Our book club book for this month is “Murder Takes a Vacation,” by Laura Lippman.
This book has all Laura Lippman’s trademark razor-sharp insight and effortlessly absorbing writing, plus huge amounts of warmth and fun.
The main character, Mrs Muriel Blossom, is a pure joy. She is a former private investigator and a middle-aged widow whose vacation on a Parisian River cruise turns into a deadly international case ... that only she can solve.
Mrs. Blossom has a knack for blending into the background, which was an asset during her days assisting private investigator Tess Monaghan. But when she finds a winning lottery ticket in a parking lot, everything changes. She is determined to see the world that she sometimes feels is passing her by.
When Mrs. Blossom booked her cruise through France on the MS Solitaire, she did not expect to meet Allan on her transatlantic flight. He is the first man who’s sparked something inside her since her beloved husband passed away. She also didn’t expect Allan to be found dead 24 hours later in Paris, a city in which he wasn’t supposed to be.
Now, she doesn’t know who to trust onboard the ship, especially when a mystifying man, Danny, keeps popping up around every corner, always present when things go wrong. He is convinced that Allan was transporting a stolen piece of art, and Mrs. Blossom knows more than she lets on. Mrs. Blossom’s questions only increase as the cruise sails down the Seine. Why does it feel like she is being followed? Who was Allan, and why was he killed?
The book is a warm, witty, cozy-meets-thriller, praised for insight into aging and invisibility.
