The beach is my happy place. I love the beach at any time, but never more than today, because today my family, friends, and co-workers from the Bodie Island Lighthouse Library are throwing me an engagement party.

Yes, I’m engaged! Sometimes I’m so happy, I simply can’t believe it. Connor and I are engaged. I love him and I’m confident in the strength of the love he has for me and I’m looking toward the future we are going to build together.

As for today, it’s a gorgeous day at the beach. The sun is shining, the ocean at Coquina Beach is about as calm as it ever gets. Josie has provided all the food from her own place, Josie’s Cozy Bakery, so you know it’s going to be good. Colorful umbrellas are dotted around the beach, with a scattering of chairs for elderly guests. The tables are piled high with brightly wrapped packages and everyone is in their favorite beach wear.

My parents have come from Boston to help us celebrate, and it’s so nice to see them both. Happy and together after that. . . unfortunate interlude a while ago. Connor’s parents are here also, but they didn’t have far to come. I like them a great deal, and I think they like me and are happy for us.

About the only cloud on the horizon is the matter of where we’re going to live. Connor can hardly move into the Lighthouse Aerie with me, its too small for one person, never mind two. (And a cat, of course, one must never forget Charles.) Like so many popular tourist destinations, it can be difficult, if not impossible, for a young couple to find a place they like at a price they can afford. Still, that’s a worry for another day,

Right now, everything is absolutely perfect. . . Wait! That can’t possibly be Evangeline Lewiston coming over the dunes, can it? The woman in the designer dress, the stiletto heels, with a small fluffy white dog on a pink leash? Oh, my gosh, she’s waving at us. And, following along behind her, looking as though he doesn’t want to be here is her son, Ricky, AKA Richard Eric Lewiston III. My ex-boyfriend and never quite fiancé.

Evangeline might be smiling but she doesn’t look happy. Not at all. She hasn’t come to congratulate me on my engagement, you can be sure of that.

Why is she here? And why does Ricky look so embarrassed?

Deadly Ever After, A Lighthouse Library Mystery #8
Genre: Cozy
Release: May 2021
Purchase Link

Librarian Lucy’s wedding is at stake when a murder interrupts her engagement celebrations. To make it down the aisle, she’ll have to find the killer to save the date in the 8th book in the Lighthouse Library mysteries.

They’re getting married! Lucy Richardson and Connor McNeil have announced their engagement. Their friends throw a party for the couple at Coquina Beach, close to Lucy’s beloved Bodie Island Lighthouse Library.

As they’re packing up the presents and the (few) leftovers from Josie’s Cozy Bakery, who should arrive, but Richard Eric Lewiston III, Lucy’s former almost-fiancé and his overbearing mother Evangeline. Push comes to love when Evangeline makes no secret of why she’s here: to get Lucy and Ricky back together.

Lucy isn’t temped in the least, and Ricky is nothing but embarrassed at his mother’s desperate ploy. Before returning to Boston Evangeline throws a dinner party at Jake’s Seafood Bar for a reluctant Lucy and her family. Lucy hopes to get the dinner over with and see Evangeline and Ricky returning to Boson. But when a body is found at the restaurant’s kitchen door, Lucy is again forced to unwillingly put on her detective’s hat and do what she can to save her family and her engagement. Meanwhile, the classic novel reading club is reading The Hound of the Baskervilles, and open war breaks out in the Lighthouse Library when Lucy agrees to temporarily take care of a dog named Fluffy, but Charles the library cat has other ideas.

About the Author
Eva Gates is the pen name of Vicki Delany, one of Canada’s most prolific and varied crime writers and a national bestseller in the U.S. She has written more than forty books: clever cozies to Gothic thrillers to gritty police procedurals, to historical fiction and novellas for adult literacy. She is currently writing four cozy mystery series: the Tea by the Sea mysteries for Kensington, the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop series for Crooked Lane Books, the Catskills Resort Mysteries for Penguin Random House, and the Lighthouse Library series (as Eva Gates) for Crooked Lane.

Vicki is a past president of the Crime Writers of Canada and co-founder and organizer of the Women Killing It Crime Writing Festival. She is the 2019 recipient of the Derrick Murdoch award for contributions to Canadian crime writing. Vicki lives in Prince Edward County, Ontario.

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