A Christmas Mystery, But Not Much of a Gift

Mistletoe Murder (224 pgs. Kensington Books) by Leslie Meier is the first book in the Lucy Stone Mystery series. I generally like a good cozy, and the Women's Reading Group is using the Lucy Stone series as a Long-Term Reading project. I thought I would try it.

Lucy Stone lives in Tinker's Cove, Maine. It's a rustic small town that houses the famous Country Cousins mail-order company where Lucy works nights taking phone orders. One week before Christmas, business is booming. There is barely time to take a break from all the calls. But that night, Lucy decides to step outside to get some fresh air with the hopes of staying awake until her shift is over at 1 am. While she's outside, she notices that Sam Miller's car is idling in the parking lot. Sam is the owner of Country Cousins and usually isn't around in the later hours of the night shift. When Lucy goes to see if everything is all right, she notices that a hose has been attached to the exhaust and is pouring fumes into the car and Sam is slumped over the steering wheel.

It is hard to believe that Sam would commit suicide. The man has everything. A beautiful wife, a great business and lots of money. But when it is discovered that Sam was unconscious BEFORE he was put in the car, it would seem that Tinker's Cove was seeing it's first murder in many years!

I have to say this book and the entire storyline rather underwhelmed me. I have always loved a good mystery, especially with a female protagonist. But Lucy Stone isn't one of them. In fact, there really wasn't much mystery at all. She stumbled on the body and stumbled across a few clues in between shopping trips. She spends most of her time gossiping with her neighbors and sewing Christmas costumes! There were also a couple of unresolved threads in the story that were just left hanging. I'm still unsure how they are supposed to fit into the story. By the end of the book, I was more annoyed than anything. I have a feeling, this will not only be the first Lucy Stone mystery I read, but also the last! 2.5./5