Leslie Meier: Countdown to Christmas Murder
Lucy Stone #32
It’s been years since I’ve read a Lucy Stone mystery but I couldn’t resist this holiday tale and I loved it so much I could hardly put it down! Lucy and her husband are now empty-nesters and as Christmas approaches, Lucy just hopes all her children come home for the holiday.
Tinker’s Cove, Maine, is gearing up for the holidays with a Merrie Olde Christmas festival that keeps Lucy busy rehearsing her Mrs. Cratchit role when she’s not working as a reporter and features writer for the Courier, now in print and online, covering all the related holiday events. Among Lucy’s assignments is interviewing Merrie Old Christmas volunteers. She starts with bank manager Bert Cosgrove, an all-around nice guy who is very enthusiastic about playing Marley’s ghost in the Christmas Carol vignettes and being a judge for the plum pudding contest – but after his interview is published he’s attacked online when someone posts nasty photos and comments about him. (I learned that attacking someone’s reputation online like this is called doxing. I had no idea there was a term for it!) And he’s not the first; at least two other people Lucy knows have been doxed.