Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for an advance reader copy e-book to review. I enjoyed Murder Takes a Vacation. It's the first book I've read by Laura Lippman. Muriel Blossom has literally won the lottery, and she is taking her friend, Elinor, on a river cruise in France. They are to meet up just before the cruise, so they are traveling separately to France. Muriel meets a handsome stranger when she gets bumped up to first class on the first leg of her trip to Paris. Allan is a very sweet and helpful man for Muriel to meet on her first trip abroad, a tad bit too helpful. When she gets to Paris and finds out that Allan was found dead outside his hotel, she is informed by the police that he suspected of dealing in a stolen statue and may have used Muriel to smuggle it into France. Muriel definitely did not find a 15-20 pound bird statue in her suitcase, but lots of shady characters are not convinced. Once her river cruise starts, strange things keep happening to Muriel. Will she solve the death of her new acquaintance Allan, will she find the missing statue, will she enjoy any of her trip? This very amusing story was lots of fun, my only complaint is that, in this day & age, I can't believe Muriel would do some of the things she did with multiple strange men(it's not what you think, but I don't want to include any spoilers). It just isn't safe, especially if you're traveling internationally.

This was enjoyable and a low stakes read, which I think we can all use more of right now! Prepare to suspend some disbelief and go along for the ride! While it was not particularly memorable, I still enjoyed my time reading it.

This week on Crime Wave: Listen to Bonnar get blown away by Laura Lippman’s razor-sharp insights into life, friendship, family, and craft. Laura and I were together to chat about her wonderful new mystery, MURDER TAKES A VACATION, starring Mrs. Muriel Blossom, a 68-year-old widow determined to see the world she felt was passing her by. When Muriel books a vacation for a river cruise in France, her trip turns into a deadly international mystery.
Laura’s smart and perceptive writing style has produced satisfying mysteries for decades—and her compassionate grasp of human nature shines through in her off-the-cuff remarks about MURDER TAKES A VACATION. I love Muriel Blossom *and* Laura Lippman!
Listen: https://soundcloud.com/authorsontheair/laura-lippman-murder-takes-a-vacation-crime-wave

I've read several Tess Monaghan books, but I am unfamiliar with Mrs. Blossom, her surveillance assistment.

Mrs. Blossom recently found a winning lottery ticket. She is using part of her fortune to travel to France where she will spend time in Paris and go on a river tour of the Seine.

This book will have you saying "Girl, no!" every few pages. Mrs. Blossom is very trusting. She takes everyone she meets at face value, when most of them are hiding secrets. As strange things are happening around her, Mrs. Blossom tries to get to the bottom of the matter.

I read this after some pretty heavy books and it was like a breath of fresh air! It was a fun to read about this 68 year old lottery winner who goes on her dream vacation to Paris! Lots of twists and turns, lots of laughs, and enough suspense to keep you on your toes. Definitely a good one!
Thanks to William Morrow and NetGalley for the digital ARC so that I could read and review!

SYNOPSIS
-Mrs. Blossom, a sixty-something widow and former PI’s assistant, stumbles onto a winning lottery ticket.
/She uses her winnings to book a European river cruise, where she meets Allan, a charming stranger who sparks something she hasn’t felt in years.
-Twenty-four hours later, Allan turns up dead in Paris, and suddenly Mrs. Blossom is caught in a web of stolen art, suspicious men, and more danger than she bargained for.
⸻
MY THOUGHTS
-The pacing was painfully slow. I kept waiting for the suspense to kick in, but it just dragged.
-The actual mystery wasn’t compelling or clever. It felt flat and predictable.
-Lippman circles back to Mrs. Blossom’s weight and age so often that it overshadows the story. It got repetitive fast.
-The whole thing leaned more on repeating her age and body size than building an interesting plot.
-This one didn’t land for me at all.
⸻
TL;DR⭐️⭐️Dragged-out pacing, a thin mystery, and way too much focus on Mrs. Blossom’s body and age. Not for me.
⸻
THANKS: Thanks to William Morrow and Netgalley for this digital ARC in exchange for an honest review. This book is out now.

Entertaining cozy mystery.

Mrs. Blossom, in her late sixties and a widow, finds the winning lottery ticket in a parking lot. The money changes her life as she decides to take advantage of her new found wealth to find a reason to experience this period in a new way on her own. She books a river cruise in France and takes along her childhood friend. But, from the beginning of the trip, unusual things start happening and soon she’s involved in a mystery involving a stolen artifact and possibly murder.

I loved this main character with her comfort in her body and in her own ability to change so that this period in her life will allow her to continue to be happy despite her losses. The way she interacts with people she meets, her generally positive attitude, and her self perception combine to make this introspective as well as poignant. There is some humor as well, and lots of cultural references as well as a nice description of her tour of France and its iconic sights.

I was able to listen to the audio book while also following along in the e-book ARC, both provided by the publishers. The narrator, Kimberly Farr, did an excellent job with the French word pronunciation and the accents. She brought a great deal of tenderness to the main character’s voice and appropriate dramatic flair when necessary. The production definitely enhanced my enjoyment of the book.

Murder Takes A Vacation was an absolute delight for me to read!!! To say I was stunned to see so many three stars on Goodreads is a vast understatement. Could there be a bit of ageism involved? Looking at the photos of who likes this book and who don't, yes, I'd say it's mostly younger readers that found it hard to appreciate an almost 70-year-old woman. Which is fine. I am not drawn to books about teenagers.

