Death By Beach Read Book Review

Death By Beach Read

A Lighthouse Library Mystery

By: Eva Gates

Crooked Lane Books

Publish Date 7 June 2022

Mystery & Thriller

#DeathbyBeachRead#NetGalley

I would like to first thank both NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for allowing me to read and review this book.

Good Reads Synopsis:

Librarian Lucy’s new historic house comes with a lot of baggage and family secrets. Can she put them to rest or will a killer bring Lucy’s family to their downfall, in the 9th Lighthouse Library mystery.
 
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. 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.
 
But the sounds have an all-too-human origin and 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.
 
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?

Book Review:

This is book nine in the Lighthouse Library series. The story was great, and you get to know the characters in this story, but I would recommend that you start with the first book. There were a few gaps that you should know so you can follow the story line better. With that being said I really enjoyed the story.

Lucy and Connor have a bought a house together to start their lives together. Connor and his dad are fixing it up. The changes are great and trying to keep the historical value to the old home. While Connor is gone for a couple of days Lucy is home alone with her cat Charles. One night Charles wakes her up and she notices footprints in a room that is being fixed up. The Sliding door is slightly open and so Lucy goes to investigate some more. She doesn’t notice anything else so decides it was Connor’s or his dad’s footprints.

When Connor comes home, she asks him about it and says no the prints aren’t any of theirs’s. He goes and changes the locks and fixes the sliding door. Things continue on for a few days and then one day after an evening out with Connors parents they come home and find a body in their kitchen. How he got there they don’t know, nor do they know who he is.

They call the police, and they notice a resemblance to someone they know. They call this person, and he is able to tell them who he is and how he got into the house. The person they called is the previous homeowner and the body was his twin brother. The previous owner showed them a secret passageway under the pantry floor.

The passageway was his grandfather’s entrance to boot legging back in the days of prohibition. Connor of course quickly brocaded it. Why was the twin brother in their house we don’t know until later in the book? Who killed him and why?

You will have to read the book to find out. I love the relationship between Connor and Lucy. They know each other well and get along great. There is a lot of back stories in this book, and it was very intriguing to learn about.