Birthday Party Murder by Leslie Meier

My hubby and I were on vacation recently and I read two mysteries. “Birthday Party Murder” was the first. I’ll discuss the second book in a later post.

A brief synopsis: this book is a continuation of the Lucy Stone mystery series. Lucy is a busy mom of four with a part-time job as a reporter at the town newspaper “The Pennysaver”. The birthday party refers to the upcoming birthday of Miss Tilley, the town’s retired librarian. She will be 90 - quite a milestone to reach - and Lucy and her friends decide to get the whole town of Tinker’s Cove, Maine involved in the celebration.

Along the way a long-lost niece and great nephew show up and move in with Miss Tilley. Next thing you know they have taken over her house and life and won’t allow Miss Tilley’s friends to see her.

The murder is that of prominent attorney Sherman Cobb. The police think it is suicide but Sherman’s partner is convinced otherwise and asks Lucy to look into it.

In this book, Lucy:

1. Plans Miss Tilley’s 90th birthday party
2. Tries to figure out what to do about Miss Tilley’s bossy niece
3. Supervises her 14-year-old daughter’s birthday party sleepover
4. Deals with her son’s poor grades in college
5. Works at her newspaper job
6. Is a nurse-maid to her husband who had a work-related accident
7. Is a mom to her other two children
8. Takes care of the house
9. Purchases face creams because she sees a few wrinkles in the mirror
10. Is pulled over by the cops for traffic violations and is too busy to renew her license
11. AND SOLVES A MURDER.

And there are probably some other things I’m forgetting too.

This is all too much for me! I got tired just reading this book.

I think people like to read for escapism and I don’t think this book is going to do it for the hectic life of working moms. It will just remind them of their own lives. Too little fiction and too much auto-biography!

On the plus side, I like the cover art-work for this book: