Christmas Cookie Murder: A Lucy Stone Mystery

I feel like the Grinch but, Lucy Stone seemed to be such a fun, loving character but this book seemed a little rushed in writing or, Lucy's just turning into a plain old busy body who can't seem to stay out of trouble and/or harms way.

It wasn't bad but, it definitely wasn't Meier's best.

As if the first novel wasn't plot-less enough, how did this one escape the editor's scrutiny? In the first book, Lucy Stone was working at the local mail-order warehouse. Now, she is a part-time writer with the local newspaper. It seems as though Lucy has moved on, but whoever is editing this series has not. The most egregious slip is when Bill, Lucy's husband, promises to have a talk with Toby (Lucy and Bill's son) "mano a mano." If Bill could have a talk with his son "hand to hand," that would be nifty. Message to New England authors/editors: if you cannot get the language right, do not attempt it. Other errors abound.

Good book

Super

Very good.

This is the first full-length novel that I've read in Leslie Meier's Lucy Stone series. Based on the brightly-colored, sweet-looking cover as well as the sentimental-sounding title, I expected this book to be a "cozy" mystery along the lines of Joanne Fluke's Hannah Swensen series (e.g., [[ASIN:0758273290 Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder]]). Instead, CHRISTMAS COOKIE MURDER is a darker, more serious story, with the only real connection to Christmas being that it is set during the month leading up to the holiday.

Lucy Stone, the main character, is a part-time reporter for a small fictional town in Maine, Tinker's Cove. She is also a married mother of four children ranging in age from high school to elementary school. Lucy's family figures fairly prominently into the story, and two of her children are tangentially involved in the main plot. Unfortunately, as characters, I found Lucy's children to be highly annoying, and their individual interactions with their mother were almost unreadable to me. Lucy herself wasn't much better: throughout the book, she makes a series a poor choices that simply grate at the reader.

I did finish this novel, as the actual storyline was relatively engaging in terms of a "whodunit." At times, the story felt a bit random and haphazard, as there are many different things going on--one of Lucy's friends has cancer, another friend's husband is having an affair, yet another friend's son has gotten a DUI, another friend is starting a new business, there is a local fire, etc.--but most of these things actually do tie in together at the end. Given the fact that I did not particularly enjoy any of the characters, however, I do not plan to read any additional Lucy Stone books.

Easy to read book, fun, plot is there but not too deep, chacters are developed and likeable, stoty moves along at a pleasant pace

It was okay, but I was outraged by the description of the daycare in the book. If that was a centre here it would be shut down for gross unprofessionalism! But the book was fine otherwise. Not spectacular, but fine.

For more reviews, please visit my blog, CozyLittleBookJournal.

I have read all of the Lucy Stone Mysteries and can't wait for the next one to be published. Once I picked one up, I had to read the entire series.

The book arrived in good time and in excellent condition. It looked like it was brand new.