Lucy and Connor moved into a house full of secrets and old family drama. When they find a man’s dead body, will Lucy discover the motive for the murder before she’s next on the list?
When I read a cozy mystery, I want to feel the “coziness” while trying to figure out the mystery. I really didn’t get that feeling. This mystery had a very creepy vibe, and it seemed somewhat intense throughout the book. I also felt a little disconnected from the main character until midway through the story. The plot was very compelling, and I was surprised by the reveal at the end. I will continue reading the rest of the series. Thank you to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for this advanced reader’s copy. This review is my unbiased opinion.

Lucy and Connor are beginning life in their new home. With Connor and his father doing lots of work the house is slowly coming together. Connor goes out of town and Much hears boards creaking in the house. When Connor returns home, they wake up to discover a dead body in their kitchen. Is it part of the old story of a ghost in the house? Louise Jane is ready to seek out the paranormal activity, but the police and Lucy have other ideas. Great read that keeps you guessing with Lucy to the end. Another great adventure by the outer banks!

3.75 stars

Another entry in the enjoyable Lighthouse Library series. Librarian Lucy and husband to be Connor have moved into their dream house and are renovating bit by bit. But finding a body in their new home puts a damper on their happiness.

The victim turns out to be the son of the family that lived in the house long ago. He was a felon and a ne'er do well but his more respectable siblings still live in town.

Lucy attempts to help solve the murder while planning their wedding and carrying out her usual library duties. This is a likable cast in an attractive setting and these books are always great fun. Thanks to the publisher and to Net Galley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

After spending the winter renovating their new home, an historic cottage on the beach, librarian Lucy Richardson and her fiancé Mayor Connor McNeil have settled in. Rumors that the cottage is haunted don’t faze Lucy until she hears odd noises while spending her first night alone there. Hearing stories from the locals about how the past occupants of her new home fled the cottage screaming about a ghost and then Lucy’s finding a dead body in the kitchen make her even more uneasy. It’s up to Lucy and Connor to figure out what the dead man was doing in their cottage and why, after sitting vacant and ignored for decades, a bunch of suspicious characters have suddenly become so interested in it. Once again, Eva Gates provides an outstanding mystery with great characters in Death by Beach Read, the ninth mystery in the Lighthouse Library Mystery series.

The past is intruding on the present in this mystery and light romance set in Nags Head, North Carolina. I grabbed this book, even though I hadn't read anything else in the series, mainly because it is set on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. I'm a North Carolinian and enjoy reading books set in my home state when I get the chance.

Lucy and Connor, who are engaged, have been lucky enough to buy one of the historic cottages on the beach at Nags Head, NC know as one of the "unpainted aristocracy". They have a lot of work to do to renovate the house while both working their regular jobs. Lucy works at a library set in Lighthouse and she used to live on the premises as well before moving in with Connor. Connor is the town Mayor and is also a dentist. Connor and his Dad are doing most of the renovations themselves, while Lucy is working on wedding planning and decorating the house.

The house has a somewhat disturbing history and rumors of a ghost who haunts the premises. Lucy and Connor both dismiss the idea of a ghost. Then there are some unsettling occurrances where Lucy hears things in the house, sees someone watching her from the window, and then a man is found murdered in the house. Something is definitely wrong and Lucy begins asking questions and "investigating".

This was a fun, cozy mystery. I like the setting, but there's not a lot of description of the area. There is some discussion of the history of pirates and rumrunners at the Outer Banks. I enjoyed the way the community came together during times of trouble with a helpful attitude. Unfortunately, I didn't really like the first person narration.

Thanks to Crooked Lane Books through Netgalley for an advance copy. This book will be published on June 7, 2022.

A library in a restored lighthouse, a secret treasure and a dead body all add up to Lucy, the Librarian, having to investigate the mystery. Especially, when the dead body turns up in her kitchen! An enjoyable cozy with fun characters and a leading role played by a cat!

