Whose Body in the Library
Book 13 of A Lighthouse Library Mystery
by Eva Gates
Crooked Lane Books
Pub Date: 09-Jun-2026
Publisher’s Summary:
A new librarian’s first day goes terribly wrong when she finds a dead body on the front steps of the library.
In the thirteenth installment of the beloved Lighthouse Library mysteries, a new character takes the reins.
While Lucy McNeil is enjoying her new job as the mother of twin boys and library director, new librarian Nichelle Gilchrest has just arrived at the Bodie Island Lighthouse Library, reporting for duty. But life throws a wrench on Nichelle’s first day when she finds a body on the steps—a body that bears a startling resemblance to her father, who disappeared on a fishing trip to the Outer Banks thirty-eight years ago.
Fingerprints confirm the dead body is indeed Nichelle’s father, now living in Nags Head under the name Brian Saunders. Brian had been befriending older lonely women in exchange for money, but was he working alone?
Detective Rhonda Thomas is on the case, and the suspect list is only getting longer. Sorting through the wronged women and their relatives, Detective Thomas discovers Nichelle’s own brother Brad had been in Nags Head a few days before the murder happened and has been lying about his whereabouts.
Hoping to clear her brother’s name, Nichelle decides to investigate what happened. With seasoned sleuth Lucy’s gentle encouragement for the amateur, Nichelle is in for an exciting and dangerous first week at the library.
Review:
This review is made possible through Crooked Lane Books and NetGalley. This was one of my most anticipated requests through NetGalley, since I’ve read previous Lighthouse Mysteries by Eva Gates and several of the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop Mysteries by the author under her name Vicki Delany. Whose Body in the Library is a nod to Dorothy L. Sayers’ first Lord Peter Wimsey book, Whose Body?
Right off the bat, I can confidently say that Eva Gates (Vicki Delany) is one of the best cozy mystery authors today. If it’s your goal to write a cozy mystery someday, grab her books and study the composition. I’ve never been disappointed.
Some folks might find a formulaic plot boring, while others, like myself, have a need for the comforting expectations. In books about murder and other crimes, having some common expectations is a good thing when you feel anxious or in a reading rut. You know that (in general) the protagonist is going to survive and win. That’s not always the case in the Golden Age mysteries and adventure pulps. At some point, that hero may come to their demise and the series ends.
Eva Gates did something refreshing with Whose Body in the Library (book 13) from her Lighthouse Library Mystery series. For twelve books, head librarian, Lucy McNeil was the protagonist and perspective. With Whose Body in the Library, Gates gives Lucy a promotion to Library Director which opens up the position of librarian for an out-of-towner, mature-aged, new graduate of Library Sciences. This new character Nichelle (yes, named after Nichelle Nichols from Star Trek) Gilcrest née Sanderson.
In the first chapter, Gates introduces Nichelle and specifies that she’s not a Black woman. She comes from an Italian mother and Irish father. Yet, I read Nichelle and her family members as PoC throughout the book. Does this new character’s ethnicity make a difference? Not in my opinion pertaining to this story. Maybe in a future story being set in the Outer Banks of Nags Heads, North Carolina, having a PoC librarian hero would have been a fresh perspective but now can’t happen. I’m happy for the new character, but a bit disappointed that she’s not a smart Woman of Color who went back to college as an adult to get her MLS degree.
Nichelle proves to be a brave independent woman. Her twin daughters are adults back in Rochester, New York. She’s divorced. Her mother has died. She has some relationship with her brother, Brad, which is a major part of the plot here because the mystery surrounds their father, Brian. Nichelle took this new job after online interviews. She set out for a new life and she got it. She moved into the small studio apartment of the Bodie Island Lighthouse which comes with Charles, the opinionated Himalayan cat who also works in the library.
Lucy McNeil still plays a role in this book despite being in the background. She and her husband now have twin boys which keep them busy. Readers can get attached, even possessive, of characters they’ve grown to love. This story makes it an easy transition to shift from Lucy to Nichelle.
The setting of the Outer Banks is key for Nichelle and Brad to solve what amounts to two mysteries: their father’s unconfirmed death from 38 years prior and the death of a man who might end up being their father on the day Nichelle arrives at the lighthouse. Their whole lives they and others back in Rochester were told that Brian Sanderson, Sr. died by suicide in the waters of North Carolina.
Eva Gates takes her time allowing Nichelle to resolve who the dead man on the library steps was. The police need time for due diligence in narrowing down his identity. Brian Sanderson, Sr. was declared legally dead, but there was never a body recovered. The people of Nags Head know the dead man as Brian Saunders.
As Nichelle discloses what she remembers about her father, there’s valid speculation that he had been living with a mental illness like Bipolar Disorder or something similar. This is handled with sensitivity and understanding. Nichelle is more forgiving than her brother as they’ve aged. Nichelle used to be just as angry about the abandonment, but it’s clear in this story that she has reached a sense of compassion and education about mental health that give her clarity and perspective. Her brother remained angry. Their father may not have been an alcoholic, but he certainly allowed the bar scene to dictate his status in social settings because he was rather unlikable. Even after he abandoned his family for North Carolina, few people were willing to get to know someone whose moods could swing from jovial to depressed.
The rest of the cast of characters are a wide range from shy and embarrassed to loud gossip queens (and kings). They are centered around the library and the book club. They’re a lot of fun to get to know.
Plot Analysis:
If you’re looking for perfect forensics and police procedures, this isn’t for you. The author knows those details and she has written police procedurals and suspense as well. In this book, there might be things to nitpick about how the body was treated at the scene.
The plot underlying the murder mystery is about criminal fraud and con artists. That’s another aspect that felt fresh. Perhaps it’s typical of modern cozies, but when someone like myself is often consumed by true crime and serial killers with no motive, something as common and embarrassing as being taken by scammers was validating. Victims of scam artists are worth telling.
As stated, Gates’ work could and should be studied by anyone interested in writing mysteries. At the beginning of Whose Body in the Library, we’re introduced to the new character and get the explanation about why the character of twelve books is stepping aside (even if you didn’t read book 12). The end of Chapter 3 is a cliffhanger, another consistent way that Gates keeps readers’ attention. Around the midpoint, a person of interest is clearly lying. At 64%, there’s big new information on how Brian and his partner in crime conned lonely women out of money. Those stories had begun to reveal themselves earlier, but there’s a snowball effect as the victims were willing to open up. The climax where Nichelle confronts the living partner of the crime duo hits at 80% and that confrontation escalates two chapters later. The suspense kicks up even more around 90% which is six chapters from the ending. There’s a close escape for the hero before everything is resolved.
Rating: 4 stars
Founder and Editor-in-Chief of AmberUnmasked.com and Vodka O'Clock Podcast. Author of The Farrah Wethers Mysteries, comic book short stories, prose, and non-fiction. Cosplayer and figure model.