The Spook in the Stacks
A Lighthouse Library Mystery
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4.4 • 56 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
Halloween in North Carolina’s Outer Banks becomes seriously tricky when librarian Lucy Richardson stumbles across something extra unusual in the rare books section: a dead body.
Wealthy businessman Jay Ruddle is considering donating his extensive collection of North Carolina historical documents to the Bodie Island Lighthouse Library, but the competition for the collection is fierce. Unfortunately, while the library is hosting a lecture on ghostly legends, Jay becomes one of the dearly departed in the rare books section. Now, it’s up to Lucy Richardson and her fellow librarians to bone up on their detective skills and discover who is responsible for this wicked Halloween homicide.
Meanwhile, very strange things are happening at the library—haunted horses are materializing in the marsh, the lights seem to have an eerie life of their own, and the tiny crew of a model ship appears to move around when no one is watching. Is Lucy at her wit’s end? Or can it be that the Bodie Island Lighthouse really is haunted?
With The Legend of Sleepy Hollow on everyone’s minds and ghoulish gossip on everyone’s lips, Lucy will need to separate the clues from the boos if she wants to crack this case without losing her head in The Spook in the Stacks, the delightful fourth in national bestseller Eva Gates’ Lighthouse Library mysteries.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Gates (a pen name for Vicki Delaney) graduates from mass market to hardcover with her lively fourth Lighthouse Library mystery (after 2016's Reading Up a Storm). A few days before Halloween, recently retired multimillionaire Jay Ruddle and his grown granddaughter, Julia, visit the Bodie Island Lighthouse Library in Nags Head, N.C. Jay, an Outer Banks native, is considering giving the library his extensive collection of 16th- to 18th-century documents regarding North Carolina's nautical history. When he is found strangled in the rare book room a few days later, the police suspect Julia, who wanted to keep the collection in the family and recently quarreled with her grandfather about its disposition. Theodore Kowalski, a rare-book collector who has taken a shine to Julia, begs assistant librarian Lucy Richardson to investigate. Book lovers will envy Lucy's dream of a life, working in a wonderful library, surrounded by amusing friends, not to mention a fine feline companion and a handsome suitor. Cozy fans will look forward to her further adventures.
Customer Reviews
An engaging read!
Some great characters, a likable heroine and a good murder mystery. A perfect curl up on the couch Sunday read!
Eva Gates’ The Spook in the Stacks
Halloween is fast approaching. The Bodie
Island Lighthouse Library in the Outer
Banks is decorating plus getting ready for
the spooky day.
Lucy Richardson, the assistant librarian
has her book group reading The Legend
of Sleepy Hallow. The children librarian
has planned stories and costume parties
for his group of children. Louise Jane has
a Ghost Story Lecture Series being
presented.
A collection of North Carolina historical
documents owned by prominent collector,
Jay Riddle is considering donating these
to the Bodie Island Lighthouse Library.
He, his granddaughter and private curator
have come to tour the Lighthouse Library.
Jay is especially interested in the rare
books and documents section.
While his granddaughter and curator
attend an outside event of ghost stories,
Jay requests to go into the rare books
section.
Lucy discovers Jay there...dead...murdered!!
Who would want to kill Jay Riddle?? When
Lucy starts her own investigation, she
discovers he did not make many friends so
she has a lot of viable suspects. She is
determined to bring the culprit to justice.
After Jay’s death strange phenomenons
occur inside and outside the lighthouse.
Lucy experiences flickering light, a model
ship with inanimate captain, cat and sailors
seem to move around on their own. The
most puzzling is the ghostly horse Lucy
sees through the fog. Is the area haunted?
I enjoyed this book....I love the Outer Banks
and all the stories revolving around them...
I love lighthouses and collect lighthouse
memorabilia. The characters are very well
created. Charles, the cat who is essential
to aiding Lucy in identify the culprit lives
in the lighthouse. He stays in the room
where Lucy lives inside the lighthouse at
night and roams the library during the
day. Charles adds to the story.
There is even a hint of a serious romance
beginning.
This is book # 4 in the Lighthouse Library
Mysteries series. It can be read as a stand
alone.