the locked house. But if not for Charles, they might not live long enough to find out either. Lucy is determined to find out who is ruining her and Connor's new home and putting a damper on their future.

The suspect pool is small and includes community members, the victim's family, and an unexpected spouse. The evidence is thin but enlightening, and once the reader has all the facts, they. Once they figured out how the victim was getting into their family home, they changed all the locks on all the doors before moving in; it doesn’t take long for them to figure out his identity. But the motive for killing him is elusive. The killer is a fun character and not easy to find but definitely adds some tension and action to the story. It isn’t until the very end that Lucy and Charles, her beloved library cat understand the why of and the who of it all and puts this case to bed.

It isn’t until the very end of Death By Beach Read that Lucy and Charles understand the why of and the who of it all and discover the killer, a treasure, and reunite a lost, lonely woman with the world. The ending will have readers smiling and cheering. I, along with all of the fans of this series, can’t wait for the next installment and Lucy’s wedding!

Death by Beach Read is the first book I have read by Eva Gates, this book forms apart of the Lighthouse Library Mystery series.

It was an enjoyable cosy mystery and I am keen to read more from this series down the track.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for kindly gifting me an e-copy to read.

Death by Beach Read is the 9th Lighthouse library mystery by Eva Gates. Released 7th June 2022 by Crooked Lane, it's available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. Paperback due out second quarter 2023. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.

This is a clean cozy mystery with book recommendations in the text throughout, cat (a Himalayan called Charles), a soon-to-be-married librarian main character, a library in a lighthouse (which doesn't really feature centrally in this story), and a landmark house which might be haunted and which certainly has a tragic past. Although it's part of a series, there's enough backstory woven into the plot that it works fine as a standalone. The ensemble cast is full of eccentric small town characters, but the author is skillful enough and the writing technically adept enough that the whole works well enough. The plotting proceeds at a good clip, and although the dialogue is a bit trope-y in some places, it's not intrusive enough to yank readers out of their suspension of disbelief.

The language is squeaky clean, no cursing whatsoever. The denouement and resolution were satisfying and there were some last minute twists which added a nice coda to the ending. Since there are 9 books extant in the series, it would make a good candidate for a light binge read.

This is simply a well written, readable, and enjoyable library cozy (with cat). There are also a number of fun bonus reading prompts referenced in the book which will lead the reader to other books and series. I also liked that the author highlights the fun and social aspects of book clubs. Talking about books with other book lovers adds another whole level of enjoyment. It's well worth a look for fans of the genre.

Four stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

Another great Lighthouse Library mystery. Perfect amount of characters/suspects and mystery. Thanks to NetGalley for the privilege to read and review this book.

My rating: 1 of 5 stars, almost a DNF.

Book 9 in the series.

Honestly, this was my least favorite of the whole series. It was slow paced, and Lucy was almost unlikable in this one! She was snobby and I got tired of all the "white" lies she told. The storyline was very predictable.

It makes it on to the Read shelf, but barely. I finally skipped to the end just to see if I was correct in my deduction. Yep.

This series has been very up and down for me, some I have absolutely enjoyed and others just dragged and didn't entertain me at all for various reasons. I keep saying I am done with the series and then one shows up on NetGalley and I request it. Time to stop, for real this time.

An entertaining read and I loved the setting.
Many thanks to Crooked Lane Books and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

I want to thank Netgalley and the author for gifting me the ebook. Cute murder mystery. It is part of a series but I felt like I didn't miss much by not reading the previous books. Will read the rest of the series.

Death by Beach Read: A Lighthouse Library Mystery
By Eva Gates
Crooked Lane Books
June 2022

Review by Cynthia Chow

As much as librarian Lucy Richardson adores living in the tiny apartment atop the Bodie Island Lighthouse Library, the decision to move in with her fiancé Connor McNeil makes the Lighthouse Aerie a little too cozy. So she and the mayor of Nags Head have invested in a fixer-upper on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, with Connor and his carpenter father making the most out of their budget. It’s fortunate that both McNeils enjoy the DIY construction, as buying the home while planning a wedding strains their finances. Lucy did get a great deal from the previous owner Ralph Harper, who has few fond memories of his family home and hasn’t lived there for decades. It’s even worse for his sister Joanna, who after a traumatic event vowed to never return to the house even after more than 40 years. Someone else sure has though, as Lucy discovers that through a secret entrance only a home invader has been sneaking in and leaving marks in the dust.

