Laura Lippman’s new book is a departure from her most recent books. I have always enjoyed her fiction and nonfiction. This book is no exception.
It is different in tone, and reminds me of mysteries from the past. Muriel Blossom is the star of the show, and she is quite the character. The story revolves about Mrs. Blossom going on a cruise which is anything but relaxing. There is mystery in the story, but it’s really about Mrs. Blossom and her life. The choices she’s made and regrets she has. She is complex and struggling with how she wants to live her life. The mystery she gets entangled in comes to a satisfactory conclusion. I recommend this book for people who like mysteries with good character studies.

I am a fan of Laura Lippman, so that may color my review. Murder Takes a Vacation, a cozy mystery, is a departure for her. I liked the light story, the international setting and the protagonist. Agree with other reviews that Mrs. Blossom focuses on her weight a bit too much and hope that the next in the series lets that go a bit. Recommend for something light.

If you want to read a book that keeps you in the dark and utterly confused about what in the world you are even reading until at least 2/3 of the way through, add this to your TBR. Otherwise, just pass.

Thank you #NetGalley for the eARC of #MurderTakesAVacation by Laura Lippman

Murder Takes a Vacation is a globe-trotting whodunit starring the unlikeliest of heroines: Mrs. Blossom, a widowed grandmother of 3 with a winning lottery ticket and a yearning to see the world before it’s too late.

The premise is as clever as it is heartfelt: Mrs. Blossom, having just won the lottery (found a winning ticket in a parking lot), books herself a luxury cruise on the Seine. She’s ready to indulge in life, not realizing her trip will turn into a whirlwind of murder, missing art, suspicious men, and more flirtation than she’s seen in decades. When a stranger she meets on her journey turns up dead in Paris her vacation takes a sharp turn into the realm of mystery.

Mrs. Blossom is unsure of herself at times and she second-guesses whether she deserves this new life. But, she’s also observant, warm, and unexpectedly daring. Fans of classic cozy mysteries will appreciate this book as well as its modern take on aging, body image, and the invisibility of women past a certain age.

Mrs. Blossom is taking a trip of a lifetime with her best friend Elinor. In her 60s and widowed, Mrs. Blossom is ready to start a new chapter in a her life. But a series of mishaps and unlikely coincidences leaves her wondering if she can trust any of the people that she meets on her vacation. A fun, cozy mystery with a lovable main character. Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for the ARC!

I've loved everything I ever read by Laura Lippman, but my very first love was for the Tess Monaghan series set in Baltimore. It's been a decade since the last book in that series came out, so I was thrilled to see Murder Takes a Vacation--while it's not a book in the series, it is series-adjacent! One of the people Tess sometimes worked with, Mrs. Blossom, is the star of this fun new mystery.

When working for Tess, Muriel Blossom used her older, non-descript appearance as a key skill to help as she followed suspects or others. In this book, Mrs. Blossom has won the lottery and is using some of her new money to take a river cruise through France. Her husband has passed away, her daughter and grandchildren have moved to Japan, so Mrs. Blossom invites her friend Elinor to join her.

The mysteries in the book start quickly. On the flight to London, Mrs. Blossom meets a man. A nice man, who helps her manage her trip, including finding her a hotel room and escorting her around London when she misses her connecting flight to Paris. But who is this man? Did Mrs. Blossom really sleep through her connection? And a bit later, how did this man end up dead in Paris?

The descriptions of Mrs. Blossom in Paris and on the cruise are wonderful, part travel guide and part humorous examination of how people with money travel differently than the rest of us. As a newly wealthy woman, Mrs. Blossom is acutely aware of the differences, and her reactions and thoughts are funny and astute.

But of course the key focus is on the mystery. People seem to be following and watching Mrs. Blossom, there is a valuable artefact that has been stolen, and of all the people around Mrs. Blossom, who can she really trust? One person is Tess, who is back in Baltimore but does make some appearances in the book. (Note: This book is entirely standalone from the series, so no worries if you haven't read the Tess Monaghan mysteries--but you should.)

