Author: Leslie Meier
Series: Lucy Stone #17 and 23
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Publisher: Kensington Books
Format: Kindle
No. of pages: 528
Published: March 1, 2020
My Rating: 3 Stars
ENGLISH TEA MURDER
A trip to England, sponsored by Winchester College, sounds practically perfect to Lucy Stone—until the tour leader suffers a fatal asthma attack mid-flight. Lucy suspects some very unnatural causes, but luckily, she packed her sleuthing skills. Between stops for afternoon tea, visits to historic sites, and catching up with an old flame, she’s ensnared in a daring scheme. But will it lead her to a criminal mastermind—or ensure that she’s the next victim?
BRITISH MANOR MURDER
Lucy can’t wait to join her friend Sue for a gala hat show at the English country house owned by the Earl of Wickham. But at Moreton Manor, there are secrets—and some unpleasant relatives—lurking among the elaborate chapeaus. When a bludgeoned body is found in a hidden room, Lucy must sift through friends and family foes to find the low-down killer stalking the upper crust, before more blue blood runs red . . .
If Lucy Stone wasn't nervous at being at least seven miles high in the air while flying to London, on a sponsored trip by Winchester college, when a fellow passenger suddenly drops dead, she certainly is now.
The man that died was tour leader, George Temple. The cause of death was apparently an asthma attack, but, as always, Lucy seeks to see if there was anything else at play here. So, par her natural course, Lucy acts as amateur sleuth yet again.
When in London, Lucy runs into someone from her past - and a man that has sparked her interest - Quentin Rea. Lucy has no business being drawn to Quentin as she is married to Bill, and is the mother of four, and is also now a grandmother.
Not only must Lucy ignore Quentn's overtly flirty behavior, she begins to notice other odd activity among other members of the group that are part of the tour. Strangely enough, just about everyone on the tour has some type of connection to the victim. When it is discovered that there was a real motive for revenge, then Lucy gets even closer to the cause. After another tour member dies, Lucy realizes that she just have to dig deeper and that she might have an idea as to what has happened. Can she prove her ideas, or will this place her in grave danger?
English Tea Murder was a quick read. I wasn't too keen on Lucy being tempted by Quentin, but I guess as it it can be human nature, it was understandable. However, there was enough intrigue to keep the story rolling at a great pace. I look forward to continuing the series. The next book is Chocolate Covered Murder.
Many thanks to Kensington Books and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.
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Our intrepid amateur sleuth cannot simply plow and and solve this as she has done countless times before. She is in rather an exclusive manor and they are honoring traditions from times of the past. So Lucy really has to be on her Ps and Qs this time around.
British Manor Murder was a light read, and not one of my favorites in the series. I am always glad to read these books, however, because as a whole, this is a great series. Having read all the books in order has made Lucy, husband Bill and their four children (now adults) very dear to me. I think I like Lucy better in her town of Tinker's Grove, Maine. When she heads out of the country and tries to solve murders, I rather lose interest.
Many thanks to Kensington Books and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.
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.
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