A Lucy Stone Mystery
“I like Lucy Stone a lot, and so will readers.”
–Carolyn Hart
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For Lucy Stone, the best thing about Christmas in Tinker’s Cove has always been the annual Cookie Exchange. But the usual generosity and goodwill is missing from this year’s event which turns out to be a complete disaster.
Petty rivalries and feuds that have long been simmering finally come to a boil, leaving a bad taste in the mouths of many guests, including Lee Cummings who accuses Tucker Whitney of stealing her recipe for low-fat, sugar-free cookies. But the icing on the cake is when Tucker is found strangled in her apartment on the following morning.
Who could’ve wanted Tucker dead badly enough to kill her? Despite all of the ingredients for danger, Lucy sets out on the trail of a murderer and soon uncovers a Christmas secret best left wrapped.
“As usual, Meier deftly combines a realistic depiction of Lucy’s life as a hard-working mother with a satisfying mystery plot.”
—Publishers Weekly
Hi Miss Meier,
I am wondering if you would be so kind as to list your Lucy Stone Mystery Books contain recipes. Thank you for your help!
Hi, Thanks for the reply. I obtained “Valentine Murder”, “Turkey Day Murder”, and “Christmas Cookie Murder” all within a couple of days of each other. Before starting to read any one of them in earnest, though, I read a few pages of each to confirm what you said here. What I discovered is that the sequence is:
Valentine Murder
Christmas Cookie Murder
Turkey Day Murder
So, neither the Cozy Mystery nor Stop You’re Killing Me List is 100% accurate; the correct sequence (so far) is what is listed in the later books under “Books by Leslie Meier”.
What made me realize the correct sequence is the kids’ progression through school. Toby is away at college in “Turkey Day Murder” but still home in the other books. On the other hand, Zoe is not yet old enough for school in “Valentine Murder” but is in school in the other two books. I’ve now finished “Valentine Murder” and “Christmas Cookie Murder” and started “Turkey Day Murder” on Turkey Day itself! But that was just a coincidence. As I read further into “Christmas Cookie Murder”, I saw references to things that happened in “Valentine Murder”. And so far in “Turkey Day Murder”, I’ve seen a few references to stuff in “Christmas Cookie Murder”. So I’m glad I’ve read the books in this sequence, to avoid possible spoilers.
I’ll eventually let “Stop You’re Killing Me” and “Cozy Mystery” know about their sequence error. But I’d also like to repeat my suggestion that you list somewhere on this site the books in the order in which they were released. I think this is important for a series of books in which (1) the kids grow up and (2) references are made to events in earlier books. Thanks again for this site and your reply.
The list at Cozy Mystery is correct!
Hi, I’m trying to read your books in the sequence in which they were published. I’ve just finished “Back to School Murder” and need to know what comes next. According to my usual source on such matters, the “Stop You’re Killing Me” web site, the next three, according to your author page there, are:
Christmas Cookie Murder (1999)
Valentine Murder (2000)
Turkey Day Murder (2000)
http://www.stopyourekillingme.com/M_Authors/Meier_Leslie.html
According to the list of books in some copies of your most recent books that I saw in a store last night, a list that appears to be mainly in sequence, “Valentine Murder” is listed before “Christmas Cookie Murder”.
And according to your page at Cozy Mystery List, a site which I just discovered yesterday, when I first discovered that you have a web site at last, the sequence is:
Back to School Murder ’97
Valentine Murder ’00
The Turkey Day Murder ’00
Christmas Cookie Murder ’99
This site does list the date of ’99 next to “Christmas Cookie Murder”, but it lists it after the two ’00 books.
It would be great, also, if the list of your books that appears across the top is re-arranged to show publication order instead of mainly being in alphabetical order. I remember when trying to get the Beverly Cleary Ramona books for my nieces in publication order, slightly before Internet usage became widespread, I was stymied because the lists inside each book listed her other books in alphabetical rather than publication sequence.
Thanks for any help you can give me on this.