I really enjoyed this book. Leslie Meier is one of my favorite mystery authors. Reading her books is like visiting old friends. Her story line was sort of a disappointment. The title was Haunted House Murder and there was no murder and the mystery wasn't up to her usual writing standard. The other two stories in the book I also enjoyed. I had never read anything by Lee Hollis or Barbara Ross and now I have bought both of the first books in their series to read. I recommend this book for a short Halloween treat.

A three for one treat from some of the best cozy mystery writers around today. Short but very entertaining stories featuring familiar characters who just can't seem to stay out of trouble. They will keep you guessing until the last page!

Haunted House Murder contains three entertaining Halloween themed cozy mysteries that are all set in Maine. They are well-written and engaging with developed characters. You can read one or all three. They can be read as standalone for those unfamiliar with the series. Death by Haunted House takes readers back to October 29, 2009 with Hayley Powell and her family. I do not know how Hayley put up with her husband, Danny. He is more of a child than her kids, but Danny was certainly entertaining. Lucy Stone is busy with work plus taking care of her house, hubby and daughter who is still at home. Then she agrees to watch Patrick. Lucy finds it challenging to keep up with a child under ten who goes to soccer and has homework. I could relate when she was trying to teach Patrick fractions (my father sat with me for hours trying to teach me). Julia gets roped into helping with a reenactment and finds herself in the middle of a real gunfire. When not looking for the killer, she is curious about the unusual problem at her mother’s house. She refuses to believe a ghost has suddenly appeared. I enjoyed all three cozy mysteries with the haunted house theme. They put me in the mood for Halloween which is such a fun time of year with the decorations and costumes. There are recipes included as well. Be prepared for a hauntingly good time with our three female sleuths in Haunted House Murder.

I enjoyed this story collection. I've read several of the Leslie Meier mysteries, and this novella "Haunted House Murder" featured the characters I know and a fun Halloween mystery about spooky new residents in town. I particularly liked the descriptions of the spooky house and the goings-on at night.

Lee Hollis is an author I've never read before, but I thought the characters in the novella "Death by Haunted House" were quirky and fun. This story is similar to the Meier one though because it involves a new family in town and everyone thinks they're scary and possibly murderous.

Barbara Ross's novella "Hallowed Out" is probably the most light-hearted. It involves a murder during a Halloween tour, and the suspects include local residents and tourists. The police have a tough job to do when someone flees the state immediately after the murder, and one suspect is involved in a messy divorce with the murdered man.

Title: Haunted House Murder

Series: Lucy Stone 25.75

Authors: Leslie Meier, Lee Hollis and Barabara Ross

Pages: 320

Genre: cozy mystery

Kensington

August 27,2019

Rating: 4

Tricks and treats keep the Halloween spirit alive in coastal Maine. But this year the haunted house theme is getting carried a little too far . . .

HAUNTED HOUSE MURDER by LESLIE MEIER
Newcomers to Tinker’s Cove, Ty and Heather Moon have moved into a dilapidated house reputed to be a haven for ghosts. Now strange noises and flickering lights erupt from the house at all hours and neighborly relations are on edge. And when a local boy goes missing near the house, it’s up to Lucy Stone to unravel the mystery of the eccentric couple and their increasingly frightful behavior.

DEATH BY HAUNTED HOUSE by LEE HOLLIS
For the past two years, the house next door to Hayley Powell has sat abandoned after the owner died under mysterious circumstances. The Salinger family has recently taken possession of the property, but the realtor behind the deal has vanished—after a very public and angry argument with Damien Salinger. If Bar Harbor’s newest neighbors are murderers, Hayley will haunt them until they confess.

HALLOWED OUT by BARBARA ROSS
With its history of hauntings and ghost sightings, Busman’s Harbor is the perfect setting for Halloween festivities. But when a reenactment of a Prohibition-era gangster’s murder ends with a literal bang and a dead actor from New Jersey, Julia Snowden must identify a killer before she ends up sleeping with the fishes.