Lucy and Connor's new house is said to be haunted but that's a real corpse on their floor! Lucy, who runs the Bodie Island Lighthouse Library with the able assistance of her cat Charles (yes, I know) is determined to figure out who it is- and that part's easy. What's not so easy or happy is discovering that their new home has more secrets, including how the man got in, and that someone isn't happy about them living there. Oh, and the library book club is reading the House of the Seven Gables. It's classic cozy with Lucy working with Watson to uncover the villain. I like this series for the characters and the setting but most of all for the way Gates works classic novels into the plot. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. This is a good addition to the series which will be fine as a standalone. I'm looking forward to what comes next for Lucy and Connor.

This is an enjoyable cosy murder mystery centred around the main character, Lucy Richardson who works in the library in a small town in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. The fictional library is located in a lighthouse and prior to moving into a lovely old house she is renovating with her fiancé Connor McNeil, the town Mayor, Lucy used to live in an apartment at the top of the lighthouse. She also used to look after the delightful library cat Charles, who now comes home with her after work and is also a central character in the series.

When Lucy and Connor return to their house after a night out, they find the body of a stranger on the floor. It turns out that he has a connection to the house, although hasn't been in the town since he left as a teenager. Lucy is well known for helping the police solve cases with her sleuthing and is determined to find out what the man was looking for and who killed him. This is the ninth in this fun mystery series and will be enjoyed by those who have been following all the characters and events in the town through the series but also has enough backstory to work well as a stand alone mystery.

This is a light, cozy mystery. The main character, Lucy, is a librarian in a small North Carolina coastal town. The small town community cast of characters is fun and interesting, especially those who revolve around the Lighthouse library. The character development is good, and I don't feel as though I'm missing anything too important by jumping into this series at book #9. The mystery involves the death of someone who left the town after growing up there and as the clues unfold, takes a deep dive into the past. I enjoyed the historical aspects that were woven into the present. This aspect of the book was well-conceived and executed.

I mainly gave "Death by Beach Read" 3 stars because I found that the book overall was not very compelling and somewhat too much like a cheesy Hallmark movie. (I recognize that this may be a positive thing for many readers, but it wasn't for me.) Furthermore, some dynamics between the supposedly modern, well-educated couple of Lucy and her fiancé seemed too sexist for the setting of current times. A good example was Lucy taking a cooking lesson so she could be a better wife. Alas, why wouldn't this smart, modern character want to learn how to cook because she simply had an interest for herself? Yes, it is a small town, but Lucy's character grew up in Boston!

If you really enjoy easy-to-read, entertaining, feel-good mysteries, and/or if you have enjoyed other books by Eva Gates, then I definitely would recommend "Death by Beach Read". (I thank NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for a copy of this book.)

Lucy and Connor are in their new house, and even though Lucy does not believe in ghosts. There are some spooky things happening in the house. When they find a body, it is confirmed that there are no ghosts, just real people playing games.

I am enjoying this series and have come to accept Louise Jane.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Crooked Lane Books for a kindle copy of this book to read and review.

The first night Lucy’s alone in the house, with the company of Charles the library cat, she hears sounds. Investigating they see footsteps in the dust of the unfinished living room, and the door to the outside is open. Lucy's reminded that the house is said to be haunted: forty years ago the teenage daughter of the owners fled in the night, and never again stepped foot inside her family home.

I love the gang from this book! I think Louise Jane is my twin her desire to deal with the paranormal can sometimes be annoying but I think she may be on to something. In this book the killer's main goal was to scare Lucy it took a while for me to figure that out but it soon became blatantly clear. What struck me as odd was the daughter of the original owner would run from the house to not darken the door for decades. When Charles as her main protector Lucy takes everything like a trooper and it is very clear that the killer is out for more then Lucy's blood their out for vengeance! With every turn and twist this book takes the Outer Banks gang is there and in the end Lucy is just as surprised at who the killer is as me! One thing I know for sure is always trust your pets judgement.

This latest installment in the Lighthouse Library series was just fine. The middle moved a bit too slow, and I guessed who the killer was towards the beginning of the book.

