Thursday, September 20, 2018

Review: Wedding Day Murder

https://amzn.to/2Ddw68k
Title:  Wedding Day Murder
Author: Leslie Meier
Series:  Lucy Stone #8
Genre:  Cozy Mystery
Publisher:  Kensington Books
Format: Kindle
Date Published:  2001; 2009
No. of Pages: 256
My Rating:  4 Stars

Blurb:

Already juggling four kids' hectic schedules, a rambunctious dog, an attention-craving husband, and a full-time reporter job, Lucy Stone can't possibly squeeze in another responsibility...or can she? When Sue Finch asks for help planning her daughter Sidra's wedding to Internet millionaire Ron Davitz, loyal pal Lucy willingly dives into the world of white lace, roses, and chair rentals. What could be more perfect than a backyard Summer wedding in the Stones' newly built gazebo?

Yet when the groom's body is found floating beside his yacht, Lucy isn't convinced it was an accidental drowning. From the picturesque waterfront to toney Smith Heights Road, Tinker's Cove is awash with suspects. Now, fresh from planning Sidra's wedding, Lucy finds herself contemplating her own funeral as she launches the harrowing pursuit of a killer who will do anything to keep from being unveiled. . .



My thoughts:

Lucy Stone is back on the case! Where will she find the time, however, when a man's body is found floating beside his yacht? The situation is this: Lucy has agreed to have the wedding of her best friend's daughter in her newly built gazebo. Lucy and Sue Finch have been friends for years, and Lucy cannot tell Sue no, even though she is quite bothered by not talking to her husband Bill about it first. How Lucy will find time is anyone's guess. It is summertime and she is working full-time as a reporter at the town's newspaper. She is playing chauffeur to the kids summer activities and jobs and she is struggling to maintain her household. Yet, she agrees to host the wedding.

Sue's daughter Sidra is the bride and the groom is Ron Davitz, an Internet guru and quite the millionaire. When the man found dead is none other than the groom himself, amateur detective Lucy jumps in feet first. Will attempting to identify the killer put her own life at risk, as has been the case before?

Just as with all of the Lucy Stone titles that I've read to-date, this story is a delight. The person that Lucy suspected was rather a surprise, and that fact made this story a bit more interesting. Also, I am enjoying Lucy's role as the hectic housewife and mother. Her responsibilities at the newspaper were very entertaining.  However, I cannot go higher than a 4 Star rating with this review because of the bride-to-be and her choice of a groom. The decision she makes at the conclusion of this story did baffle me a bit. Nonetheless, for a cute, cozy mystery that is a very pleasant read, most assuredly pick up a copy of Wedding Day Murder. It was a very engaging story and I am looking forward to the next book in the series, Birthday Party Murder.


Reviewer's note: Wedding Day Murder is part of a 25-book series. As of 2018 the series is being reprinted. For an entire list of the titles, please visit Fantastic Fiction. Also, I am reading and reviewing each title in order. Just click the search bar to see all of those reviews.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

I started writing in the late ‘80s when I was attending graduate classes at Bridgewater State College. I wanted to become certified to teach high school English and one of the required courses was Writing and the Teaching of Writing. My professor suggested that one of the papers I wrote for that course was good enough to be published and I sent it off to Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine’s Department of First Stories. I got $100 for the story and I’ve been writing ever since. The teaching, however, didn’t work out.

My books draw heavily on my experience as a mother of three and my work as a reporter for various weekly newspapers on Cape  . My heroine, Lucy Stone, is a reporter in the fictional town of Tinker’s Cove, Maine, where she lives in an old farmhouse (quite similar to mine on Cape Cod!) with her restoration carpenter husband Bill and four children. As the series has progressed the kids have grown older, roughly paralleling my own family. We seem to have reached a point beyond which Lucy cannot age–my editor seems to want her to remain forty-something forever, though I have to admit I personally am dying to write “Menopause is Murder!”

I usually write one Lucy Stone mystery every year and as you can tell, my editor likes me to feature the holidays in my books. Of course Christmas is one of my favorite times of the year and my newest mystery “Eggnog Murder,” is included in an anthology with two other Christmas novellas by Barbara Ross and Lee Hollis. I’ve long been a fan of the classic English country house mystery, and was a faithful watcher of “Downton Abbey,” so I couldn’t resist trying to write one. I think I succeeded rather well, if I do say so myself, with “British Manor Murder,” which came out in October, 2016.

My books are classified as “cozies” but a good friend insists they are really “comedies of manners” and I do enjoy expressing my view of contemporary American life.

Now that the kids are grown — we have five fabulous grandchildren — my husband and I are enjoying dividing our time between Braintree and Cape Cod, along with our cat, Sylvester.

Find Her:  Goodreads / Twitter / Web 

No comments:

Post a Comment