I love Eva Gates’ Lighthouse Library series. This is number ten, and the reader finds themselves at the wedding reception of our amateur sleuth Lucy Richardson, now McNeil, and Connor. It appears that everything is going well until Lucy overhears a worrying conversation, but only recognizes one of the voices, her Aunt Joyce’s date Wayne. The next morning Bertie James, Lucy’s boss, calls to ask her if she saw Bertie’s date Eddie. At the family breakfast at the hotel, Wayne’s body is discovered. With one guest missing and another dead, Lucy becomes worried about her friends and family, and what an investigation might uncover.
There were two things that threw me off right away. One was the ending of the wedding. I was hoping that the reader would get to experience it more, because I felt that it would be a great introduction to the rest of Lucy’s family. In this case, we get what felt like snapshots of two of her brothers and their wives. The third brother is given a little more attention, but it still felt like an overview. There was no in-depth conversation, nothing to indicate familial feelings whether negatively or positively.
The other was that Josie and Jake had their baby. Wasn’t this just announced in book nine? So, there is a major timeline job from book nine to book ten with limited to no mention of anything happening in between. I’m not saying we need a day-by-day playback, but there doesn’t appear to have been a fallout from the last novel’s ending.
The mystery and investigation were well written as was the original round of suspicions. However, I did find the solution to be far-fetched, because what are the odds? I honestly wanted more in that department. A couple of my pet peeves were instigated with this novel, which is unusual as Eva Gates writes the characters as calmer and smarter.
Overall, I rate this novel 3 out of 5 stars.
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