I really enjoyed this cozy mystery from Laura Lippman, including the tie-in to the Tess Monaghan mysteries! Muriel Blossom is on the trip of a lifetime after winning the lottery--a French river cruise. On the plane to Europe, she connects with Allan, a gentleman who might just reawaken some feelings she hasn't had since her husband passed away. But things start to go south quickly--Allan is murdered in Paris, and Muriel finds herself in the middle of the investigation. Strange events continue to occur once the cruise starts, and Muriel doesn't know who can be trusted.

A light and fun read!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book is was good, but difficult for me to get into at firsts. I love Laura Lippmann; this just wasn’t my favorite of her books. I thought the characters were well developed but it was just difficult to connect early on.

Murder Takes A Vacation was a nicely paced fun cozy/thriller with a little bit of everything. Adventure, suspense, murder, romance, humor, all centered around an international art theft. Mrs Blossom is such a refreshing character. I love that she seems to gain confidence in herself as the book progresses. I hope there are more Mrs Blossom books in the future.

I am a Laura Lippman fan, and this intentional swerve from her normal is intentional. That said, I love a cozy mystery, I loved the setting for this, but I just could not care about the characters. To me, all their words and actions felt entirely unbelievable. Muriel is supposed to be observant and a former PI, but she keeps falling for these mens' bs? I slogged through the book as a result.

Murder Takes a Vacation follows the character Mrs. Blossom, a widow, who one day finds a lottery ticket that changes her life. Mrs. Blossom decides to see the world after the passing of her husband, who was more of a homebody. They did not travel much, and thus Mrs. Blossom books a cruise to France and meets a handsome man name Allan on her transatlantic flight. The two seem to hit it off, and it is the first time that Mrs. Blossom has felt that spark since the passing of her beloved husband.

I think the characters were well developed and easy for me to picture. I pictured Mrs. Blossom looking like the actress Laura Dern and Allan, the handsome gentleman on the plane, I picture resembling Richard Gere. It was nice to have visuals in my mind of what I thought or how I felt these characters looked. It made it easy to jump into the story and follow these characters on their journey. I was definitely invested in Mrs. Blossom and Allan's relationship, and just in the character of Mrs. Blossom herself. I can see facets of Mrs. Blossom in many people I know and even facets within myself, so she was easy to relate to, but some of the things Mrs. Blossom did, I thought "okay girl, let's take a moment to think about this." I guess that is why she is relatable because I think we have all been in a situation where we just did, without thinking, and sometimes it turns out okay, sometimes it turns out wonderful, and sometimes it can have devastating consequences, and become a painful lesson.

I really loved that Mrs. Blossom put herself out there and wasn't scared to go all in. The only thing I would have liked to see more of, is her enjoying her fortune. Mrs. Blossom seemed to be very thrifty and continued to live as if times were hard. I would like to see her splurge on something without thinking of money or feeling guilty for wanting it or buying it. A vacation is for spoiling oneself while you are on it, if you have the means to. Mrs. Blossom more than have the means to splurge while on vacation.

I really enjoyed this one because I liked the characters and would love to read more about Mrs. Blossom and her adventures. This was a really fun, cozy mystery and entertaining read.

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.