Back to School Murder by Leslie Meier

This is the next book in the Lucy Stone series.  Lucy is working for Ted at the Pennysaver while his regular secretary is off looking after her ill mother. Part of her job is to listen to the police scanner and she can't believe her ears when she hears that a bomb threat has been called in to the elementary school where her second youngest, Sara, is spending her first day in grade 2. 

She rushes to the school to see all of the children evacuated and safe. Things are still quiet and under control when the new vice principle, Carol  Crane, is seen rushing back into the building and comes out carrying a special needs child. She has just exited the building when the bomb goes off. She falls to the ground sheltering the boy with her body. 

A real hero, and gorgeous too, all of the parents are extolling her virtues. The other teachers and the janitor at the school, however, have a different attitude about her. Lucy sees Carol's other side when she goes snooping around during a school board meeting. Her mysteryar is immediately peeked and she wants to find out more about this mysterious woman.

A few days later Carol doesn't show up for work and Lucy hears on the police scanner that there has been a homicide. She rushes to the address and finds that it is Carol who has been murdered, smothered in her own bed when someone put a pillow over her face. 

Along with the main story of murder the book talks about Lucy's difficulties at home. Lack of money, being taken for granted now that she has 4 children (Baby Zoe is now two years old). Her husband doesn't like her working. Her job is to look after the house and the children says her husband Bill. And he is not pleased to arrive home and not have dinner on the table precisely at 6pm. 

When the suspect is arrested Lucy knows in her heart that the police have the wrong person. She does her regular snooping but gets much further now that she can tell people she is with the Pennysaver. No one has to know she isn't a reporter. She uses some very creative techniques to get information. Unfortunately none of it can be printed in the Pennysaver because there is nothing to back it up. 

Twists and turns, one of my favortie parts of Leslie's stories, take us from suspecting one person and then another. For the first time there is an incident that kind of leans me in the direction of one person as the killer. He has an alibi but it still niggles at me throughout the book. 

Of course I didn't know why he would kill Carol because we don't know that much about her past or her relationships, but right at the last minute the connection to the killer is revealed. 

Trick or Treat Murder - Leslie Meier

This is the third in the Lucy Stone Mystery series. It appears there is an arsonist on the lose in Tinker's Cove. One of the first fires did little damage while the 2nd destroyed an old barn completely. The third fire was in an old house that was being restored by "summer people", vacationers who only came to Tinker's Cove in the nice months. It too was total destruction with only a part of the chimney remaining. When the police scanned the rubble the K-9 found that there had been someone in the house at the time of the fire. The owner had had a fight with her husband and unbeknownst to anyone had driven to Tinker's Cove to take refuge in the house. 

Because this now meant manslaughter or even murder rather than plain arson the fires were given more attention. Suspects were questioned, held, let free, and Lucy of course did her own snooping into what she was convinced was a case of murder. 

Lucy's husband Bill is invited to join the Tinker's Cove Historic District Commission chaired by cranky and immoveable old Miss Tilley. The results of Miss Tilley's strict adherence to the rules of the commission, ones that made sense or not, bring forth another bunch of possible candidates for the arsonist. 

After the local Halloween Festival, just when Lucy thought life had slowed down a bit she found herself alone with and at the mercy of the real arsonist. Things really heated up for her and it was thanks to her son and his friends that she made it out alive. 

Seeing as this is a series and it would have to end if anything happened to Lucy we all know that she comes out shaken but unscathed in the end. 

I'm still finding Leslie Meier's books to be fast paced enough to give edge of your seat excitement and yet still remain true to the concept of being a "cozy" mystery. She knows just how to twist and turn to keep you guessing to the last chapter. 

Off to read the next one. I can't get enough. 

Death Loves a Messy Desk by Mary Jane Maffini

Oh my gosh! I came onto my site to do my review and the author herself left a comment on my last post! Okay, I know authors are just people like everyone else not royalty or something but I find it exciting that she'd be nice enough to leave a comment on my blog. 

Death Loves a Messy Desk was every bit as good as The Cluttered Corpse. I don't know how authors do it but some are just able to make their characters so likeable that I just want more and more stories about them just so you can spend time with them. Throughout this book Charlotte is also trying to train her two dachshunds, Sweet Marie and Truffle, so that they can become therapy dogs visiting nursing homes and hospitals. Her training sessions are really interesting to read about.  

