A really old cozy, with a different setting, and I liked it. Lucy and her husband decided not to get involved in the ratrace and left the big city after graduation for life in the country, going back to basics. They did the whole grow your own food, have your own animals thing, but now they “have grown up”, and life a “normal” life, working two jobs and taking care of their children, their mortgage and credit card.It is almost Christmas, and Lucy is extremely busy. Taking care of her household, all the Christmas planning and shopping and her three kids, and working a full time job in the evenings, that takes a lot of energy. But she enjoys her job at the call-center of the local mail order company, and her friendship with her colleagues. When Lucy finds her boss locked in his car, with a rubber hose connected to the exhaust pipe leading into his car, her life gets even busier. The police seem to be stumped for a killer, and the local gossip is buzzing like crazy. Is it the wife who had him killed? After all, they had separate bedrooms. Did the wife have an affair? Is it the brother who inherits the business and now can take full control of it? Is drug smuggling involved? The creepy chef who did not get along with Sam but is good friends with the brother? Lucy can’t help herself, she needs to know! After all, she found the body, and somebody killed her cat to warn her off. I liked meeting all the main characters in this series, and I did like Lucy. She is a nice woman, a good mother, and she is so very busy. She also has to take care of her mother, who does seem to be very depressed since the death of her husband, Lucy’s father, a few months ago. When looking for new kittens as a Christmas present for her children, Lucy ends up in the poorest part of town, something she did not really realize existed. But she does not think twice before giving away a lot of her own Christmas groceries, and later she even returns with clothes her own daughter outgrew for the little girl living with her teenage mother in such poverty. I liked that. It just added a touch of not-so-happy reality to the book. Some of her friends are laid-off, and if the environmentalists’ plans for the town go through, new housing will also become a problem. Both for people in town who need a new house, and for builders who need the work. The mystery was a good one, that was one creepy bad guy. I did not see that coming. At all. For the first book in a new to me series, I enjoyed this one, and will certainly read more. Most of them are holiday themed, so perhaps I read one over few months. I like the setting, just before technology hit the world.7 stars.
This book ticked so many boxes, a cozy murder mystery and Christmas – my favourite things, but as I started to read, it all went pear shaped.The lead character Lucy Stone is married with children and is working herself to a frenzy keeping the house going, cooking up a storm for Christmas, looking after her husband and kids and working nights at a call centre for a catalogue company.I found this book intensely depressing. The description of the call centre job was nothing but soul destroying, then one of their pet cats were killed, which Lucy and her husband casually dismissed (I think that I was more upset about it than they were). Then Lucy’s mother was coming to stay and there was a long description about her father’s death and how she was coping with it. In short, there was so much misery that the book gave me a stomach ache and life is too short to read books that do that to you, so I stopped reading it (something that I have only done with two other books). Out of curiosity, I flicked through to the last chapter and found out that I had guessed who the murderer was, so the murder mystery part of the book sucked too.Some people really like this series, but it was just too much gloom and doom for me. Blarg.
What do You think about Mistletoe Murder (1998)?
First read this 15 years ago when I was coming down from academic reading and wanted to escape/chill out. I remember it started my cozy phase that lasted quite a long time. Reading it today (not remembering whodunnit), I found it mostly lacking in the mystery department, and I tired of her whining. Work and family and no time for sex. Is there nothing the Boomers don't claim to have invented? Nobody is forcing you to be in a cookie swap, lady. And her husband doing the "stay out of it Luuuuucy!" (convenient that the sleuth's name is Lucy!) thing that the love interests in cozies always do because they care so much and LOLWIMMENZ are too stupid to live. There's only so much I can take of that when I'm now a tired mother and definitely probably not too stupid to live.I'm giving it 3 stars because I think it's a solid cozy. It delivers what it's supposed to deliver. It just doesn't fit me anymore.
—Amy
The actual story in this book is only 202 pages (the rest of the book is TWO sample chapters and a lot of other nonsense to make it look thicker), but it took me forever to get through this. This book was about 90% filler and MAYBE 10% mystery. The main character really only does one thing in her "efforts" to solve the mystery, and the ending doesn't tie everything up, and that was disappointing, considering how little there even was to explain. The logic in this book was also mind numbing (X gets into a car accident, but X is a good driver. Thus, someone MUST have been trying to kill X!). I was also surprised to find bad language, just because the Lucy Stone book covers always look so innocent! The attitude toward animals also bothered me. I'm only giving this book 2 stars because I liked the Maine setting, and the writing at least flowed.
—Kate
This is the first in the Lucy Stone series which follows Lucy and her friends and family as they get ready for Christmas. The founder of Country Cousins a business where people call in orders Sam Miller is found dead what first appears to be suicide turns into a murder mystery.Lucy finds herself wanting answers to who killed Sam? Was it his brother? Or maybe a disgruntle town resident? Or maybe his wife?This was a great cozy mystery that really set up the series. It dragged you in and wouldn't l
—Paula Ratcliffe