I was reading Ms. Lippman's Tess Monaghan mysteries back when she was first writing them decades ago and admired her then, so I was very interested to see what she was up to. It's been so long ago that I read the Tess Monaghan books that I have absolutely no memory of Muriel Blossom, who evidently served Tess in some capacity. Writing about seniors solving mysteries has suddenly become a thing, and a lot of authors are trying their hand at it. I thoroughly enjoyed Ms. Lippman's spin on the oeuvre.

Muriel Blossom's past life is slowly unfolded for us as she goes on her first trip out of the US, and on a river cruise on the Seine. She encounters a mystery along the way. I thought the clues made the guilty parties pretty evident in this mystery but that didn't bother me. This had a kind of slap happy dash about it with the bonus of the sights of France, so I didn't mind that the mystery wasn't totally dark and immersive. I have my Nordic Noir authors for that. I found Muriel sassy and inspiring in a sweet sort of way. There was some controversy about the fact that she was overweight being brought up so much. The author gave a note at the end as to why she addressed this subject. Evidently, she originally received criticism for saying Mrs. Blossom was fat, so this was her attempt to cast a more sympathetic view of what overweight people have to endure in microaggressive behavior. But alas, this also seems to have upset people, so sometimes it is just impossible not to offend somebody.

If you read the book or saw the movie, "Mrs. 'Arris in Paris", this is the kind of fun dynamic present in Murder Takes A Vacation (although there was no mystery in the aforementioned book).

I give this book an enthusiastic 5 stars and would be happy to see a reappearance of Mrs. Blossom on the pages.

Thank you to NetGalley, Laura Lippman, and William Morrow for allowing me to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

This novel by Laura Lippman can definitely be described as a cozy mystery! The main character, a woman in her late 60’s who is widowed and has won the lottery experiences adventures from the moment she checks in for her Paris flight to board her river cruise. The characters are engaging and decimations of the trip are very good too. While a little far fetched it’s definitely a fun read and I was glad to be able to read it thru NetGalley!

A great who-done-it with an older lady as the detective. Highly recommend for those who like The Thursday Murder Club series.

I liked this erstwhile book.
Mrs, Blossom has won millions and is off on an adventure which includes a dead body enroute to France.
I liked her unabashed energy and her canny ability to put people’s feet to the fire.
Mrs. blossom had done her time and now was out to live for herself.

This was a great book. I loved every paragraph, every sentence and every word of this masterpiece! I read it in 12 hours, which is a lot for me to do! It had everything and more laid out in the novel! I sure hope There is more to come from this author! I am totally hooked!

3.5⭐️ This was a very nice, twisty semi-cozy mystery book. Mrs Blossom, at times a bit too naive, was a loveable character. Her somewhat claim to fame, of working for a private eye, was a tad eye rolling, given her propensity for believing the good in everyone. I really liked how Danny was portrayed, how you could never really tell if he was trying to help Muriel or if he was part of the problem. It was heartwarming to finally find out what his true role in the story was. I honestly couldn’t stand Mrs Blossom’s friend; she was too self-involved. Overall, I liked the story and would definitely read a next in the series if one is in the works.

A clever and entertaining mystery that’s equal parts suspenseful and playful. Laura Lippman gives us a vacation setting filled with sharp twists, sly humor, and just the right amount of danger. I was hooked from the first chapter and happily along for the ride, though a few pacing hiccups kept it from a perfect five. Still, it’s a delightful escape for mystery lovers!

Although the main character, Muriel Blossom annoys me from the start, I loved the book. We follow, Mrs. Blossom as she calls herself, on a trip of a lifetime, courtesy of a found lottery ticket. She’s going on a cruise with her good friend. She’s reflecting on her life, the loss of her husband and who she is in this next phase of life, but a chance meeting with a stranger at the airport spins her in a mysterious and harrowing direction. It’s a really fun read and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I wanted to like this, but I kept getting derailed by how often Mrs. Blossom talked about her weight. I was happy that the FMC was plus-size; I didn’t need to be told it every other paragraph. The mystery was good, a little predictable, but still enjoyable.


Thank you to NetGalley and Laura Lippman for an ARC in exchange for an honest review

This started out interesting and fun but then fizzled out because the story just stalled. The references to weight, at the beginning, were there to describe her, but then were consistently in the story, even when unnecessary, and this took me out of the story. The mystery took a back seat to the weight references and the scene setting and I forgot she was trying to figure out what happened. This was just so-so for me.

Muriel Blossom is a simple woman, but when she accidentally (yes, accidentally) wins the lottery, she decides to take a dream trip to Paris with a cruise up the Seine. At the airport, she meets an (overly) accommodating fellow passenger who helps her navigate her first international travel, including an unplanned overnight layover in London. But when police arrive at her Paris hotel, she finds out he has died. Can Muriel unravel the truth behind his death (and why she's being followed)?

While I wanted to enjoy this cozy mystery, I found Muriel’s character somewhat contradictory. On one hand, she likes punk music and abstract expressionism, and has worked for a private investigator. On the other hand, she comes across as surprisingly naive and unworldly—such as when she accepts a gummy from a virtual stranger on the plane. I struggled to reconcile these conflicting traits, which distracted me and ultimately kept me from fully immersing myself in the story.

A cozy departure for my favorite author! This book is a delight, and celebrates the joy and freedom of being an age that can often mean invisibility.

Enjoyed this book very much. It was light and fun.. The main setting, France, was beautiful and as I have family connections to Baltimore, I liked the references to that city, too.