I really enjoyed this cozy mystery. I didn't realize that it was part of a series, so I haven't read any others in the series. I think there is just enough information for you to follow along without feeling like you missed the prior eight books.

We follow Lucy and Connor who recently moved into a house on the beach in the Outer Banks. They're slowly fixing up their home while working their respective jobs. But then Lucy hears sounds at night. A few days later, they come home to find a dead body in their kitchen.

Lucy has helped the police previously, and she seems quite well known for her instincts. So she tries to figure out who this mystery man is, who killed him, and how did they get into their house as it wasn't broken into?

Then a number of other strange things start to happen. Is this related to the dead man in her kitchen? Or is it just a coincidence?

I read this really quickly, so it definitely kept me engaged in the story. I also really love the found family that Lucy has in her community. I love the small town feel. I would definitely recommend this one if you enjoy cozy murder mysteries.

I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for my honest opinion.

This was the coziest mystery set in a warm place I've ever read!

If you enjoy cozy mysteries, you'll enjoy this book. The red herrings, cozy setting, small town, bakery... it's all there! Even the dialogue is cozy.

I like my mysteries a little bit more sophisticated, but this was a fun little escape from the crazy thrillers I've been enjoying lately. I think this is perfect for a specific type of reader!

Lucy and Conner are planning to get married. They have purchased their dream home on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. But the house comes with a history. Originally built by a bootlegger, his ghost is said to haunt the house. His granddaughter, Jo, was so traumatized by seeing his ghost that she hasn't been back to the house in ages. She lives with her older brother but never goes out. Their other brother, the black sheep of the family, turns up in the house...dead.

Lucy, who works in the library is trying to unearth the backstory in order to solve the murder. Rumors of a treasure in the house add new perspective as to why the brother, Jimmy, was in the house. But who murdered him?

The writing in this book is good. The characters are well developed. The superhero pet, who seems to be in all cozy mysteries. is there. This time in the character of a cat named Charlie. My only beef with the book is that the ending didn't exactly twist and turn. In fact, it was pretty obvious. And Lucy didn't really have to apply any "little grey cells", as the mystery pretty much solved itself when the murderer confessed in a fit of rage. But, all in all, it was a good read.

This cozy mystery is a good addition to the series. Gates gives readers an entertaining mystery as well as more information on the people and history of the community.

The most interesting aspect of this novel for me was two support characters. Jo had been traumatized by an event in her late teens that resulted in her becoming a recluse. I liked how various events provided the opportunity for healing. The other interesting character was Diane. Gates did a good job with this character showing how loss of status in the community can result in an overbearing and fake personality.

I like the setting of the Outer Banks, the quirky characters and the mystery rooted in acts from years ago. There is nothing sophisticated or especially enlightening in the novel. It is just a fun and entertaining read.

I received a complimentary egalley of this book from the publisher. My comments are an independent and honest review.

Lucy and her fiance Connor have moved into a historic cottage on the Nags Head Beach. Connor & his dad are busy with DIY projects. Lucy is disturbed by strange sounds when she is alone with just Charles the library cat, There are stories about how the teenage daughter of the previous owner fled in the night 40 years earlier. Did she see a ghost? Then Lucy and Connor find the dead body of a stranger in their kitchen. When the dead man's identity is revealed, they realize he had a long-time connection to their house.

This is the ninth book in the Lighthouse Library mystery series. Not much of this story focuses on the library but on the history of the house & the previous family's secrets. The reveal of the killer was a surprise to me.

I received a digital ARC from Netgalley and Crooked Lane Books. All of the above opinions are my own.

Eva Gates heads into another Lighthouse Library mystery with Death By Beach Read. Librarian Lucy has moved into a fixer upper historic cottage on Nag's Head Beach with her fiance Connor. Connor and his father are renovating the cottage while Lucy plans for the wedding. Then Lucy discovers someone was in the cottage while she was alone with her library cat Charles. Then Lucy and Connor find a dead strange man in their kitchen. Whodunit? There is a forty year old connection to a former family owner. Then to keep with the creepy atmosphere Lucy's book club is reading the House of the Seven Gable. Very satisfying resolution with the creeps getting their comeuppance.