This is a fun and delightful book as Mrs. Blossom slowly moves away from her nondescript self and begins to figure out how all of the pieces fit together, and to solve the mysteries surrounding her.

Lippman keeps all the balls in the air until she is ready for them to fall into place. A fun read.

The plot was interesting. Unfortunately, the author spent more time writing about The spent more time on the main character’s weight, age, and wealth than she did on writing a plausible plot. The ending was good. The book was a bit slow for me. I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced free copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. I received a copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this free early review copy.

This was a delight! It teeters back and forth and finally strikes a wavering balance between being a standard detective murder mystery and a cozy.  Mrs Muriel Blossom is a wonderful modern homage to the always unexpected Mrs Pollifax.  There’s nothing really deep or thought provoking here, it’s just solidly good entertainment.  I suspected a few of the answers early in, but I did not figure out the s true mystery until it was revealed.  Perfect! 

Mrs Blossom is a senior citizen, and a fat women, and I am also a fat woman (although not a senior citizen, not quite yet), and I thought this book did a great job of fairly presenting a fat woman’s POV.  Yes it’s mentioned a lot, but I do think about it a lot, when I’m in a small airline seat, when I’m squeezing between tight tables in a restaurant, when I’m eating in public, when I’m huffing and puffing with exertion from walking up flights of stairs, etc.  Based on the author's note, apparently Lippman was accused of being antifat in the past, and I believe it, because one of the things I didn't like about her first Tess Monaghan book was how judgy Tess was about all the other female characters.  But Lippman did the right thing, she listened, she studied, she learned, she improved.  As a fellow fat woman, I say she did right by Mrs Blossom in this book.


I really liked Mrs Blossom, I had never encountered her before since I have only read the first Tess Monaghan mystery, and I had no idea when I started this that it was a spinoff from that series.  And I really liked Danny Johnson.  I’d love to see more mysteries featuring both of them. 

(I'd also love to take a cruise up the Seine and visit Giverny, so this book delivered on that front as well. I did wish for more descriptions of the gardens at Giverny, but that's probably just me.)

This was a fun read and Mrs. Blossom is a good character.
Mrs. Blossom has been an assistant to Tess Monaghan. But everything changes when she finds a winning lottery ticket in a parking lot and decides to finally see the world.

A cruise through France aboard the MS Solitaire seems the perfect start—until she meets charming Allan on her transatlantic flight... and discovers him dead in Paris the next day, a city he wasn’t supposed to be in.

Now, aboard the ship, Mrs. Blossom suspects everyone—especially Danny, a mysterious man who keeps appearing whenever something goes wrong. He claims Allan was smuggling stolen art, and Mrs. Blossom may know more than she admits.

As the Solitaire glides down the Seine, so do the questions. Who was Allan really? Why was he killed? And why do these dangerous men keep flirting with her?
Take a ride with Mrs. Blossom to Paris. You won't be disappointed.
't

This was only my second Lippman novel and my first introduction to Mrs. Blossom, so I was probably not the target audience for this novel. Knowing that, it is not surprising that what I enjoyed most about the book was the setting. It was neat to read a mystery set in Paris and on a Seine river cruise. Mrs. Blossom was a likeable character, but I have read other mysteries featuring older main characters that I enjoyed more.

I appreciate the intent with this story but unfortunately it was a bit lackluster and dragged on for me. I was expecting and hoping for a more complex storyline with the mystery part of it but instead I was reminded about Mrs Blossoms weight and self doubts constantly.

An absolute gem of a book. Great characters, familiar but quirky enough to be interesting. A perfect escape.

Really unique writing style that made me feel like I was reading an Agatha Christie novel! Complex characters that I really wanted to hang out with. A fun murder mystery with a great setting and cast of characters!

In MURDER TAKES A VACATION, written by Laura Lippman, Mrs. Muriel Blossom gets bumped up to business class on her airline travel to London. She is planning to end up in Paris and cruise up the Seine. She meets a man, a businessman named Allan Turner, who insists on helping her. Why is Allan so attentive to Mrs. Blossom? Do the two of them have a romantic future? What does the book title refer to? I read on.

