Thursday, February 28, 2019

Review - Bake Sale Murder

Title:  Bake Sale Murder
Author:  Leslie Meier 
Series:  Lucy Stone Mystery #13
Genre:  Cozy Mystery
Publisher:  Kensington Books
Format:  Kindle
No. of pages:  234
Published:  2006
My Rating:  3 Stars

DESCRIPTION:

Ever since local developer Fred Stanton and his wife, Mimi, built five modular homes next door to Lucy Stone’s farmhouse, life just hasn’t been the same. With Mimi complaining about everything from the state of Lucy’s lawn to another neighbor’s lovable dog, quaint Tinker’s Cove, Maine, is now entangled in cul-de-sac politics and backstabbing. And when Mimi doesn’t show up for her shift at The Hat and Mitten Fund bake sale, the scent of burnt sugar leads Lucy to a shocking discovery: Mimi, face down on her kitchen floor—with a knife in her back.

While the police start their investigation, Lucy gets busy writing up the murder for the local Pennysaver—and following a few leads of her own. Lucy knows the women in her neighborhood didn’t like Mimi, but they certainly didn’t want her dead…right?

MY THOUGHTS:

There is a new development of sorts right near Lucy Stone's home. Five modular homes have been built and problems played right from the outset. Whether it was a new teen and his ultra-large motorcycle, or the teen's mom Mimi Stanton's chronic complaining, well, either situation is certain to drive Lucy crazy.

But, she has bigger fish to fry at the moment. School will be starting soon, and Lucy and her friends decide to set up a bake sale for The Hat and Mitten Fund. The proceeds will go towards purchasing complete school supplies for the town's young students. As a mother of four, Lucy knows that sometimes the long list of supplies can be overwhelming, so she is glad to spearhead the bake sale.

Right in the midst of this newfound chaos, shockingly Mimi, the complaining neighbor, is found dead, with a knife sticking out of her back, Quite naturally, the police are on task in trying to discover who the murderer is. Meanwhile, Lucy adept in her job as a reporter, starts coverage in her paper, the Pennysaver. More than that, Lucy cannot help but to follow leads of her own. As an amateur detective, Lucy does what she does best. She snoops, asks questions, and gets herself into some pretty sticky predicaments.

Bake Sale Murder is the thirteenth book in the Lucy Stone series and it is a quick, delightful read. Whether read in or out of order, or as a standalone, each book has its own story. As usual, there is always a surprise as to who the killer is, especially when there is one murder.

I look forward to the next entry in this series, St. Patrick's Day Murder, as each month I am striving to read at least one book in this ongoing series by 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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