I enjoyed this book. I would highly recommend it. An adventure in France and a murder tied to a missing statue.

Murder Takes A Vacation was a quick, enjoyable read. I would probably call it a cozy thriller. Muriel Blossom, part time PI wins the lottery and takes off for a rare bit of international travel. The cozy part, murder of a character we don't really know, mixes with the thriller part as Muriel completes her vacation and solves the crime. The book is a departure from author Laura Lippman's darker mysteries but is as well written as I've come to expect.

Thank you for the ARC of this book
This is the first book I have read by this author
I enjoyed her writing style and could visualize being in the places she wrote about.
It’s a murder mystery but it’s also about love, loss, finding yourself being older and over weight
And enjoying life in the moment.

This was a fun and low-stakes mystery that felt both modern and old-fashioned in the best way. I love that Mrs. Blossom got her main character moment (or, week) and as a reader I felt invested in her emotions and motivations. The plot moved at just the right pace; it never got bogged down or went off the rails. I understand and appreciate what Lippman was trying to do re: fat positivity, but I think that ideally body size would simply be less of a topic — we get the point even if it’s a good point. Overall, I recommend this for a lighter read, which no doubt we can all use more of in 2025.

Thank you to William Morrow Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book early.

I'll start by saying I've read other books by Ms Lippman that I enjoyed a lot more. I wanted to like Mrs Blossom more, but was totally annoyed by the endless musings that I was skipping pages just to get thru them. I kept waiting for her to be taken advantage of, esp when she's supposed to be smart, but taking gummies from random strangers. I enoyed the descriptions and scenes of France much more than the interaction of the characters. Over all, this was just an ok read. Quick and easy, if you sped thru the dry spots.

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for this free eARC!

What a fun, cozy little mystery novel! Mrs. Blossom is such a wonderful character! She has been windowed for a few years. She finds a winning lottery ticket, and decides to take some of that money and go on a cruise down the Seine. On her way to Paris, from the US, she meets a man at the airport. They really hit it off, but of course, he winds up dead. She also realizes she’s being followed while in Paris. She needs to find out why.

Just delightful. I didn’t even realize she was a character in other novels, so if you don’t read the others, you’ll be just fine! Hopefully there’s more stories of Mrs. Blossom in the future!

Laura Lippman’s newest mystery is a lighthearted delight featuring an engaging and relatable protagonist. Muriel Blossom, a supporting character in Lippman’s Tess Monaghan series, gets to shine on her own in Murder Takes a Vacation, and shine she does. We travel from London to Paris and cruise down the Seine with Muriel as she as she parses out clues to a murder involving an illegally obtained historical artifact. This adventure of a lifetime also offers Muriel the chance to work through choices she made in her own life and the guilt that prevents her from moving forward. I so hope this is the first of many mysteries featuring Muriel Blossom, a plus-size, sixtysomething sleuth who is empathetic, clever, and a joy to travel with.

Mrs. Blossom, a plus-sized senior citizen widow (whose weight and age are mentioned repeatedly and to the point of excess), won a lottery ticket and decided to visit France, first on her own in Paris and then joining a friend for a river cruise. She stumbles into an art theft and has a number of odd experiences, leading her to attempt to solve the thefts with the assistance of various characters who may not be what they seem or declare themselves to be. It's fun to watch Mrs. Blossom gain in confidence and willingness to travel solo, and to see her use the surveillance techniques she learned as a part-time PI. The mystery is interesting, although I had to read the ending a couple of times to figure out what had happened. Thank you to William Morrow and NetGalley for the eARC.

A quirky and fun mystery that was a quick and easy read. Lippman is always an enjoyable and fun author.

Muriel finds a lottery winning ticket and her life changes overnight.
Missing her husband who died before they could really enjoy retirement together, she decides to take a cruise from France, treat her best friend and visit some sights she only ever dreamed of.
Her trip becomes something straight out of a novel as a man she befriends is found murdered
and another man begins to turn up everywhere she is.
befriending her and seeming to following her travel.
I found the story okay but very slow moving and the characters predictable and not terribly inspiring or
interesting.
Muriel checked all the boxes for a typical "matron".
Not my cup of tea.

