Thursday, December 20, 2018

Review - Father’s Day Murder

Author:  Leslie Meier 
Series:  Lucy Stone Mystery #10
Genre:  Cozy Mystery
Publisher:  Kensington Books
Format:  Kindle
No. of pages:  256
Published:  2003; 2004
My Rating:  4.Stars

DESCRIPTION:

When her part-time reporting gig gives Lucy the opportunity to attend a Boston newspaper conference, she looks forward to the vacation from domestic bliss. But upon leaving Tinker’s Cove, she quickly discovers that alone time can be kind of…lonely. And in between libel workshops and panel discussions, Lucy takes a guilt trip. She feels terrible that she won’t be home to help her husband celebrate Father’s Day.

But when Luther Read—head of a nearly bankrupt newspaper dynasty—suddenly drops dead, Lucy has other things to think about. Murder, for instance. She’s not buying the theory that Luther died of an asthma attack. The man just had too many enemies. Always the intrepid snoop, Lucy vows to investigate. But she can’t help wondering if her name will end up on a byline—or in an obit…




MY THOUGHTS:

Part-time reporter Lucy Stone is about to get a break from her family to attend a newspaper conference. Unfortunately, it is just before Father’s Day, so Lucy has some juggling to do. It’s not as fun as she imagines. She misses her family more than she thought she would, the panels are rather boring, and some of the other attendees really get on her nerves. 


Shockingly, Luther Read, owner of a virtually bankrupt newspaper suddenly dies, and the circumstances are quite suspicious, despite being first ruled an asthma attack. As a matter of fact, Luther had enemies, so there is more than one suspect.

Luther Read is no stranger to Lucy. His family has a second home in Lucy’s hometown of Tinker’s Cove. So, per usual, Lucy decides to investigate. All the while, Lucy gets to enjoy parts of Boston and even has time to shop for her family. Meanwhile, husband Bill works hard at running their household. 

As Lucy goes further in seeking out Luther’s murderer, she again places herself in harm’s way. This cozy mystery is fast-paced with Lucy being out of her element, while she excels at being an amateur detective. 

Father’s Day Murder is book ten in the series. The next book is Star Spangled Murder with twenty-five to-date. These are all delightful reads and I look forward to continuing. I encourage readers of this review to look at my other reviews from this series on this blog. Also, here is a link to her series in order: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/m/leslie-meier/.


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 


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