Middle Sister Mid-Month Review

Turkey Trot Murder by Leslie Meier This is the latest title in the Lucy Stone mystery series. On the face of it, I should really like Lucy: she's about my age (maybe a little younger now), she lives in Maine (I'd love to live in Maine), she has a loving but realistic family (well, I don't have that, but I appreciate her kids are not perfect nor is her husband, but they are genuinely nice characters). And yet, and yet...each book leaves me with a vague feeling of disappointment. I'm pretty sure my first disgruntlement came the first time the name of the local newspaper at which she works was mentioned, the Pennysaver. The Pennysaver where I live is a motley jumble of local ads and coupons with the occasional mass market flyer from a chain restaurant. It is not a real newspaper. I keep wondering why the coupon flyer has a news reporter, I can't help it. 

Then there are the little things, like this statement from this new release; "Somehow the realization that this young woman was not only beautiful, but also a chld of privilege, mader her death seem even worse."  Wow, just wow. If you're a plain or even homely person, living on a budget, your murder is less sad? Lucy takes photos of the dead body with her smartphone, knowing full well the Pennysaver won't publish them, so why did she take them--just curiosity? Ick. Or how about this sweeping braod side: "Lucy had a horrible sinking feeling. She'd seen how this worked. First the kids dropped out of school, then with too much free time on their hands they began hanging around with other dropouts, and before you knew it they started experimenting with drugs." Tell that to my own family members, some of whom have dropped out of college, and then gone back to college, and some of whom have found jobs and have no desire to go back and assume $50K or more of debt, but none has become a deadbeat druggie, strung out on the corner and doing who knows what illegal activity to supply their habit. Maybe the author is correct and her readers share these sweeping, black and white views of life, are so cynical and eager to see the worse in others, but I sure don't. And therein may lie my problem with Lucy Stone. 

On the plus side, the current political climate was dealt with very well in the book. The residents of Tinker's Cover are seen grappling (some of them anyway, many seem to be just fine with it) with members of their own community who are xenophobic and anti-immigration, with a group called America for Americans sounding sadly too familiar protesting and destroying businesses. Also too familiar--the many times the owner of new restaurant is told to go home to Mexico despite being a fourth generation American. Do people seriously think they can tell how long someone has lived in the US by the color of their skin? Clearly they must or things would be mighty different int he real world. So I give Ms. Meier credit for making this new release resonate with the times it's being published in, and with giving TInker's Cove a fave lift. It's not longer the picturesque Cabot Cove kind of small town where everyone knows each other but which has a murder rate that would scare a NYC cop. Now it's a small town seething with racial unrest, an opioid epidemic, and the kind of stupid prejudices that mar everyday life in the 21st century of the robber barons. And I hope that any of her readers who hold those narrow, simplistic views are unconsciously educated when they visit Tinker's Cove this time.

All in all, a fast read, not unpleasant. The murder is pretty straight forward, the murderer the most likely suspect, and everything is neatly tied up in time for a delicious community thanksgiving supplied by the restauranteur in which TInker's Cove residents get introduced to pepitas, pumpkin pie with chile spice, and turkey enchiladas.