Read and Buried (Lighthouse Library Mystery #6) by Eva Gates

Librarian Lucy Richardson unearths a mysterious map dating back to the Civil War. But if she can't crack its code, she may end up read and buried. 

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 ssJeremy--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.   (Summary via Goodreads)


I LOVE visiting Nags Head, North Carolina....in the Lighthouse Library Mystery series books that is !!  And the main character, Lucy Richardson, is someone I would love to hang out with.

The Lighthouse Library Mystery series by Eva Gates is a great series !!  It is set in Nags Head, North Carolina, the town is a tourist town but the main focus is the Bodie Island Lighthouse Library.  The library where Lucy works and lives is in the lighthouse and there is always a lot going on there !!  

In the sixth book in this series, Read and Buried, there is a construction crew working on the foundation of the lighthouse and they dig up an old box containing a diary, map and a piece of paper with letters that make no sense.  The library group decide that the paper is actually a coded message and half the town tries to solve the code.  Unfortunately someone breaks into the library to take another peek at the map and paper but ends up dead and the pages missing !!

Lucy cannot help but "look" into what the coded message means, if anything.  Even though she tells everyone that she is not "investigating" the murder, she finds herself asking questions and getting in the way.....well that wouldn't be Lucy if she didn't.

I LOVE that this series is set in a tourist town....it takes me back to my childhood vacations at the ocean.  And I love that Lucy lives in the top of the lighthouse....I can only imagine how cool that is !!!  Even though Gates points out at the end of every book in this series that the lighthouse is a "product of her imagination", I  can see the lighthouse, the library and Lucy's apartment in my imagination as well now and I thank her for that !!!


Review by Missi M.