Shot Through the Book is the 12th book in the Lighthouse Library Mystery series. It takes place in the town of Nags Head, NC. The library is located in the Bodie Island LIghthouse. Lucy McNeal is the main character. She works as the assistant director of the library in charge of arranging special events. Connor O'Neil is Lucy's husband and mayor of the town, He is also a dentist where he works part-time, Ronald Burkowiski is the children's librarian. Jane McKaughnan also works at the library. Bertie James is Lucy's boss. Denise is the academic Librarian. Maureen Peterson is a dedicated patron and volunteer in the library. The library is planning their Young Adult Author's Festival. Todd Harrison is a YA author who has recently moved to the outerbanks. He is the headliner for the festival. Shannon McKennah and Ruth Vivac are the other two local authors who will be with him on stage. Lorraine Kitterman will be the music with her band. RIck Black is the owner of the book store. They are all meeting to finalize the agenda the festival.

Lucy was home waiting for her husband to get back from a meeting when Todd comes to her door and says he needed to talk to her. She invited him in and they go to the back deck. Lucy went to get some tea and when she came back Todd was sitting at the table with his back towards the house. He began to tumble to his side and fell to the ground. He was dead with a metal arrow implanted in his chest. Another arrow was stuck in the wood by the door. Lucy called 911. Detective Sam Watson and Officer Butch Greenblatt arrived. Lucy told Sam that she really didn't know him. Only met him at the festival meeting. None of the people on the committee knew him personally only through his work as an author. She had no idea what he wanted to talk to her about. Harrison's appearance was done through the publicist at his publisher. Sam told Lucy that Todd was married to Heather Harrison.

This is where the story takes off with so much going on that it is hard to put on paper. I will leave it to the reader to enjoy all that takes the story to the exciting and surprising ending.

I have read this series from the beginning. I have enjoyed the relationship between Lucy and Connor throughout the books. The ending of this story has Lucy announcing to Connor that she is pregnant. At Sam's retirement party Sam introduces Lucy to Detective Rhonda Thomas who is joining the police force from New Orleans. She is his replacement when he retires. She quietly tells Lucy that she will not tolerate if Lucy wants to help in the future. This should add some tension to the next story in this series. Should be interesting.

Thank you NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for this ARC.

This is another great entry in the series. When a best-selling YA author is found dead on her property, Lucy has to deal with unwanted attention from the author’s devoted fans. I do like that Lucy’s investigations come under fire here. Every time I read a cozy mystery, I wonder why people give so many passes to these amateur sleuths digging into other people’s business. Lots of changes are on the horizon for the characters.