This is book 9 in the Lighthouse Library cozy series. Lucy and Connor have moved into their historic house after months of hard work. Lucy is now happily immersed in 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 abode. Meanwhile, the Classic Novel Reading Club is reading The House of the Seven Gables by Nathanial Hawthorne, a book about another old house full of secrets. Can Lucy find parallels to her own situation in Hawthorne’s fiction before the killer strikes again? What can be better than a cozy set on the beach in a lighthouse library? A good read with lots of re-occuring characters. I received a copy of this ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

The days are longer and the weather is getting warmer. It’s a perfect time to head to the beach for a bit of sand and surf. Can’t get away? No problem. You can travel via Death by Beach Read, the ninth in “A Lighthouse Mystery” series by Eva Gates. Located in Nags Head on the Outer Banks in North Carolina, it’s an opportunity to visit the coast without ever leaving your living room.

The series has progressed through a number of relationship changes, and is probably best read in order. However, if you are just wanting a quick trip to the coast, minus the drive and the crowds, this is still a good option. The mystery itself is contained within this book and can be read as a stand-alone. Gates does a good job of providing a little explanation for how characters relate to one another without spending an overwhelming amount of time reviewing former stories.

While the murder mystery is a focus of the book, it shares space with the house Lucy and Connor are remodeling. Both are entwined in an entertaining way and contribute to a well-plotted mystery with interesting side issues. It is engaging to see how Gates manages moving Lucy out of the lighthouse, and by giving her such a unique house in which to live, it still holds interest. The plot remains fresh, even though it is well into the series.

The setting, Outer Banks, North Carolina, offers a good backdrop, with just enough description to help the reader know where they are without being intrusive to the story. The lighthouse which is an actual place adapted into the books takes a back seat to Lucy and Connor’s new home, one of the “unpainted aristocracy”, a group of old beach houses, some built over a century ago, that are unique in their structure, including the use of cedar siding instead of paint. This group of houses is considered exclusive, and Lucy and Connor are lucky to have one offered to them by a man who is more interested in selling the old family house to someone who will treasure it than in selling it for its full value.

There is a strong element of history with a hint of “could there be a ghost in the house” that runs through the first part of the book. Lucy and Connor are highly doubtful but are puzzled by how someone manages to get into the house even though it’s locked. Worse still, they find a dead body in the kitchen, who turns out to be an estranged member of the family who used to own the house. How did he get inside and who murdered him in their house?

The cast of characters who have been created for this series are almost all, for in this book. The old tug between Louise Jane and Lucy about paranormal activity makes up part of the book, the police force is the same, with Lucy doing her best to let them take the lead on investigation, and all the family and friends Lucy and Connor have are part of the story.

Lucy’s conviction that ghosts don’t exist is strongly tested as she keeps seeing a figure watching her, often from her new house. It’s compounded as the sister of the former owner had a frightening experience when she was 17 and now, refuses to step foot in the house. She is a contemporary of Connor’s parents and has been a recluse all her life, swearing that her grandfather haunts the house.

There is one vital piece of information needed to confirm the identity of the murderer and solve the mysteries within the book. It is provided toward the end, and marks the spot where Lucy solves the murder. Prior to that, the reader may have suspicions before Lucy, but these may be the result of being experienced readers of cozy mystery books. Regardless, the book is easy and fun to read, It can make an excellent beach read as it is easy to follow the plot and the characters as they move through the story.

My thanks to Crooked Lane Books and NetGalley for providing me with an advance copy of this book for review, The opinions stated here are entirely my own.

Love the series & all things that Eva Gates (aka Vicki Delany writes). The lighthouse library is as charming as you could ever want it to be.

Definitely check out her new series that’s set in the 50’s at a summer resort. And her year round Christmas series!

I enjoy the Lighthouse Library mystery series, although I will admit right away that I have not read all of them. I think I read the first, one in the middle somewhere, and then this one, which is the latest and will be published in June 2022. Lucy, the lighthouse librarian, and her love Connor, dentist and mayor, have bought their dream home. It's located right on the beach, but requires quite a bit of renovation as it's been sitting derelict for quite a few years. Of course there is a ghost story associated with it. As Connor and his dad undertake the renovations, Lucy gets drawn into the house's troubled past until one night, the ghost pays her a visit. Easy, breezy style, Eva Gates is the non de plume of prolific mystery writer Vicki Delaney. I like another of her series (Tea by the Sea) although I'm slightly less interested in her Sherlock Holmes Bookshop series. I'm a little worried that with 5 series in print at the same time (Year Round Christmas and Catskills Summer Resort mysteries), the quality of the books may soon start to decline, but Death by Beach Road, although predictable, was still a pleasant read, and perfect for a warm spring day.