There’s nothing like home sweet home in this trio of Halloween tales



My thoughts

Would I recommend it: yes

Will I read more of these series ? yes

Will I read more by these author? yes

A fun and lovable set of Halloween novellas from three cozy mystery series , that is perfect for a short read doing October or even on Halloween , plus its a fun way to check out new series that you might have thought about giving a try but wasn't sure about, in Haunted House Murder by Leslie Meier you have Lucy which is the main character to her series the Lucy Stone ,whos a reporter for her small town paper , in Death by Haunted House by Lee Hollis you have her main character Hayley Powell who is her main character from her series ;Hayley Powell Food and Cocktails Mystery series , and in Hallowed Out by Barbara Ross you get her main character form her series : A Maine Clambake mystery series , and the other great thing about this book is that all 3 stories take place in small towns , and around Halloween so you just have to set back and enjoy the stories and the characters , and watch as they ended up in some Halloween craziness. With that said I want to say thank you to Netgalley for letting me read and review it .

I enjoyed each of these Halloween themed cozy mysteries. An entertaining way to get into the holiday spirit while we wait for cooler temperatures.

Haunted House Murder will definitely put you in the mood for all things Halloween. All three stories were very well written and had a satisfying mystery. I am a fan of this type of book as the stories are easy to read in one sitting . Okay bring on the candy corn.

DNF @ page 30

There is absolutely no way I can support a book that is validating the awful thoughts of an older generation that desperately needs a reality check. Several triggering quotes that literally sound like they came from several of my family members:

"Molly [daughter-in-law] had e-mailed her with a list of foods she wanted Lucy [main character] to provide for Patrick [grandson], things like kale, and quinoa, and even a few that Lucy had never heard of, like faro and acai berries. Lucy had studied the list and decided it was probably a case of wishful thinking on Molly's part, and decided to spend her money on foods the child would actually eat. She'd seen plenty of pictures of Patrick on Facebook, and she was worried he looked much too thin."

NO. IF A PARENT IS TRUSTING YOU TO TAKE CARE OF THEIR CHILD FOR SEVERAL MONTHS, YOU CAN'T DECIDE TO CHANGE THEIR LIFESTYLE BECAUSE YOU DON'T LIKE IT KAREN.

Now, let me set the scene for this next piece of gold. Lucy decides to go introduce herself to the new residents in town, but when they don't answer the front door she decides its a good idea to TRESPASS ON THEIR PROPERTY AND KNOCK ON THEIR BACK DOOR. The owner of the house has an attitude upon opening the door (hmm I wonder why) and Lucy very obviously tries to invite herself in when she see's someone else.

"Behind him, Lucy saw a woman standing in the kitchen doorway. She...seemed to be wearing some kind of nightgown. Why was she wearing a nightgown when it was almost lunchtime?"

Pretty sure someone can dress however they want in their own home. After an unenthusiastic encounter with the couple she leaves their property and wonders:

"...the shades were all down even though it was a bright, sunny day. Who does that? What were they hiding?"

I don't know, maybe they just want privacy and don't appreciate when people who aren't even technically their neighbors trespass on their property just to be nosy.

Honestly, I could care less where this "spooky" story is going because the main character's outlook on life feels quite ancient. I get enough of this type of behavior from people in my life and don't need to read about a privileged, self-righteous woman in my spare time.

I have been a fan of Leslie Meier books for many years. HAUNTED HOUSE MURDER is the 25th book in her wonderful Lucy Stone series. This is a wonderful book to get the fall season started. You will definitely be in the spirit of Halloween when reading this mystery, but you might not want to visit any haunted houses.

I was excited to find this fall seasonal group of mystery stories all set in Maine. All are new to me authors so I’m eager to give these a try. Each novella-length story was from an existing series, but they were all easily read as stand-alones or out of order by a newcomer like me.

A Haunted House Murder by Leslie Meier #25.7 Lucy Stone

So, this one… was moderately engaging. I felt like I was waiting for something to happen. It didn’t help that I didn’t like most of the surrounding characters in Lucy’s family who ditched her and let her do everything around the house and with the visiting grandson when she had a job and all the errands and housekeeping. I don’t think it helped that there wasn’t a murder so ignore the title. I had already guessed what was going on with the Moons and their creepy house so maybe that was part of it, too. I might try a full length book in the series to see if those are more engaging.

Death by Haunted House by Lee Hollis, a Hailey Powell mystery

From what I could tell, this one took place in Hailey’s past before the time of the first book in the mystery series since she is married with young children and in the series she is divorced.

The story itself was humorous and reminded me so much of that old 80’s movie, The Burbs, because new creepy neighbors move into the supposed haunted house next door and then a murder happens. Hailey’s husband is convinced the neighbors are in it up to their necks and gets her suspicions up.

