Thursday, August 8, 2019

Review - Easter Bunny Murder

Title:  Easter Bunny Murder
Author:  Leslie Meier 
Series:  Lucy Stone Mystery #19
Genre:  Cozy Mystery
Publisher:  Kensington Books
Format:  Audiobook
No. of pages:  263
Published:  January 29, 2013
My Rating:   Stars

DESCRIPTION:


Spring has sprung in Tinker's Cove, and Lucy Stone has a mile-long to-do list. From painting eggs with her grandson, to preparing the perfect Easter feast, to reviving her garden after a long, cold winter, she hardly has time to hunt for a killer with a deadly case of spring fever...

Lucy has always loved covering the annual Easter egg hunt for the Pennysaver. Hosted by elderly socialite Vivian Van Vorst at Pine Point, her luxurious oceanfront estate, it's a swanky event where the grown-ups sip cocktails while their children search for eggs that are as likely to contain savings bonds as they are jelly beans. But when Lucy arrives with her three-year-old grandson, VV's normally welcoming gates are locked, and a man dressed as the Easter Bunny emerges only to drop dead moments later…

Lucy discovers that the victim is Van Vorst Duff, VV's grandson, and soon learns that not all is as it seems at idyllic Pine Point, where the champagne and caviar seem to be running dry. Always a social butterfly, VV has been skipping lunch dates with friends, and her much-needed donations to local charities have stopped with no explanation. Maybe she's going senile, or maybe her heirs are getting a little too anxious to take over her estate… As Lucy gathers a basketful of suspects, she's convinced someone's been hunting for a lot more than eggs, and she'll have to chase the truth down a rabbit hole before the killer claims another victim…

MY THOUGHTS:

Another holiday is approaching for Lucy Stone and this time it is Easter. Ever the busy woman, Lucy again has a lot on her plate. For those not familiar with the series, Lucy is married with four children and also has a grandson. She is also a newspaper reporter. More exciting, however, is she is also an amateur sleuth, one who happens upon many a murder scene and with the keen sense to identifying killers, and often at risk to her own life.

Lucy is currently trying to prepare an exceptional Easter meal. She is also working on her garden and is determined to make the holiday a lot of fun for her little grandson. She is also eager to do her annual story on the Easter Egg hunt in town for the Pennysaver, the newspaper she writes for.

Well, upon arriving at a fancy event, grandson in tow, the Easter Bunny suddenly drops dead. Lucy is currently at the estate of one Vivian Van Vorst, and it is her grandson who was dressed up as the Easter Bunny. In typical fashion, Lucy begins to investigate what could have happened.

Lucy quickly discovers that there have been secrets and lies hovering about, and that there may indeed soon be another victim. Meanwhile, Lucy is contending with husband Bill regarding a serious matter, and is concerned for her oldest daughter Elizabeth, as she is away and dealing with a minor health crisis.

This was another engaging read by Leslie Meier and I do look forward to the next book in the series, Christmas Carol Murder.



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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