Father's Day Murder

Rating:
Summary: Not The Best Lucy Stone Mystery
Review: I have enjoyed the Lucy Stone Series, but feel that the character is becoming less interesting in each new book.

I think I enjoyed her most in her earlier books, especially her first book, Mistletoe Murder where she worked taking orders at Christmas for a mail order catalog.

She has since become a reporter for the weekly Tinker Cover Pennysaver in her hometown in Maine.

In the Father Day's Murder, Lucy goes to the Northeast Newspaper Association conference in Boston. At the evening reception, Luther Read, head of the Pioneer Press Group is murdered and his son Junior is arrested.

Lucy knows Junior isn't guilty because, after all, her daughter Elizabeth is working as a nanny for his little boy during the summer vacation and her daughter couldn't be working for a murderer.

Lucy tries to solve the murder, but most of the book seems like a travelogue through Boston. The descriptions of the Stewart Gardner Museum was interesting, and I like a little scenic flavor in a book, but this was too much.

The mystery wasn't all that interesting. Lucy spends a lot of time walking to different places, shopping and she does talk to a lot of different suspects but I don't think anything she does would have ever led her to figure out who the killer was.

I don't consider it solving the mystery when Lucy only figures out who the killer is when she comes face to face with them, after they attempt to kill her.

If this is the first Lucy Stone Mystery you've read and you're disappointed in it, don't stop with this one. Go back and read her earlier books. They are very enjoyable and you really get to know Lucy and her family.

One of the problems with this book is if you haven't read the earlier ones, I think it could be difficult to understand the dynamics of this family. Lucy spends a lot of time worrying about her kids and husband, which is easier to understand if you know what had happened previously to all the characters.

Despite my disappointment in this book, I am looking forward to the next book in the series.

Rating:
Summary: Father's Day Murder is murder to read
Review: I'm reviewing this mystery with formidable words because I cannot believe in a profession not noted for high survival rates, that a publishing industry would consider a work of this kind.

There are lots of struggling writers, myself included, whom have better writing skills than writers who, unfortunatley, are in print today.

I have never read any of Leslie Meier's mysteries until Father's Day Murder, which I have to say is an extremely dreadful read. I could not finish it, as I was bored. I was disgusted, rolling my eyes half-way through the book, when I stopped reading and closed it. The characters are unmoved and one-dimensional. There are many pages where the author focuses on how the protagonist feels about her family, for example, which doesn't advance the plot of the story. In Chapter Eleven, for example, when Lucy Stone is in her hotel room, the author writes for two pages about Stone's heartburn problem and reminiscing about her family's squabble back home, primarily Kudo's (the family dog) trouble with a neighbor. Who cares?!

Moreover, what made me laugh out loud in Chapter Twelve was the fact that Stone went to a coffee shop the next day and ordered a cup of coffee! The author writes that too much coffee was the problem to Stone's heartburn. What is Stone doing in a coffee shop? Nevertheless, the author's description of things, like the blueberry muffin, for example, in Chapter Twelve, is irrelevent to the story. Who cares if the blueberry muffin is artifical? How does this advance the plot and keep readers interested? Actually, Chapter Twelve is where I stopped reading, as I couldn't stomach anymore. I write this review because I care, like all readers do, in the quality of writing. We expect when we pick up a book that it will pique our interest. Unfortunately, Father's Day Murder was nothing if not dull.

Rating:
Summary: Can Lucy solve a murder &be home to celebrate Father's Day?
Review: Lucy Stone gets an opportunity to attend a newspaper conference in Boston. She is a little concerned about leaving the family, but her husband encourages her to go saying they can manage a week without her. She leaves, but is worried about the preparations for Father's Day that are now in her children's hands. Father's Day is a big celebration at their house and it must be done right.

Once at the conference, she finds that being alone isn't all it's cracked up to be. But, she meets many people and attends many workshops and panel discussions. At a big dinner, Luther Read, head of a nearly bankrupt newspaper dynasty, drops dead. First the police believe it was just an asthma attack. Lucy begins to look into things. She doesn't think this was a simple accident. She is afraid it might be murder. Luther had lots of enemies, some of them are his own children. Could one of his kids killed him? This is hard for Lucy to imagine.

As she begins to look deeper into the situation, she soon finds herself in danger. Will she make it home in one piece and in time for Father's Day?

I love this series. Lucy and her family are such great characters. Lucy always ends up in interesting predicaments and has a great knack for getting to the bottom of things. Plus there is always enough strife in her family to disrupt her thinking and detecting. But yet they are a loving family. I've enjoyed reading all the books and watching her children grow up!

Tinker's Cove is such a fabulous town. I wish it was real, I'd love to vacation there!

This story is another in a long line of great books. I highly recommend this book and the whole series.

Rating:
Summary: Can Lucy solve a murder &be home to celebrate Father's Day?
Review: Lucy Stone gets an opportunity to attend a newspaper conference in Boston. She is a little concerned about leaving the family, but her husband encourages her to go saying they can manage a week without her. She leaves, but is worried about the preparations for Father's Day that are now in her children's hands. Father's Day is a big celebration at their house and it must be done right.

Once at the conference, she finds that being alone isn't all it's cracked up to be. But, she meets many people and attends many workshops and panel discussions. At a big dinner, Luther Read, head of a nearly bankrupt newspaper dynasty, drops dead. First the police believe it was just an asthma attack. Lucy begins to look into things. She doesn't think this was a simple accident. She is afraid it might be murder. Luther had lots of enemies, some of them are his own children. Could one of his kids killed him? This is hard for Lucy to imagine.

As she begins to look deeper into the situation, she soon finds herself in danger. Will she make it home in one piece and in time for Father's Day?

I love this series. Lucy and her family are such great characters. Lucy always ends up in interesting predicaments and has a great knack for getting to the bottom of things. Plus there is always enough strife in her family to disrupt her thinking and detecting. But yet they are a loving family. I've enjoyed reading all the books and watching her children grow up!

Tinker's Cove is such a fabulous town. I wish it was real, I'd love to vacation there!

This story is another in a long line of great books. I highly recommend this book and the whole series.

Rating:
Summary: solid cozy
Review: Tinker's Cove is a small Maine hamlet that has a very well established and well written newspaper the Pennysaver that has just been named "Community Newspaper of the Year" in Category five by the Trask Trust for Journalism in the Public Interest". The trust issues grants to the publisher Ted Stilling and investigate reporter Lucy Stone to attend the Northeast Newspaper Association conference in Boston.

Even though Lucy feels guilty about deserting her husband, four children and her dog, she decides to go to the conference where she meets various members of the Read family. They own the Pioneer Press group, which has newspapers all over the northeast. The head of the conglomerate, Luther Read was going to sell out to a bigger company but changed his mind much to the consternation of some family members. When he is killed, his son Junior is arrested for murder but Lucy, who knows him from Tinker's Cove, is positive he's innocent and sets out to prove it, a task that could get her killed if she's not careful.

The latest installment in the Lucy Stone mysteries is fast paced, exciting and very colorful. Readers are taken on a scenic tour of Boston and given special insight into how the heroine's mind works when she is on the trail of a story. FATHER'S DAY MURDER is the funniest novel in the series as Lucy frets herself into a tizzy worrying about her family who she believes can't function without her. Leslie Meier's latest cozy is the perfect mystery to read when one wants to be entertained.

Harriet Klausner