A Death Long Overdue 

Eva Gates 

A Lighthouse Library Mystery, Book 7

It’s summertime in the Outer Banks of North Carolina and 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, using flashlights to illuminate the dark path, but what’s scarier than the dark is finding 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. As a result, Lucy finds herself in deep water as she rocks the boat, questioning several suspects. But she’ll have to batten down the hatches and fast before she’s left high and dry…and right in the killer’s crosshairs.

4 Stars

The lighthouse library is all on board helping Bertie, the library director, host a reunion of college colleagues and friends that haven’t seen each other in 20 years. Lucy and crew of the Lighthouse Library thought it would be fun to assemble some long forgotten artifacts of librarians of the past. The opening night festivities go off without a hitch until the evening winds down and the ladies decide to go for a walk. Lucy stumbles upon the dead body of the former unpopular librarian of the lighthouse library. Lucy finds herself knee deep in a murder mystery that may just be the most confusing thing she’s ever dealt with. Now it’s up to Lucy to find a murder before they get off scott free.

A Death Long Overdue is my first adventure with the crew of the Lighthouse Library and will not be my last. Author Eva Gates made it very easy for me to fall into book seven of this well established series. The characters are well developed and each has traits that bring that something to the story. Lucy and Bertie both had me wanting to get to know them more. Connor is wonderful. That man is too sweet and oh so cute in all the right ways. Charles the cat is the smartest of them all. The humans just haven’t figured that out yet. The setting of the Outer Banks is peaceful even with murder a foot. I love the concept of the Lighthouse Library. A bit of history with some sting out of the box. Ms. Gates has a layered plot and a story within a story with A Death Long Overdue. The story was nicely paced with twists you don’t see coming.

A Death Long Overdue is a highly enjoyable read. A story of mystery, friendship and a touch of romance. Just how I like my reads.