It takes a meeting of the Bodie Island Lighthouse Library Classic Novel Reading Club to bring out the reclusive Jo Harper, as she feels an attachment to their selection of The House of Seven Gables. While few members actually got through the entire Nathaniel Hawthorne book, Jo not only is quite knowledge about it, she has her own words of warning for Lucy. Jo has nothing good to say about the McNeil family and advises a befuddled Lucy to stay far away from Connor. The threat seems to be misdirected though, as when Lucy finds a body in her kitchen it turns out to be the black sheep brother of Jo and Ralph, the long-absent Jimmy Harper. While his being strangled to death with Lucy’s cat’s leash would seem to be a bit damning, it’s Ralph who becomes the prime suspect in the eyes of Detective Sam Watson. With gossip quickly spreading through the “Bankers” and locals congregating at the library for more news, Lucy uses her research and librarian skills to gather evidence and look into whether Jimmy’s past or present crimes led to his death. An act of arson, the return of a manipulative Library Board Member, a fake ex-wife, and the need to finish her wedding plans all have Lucy on a deadline to save her library, her home, and her Outer Banks family.

By this 9th in the series, characters are well-established and very familiar to longtime fans. Now that Louise Jane McKaughnan has finally achieved her goal of being the rightful (in her mind) inhabitant of the lighthouse apartment, she has become less of an irritating antagonist and more of an occasionally helpful advocate for the library and the town. Loyal readers will be rewarded with the protective, territorial presence of Charles the Library Cat, who makes every library visit a delight for regular patrons. That a real Bodie Island Lighthouse actually exists only makes the setting more alive and gothic, especially when Louise Jane and Jo whisper of family ghosts and hauntings. The characters have grown and evolved from their first introduction, demonstrating the author’s ability to make them very real and worthy of readers’ being invested in their future. This continues to be a unique series that delights with a library cat, imaginative library, and very engaging characters, propelling readers through to an unexpected, but very enjoyable conclusion.

3.5 stars

This is my first read in the Lighthouse Library series, so whilst I missed some of the little details, it didn't stop me enjoying the story.

I did feel that sometimes the author was trying to misdirect us by giving us superfluous information, but this could just be me.

I liked the mystery, I liked that Lucy seemed to grow a pair as the book progressed (I don't know what she was like in the other books, but she was a bit of a doormat at first in this one).

Quirky characters, a fun cat and a mystery that I did not guess right away. I would read more of this series in the future.

Princess Fuzzypants here: Lucy, Connor and Charles, the Library cat, have all moved into the new home, an old beach house that has been empty for fifteen years. The sellers are Ralph and Jo. Jo left the house at age 17 when she was traumatized by a “ghost” and never returned. Both Lucy and Connor doubt the place is haunted but that does not mean that strange things are not happening. They include finding the corpse of the siblings long lost brother on the floor of the kitchen. How he got in and why he was there is a big mystery.

As the investigation proceeds, they find out more about the family history of the house and secret entry points and a possible treasure. At least that was what the deceased believed. He and his partner broke into the house several times to search and it had to have been the partner who killed him. But who is that person? As things transpire, and someone tries to burn down the house- Charles saves his humans- most of the obvious suspects are eliminated. Lucy finally twigs to the secret identity and it is a corker. And strangely satisfying for the reader too. I do enjoy this series. I like the stories and the mysteries and the setting. And I love Charles. Five purrs and two paws up.

This was such a fun read. I would absolutely recommend it to all my cozy mystery lovers. Will be purchasing it for sure.

I have read all the books in this series and found each and every one to be amazing!

This book takes us back to the Outer Banks (one of my personal favorites) to check on Lucy and Connor. They have purchased a home and are beginning rehab. And that's where things start to happen. There's a lot going on in this house that has been uninhabited for years! I'm not giving anything away. But, I was pulled into the location, characters, and house from the first chapter!

Thank you to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for the opportunity to read and provide an honest review of this book.