My rating 4 of 5 stars to Leslie Meier‘s candy canes of christmas past, a novella in the “Lucy Stone” mystery series. What a fun book! It started out a little concerning as 20% into this 100+ page story, there was no mystery yet… but then it suddenly got cooking with tons of side stories. Definite series read.
Story
Lucy Stone is reminiscing one holiday with her children about her first Christmas with her eldest son when they lived in Maine. They’d just moved to town and knew very little folks, having left a cushy life back in Manhattan. Lucy meets the librarian and gifts her a glass candy cane that turns out to be remarkably similar to one located next to the librarian’s mother when she was found dead at the bottom of the stairs 50 years ago. Everyone thought it was her TB disease that caused the fall, but her daughter the librarian suspected potential foul-play. Through various intro meetings with folks about town, Lucy puts the puzzle together and learns who she thinks really killed the librarian’s mother when she gets her Christmas present from her husband.
Strengths
1. The concept of solving a 50 year old murder is great. And it seems reasonable. No one trying to kill her in the process. It’s just a light mystery with the readers and the characters getting the clues all at the same time. I loved the approach.
2. The use of side-stories and meeting new friends works really well as a character study and intro for me. I’m not sure if this is a newer book in the series or an older one, but I definitely will go back and read from the beginning. Great family fun.
Suggestions
None yet… it was that fun and readable.
Final Thoughts
If you have an hour to spare, and just want a light-hearted puzzle to solve, go for this one!
Sounds like a fun mystery. Your reviews are really good, readable, fair and keep my interest.
I appreciate it. Thank you!