I liked it and enjoyed the humor mixed with the mystery though the authors did a foreshadowing of the troubles that probably led to the divorce. Hailey was working at the paper and doing almost everything else in the family including handling a husband who acted like a big kid much of the time. There were recipes tucked in with explanations which I liked, but wish they would have been placed at the end of chapters instead of the middle. The authors did manage a good chilling atmosphere when it came to the woods and that house next door. I’ll have to start this series from the get-go

Hallowed Out by Barbara Ross #7.5 A Maine Clambake Mystery

I was most impressed with this story based on setting, characters, background, and story development. This is a series I most wish to read more. It definitely felt like a little slice of coastal Maine and Halloween with the ghost tour. Julia was an engaging heroine and I liked the side characters. I had no idea who did the killing and enjoyed falling along as Julia and the police solved it.

All in all, it was a mixed bag, but one I enjoyed delving into because it was fun to encounter new to me authors and series which have given me more backlist books to look up. They definitely gave off a good Halloween vibe and that was what I was after. Cozy mystery fans are definitely the target audience.

Links Blue Horizontal

Thank you Netgalley for allowing me to read and review Haunted House Murder, which consists of 3 short mystery novellas all taking place during Halloween. Each of the three stories is more enjoyable than the other one. If you are a fan of Leslie Meier, Lee Hollis, and Barbara Ross then this title you shouldn't miss reading this spooky season.

Princess Fuzzypants here: I am very fond of short stories, or novellas as they are now called. They are the kind of reading you can pick up at anytime and enjoy in shorter spurts than reading a long book. This is a fun compilation of three popular cozy authors who combine their talents to provide three enjoyable stories with Halloween themes.
Leslie Meier, Lee Hollis and Barbara Ross are all on their game. The reader can dig into some treats with no tricks and not gain an ounce. Two of the stories involved newcomers to the small towns where the stories are set. The new neighbours are odd at the least and downright creepy at the worst. But are they truly as bad as the townsfolk think? In the third, an actor is murdered during a ghost tour. Was his performance so bad that some one killed him?
This is a wonderful books to get you in the mood for the spooky season. I give it four purrs and two paws up.

This is a compilation of three stories by three well-known authors. The first story is a Leslie Meier story and is closely related to her Lucy Stone Tinker’s Cove series. In the story, Lucy is babysitting her grandson Patrick while his parents are occupied with career assignments elsewhere. A little boy goes missing in the general area of a dilapidated house where, it is rumored, ghosts hang out. Lucy jumps right in to unravel the mystery of the eccentric couple who live in the house as well as of the strange, creepy going-ons that are occurring in the house. For Lucy Stone fans, this is another example of Lucy’s life as matriarch of her family and part-time amateur sleuth. In the second story, the weird Salinger family has moved into the house next door to Haley, her husband and two children, which has been empty since its owner died mysteriously. Again, there are strange happenings within and around the house reported by towns folk throughout the town. When the realtor behind the deal for the Salinger family to move into the house mysteriously disappears, things get a bit dicey. Naturally, Haley sets out to find out what happened and whether the Salinger family is involved. The third story involves a murder during a Halloween tour of spooky houses, with added, entertaining reenactments at the various locations. Julia Snowden, from the Busman’s Harbor series by Barbara Ross, becomes involved trying to figure out what exactly is going on and what happened.

Of the three stories in the books, I enjoyed the first and last one. The second story just did not cut it with me. In that one, Haley has a husband with the maturity of a five-year old who usually acts like one. If the author has any hope of making this family and their life into a successful series, I recommend she get rid of the totally immature and unrealistic husband, mostly because his words and actions are a real turn-off and because they, in my opinion, detract from the story. In addition, the author has included recipes with dialogue about them in the book. It may be because I had an advanced copy of the book, but there was absolutely so transition between the story and the recipes cum dialogue. As I read, I actually thought I had finished the story and had moved on to another. In the final copy, hopefully they will be separate enough to let the reader know they are an additional item, and the story would continue after them. In this case, they left me high and dry, at a crucial point in the story, trying to figure out if I had skipped something, if pages were missing, or what was going on. The story also was not as good as the others—and quite similar to the first one. In the last story, I thought the plot was good, the characters good (but I already knew most of the main ones since I have read the books in the series), and the overall presentation was equally good. This was my favorite of the three. I may have enjoyed the first and last stories because I am familiar with the settings and characters, since I have read other books in the series. This is an easy read and full of Halloween happenings, so it can get anyone in the mood for the holiday. I received this from NetGalley to read and review.

