My favorite people call me Papaw, My Jokes are Dad Jokes Funny Shirt

A well-written cozy mystery is fraught with murders and mayhem!

The lights were turned off and the film began to roll. It was eerie, thought Lucy, watching the images of Luther Read flicking across the screen. Maybe he was dead or maybe he was fighting for his life, but in the darkened room he was an enormous, living presence.
Then the film ended. The final image of Luther Read’s smiling face had hardly faded when the announcement came.
“Luther Read, our Newspaperman of the Year, is dead.”
That was incredible enough, but an even more shocking announcement followed.
“Remain in your seats, please, as the police will be collecting information from everyone.”Father’s Day Murder by Leslie Meier is a well-written cozy mystery fraught with murders and mayhem. Even though it’s the tenth installment in her Lucy Stone Mysteries, I had no issue enjoying it as a stand-alone read. This book marks my first foray into the world of Leslie Meier’s books. The author has written “my books are classified as cozies but a good friend insists they are really “comedies of manners” and I do enjoy expressing my view of contemporary American life.”

The main character is Lucy Stone, of course. She’s a stereotypical mother – juggling a myriad of tasks and responsibilities for her husband, son, daughter, and the family dog. You can infer that the tale includes a plethora of household drama. The book’s title is derived from the fact that Father’s Day is a big celebration at their house and Lucy is beset with worry that the preparations are not going as they should.

Lucy works part-time as a reporter for The Penny Saver, a small-town newspaper in Tinker’s Cove, Maine. As the story opens, her boss wants her to attend a week-long newspaper conference in Boston. Her husband assures her that they can hold down the fort while she’s gone – so Lucy goes. While at the conference, Luther Read, the head of a nearly bankrupt newspaper dynasty, dies and his death is determined to not be an accident. Luther had a lot of enemies counting some of his own children. One of Luther’s sons is arrested for the crime, but Lucy questions his guilt and is determined to crack the case and prove his innocence. As she involves herself in the case, Lucy soon finds herself in danger…

Karen White did a great job narrating. I actually picked up this audio because I saw that Karen had narrated it – and I’m glad that I did. I’ve discovered many new authors thanks to Karen. She is one of my favorite narrators as she can be relied upon to deliver solid, polished performance – and she superbly did just that by acing a multitude of regional accents and capturing the essence of the characters. Her voices always sound genuine. Most notably, her male voices sound like males. I feel that her performance enhanced my enjoyment of this book.

Following please find a few of my favorite quotes from Father’s Day Murder:

As she dressed that night, Lucy remembered Catherine’s words: “If it’s true, it isn’t libel.”
—
“I’ve been to livelier funerals,” grumbled Herb.
—
“It’s a small-town rule: Never speak ill of the dead until the estate has paid the outstanding bills.”
—
Murder was apparently too common-place in the big city to attract much notice.
Poor Luther, thought Lucy, as she headed back to the hotel. Even in death, he was only a big fish in a small pond.

This cozy did not include any romantic elements – so if you are looking for a romance, you should look elsewhere. I was utterly stumped in the whodunit department. Lucy’s antics and some of the situations she found herself in along with the colorful array of possible suspects were both funny and intriguing. I admit to being bored at times and I freely admit that I wanted to strangle Lucy’s daughter. That said, I never considered not finishing the story. It actually appeared doubtful that Lucy would make it home at all – much less for Father’s Day!