Tuesday - First Chapter - First Paragraph - Booked For Trouble

Each Tuesday, Diane at Bibliophile By the Sea shares the first part of a book that she is reading or thinking about reading.  This week I'm sharing the first few paragraphs of Booked For Trouble by Eva Gates.  This is the second book in the Lighthouse Library series and Eva Gates also writes under the name Vicki Delany (one of my favorite authors).  She began writing some cozies a couple of years ago and I've had this series on my radar since that time.  Doesn't a library in a lighthouse sound fun, if maybe a little cramped?  See what you think:

     I love my mother.  Truly, I do.  She's never shown me anything but love, although she's tempered it by criticism perhaps once too often.  She believe in me, I think, although she's not exactly averse to pointing out that I'd be better off if I did things her way.  She's a kind, generous person.  At least, that is, to those she doesn't consider to be in competition with her for some vaguely defined goal, or else watch out--she'll carry a grudge to the grave.  She may be stiff and formal and sometimes overly concerned with the observance of proper behavior, but she's also adventurous and well traveled.  And above all, her love of her children knows no bounds.
     I do love my mother.
     I just wish she weren't bearing down on me at this moment, face beaming, arms outstretched.
     'Surprise, darling!' she cried.

Blurb:

Lucy has finally found her bliss as a librarian and resident of the Bodie Island Lighthouse.  She loves walking on the beach, passing her evenings with the local book club, bonding with the library cat, Charles, and enjoying the attention of not one, but TWO eligible men.  But then her socialite mother, Suzanne, unexpectedly drops in, determined to move Lucy back to Boston—and reunite her with her ex-fiancé.

To make matters worse, Suzanne picks a very public fight at the local hotel with her former classmate Karen Kivas.  So, when Karen turns up dead outside the library the next morning, Suzanne is immediately at the top of the suspect list.  Now Lucy must hunt down a dangerous killer—before the authorities throw the book at her poor mother…

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I won this book at a panel that Eva Gates/Vicki Delany appeared on at Left Coast Crime.  I told her that I was going to pass it along to a member of my mystery group - which I will do.  Just as soon as I finish it.  If lighthouses or cozies aren't your preference, try Vicki Delany's Constable Molly Smith series, set in British Columbia.  It's great!  The first book is In the Shadow of the Glacier.