In this book Charlotte Adams is hired to help with a desk in an office that is out of control. On her initial visit she comes close to a head on collision in the driveway of the office building when a driver is speeding in the wrong direction directly towards her.  She finds the woman in the SUV is the owner of the desk that needs tidying up. She's told her services aren't needed, but that evening on the news she sees the woman who was driving the SUV in a news story about a man found dead in the trunk of his car. She's sure it must be the missing desk owner. 

Of course now Charlotte can't help herself, she just has to find this woman. The book is a series of her being welcome in this office and being forbidden to come near the building. Her friend the Police Detective Pepper knows something, she can tell by the look on her face. But the only way Charlotte can find anything out is  by snooping. No one will give her information. 

The book takes twists and turns and there is one amazing car/truck race through a suburban neighbourhood with a surprising ending. 

I never would have figured out the answer. I love the way we are fed bits of information that lead us to conclusions and just when we think we have it we are given another clue that contradicts our assumptions. 

I thoroughly enjoyed this book too and stayed up way to late at night reading. Unfortunately the 4th book in the series hasn't been written yet. I hope there is a 4th book. 

Fatally Flakey by Diane Mott Davidson

This is Diane's 15th book in the Goldy the Caterer series. I really enjoyed this one. I've read all of her books now and was actually was kind of able to figure out what the mystery was that caused the death of old Dr. Finn and Goldy's godfather Jack when I was a little over half way through the book. The murderer, however, was a different story and a huge surprise. On the other hand it also answered a whole lot of questions that made mego "hmmm."  One thing about a series too is being able to see the characters grow. Goldy's son Arch who was only about 6 or 7 when the first book was written is now 16 and has his driver's license. It's like watching my own kids grow again. They say that Sarah Graves Home Repair Homicide Mysteries are like Diane Mott Davidson with a hammer. It's very true. Their writing styles are similar and both series are really enjoyable.

Nancy Atherton - Aunt Dimity series

This series needs to be read in order. I was given one of the books in the middle of the series to read first and while I really liked the story and the writing I couldn't relate to what was going on and I couldn't figure out why our heroine, Lori Shepherd, was turning to a journal and it was writing to her instead of her writing in it. Then I bought the first book in the series and after just a couple of chapters was online ordering the rest in the series so I wouldn't have to wait for the next one to arrive once I finished the first one.

Lori is a lonely, and broke, divorcee when she recieves a letter telling her that a relative in England who she thought was simply a story book figure in stories told by her late mother, has died and left her a cottage in the Cotswolds in England and a large amount of money. There are stipulations of course, but Lori meets the challenge. Aunt Dimity is still wandering the rooms of her cottage and Lori soon discovers is in contact with her through a journal she finds in the cottage's library. Of course there is romance involved and Lori marries the also US born executor of Dimity's estate. They decide to settle in the delightful cottage in England rather than live in the States. The first few books give us more of an insight into who Aunt Dimity really was.

I love all the characters in the village, including the 90 something twins who finish each other's sentences. While most of the stories take place in or near the Cotswolds, there are also journeys to Oxford, Scotland, the midwest and now even Australia.

If you are looking for a ghastly ghost story, realism, life struggles, don't bother reading this series. If you are looking for a cozy mystery you can curl up with on the couch under a quilt for an afternoon and get lost in then you can't do much better than this series. I'm looking forward to reading the next two installments.

# 1 Aunt Dimity's Death (©1992)
# 2 Aunt Dimity and the Duke (©1994)
# 3 Aunt Dimity's Good Deed (©1996)
# 4 Aunt Dimity Digs In (©1998)
# 5 Aunt Dimity's Christmas (©1999)
# 6 Aunt Dimity Beats the Devil (©2000)
# 7 Aunt Dimity: Detective (©2002)
# 8 Aunt Dimity Takes a Holiday (©2003)
# 9 Aunt Dimity: Snowbound (©2004)
# 10 Aunt Dimity and the Next of Kin (©2005)
# 11 Aunt Dimity and the Deep Blue Sea (©2006)
# 12 Aunt Dimity Goes West (©2007)
# 13 Aunt Dimity: Vampire Hunter (©2008)

Next on my list are:
# 14 Aunt Dimity Slays the Dragon (©2009)
# 15 Aunt Dimity Down Under (©2010)