Read and Buried: A Lighthouse Library Mystery

In Gates’s delightful sixth Lighthouse Library mystery (after Something Read, Something Dead), workmen who are excavating around the foundations of the lighthouse in Nags Head, N.C., discover a tin box containing a leather-bound diary dating from the Civil War era, along with a couple of loose sheets of paper and a mysterious map of the Outer Banks. The find has the entire town dreaming of buried treasure. Within minutes, librarian Lucy Richardson and the library staff are fending off squabbling scholars and members of the local historical society. An exasperated Bertie James, the library director, orders the historians to leave and locks the box in her desk for the night. After dinner, Lucy returns to find the front door open, the map gone, and a man lying dead on the floor of Bertie’s office. Gates provides loads of eccentric and amusing suspects, shifting motives for the theft and for the murder, and a surprising solution to the mystery contained in the map. Cozy fans looking for good, fast-paced fun will be rewarded. Agent: Kim Lionetti, BookEnds Literary. (Oct.)