Review: BOOKED for TROUBLE bu Eva Gates

TITLE:BOOKED for TROUBLE
AUTHOR: EVA GATES
(A LIGHTHOUSE LIBRARY MYSTERY)
Paperback Series

Lucy Richardson is happily working and loving her new life living and working at the Bodie Island Lighthouse.
When her mother pays an unexpected visit, Lucy doesn't feel her mother is there to be a tourist or just to visit Lucy, no her mother wants her to come home.

The thing is this time Lucy feels there is more to the visit than her mother trying to make a point. The longer her mother stays the more Lucy's concerns arise. When a diamond necklace is stolen from the hotel her mother is staying at and is found in her mother's bag then Lucy begins to suspect her mother is being set up for the theft.
Also the hotel maid went to school with Lucy's mother (Suzanne) then when the maid comes to book group (Karen) makes up with Suzanne.

After the book group meeting Karen and Suzanne leave the lighthouse last. Lucy goes to bed but the net morning Karen is found murdered and Lucy's mother is last person to have seen Karen. That is Lucy says besides the murderer.
The concern doesn't stop there as her mother is drinking more and more. She makes friends with the manager of the hotel that she went to school with but never liked him.

The suspect list grows Karen's ex-husband is a nasty piece of work. He drinks and is mean and wont' let his granddaughter's attend the library events. His girlfriend is nice but a bit much to take, then there are the ghost stories of hauntings at the lighthouse, other suspects crop up and soon Lucy sees she must clear her mother's name.
her Aunt Ellen tries to help shed some light on Lucy's mother's past.

To top off the concerns there two men who want Lucy to be more than friends. Lucy wants to call her dad but her mother doesn't see the need to bother him. Her motheris keeping secrets and doesn't seem to grasp the seriousness of her situation.
BOOKED for TROUBLE by EVA GATES, is positively engaging, a smart read and most of all holds all the intrigue a cozy and it's characters should be.
You care about the characters and the plot is full of fun, clues and suspects.
I give this one a ten out of ten.
Pamela James