Lucy is running every which way in this exciting mystery. She is planning a birthday party for her 14-year-old daughter who wants a co-ed sleepover, working at the Penny Saver newspaper, helping with a 90th party for Miss Tilly, and doing her normal family things. She also gets caught up in investigating a murder staged to look like a suicide, a car accident, is ticketed twice by the police, finds her husband unconscious on the ground after he fell through a window, is caught sneaking into a house to see Miss Tilly, discovers a murdered man, and more! Wow! She is also worried about looking older. There is plenty of action and some tense moments since Lucy can’t help putting herself in danger to help her friends. Well written with all the characters regular readers have come to love, this mystery is a great addition to this wonderful series. ( )

This is one of my very favorite cozy mystery series. I always love coming back to Maine to see what Lucy Stone is up to with her family and neighbors. This time, it’s a blustery spring and Lucy is dealing with a cranky teenager who wants to do a co-ed sleepover, a birthday party for Ms. Tilly, Tinker’s Cove’s oldest resident, and of course, a murder investigation. The police have ruled the death a suicide, but friends of the victim are convinced they’re wrong, and when Lucy takes on the case, clues start adding up.

Please excuse typos/name misspellings. Entered on screen reader.
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Please see all of my reviews on my blog at www.robinlovesreading.blogspot.com.

My rating: 4.5 Stars

Lucy Stone, very busy wife and mother of four, has a part-time job at the town’s newspaper. She agreed to allow her daughter to have a co-ed birthday sleepover. One of the Tinker’s Cove oldest citizens, a former librarian, Miss Tilley, is approaching ninety. She feels pressured when her best friend Sue asks her to help out with a party Sue and her friends are planning for Miss Tilley. She reluctantly agrees to help. She is quite fond of Miss Tilley, but has a full schedule. They decide to throw a “Miss Tilley Day”.

Meanwhile, Sherman Cobb was found murdered by his partner Bob Goodman. Lucy agrees to look into the case. As an amateur detective, there is nothing surprising about this. It was ruled a suicide but it seems suspicious. Her husband Bill has his typical reaction. "Bill sighed in frustration. 'What do you want to go and do that for? Haven’t we been through this a million times? Why do you have to keep sticking your nose into police business, huh?'" Why would she involve herself in solving another murder?

Although one of her children is just in the second grade, with two of her children being in college, Lucy begins to feel the effects of getting older. She has become focused on losing weight. Working on that goal, and dealing with the two birthday parties, hardly leaves Lucy time to step in and find the cause of Sherman’s death. As she begins checking things out, quite a few things do not fall into place that don’t line up for man that would kill himself. As always, Lucy leaves no stone unturned.

Birthday Party Murder has some sensitive moments, especially as Miss Tilley experiences flashbacks from her youth. Between everything going on, this story is another delightful little mystery and is a great addition to this ongoing series. As the story progresses, other things happen in Lucy’s life and family. In this story, as well as the series, some readers like myself are getting rather annoyed with Lucy‘s husband Bill being big man on the town. His view of Lucy’s role can be rather condescending. If not the mystery in this series, which is done well, the characters will draw you in. I definitely look forward to continuing with this engaging series.

This is the 9th book in the series, with the 25th book, Valentine Candy Murder, being released in December, which is an omnibus, as are some of the new releases. The next book in the series is Father’s Day Murder, which was originally released in 2003. I encourage readers of this review to look at my other reviews from this series on this blog. Also, here is a link to her series in order: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/m/leslie-meier/. ( )

At last this series gets a second book that reached 5 stars. It was long due in coming. I have a great fondness for the style and rythm, and class of this series. This book is one of the strong 5 star earners. It's right there among the best books I've ever read. The interaction between the Stone family members may have looked ordinary if adapted onscreen, but in book medium it's absolutely brilliant. The murder, obligatory ingredient that it is, is solved, but it's not the main attraction in the book. I still don't like Miss Tilley. And it's not fair that they have changed her personality to make her likeable. Everything else balances beautifully here and I've got no complaints. ( )

good/great ( )