Today I am reviewing "A Stranger in the Library” the 11th instalment in the "Lighthouse Library" Mystery series by Eva Gates. I love this series and couldn’t wait to visit Nag’s Head and the Bodie Island Lighthouse library in the Outer Banks of N.C. Again.
Outer Banks librarian Lucy is working on an art show at the library when paintings–and people–start to go missing, in this 11th Lighthouse Library mystery from national bestselling author Eva Gates.
When a traveling show of impressionist art comes to Nags Head, North Carolina, librarian Lucy and the staff at the Bodie Island Lighthouse Library are inspired to create an educational display about art history. Their launch of the display is a huge success, but the morning after, they discover that a reproduction of a famous painting has gone missing.
No one knows why anyone would bother stealing it: the picture is of no value–the real, priceless painting is under lock and key at the art show itself. Lucy gets an invite to the glitzy opening night for the real show, where she notices unusual tension among the show’s organizers. Then, the man scheduled to give the welcoming speech fails to arrive, and a party-goer is discovered drowned in a fish pond.
Meanwhile, Louise Jane is totally captivated by Tom Reilly, a handsome, charming art dealer lurking at the edges of the receptions on both nights. Tom slipped away from the party early, and he cannot be located by the police. Who, Lucy asks, is Tom Reilly, the shadowy figure threatening to break Louise Jane’s heart?
Something is afoot in Nags Head, and it’s up to Lucy and her friends to get to the bottom of it before it’s not just paintings being framed.
This time the story is more centred around an impressionist art show and Louise Jane’s family heirloom painting. Louise Jane takes a fancy to someone that attends the library art exhibition and chaos soon follows.
As always I like how Eva incorporates things in the story that makes me want to learn more on the subject or read the book the book club is reading Ripley Under Ground by Patricia Highsmith.
The mystery is interesting and well plotted, and I loved the characters which are well developed. I kept guessing and second-guessing myself on whodunnit right to the very end.
I can't wait for the next instalment! I highly recommend this book to all my cozy mystery loving friends.
I requested and received an advance reader copy of this book from Crooked Lane Books and Netgalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
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