Wicked Witch Murder
by Leslie Meier
Series: Lucy Stone #16
Series Rating:
Published by Kensington on September 1, 2010
Genres: Cozy Holiday Mystery
Pages: 305
Format: Kindle
Goodreads
Get Your Copy at: Amazon
Also in this series: Trick Or Treat Murder, Father's Day Murder , Valentine Murder
With planning the town's annual Halloween Party, the drought wreaking havoc on her garden, and her brood of four children, Lucy Stone's got her hands full this fall. As the air turns crisp and the trees blaze red and gold in the tiny town of Tinker's Cove, Maine, a newcomer arrives who seems to suit the Halloween season. Diana Ravenscroft has just opened Solstice, a charming little shop featuring candles, crystals, jewelry, and psychic readings. But after an unnervingly accurate reading by Diana, Lucy starts to get more than a little spooked.
Then there's the dead body Lucy finds, way up on one of the old logging roads behind her house. The deceased is identified as Malcolm Malebranche, a seemingly harmless magician who worked at children's birthday parties. When it turns out that Diana knew the murder victim, Ike Stoughton, a prominent local businessman, starts a campaign against Diana, blaming 'the witch' for everything from the unseasonal dry spell to his wife's illness and his pumpkins' lack of plumpness. But Lucy's not so sure that Ike himself is innocent. Still, as the town Halloween party approaches, Lucy's more concerned about the costume competition, pin-the-nose-on-the-pumpkin, and baking three dozen orange cupcakes and Beastly Bug cookies. But as the October moon rises, a killer plans a lethal celebration of his own and Lucy's the guest of honor.
Will Lucy be able to accomplish everything she set out to do this year?
Wicked Witch Murder by Leslie Meier is my second book of the Lucy Stone series. I am grateful to have stumbled upon this series when we got 2 books set on Kindle. This story is a great read, and I didn’t figure out who did it. I once again fell for the red herring. Then again I wasn’t the only one.
The Main Character
Wicked Witch Murder’s main character is Lucy Stone. She’s a great character in my mind. She is even more developed in this book, and I love the commitment she’s trying to keep between her kids and her job. Lucy is a great journalist, and it shows in the story. It shows because of the focus on it throughout this entire installment. And that is all I will be able to say about that.
Lucy, once again, just wants to try to find out what happened to Malcolm and what is happening with her new neighbors.
The Love Interest
This time though we didn’t see much of Bill which is quite sad. The parts we did see him makes me happy. I adore how this couple keeps on moving forward as nothing has happened. They make it look easy with all of their kids and grandkids around.
The Villain
Now I can’t exactly spoil it or why would you read the Wicked Witch Murder. Let’s just say beware of the red herrings. There are quite a few of them, and they can totally fool you. That’s the way it went with me.
Five Stars
I am giving Wicked Witch Murder by Leslie Meier’s a five-star review. I loved this book, and I got this book in a box set called Halloween Murder. This book was brilliant and the mystery kept me guessing. I love when a book keeps me on the edge of my seat.
Anyways until the next time enjoy this review brought to you by
About Leslie Meier
I started writing in the late ‘80s when I was attending graduate classes at Bridgewater State College. I wanted to become certified to teach high school English and one of the required courses was Writing and the Teaching of Writing. My professor suggested that one of the papers I wrote for that course was good enough to be published and I sent it off to Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine’s Department of First Stories. I got $100 for the story and I’ve been writing ever since. The teaching, however, didn’t work out.
My books draw heavily on my experience as a mother of three and my work as a reporter for various weekly newspapers on Cape Cod. My heroine, Lucy Stone, is a reporter in the fictional town of Tinker’s Cove, Maine, where she lives in an old farmhouse (quite similar to mine on Cape Cod!) with her restoration carpenter husband Bill and four children. As the series has progressed the kids have grown older, roughly paralleling my own family. We seem to have reached a point beyond which Lucy cannot age–my editor seems to want her to remain forty-something forever, though I have to admit I personally am dying to write “Menopause is Murder!”
I usually write one Lucy Stone mystery every year and as you can tell, my editor likes me to feature the holidays in my books. Of course Christmas is one of my favorite times of the year and my newest mystery “Eggnog Murder,” is included in an anthology with two other Christmas novellas by Barbara Ross and Lee Hollis. I’ve long been a fan of the classic English country house mystery, and was a faithful watcher of “Downton Abbey,” so I couldn’t resist trying to write one. I think I succeeded rather well, if I do say so myself, with “British Manor Murder,” which came out in October, 2016.
My books are classified as “cozies” but a good friend insists they are really “comedies of manners” and I do enjoy expressing my view of contemporary American life.
Now that the kids are grown — we have five fabulous grandchildren — my husband and I are enjoying dividing our time between Braintree and Cape Cod, along with our cat, Sylvester.
The above and picture were taken from the author’s website.
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
- 2018 Goodreads Reading Challenge
- 2018 Kitty Lit Reading Challenge
- 2018 Witches & Witchcraft Reading Challenge
Leave a Reply