The ninth in the series, Death by Beach Read. Another great book in the series. I really liked the mystery in this one, perhaps one of my favorites. It kept me guessing and I was happy with the outcome. This author's writing style is one of my favorites. I read a lot of cozy mystery series. When I started the book, I kept marveling at the sentence structure. I had to keep telling myself to focus on the story. It's pure delight reading anything by this author. I read another one of her series too. There are a lot of wonderful descriptions of the historic house they are remodeling. The supporting characters are great (Louise Jane is still my favorite). The new characters introduced in this book (particularly Jo & her gardens) were wonderful. I hope to see more of them in future stories. I hope there are many, many more to come in this series! I recommend this series to everyone.

Death by Beach Read is the ninth book in one of my favourite cozy mystery series. You can read them as standalones, but I recommend you start at the beginning as so much happens in the character's lives that you would miss out on. In this book Lucy and Connor have moved into their new home, one that had been empty, but owned by an old family from Nags Head Beach. It needs a lot of work, but Connor is sure that it will be an amazing home. Of course that means Lucy has to move out of her apartment in the Lighthouse Library. The owner had history with Connor's parents and that leads to some issues. At night Lucy hears sounds and sees things that have her scared to be alone. When a dead body is discovered in their kitchen one morning, they have to figure out what is going on and why does it seem like someone is trying to sabotage their renovations.

There is a lot going on and Lucy has her hands full. She is helping Sam plan her wedding, trying to find the murderer, driving back and forth to work, dealing with Diane, a nasty character from a previous book who is back in town, and trying to help Charles get used to living somewhere else besides the library. We meet some new characters in this story that add some interest to the library book club and to give us some suspects in the murder. I really liked Jo, the recluse who finally began to come out of the house. She has secrets and a past that have held her hostage for years. Of course Lucy asked lots of questions and followed her instincts to put together clues. She also gets help from Louise Jane. She is one character that has grown and changed so much as the series has gone on. She used to be really obnoxious and mean to Lucy, and I am really pleased with the direction her character has taken. Lucy almost has it figured out, and then there is the showdown. A great mystery with several suspects, motives and red herrings. I recommend it to cozy mystery lovers.

Wow, I was not expecting that person to be the killer, well done!

I love this series. Who wouldn't want their town library to be in an old lighthouse. Looking forward to Lucy and Connor's wedding in a future book.

Because of the setting of the lighthouse turned into a library, I quickly became a fan of this series. Charles, the library cat has a personality of his own. The characters have grown through out the series. Great character arcs. The murder suspects are as nasty as ever. The due to the lack of light on the library, focusing instead on Lucy's home with her fiancé, Connor made the story not so interesting to me. I look forward to reading more books in this series.

Thank you Crooked Lane Books and Netgalley for the advanced reader copy of this book.

Another glorious cozy set in Outer Banks, NC.

Lucy Richardson is very happy. She is engaged to the Mayor, Connor McNeil and they are moving into their gorgeous new home on the beach. In the midst of home renovations, Lucy keeps hearing what sounds like creaking floorboards but when she investigates, no one is there. Until a dead body turns up in their kitchen, who just happens to be the wayward twin of the man they bought the house from. This is a bit of a locked room mystery and how the past can interrupt the future. Lucy just wants to figure out whodunit so she can get her home and her life back.

Without giving spoilers I thought the resolution was a little on the goofy side. I have only read a couple of these and not in any particular order so I may have to go back to the beginning of the series for full understanding. However, that didn't detract from my enjoyment of the story. I look forward to more in this series and Ms. Gates' alter ego Vicky Delaney's continuing series.

I was sold by the cover of this book alone. But I loved it even more when I opened it and read this great little murder mystery. This is a great summer read for anyone who loves to play detective!

Lucy and Conner have bought a house. It's an old house, unloved in for over 15 years. There's a lot of repairs to be made and Conner and his father start to work. But when Conner is out of town one night, Lucy is alerted to an intruder in the house by Charles her cat. Ahw i convinced that it was only her imagination.

But then when they discover a body in the kitchen and a secret entrance into the house.....

Lucy has to deal with problems at the library including the return to town of a troublesome woman named Dianne. And there are more secrets uncovered than just an entrance to the house.

There's just too much good stuff to put in a review. You need to read it yourself!
I've read one other Lighthouse Library Mystery but really need to go back and read all the others. These are good!

This is one of my favorite cozy series and Eva Gates (Vicki Delany) is one of my favorite authors. I make a point of reading all her different series. She never disappoints.

Lucy and Connor are engaged to be married and have found a perfect home-it’s a fixer upper but the location is wonderful and is a historical property and they were lucky to get it. The house had been empty for 15 years or so, when the owner passed away and her remaining children didn't want to live there because they thought it was haunted. Ralph Harper sold it to Lucy and Connor at a great price as he felt they would take care of it.

