Something Read Something Dead

February 1, 2019
A sleuthing librarian confronts a case uncomfortably close to home.Lucy Richardson quit her job at Harvard to escape her Boston-based mother's matchmaking and fled to her relatives in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, where she works at the local library. Her cousin Josie, who owns a popular bakery, plans to marry Jake Greenblatt of Jake's Seafood Bar. The low-key, inexpensive winter nuptials they plan are upended by a visit from Josie's paternal grandmother, Gloria O'Malley, who arrives from New Orleans with daughter Mary Anna, niece Florence, and grandniece Mirabelle, all of whom actively push a fancy wedding. To Josie's horror, showy Mirabelle, who runs an event-planning business with Florence, wants to stage the wedding of the year. On top of these problems, Jake's former girlfriend, arriving from New York, insists they get back together, and the library develops a large and dangerous crack in one wall. The former lighthouse that houses the library and Lucy's tiny apartment is beloved of the natives, but where will they get $100,000 to repair it? Lucy manages to keep Josie's bridal shower small, and the bride-to-be bakes a selection of gluten-free treats for the predatory Mirabelle, on the lookout for a third husband, who annoys Lucy by hitting on her boyfriend, Connor McNeil. Things get both better and worse when Mirabelle drops dead in the middle of the shower. The bakery is shut down, and Josie's suspected of poisoning Mirabelle by putting something in the gluten-free pastries that no one else seems to have touched. When the police learn that a superannoyed Josie had threatened Mirabelle, Lucy channels one of her favorite fictional detectives and starts searching for the real killer.The fifth in Gates' sprightly series (The Spook in the Stacks, 2018, etc.) sets romance and a mighty good mystery against a delightful picture of the Outer Banks.

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Starred review from March 1, 2019

Lucy Richardson and her friends are excited to help her favorite cousin Josie O'Malley plan her wedding until Josie's grandmother and the New Orleans relatives descend on North Carolina's Outer Banks. It's enough to make Josie hide out in her bakery to avoid turning into bridezilla. Her wedding shower at the lighthouse library might even be a fiasco if cousin Mirabelle has her way. But Mirabelle dies of poisoning soon after the shower, and now Josie's bakery is closed, she's the primary murder suspect, and the wedding may not take place. With the town investigators sidelined by the state police, Lucy turns sleuth because she knows the locals. Unfortunately, it isn't only the wedding in danger. The historic lighthouse library, Lucy's home and place of employment, has a crack in the wall, and the cost of fixing it may be more than the community can afford. Even Lucy's relationship with the village mayor is a little rocky at the moment. VERDICT This follow-up to The Spook in the Stacks once again casts Lucy and her close-knit, supportive group of friends in an engaging mystery. Readers who enjoyed Miranda James's "Cat in the Stacks" mysteries will discover this series similarly entertaining, complete with a library, a cat, and a captivating location and sleuth.--Lesa Holstine, Evansville Vanderburgh P.L., IN

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