Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #585760 in Books
• Published on: 2001-10-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Despite all her volunteer work and family responsibilities, not to mention her part-time reporting job for her local paper, valiant Lucy Stone manages to maintain her poise in her seventh busy outing (after Christmas Cookie Murder). For Lucy, escorting a preschool field trip to a turkey farm, baking pies for charity or entertaining her husband's difficult clients and son's college roommate for Thanksgiving dinner is all part of her routine in rural Tinker's Cove, Maine. For Native American Carl Nolan, life is full of conflict, whether with his boss, the board of selectmen or the local museum's anthropologist. As Thanksgiving approaches, Lucy covers a town meeting at which the main agenda item is whether the selectmen will support the Metinnicut Indian tribe's petition for recognition by the federal government. Approval would enable the tribe to build a casino on land belonging to Nolan's employer. The ink on that story is barely dry when Nolan's body, his head smashed with a priceless tribal artifact, turns up at the high school Thanksgiving football game. When Lucy accepts the challenge to solve the crime, she finds no lack of suspects. Meier clearly establishes her characters' motives early on, and portrays smalltown life both realistically and sympathetically. Sadly, the story loses some of its impact in a constant stream of minutiae that should leave Lucy, along with readers, gasping for breath and longing for a few minutes of peace and quiet. (Oct.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Although much of her time is spent on family, fund-raising, and helping her best friend with day-care kids, Lucy Stone (Valentine Murder)Athe sleuthing reporter of Tinker's Corner, MEApromises an elderly friend that she will find out who murdered a confrontational local Native American. Recent selectmen board meetings regarding the Metinnicut Indians have been getting out of hand. Most of the townsfolk believe that the Natives want federal recognition only so that they can open a casino, but the dead man thought otherwise. Lightweight, approachable prose; cozy, small-town ambiance; and a down-to-earth sleuth make this a good choice for most collections.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Thanksgiving, murder and Indians
Lucy Stone and her family live in Tinker's Cove, Maine. Her son Toby is coming home for the first time from college for Thanksgiving. They are awaiting his arrival, she probably more than the others. It had been hard on her having Toby gone.

She is kept busy with her work as a journalist for the Pennysaver, the weekly newspaper. She attends the meetings of the Tinker's Cove Board of Selectmen. Many of the meetings are long and tedious. That was before the ancestors of the Metinnicut Indians are trying to get the Metinnicut recognized as an official Indian tribe. At one of the meetings, discussion gets quite heated when discussing their proposed casino.

Curt Nolan was a very outspoken advocate of the Metinnicut tribe and the casino. He ruffled many people with his abrupt ways. Then he is found dead behind the refreshments stand at the local high school football game on Thanksgiving.

Not only did Toby come home for Thanksgiving, but he brought friends. Friends that were not anticipated by Lucy. She didn't get to have long talks with Toby as she had hoped. She barely got to see him, let alone talk to him. Lucy is having a tough time dealing with this.

Then Miss Tilley gets Lucy to agree to look into Curt's death. She doesn't want to do it because her husband, Bill, had explicity told her not to. But, Miss Tilley can be quite persuasive.

Lucy also agrees to take Kadjo, Curt Nolan's dog, since he no longer has a home. She is afraid that Bill will be upset, but he accepts the new dog into the family without any problem.

I like this series a lot. Lucy and her family are your every day average family. She just ends up involved in investigating murders. And she always ends up putting herself and sometimes her family or friends in danger. This book is especially good what with the added stress of Thanksgiving and Toby's return to spice up her life.

I always enjoy mysteries set in New England, especially Maine. The descriptions of the area are very enjoyable and make me feel like I've been there.

I highly recommend this book and the whole series.

Not One of the Best
Writer/mother/detective Lucy Stone is busy working on interesting news stories, when one falls right into her lap. The death of Metinnicut Indian activist, Curt Nolan. Murdered with a war club. At least that's what was found in his head. Soon Lucy is investigating what seems like thousands of suspects, whom all had something against Curt, a person who seemed to make enemies wherever he went. While it seems easy enough to add a little investigating to her list of chores, it's not as easy as Lucy thinks. Especially since she could be the next to die.

I enjoyed the Lucy Stone Christmas mysteries. But this one just didn't do it for me. I feel that the novel was slow-moving, and at times, downright boring. I hope that my next Lucy Stone mystery is better than this one.

Turkey Tripe
By the time the murder is discovered, there has been so much character development and scene setting that readers probably won't care who the victim is or who did it. When the murderer was identified, I wished he had done in Lucy Stone first. The author did elicit a faint smile when Stone serves a turkey that had fallen on the kitchen floor. This book is as awful as the Thanksgiving meal the heroine serves her boring guests.