Friday, July 19, 2019

Read and Buried (A Lighthouse Library Mystery #6)

Author:  Eva Gates
Genre:   Mystery

Hardcover; Digital Book
ISBN #:  9781643852331
Crooked Lane Books
$18.99; $12.99 Amazon
October 15, 2019

⭐⭐⭐


The Bodie Island Lighthouse Library Classic Novel Book Club is reading Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne while workers dig into the earth to repair the Lighthouse Library's foundations.  The digging halts when Lucy pulls a battered tin box containing a Civil War-era diary from the pit.  Tucked inside is a hand-drawn map of the Outer Banks accompanied by a page written in an indecipherable code.

The library is overrun by people clamoring to see the artifact.  Later that night, Lucy and Connor McNeil find the body of historical society member Jeremy Hughes inside the library.  Clearly Jeremy was not the only one who broke into the library -- the map and the coded page are missing.

Lucy's nemesis, Louise Jane McKaughnan, confesses to entering the library after closing to sneak a peek but denies seeing Jeremy -- or his killer.  When Lucy discovers that fellow-librarian Charlene had a past with Jeremy, she's forced to do what she vowed not to do -- get involved in the case.  Meanwhile, the entire library staff and community become obsessed with trying to decode the page.  But when the library has a second break-in, it becomes clear that someone is determined to solve that code.

✽✽✽✽✽✽✽✽

Lucy is in the middle of her performance review with library director Bertie.  When the owner of the construction company (who were hired to do repairs on the lighthouse) tells them they need to come outside now, it's Lucy who has to enter the pit to see what they've found.  It's an old tin box, and Zack, the owner's son, brings it to the surface.  What's discovered inside is an old Civil War diary which contains nothing more than weather patterns; but what's odd is it also contains a map with numbers and a piece of paper with coded writing.

When the historical society members arrive at the library, they want to see the diary.  But since there's been too much havoc, Bertie tells them they have to wait until tomorrow.  Lucy has a date with Connor McNeil, during which they look at the copy Lucy's made of the page with the code.  Try as they might, they can't decipher it.

When they call it a night and Connor brings Lucy back to the library (where she lives on the fourth floor) they see the door is completely demolished.  Calling to police, they are instructed to wait outside; but Lucy, hearing her cat Charles' wails, rushes in.  There they find the body of one of the society's members, Jeremy Hughes, and the two pages are missing from the diary.  Now the police are trying to find a killer - someone who wanted those pages badly, and it seems that all anyone else is interested in is figuring out the code.

Trying to fend off questions and figure out what the code means, Lucy must call on all her wits to figure out who wanted it enough to kill...

This is the sixth book in the series, and while, for the most part, I have enjoyed them, I began to wonder about this one.  It seems that no one really cares - except the police, of course - who killed Jeremy.  All anyone is interested in is the code and what it means.  Half the town thinks it's buried treasure.  So in essence, the murder takes second place to figuring out the code.  Then, with Bertie's blessing, copies of the code are passed around like candy, even though she really doesn't want anyone to have anything to do with it.  The townspeople are given copies if they ask, even if Lucy protests. 

But the kicker was the scene in which Louise Jane shows up at Lucy's apartment late one evening.  Now I'm going to be blunt and say that I absolutely detest  Louise Jane.  There's no reason for an 'evil nemesis' in a book.  Louise Jane completely ruins the books for me.  She's nasty, snide, controlling, pushy, snarky, etc., and I have to wonder what the heck is wrong with Lucy?

Why did she just allow Louise Jane into the lighthouse when she was in bed in her pajamas?  Since she knew she was downstairs via an intercom, why didn't she tell her no, she wasn't going to allow her in.  Why did she go along with it when Louise Jane pushed her way into her apartment and said she was going to conduct a seance?  Why, when Teddy and Grace found out Lucy didn't know about it, do the right thing, apologize and go home?

Lucy has no backbone.  She allows Louise Jane to steamroll over her every chance she gets.  Lucy needs to grow a pair and tell her she’s not going to allow her to push her around any more.  Honestly, Louise Jane adds nothing to the story line, and detracts from it constantly.  She's like having an insect fly around your head.  It's annoying, you want it gone, but it won't leave.  She's annoying right to the end of the book.  Even when Louise Jane makes herself finally useful to Lucy toward the end, she doesn't do it without self-aggrandizement.   I also thought it would have been better without the slapstick It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World scenario, but that's neither here nor there. 

The murderer was found of course, and everything came together nicely; and while I did like the resolution of the murder and the reason for the diary, it was the presence of Louise Jane who ruined the book for me - without her antics, this would definitely have been a four- or five-star book.  Sorry.

https://www.amazon.com/Read-Buried-Lighthouse-Library-Mystery/dp/1643852337/ref

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2902771885

More on Eva Gates's Books:  https://www.fantasticfiction.com/g/eva-gates/

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