Death by Beach Read is the ninth book in author Eva Gates Lighthouse Library Mystery series. This is a fun cozy mystery series.In this book librarian Lucy Richardson has become engaged to Mayor Connor McNeil. They were friends as kids when Lucy visited her Aunt Ellen's Nags Head home. Lucy and Connor buy a beach house together, a fixer-upper, the house having a strange history. Lucy finds a body in the kitchen and the murder mystery investigation gets going quickly. I love the main characters, Lucy and Connor. Following along as the mystery was solved was fun.Great ending! I can't wait to read the next book in the 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. The house needs a lot of renovations, but they worked hard over the winter to get it ready. Lucy is now happily immersed in 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 abode. The first night Lucy’s alone in the house, with the company of Charles the library cat, she hears sounds. Investigating they see footsteps in the dust of the unfinished living room, and the door to the outside is open. The house is said to be haunted: forty years ago the teenage daughter of the owners fled in the night, and never again stepped foot inside her family home. Then, one evening Lucy and Connor find the dead body of a man they don’t even recognize in their kitchen. They soon realize he has a long-time connection to their house. Lucy's forced to find out what happened all those years ago and why it’s threatening her happiness today.

This is one of my favorite cozy mystery series, and I have read them all before this one. As a retired librarian, I love books about libraries, and this is a very unique one. The author describes the area so well that you can believe you are there. The characters develop with each new book. It is a good mystery, and I was totally surprised at the end by who the murderer was. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for granting my request to read the latest in this series.

I thought this was a pretty good book and definitely beach-read worthy. This is the first book I’ve read by Eva Gates, and though it is the ninth installment of the Lighthouse Library Mystery series, luckily it can be read as a stand-alone.

Death by Beach Read contains a wide array of dynamic characters that all played pivotal roles in this mystery. Lucy, a librarian at the Bodie Island Lighthouse Library, just purchased a beach house with her fiancé, Connor. They are in the midst of renovations when the dead body of a man they don’t recognize is found in their Nags Head home. But the man is no stranger, as he has ties to the home and the family that once lived there. This leads Lucy to start digging through the history behind the beach house, and she quickly finds herself and other locals tangled up in drama behind the murder.

Overall, I enjoyed reading this book. I fell in love with the Outer Banks a few years ago, and I love reading stories based around the historical beach towns, so as soon as I read the synopsis, I was hooked. I also loved the addition of the book club and their discussion of a novel that was relevant to Lucy’s situation. Really clever of the author to do that!

Definitely recommending this one and I look forward to reading the rest of the series.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4624065052

This collection is set on the Outer Banks of North Carolina and follows Lucy, a late-twenties immigrant from Boston who works in a little library housed in a lovely lighthouse. Her mother’s family comes from the region, and Lucy discovered she had a knack for finding dead bodies and solving murders when she returned two years ago. She and her fiancé, the mayor Connor, recently bought a rumored haunted mansion, not that they believe in such things. They discover a corpse weeks after moving home… someone had broken in when they were visiting Connor’s relatives. What’s the big deal?

This is the ninth book in the Lighthouse Library Mystery Series, and it’s a cozy mystery. The characters in this novel are fantastic. This novel has a great mystery/suspense element to it, but I missed her living in the lighthouse. When I first started reading, I felt like I was seeing old friends. Lucy and Connor have settled into their new house, which is still undergoing renovations. Even though the house was formerly a family home, it has remained vacant for almost fifteen years. The narrative is well-knit with personable and amusing characters whose dialogues often made me grin, a few subtle twists and turns, and a dramatic reveal that had me grasping my e-reader. This was again another excellent reading experience, and I am hoping for many more in this series.

Many of the other characters are interesting, so even if you don’t like Lucy, you could appreciate learning about the others. I enjoyed learning more about the family members engaged in the book’s core family conflict. I’ve only read the first book in the Lighthouse Library Mystery series. While it is possible to read and appreciate this book without knowing about the other novels in the series, as I did, I believe that knowing about the previous books in the series will make several parts more thrilling.