This was my first Laura Lippman novel and I was in the mood for a murder mystery, and I LOVED this book! I loved having a protagonist that wasn't a 20-something skinny trope. Mrs. Blossom was so much fun. Aside from the actual mystery, I loved watching as her confidence grow.

I loved it! That was fun! Mrs. Blossom is past the age where she has to worry about impressing others and that puts her in the perfect position to see people on a different level than what their actions or appearances show. I was thrilled when she revealed that she once worked for a private investigator in another series by this author. This is a great mystery especially having little things make sense in the end.

Laura Lippman’s fixation with weight is in full effect in this book. It was brought up so many times. It was a major feature of her Tess Monaghan books as well but it seems to have escalated. Who talks about their weight that much to strangers? And friends? She had virtually no other topic of conversation. I feel like she was trying to be sensitive and Blossom was not on some weight loss journey and was happy but who talks about it and fixates on it so much? It was distracting.

Speaking of Tess Monaghan, it was fun to “see” her again but why is she acting like 65 is old or that she herself is young? Tess was 30 in 1999, we can do that math! She is closer to Blossom’s 68 than she is 30.

The mystery was a bit silly and convoluted but I enjoyed the setting. I’m not sure if “cozy” mysteries are where the author excels

It was in the late 1990’s that I first read Laura Lippman’s novel Baltimore Blues, featuring PI Tess Monaghan, and I was hooked. Baltimore Blues was at the beginning of the woman as PI timeline. Fast forward to current times and Lippman has written 12 Monaghan mysteries and 14 stand-alone novels. All wonderful reads. If you are lucky, you don’t know about her, and you have all those books to read to catch up!

Murder Takes a Vacation is somewhat of a departure from Lippman’s noir-leaning books, though when I got into the novel, I was overjoyed to find that the main character is a bit character from the Tess Monaghan mysteries – elderly Mrs. Blossom! Mrs. Blossom was a sometimes hire of Tess’ when she needed surveillance of a subject and needed them to completely not see the woman standing next to them (elderly women are invisible, says Mrs. Blossom). So Mrs. Blossom wins the lottery and goes to France on vacation only to find she is being followed, her room searched and even knocked to the ground to have her purse snatched.

The tone of the book is definitely not noir, but then it is not a fluffy cozy read either. This is a joyful romp with serious issues (aging, loneliness, intimacy, friendship) throughout. Mrs. Blossom hooks up with an elderly gentleman on the flight over to London, but is horrified when he is found dead on the pavement having fallen (?) from his hotel balcony. What is an “older” woman to do when mysterious men keep flirting with her?

Lippman has won all the major mystery genre awards, including the Edgar and the Anthony. Murder Takes a Vacation is a departure from her norm of more serious and traditional reads and a welcome chance to return to that feeling you get from an old black and white movie. Or from the romantic suspense books of Mary Stewart like The Moon Spinners. Sometimes it is nice to escape back in time when suspense wasn’t eerie or dangerous, just fun.

My rating: 5 of 5

This ARC title was provided by Netgalley.com at no cost, and I am providing an unbiased review. Murder Takes a Vacation will be published on June 17, 2025.

Laura Lippman does it again in the mystery genre, it had that concept that had me guessing what was going on and thought the overall story worked. I loved the idea of this being on a cruise and how everything had a suspenseful atmosphere. The characters were well written and I was glad I got to read this.

Author Laura Lippman takes a turn to the cozy side of the mystery genre in her upcoming book. Not to worry, there’s still an enticing murder to solve.

Muriel Blossom is a grandmother, a widow, & recent lottery winner. She’s at an age where many women blend into the background, which helped with the bit of private investigative works she’s done. Mrs. Blossom is on her way to Paris when she meets handsome & charming Allan. He’s the first man to spark something in Mrs. Blossom since her beloved husband died. She didn’t expect to see Allan again, let alone for him to turn up dead in Paris. She also keeps running into a young man named Danny who tells her Allan was involved with smuggling a precious piece of art. Danny thinks Mrs. Blossom knows more than she letting on about the smuggling & the murder. As Mrs. Blossom embarks on a cruise up the Seine, she has more questions than answers & more men flirting with her. As the cruise progresses, the danger increases. Can Mrs Blossom find answers before it’s too late?