If you love Leslie Meier's mysteries as much as I do, this one can't be missed! Her seasonal stories never fail to be quick reads that offer both an exciting mystery and a gentle view of current social topics.

Grab a copy of these three novellas, a hot cider, and a warm blanket, and prepare for a cozy afternoon.

I love seasonal novella collections! Haunted House Murder contains three cozy mystery novellas. Each is part of series, but they all worked well as stand-alones for me. Out of the three, the only one I really enjoyed was Hallowed Out by Barbara Ross.

Haunted House Murder, the first in the book, was lacking in a real plot. New people move into town, they’re weird, let’s all judge them. The amount of time Lucy spent complaining about having to take care of her grandson was annoying and I don’t understand why her husband seemed to be incapable of helping at all. The mystery itself wasn’t really much of a mystery, just people jumping to conclusions with little to no actual evidence.

In Death By Haunted House, new people move into town, they’re weird, let’s all judge them. And guess, what? They haven’t killed anyone either. Sorry, that was a spoiler but not a surprising one. At least this time, there actually was a crime committed, a dead body is found buried in the woods. I did like the twist of who the killer was and Hollis did a good job of giving us full characters. I felt like we got to know Hayley and her family and the secondary character well. I could have done without her husband, yes he moved the plot along, but I may have had to kill him if I was her.

Hallowed Out was my favorite of the lot. While all of these were set in Maine, this one took more advantage of the setting. It’s off-season, so the town is trying various ideas to bring in tourists, including a week-long Halloween celebration. Julia and her boyfriend, Chris, run a restaurant in the off-season and it gets added to the Haunted House tour. Of course, someone ends up dead during their stop. The mystery was well-done, even though it was short. We had a couple of suspects and an amateur detective who actually gets along with the cops. I liked the characters we met. Julia and Chris got along well and I liked Julia’s mom too, and the cat. I’m hoping most of the townsfolk show up in other books in the series. It was fun. I may have to pick up more in the Maine Clambake Mystery series.

It’s got a lot of different stories and perspectives. It’s great for that fall season, but the multiple people threw me off.

This was a fun Halloween themed story collection. Although it was interesting with the haunted house novellas, I wanted more mystery than what was showcased and I struggled a bit finishing it.

These three writers together never fail to disappoint! The added spooky and ghosty factor of halloween added into these intriguing and fun cozy mysteries were just awesome! The three stories were just the perfect length each gave a interesting and fun mystery wrapped up nicely with fun autumn and halloween twists thrown in while not being too drawn out or draggy the way some cozy mysteries can be. Everyone who loves mysteries and fall tome or Halloween should definitely pick this up!

I love the Christmas theme cozy mystery novellas that come out every holiday season. This year, I spied this one -- Halloween theme! Oh yeah -- gotta read it! :) It was not a difficult decision. Pretty much instantaneous.

Haunted House Murder gathers 3 cozy short mysteries: Haunted House Murder featuring Lucy Stone; Death by Haunted House, featuring characters from the Food & Cocktails series; and, Hallowed Out, an addition to the Main Clambake Mystery series. While I have read some of the Lucy Stone books, the Food & Cocktail and Maine Clambake series were both new to me. After reading these novellas, I'm going to check out both of those series. I liked the characters, the plot/writing style, and the mysteries were entertaining. My favorite of the was Hallowed Out. At first I thought a seafood themed cozy might be a bit weird....but the characters are quirky and fun and I enjoyed the story. :)

All in all, a fun Halloween theme cozy story collection. A quick read that I thoroughly enjoyed! I will be checking out more from all 3 authors!

**I voluntarily read a review copy of this book from Kensington via NetGalley. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**

I like all three authors included in this Halloween compilation but I did not care for all three stories. All the stories take place in small towns in Maine during Halloween. The first story featuring Lucy Stone did not have any mystery or scares. Lucy is taking care of her grandson during Halloween and is receiving no help. The second story features Hayley Powell and does include a murder. The third story was my favorite. Busman's Harbor is having a ghost tour for the Holiday with a stop at Gus's restaurant. Julia and Chris agree to help out. When there is a murder on the first night Julia sets out to solve it. The mystery was good and there were enough suspects to keep it interesting. Overall the book was a quick cozy read. Perfect for Halloween