Father's Day Murder

I loved this book! Lucy, the main character, who is a wife and mother of 4 children and Maine hometown newspaper reporter, goes to Boston for a week for a newspaper conference. (It is the week before Father's Day.) While enjoying the stay in a 5-star hotel, sight-seeing in Boston, etc, she is worried about her husband and kids at home. Will they be able to take care of themselves and will they be okay without her? At the newspaper conference, she attends different workshops about newspaper work and meets new people. This is a business trip. Boston, the big city, is quite a bit different than Tinkers Cove, Maine, the small town. Lucy does get homesick. Even though it is a business trip and she does get a tad homesick, she manages to sight-see in Boston. In fact, this is one of my favorite parts of the books. I enjoyed the "shopping" in Boston, "going to museums", "walking" down the streets, and most of all, I enjoyed the park. The Boston sight-seeing was cozy and fun. This is a mystery, so of course, there is a mystery that Lucy has to solve. But will Lucy solve the mystery and make it back to Tinkers Cove in time for Father's Day? It is very important that she make it back, because Father's Day is a very important day for her husband. I see a lot of me in Lucy; she and I have a lot in common. That's one reason I love this series, but also because the books are clever, fun, entertaining, and cozy. I only have one complaint about this series: Elizabeth. I despise Lucy's oldest daughter, Elizabeth. She is uncompassionate, heartless, lazy, and cold. I do not understand how such a nice, loving person as Lucy could have produced a daughter as despicable as Elizabeth. Toby (Lucy's son) has a few minor faults, but nothing like Elizabeth. Elizabeth does not deserve a mother as nice as Lucy, or a job, or the opportunity to go to college. I sure hope that Lucy's two younger daughters (Sara and Zoe) do not turn out bad like Elizabeth. I don't think I've ever disliked a character in any book as much as I dislike Elizabeth. This series would be almost perfect if Elizabeth didn't exist, or if she was a nice person.

Lucy gets a chance to leave home for an all expense paid trip to a newspaper convention. Who wouldn't want to stay in a 5 Star hotel in downtown Boston and get away from cooking, cleaning, laundry, kids, and pets? Lucy finds herself in the middle of another murder investigation. Can she find the real killer in just one week? This Lucy Stone novel is different because of the historical Boston city setting. Lucy takes many side trips to see many of the sights in Boston. Lucy also finds herself in many delicate situations while solving the murder and discovering there is, "no place like home."

In the 10th book in the Lucy Stone Mystery series, newspaper reporter, Lucy Stone, is whisked out of town for the Northeast Newspaper Association's conference held in Boston. Unlike her home of Tinker's Cove, Maine, Lucy doesn't know a soul when she steps off the bus in the big city, and instantly begins missing her family. Thoughts of the award she has been nominated for at the conference keep Lucy from fleeing back home to Bill and her kids, and she soon finds a way to enjoy the time to herself. Lucy meets the Read family, head of the major Pioneer Publishing Group, and quickly finds herself drawn to the newspaper giants. The Reads vacation in Tinker's Cove, and have even employed Lucy's daughter as a nanny for the summer. When Luther Read, the patriarch of the clan, dies during a large banquet held in his honor, Lucy jumps in to help the family and satisfy her insatiable report's curiosity. Between several boring workshops she escapes from, and keeping her boss happy, Lucy solves a murder and garners another great scoop for herself and hometown newspaper, the Pennysaver. I have enjoyed each of the books in this domestic cozy series, and was intrigued to see that the setting was set away from Tinker's Cove. Normally, Lucy's family plays a large role in her everyday life, and it was odd to have so many different characters in this long-running series. I like that the concept was innovative with Lucy being away for a bit, but welcome her return home for future installments. Another breath of fresh air was the more relaxed attitude of normally grouchy husband, Bill. Overall, this was a good addition to a great series, but I welcome Lucy's return home to a place I have often wanted to visit on my next vacation. The first book in the series is called "Mistletoe Murder". Enjoy!

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.

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