I am immediately interested in the characters and care about what might happen to them. The plot keeps me riveted to the story and is quite exciting during the second part of Mrs. Blossom’s trip. I enjoyed this book and look forward to reading other books written by Laura Lippman. Thank you, William Morrow and NetGalley, for the chance to read and review an advance reader copy of MURDER TAKES A VACATION.

Enjoyed this very much. I wasn't familiar with the main character, since I haven't read the books featuring Tess, but this was a great stand alone for me.

I have to confess that I am not a cozy mystery fan.. But, I was interested in Murder Takes A Vacation for the following reasons (a) Laura Lippman (b). France and the places visited on the cruise especially Giverny and Normandy; (c) art theft; and (it was described as a mystery). I wish (b) through (d) were more prominent in this short book. unfortunately, too much time was spent on Muriel Blossom's reflections and shopping etc. In sum, I will recommend to those of my followers who like Cozy mysteries and are Laura Lippman fans.

I think I could identify myself as Mrs. Bloom. She is an older and plump woman, however I would love to identify as a lottery winner. ;-)

The book is cozy mystery where Mrs. Bloom feels compelled to investigate a murder while on vacation in Paris. As someone who is generally clueless but willing to try most things in an attempt to be less clueless.

I totally enjoyed the book.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC.

I had hoped this book would be a fun mystery to solve with a smart older woman main character who worked with a PI, or an older woman main character who wasn’t so smart but managed to solve a crime.

Instead it was more of a story about an old woman who couldn’t go more than three thoughts without mentioning or thinking negatively about her weight, or how she used to “have a problem” with how much she liked attention from men, who has zero intuition about any person she meets and stumbles around a crime accomplishing nearly nothing.

I really feel like Muriel Blossom could have been much more defined as a person, and her friendship with Elinor could have been more than what felt like “every big old woman needs a tiny thin friend for men to talk to”.

This book felt lackluster to me. I was able to see most of the plot as it was laid out, and wasn’t surprised by any twist or turns in the story. I also don’t like that we aren’t told what was in the note at the end. I’m sure it was going for some kind of “it doesn’t matter what was in the note, she found her own self worth” moment, but when the bracelet and the note were brought up again and again it felt like a let down.

Retired and adrift, Muriel Blossom is on a river cruise of a lifetime with her good friend. Mrs. Blossom is a full- figured unassuming widow who is used to being invisible but she becomes anything but from the first plane ride. After meeting an attractive man on the plane and then a younger man who helps her with travel and fashion decisions and then a third when she gets to the ship, her life is on an upswing. That is until one ends up dead, another is popping up everywhere he shouldn't and one disappears. A stolen artifact, the possibility of a romance and the start of a new chapter in her life has Mrs. Blossom well, blossoming and acting the part of detective. A locked ship cabin mystery that is a departure from her previous gritty crime thrillers but one that has all the drama minus the violence and features a smart, fit middle aged woman who is very real. This will appeal to readers who enjoyed SMALL WORLD by Laura Zigman, THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB and MAN ON THE INSIDE tv show. My thanks to the publisher for the advance copy.

When Muriel Blossom finds a winning $8 million lottery ticket she decided to splurge on a once in a lifetime vacation, a week in Paris on her own followed by a luxury river cruise down the Seine with a friend. 60-something, widowed 10 years, and plump, Muriel had never left the country before and when fellow traveler Allan takes her under his wing at the airport she is grateful for his assistance, especially when she misses her connection from London to Paris. They spend an enjoyable day in London before Muriel moves on, leaving Allan to his business meetings in London.

She is therefore completely surprised when Allan turns up dead in Paris two days later and she's questioned by the French police. And why does a younger man named Danny keep turning up every time there is trouble? He seems helpful but can he be trusted? When Muriel and her friend board the river boat, Danny is there again and her room is searched again. Allan's death becomes entwined with insurance fraud and a valuable missing statue, all eventually sorted out by Muriel and Danny.

This is a fun romp, perhaps with too much emphasis on Muriel's age and weight. Her constant self deprecating references to her size detracts from the enjoyment of the book.