When Connor is away at a conference, Lucy hears strange noises and finds the patio door open and footprints in the dust. Since they had decking materials delivered that day she decides the workmen must have done it The next night she is again wakened by noise. She shares her concerns with Connor upon his return and learns that there is a trapdoor to the attic. They go up there and find more footprints in the dust They call the police but can't be sure its an intruder or workmen who may have been up there or if wind caused the pattern,

However, when they return from dinner with Colin's parents, Lucy discovers a dead body in her kitchen.
They discover the victim had a connection to the house and to people in Nag's Head but what was he doing in their house and what was he searching for. Did it relate to his murder? And is the house really haunted?

A well plotted mystery with a great cast of characters.

Cozy mysteries are the perfect summer reads! I loved that this one look place in the Outer Banks. It was a quick and entertaining read. I didn’t realize until I started reading that it’s part of a series, but it can be read as a standalone. The book was fun and it took me a while to figure out the killer. I definitely recommend!

A huge thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

What I Loved:

The Mystery. A dead body in a haunted home, no evidence of how the person got in, and an eerie parallel to House of Seven Gables. Can it get much better? I loved the murder and subsequent mystery in this installment. I didn’t guess the murderer, but it also wasn’t an “out of the blue” killer. The perfect balance.

The Setting. One of my favorite themes about this series is the rich descriptions of the Outer Banks beach living, the historic homes, and the lighthouse. Death by Beach Read certainly didn’t disappoint! Beautiful beaches, loving descriptions of restoring the old beach homes, the very real fear of fire in beach communities, all wonderfully described.

The Tone. Sometimes, cozy mysteries can be a little flippant with death, with the death being an afterthought to push the character development or show off detective skills. However here, the murder is in every scene: it is in every creak of the stairs, the fear permeating Lucy, Connor’s paranoia. It actually felt like a murder was committed instead of a plot pushed.

What Didn’t Work as Well:

Lack of Character Development. I know, not every single book in a series can provide groundbreaking revelations for our characters. Lucy and Connor are moving in together and Lucy is planning their wedding, but not much goes on between them or the side characters. The mystery takes precedence (as it should), but sometimes that means our favorite characters get a little short changed.

The Length / Pace. Not sure if it was due to the lack of character development, but there were times that this book felt lagged, and overall felt a bit too long. The exposure of the murderer happened too long after the crime, and the crime happened too long into the book.

I really like the Library Lighthouse series and this is the latest one and it was really good.

Lucy and Conner are buying a house and it looks like a great house till they find out it comes with a lot of baggage. A lot of people think that it's haunted and there have been some strange things happening while Lucy was there. Then Lucy finds a dead body in their kitchen who happens to be a kin to the guy who sold the house to them and that is when they find out about the odd history surrounding the house.

Lucy tries to not get involved that much but of course she does get involved because she needs to find out what exactly happened as the sister to the dead guy was spooked in that house a long time ago and has never been back into it and it seems strange that she has been seen hanging around the house.

There was a lot of good suspects and it took me a while to figure this one out, but I did figure out who the killer. That didn't bring down the enjoyment of the story because it took me a while.

I recommend this series if you enjoy cozy mysteries.

What a pleasure this cozy mystery was! Set on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, just a short drive from my home in Virginia., loved the familiarity of place it gave.. Cozy mysteries are always a good plan when you just want to sit back and read a quick, fun, entertaining story. Bonus...I didn't figure out whodunit before the reveal! Death by Beach Read is the 9th in the Library mystery series and the first I have read by Eva Gates...I will definitely be back for more! I highly recommend...and double your fun by actually reading it on the beach.

This may be the 9th in the Lighthouse Mystery series, it is the first that I have read. Upon finishing, I now can't wait to ready the prior ones. Death by Beach Read is a balancing act of cozy and thriller mystery. Thank you @netgally

Thank you @netgalley and @crookedlanebooks for an ARC of Death by Beach Read by Eva Gates, Lighthouse Library Mysteries, number 9. This is one of my favorite bookish cozy mystery series.

It’s spring in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, and Lucy and Connor have moved into their new home at last, a historic cottage on the Nags Head Beach. Lucy is busy with her work at the Bodie Island Lighthouse Library, planning her wedding, and decorating the house. That is, until a dead body disrupts their peaceful new home.

Book 9 was a solid entry. I love revisiting this cast of characters. And Lucy is a character that gets stronger each book. I read slowly because I didn’t want to leave Nags Head. So enjoyed it!