Book Review: Valentine Murder

Author: Leslie Meier
Title: Valentine Murder
Publisher: Kensington
Publish Date: February 1, 1999
Buy: Amazon
Book Blurb: It’s Valentine’s Day in Tinker’s Cove. And while the cupcakes Lucy Stone is baking for her children will have pink frosting and candy hearts, Lucy’s thoughts aren’t centered on sugary sentiments. She’s barely arrived at her first board meeting of the newly-renovated library when Bitsy Howell, the new librarian, is found dead in the basement, shot only minutes before story hour was to start. The agitated board members assume that Bitsy was killed by an outsider, until Detective Lt. Horowitz arrives on the scene and announces that the killer is among them.


Lucy was already aware that Bitsy’s uppity big city ways rubbed some people in Tinker’s Cove the wrong way. But she has a hunch that motives for the librarian’s violent death run a lot deeper. From Hayden Norcross’s elegant antique shop to Corney Clark’s chic kitchen, Lucy relentlessly snoops into the curious lifestyles and shocking secrets of Tinker’s Cove’s most solid citizens—secrets that will plunge her into a terrifying confrontation with a conniving killer.

Review: Lucy Stone mysteries are good for a quiet afternoon. Leslie's books are shorter than your average cozy. In fact they are really about the same length as most Harlequin Romances.

I love Lucy and her family and friends. They feel like real small town people to me, when I read these books, but I have to say there are a few things that bother me, not just with this book, but with some other cozies like this.

1. How do people find other people to kill in these small towns? I mean, I've lived in a small town for all of my 37 years and there haven't been that many murders here.

2. It is 1999 and Lucy doesn't understand the internet and the web? I had my first computer in that year and I felt like I was way behind the times! What's up with that.

3. How does she get away with not turning assignments in at the newspaper. Freelance or no, a deadline's a deadline.

All these things aside, this was a really cute story. A murdered librarian. a stolen pewter tankard, and a caterer who cheats with her recipes. The clues point to so many different people and believe it or not, for as cheesy as these stories are,  you won't guess the killer. However I had a hard time figuring out what happened and to whom towards the end.

A cute fluffy read, but not one of the best in the Lucy Stone series.

Rating: 3 flowers