On February 3rd, Mme Vicki Delany launched the first book in her new cozy series, By Book or By Crook. Set in the Outer Banks of Northern Carolina, in a charming lighthouse library on Bodie Island, our heroine Lucy must recover the priceless first edition of a Jane Austen novel. And solve the murder of the chairman of the library board with the help of her clever cat, Charles Dickens.

Mme Vicki has taken a turn to light side with this her seventeenth novel, writing under the pen name of Eva Gates to distinguish the new series from her police procedurals, Klondike adventure series and gothic thrillers. This is the first of the four – yes, four! – books she will publish this year.

By Book or by Crook, published by Penguin Obsidian, is already getting very positive reviews. It is one of Marian’s Picks in the Sleuth of Baker Street newsletter and Krista Davis, bestselling author of the Domestic Diva Mysteries, praised it in the New York Times, calling Lucy “a delightful and engaging sleuth surrounded by a cast of intriguing characters in an original and unique setting.”

For more reviews and info about the series, do check out the webpage: http://www.lighthouselibrarymysteries.com/

Today Mme Vicki set off on a whirlwind tour of the U.S.A. to promote the series. She will be back in Canada for a reading on Tuesday, February 10th, 7 pm at the Picton Public Library. (Snow date Feb 12th!) For a complete listing of Vicki’s travels, check her website: http://vickidelany.blogspot.ca/

Booked for Trouble, the second book in the Lighthouse Library Series, will be released this coming September.