I love Mrs Blossom! Kudos to Lippman for giving us a mature female detective. I loved seeing this character literally bloom throughout the her journey. She found strength & courage when she needed it most. I also enjoyed Mrs Blossom teaming up with Danny. They made an unlikely, but engaging pair of investors. This is a well constructed whodunnit sprinkled with Lippman’s usual wry wit. I found the whole book absolutely delightful. And I want more!

When Muriel Blossom wins the lottery with a ticket she finds in a parking lot, she decides to finally take her first international trip to Paris for a Parisian River cruise. During her flight, she meets Allan. Allan is determined to help Muriel through her first Transatlantic flight and Muriel starts to feel a spark that she hasn't felt since her husband passed away. Muriel continues on with her trip to Paris with plans to meet Allan again when they are both back in the states, but only 24 hours later, police deliver the news that Allan was found dead in his hotel room. Now another man, Danny, seems to be following Muriel around Paris and believes that Muriel may have information on Allan's dealing with a rare but valuable artifact.

Murder Takes a Vacation fell a little flat for me. I wanted to enjoy Muriel as the main character. She is supposed to be a strong middle-aged woman who was a previous PI but the only description that was constantly mentioned was that she was old and fat. It seemed that every new interaction she had with other characters made mention of her size. This was a massive turn off for me. I love plus sized representation in books, but this seemed to be the main theme for Muriel as a character.

I enjoyed the mystery of the stolen artifact and Muriel's investigation into who she could trust on her cruise while strange occurrences were happening around her. Although the conclusion was predictable, I did enjoy the ending.

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow Publishing for the opportunity to review Murder Takes a Vacation. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Mrs. Blossom is a plus size senior on a vacation in Europe with a close friend and has several interactions with men along the way. The story is interesting and easy reading. Although it is not my typical type of book (I prefer legal and medical thrillers as well as spy stories), I found the many situations in which she found herself to be very plausible and engaging. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a frivolous story and thank NetGalley and HarperCollins for the opportunity to read and review this book prior to publication.

Laura Lippman’s recent novels, like SUNBURN and PROM MOM, haven’t been afraid to go dark, even noirish. It’s therefore a surprise—and a delight—for her latest to veer more toward the cozy side of the street. Muriel Blossom, who appeared in Lippman’s Tess Monaghan series, is a woman of a certain age and, as she would be the first to point out, a certain weight. The retiree has come into an unexpected windfall that is allowing her, at long last, to live the life that she wants, and that includes a cruise up the Seine. But she hasn’t even gotten on her flight to Europe when odd things start happening to and around her. Before long, Mrs. Blossom, as everyone calls her, must put her limited experience with private investigations to work. There is a mystery here, a lighthearted and frothy one, with shades of the caper film CHARADE (1963) as a woman finds herself squaring off against various ne’er-do-wells in Paris, never completely certain which of them she can trust. But Lippman’s real focus is on Mrs. Blossom herself, taking a chance on moving from supporting player to leading lady before the curtain goes down. Mrs. Blossom’s honesty, compassion, and occasional regret lend a bittersweet note to this confection, adding flavor and dimension.

Mrs. Blossom, an unprepossessing widow who has worked for Tess Monaghan's private detective agency in the past, has received a windfall just as her son-in-law made it clear her help with the grandkids was no longer needed. With the proceeds of a winning lottery ticket, she embarks on a European river cruise, a kind of luxury she has to screw herself up to since she has never been a spendthrift. On route to London she meets a charming man who is not only helpful but awakens a romantic streak in her. She's having a wonderful time trusting him as he spends a day with her, all while the reader screams "it's a scam!" at her.

Then he shows up in Paris, unexpectedly. Dead. Between that suspicious occurrence and someone meticulously searching her room, she's alert to strange things that keep happening to her as the cruise proceeds, occasionally getting assistance from her old boss.

I enjoyed this unusually cozy adventure in a long-running series that I've missed.