Murder Takes A Vacation was an absolute delight for me to read!!! To say I was stunned to see so many three stars on Goodreads is a vast understatement. Could there be a bit of ageism involved? Looking at the photos of who likes this book and who don't, yes, I'd say it's mostly younger readers that found it hard to appreciate an almost 70-year-old woman. Which is fine. I am not drawn to books about teenagers.

I was reading Ms. Lippman's Tess Monaghan mysteries back when she was first writing them decades ago and admired her then, so I was very interested to see what she was up to. It's been so long ago that I read the Tess Monaghan books that I have absolutely no memory of Muriel Blossom, who evidently served Tess in some capacity. Writing about seniors solving mysteries has suddenly become a thing, and a lot of authors are trying their hand at it. I thoroughly enjoyed Ms. Lippman's spin on the oeuvre.

Muriel Blossom's past life is slowly unfolded for us as she goes on her first trip out of the US, and on a river cruise on the Seine. She encounters a mystery along the way. I thought the clues made the guilty parties pretty evident in this mystery but that didn't bother me. This had a kind of slap happy dash about it with the bonus of the sights of France, so I didn't mind that the mystery wasn't totally dark and immersive. I have my Nordic Noir authors for that. I found Muriel sassy and inspiring in a sweet sort of way. There was some controversy about the fact that she was overweight being brought up so much. The author gave a note at the end as to why she addressed this subject. Evidently, she originally received criticism for saying Mrs. Blossom was fat, so this was her attempt to cast a more sympathetic view of what overweight people have to endure in microaggressive behavior. But alas, this also seems to have upset people, so sometimes it is just impossible not to offend somebody.

If you read the book or saw the movie, "Mrs. 'Arris in Paris", this is the kind of fun dynamic present in Murder Takes A Vacation (although there was no mystery in the aforementioned book).

I give this book an enthusiastic 5 stars and would be happy to see a reappearance of Mrs. Blossom on the pages.

Thank you to NetGalley, Laura Lippman, and William Morrow for allowing me to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

This novel by Laura Lippman can definitely be described as a cozy mystery! The main character, a woman in her late 60’s who is widowed and has won the lottery experiences adventures from the moment she checks in for her Paris flight to board her river cruise. The characters are engaging and decimations of the trip are very good too. While a little far fetched it’s definitely a fun read and I was glad to be able to read it thru NetGalley!

A great who-done-it with an older lady as the detective. Highly recommend for those who like The Thursday Murder Club series.

I liked this erstwhile book.
Mrs, Blossom has won millions and is off on an adventure which includes a dead body enroute to France.
I liked her unabashed energy and her canny ability to put people’s feet to the fire.
Mrs. blossom had done her time and now was out to live for herself.

This was a great book. I loved every paragraph, every sentence and every word of this masterpiece! I read it in 12 hours, which is a lot for me to do! It had everything and more laid out in the novel! I sure hope There is more to come from this author! I am totally hooked!

3.5⭐️ This was a very nice, twisty semi-cozy mystery book. Mrs Blossom, at times a bit too naive, was a loveable character. Her somewhat claim to fame, of working for a private eye, was a tad eye rolling, given her propensity for believing the good in everyone. I really liked how Danny was portrayed, how you could never really tell if he was trying to help Muriel or if he was part of the problem. It was heartwarming to finally find out what his true role in the story was. I honestly couldn’t stand Mrs Blossom’s friend; she was too self-involved. Overall, I liked the story and would definitely read a next in the series if one is in the works.

A clever and entertaining mystery that’s equal parts suspenseful and playful. Laura Lippman gives us a vacation setting filled with sharp twists, sly humor, and just the right amount of danger. I was hooked from the first chapter and happily along for the ride, though a few pacing hiccups kept it from a perfect five. Still, it’s a delightful escape for mystery lovers!

Although the main character, Muriel Blossom annoys me from the start, I loved the book. We follow, Mrs. Blossom as she calls herself, on a trip of a lifetime, courtesy of a found lottery ticket. She’s going on a cruise with her good friend. She’s reflecting on her life, the loss of her husband and who she is in this next phase of life, but a chance meeting with a stranger at the airport spins her in a mysterious and harrowing direction. It’s a really fun read and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I wanted to like this, but I kept getting derailed by how often Mrs. Blossom talked about her weight. I was happy that the FMC was plus-size; I didn’t need to be told it every other paragraph. The mystery was good, a little predictable, but still enjoyable.


Thank you to NetGalley and Laura Lippman for an ARC in exchange for an honest review

This started out interesting and fun but then fizzled out because the story just stalled. The references to weight, at the beginning, were there to describe her, but then were consistently in the story, even when unnecessary, and this took me out of the story. The mystery took a back seat to the weight references and the scene setting and I forgot she was trying to figure out what happened. This was just so-so for me.

Muriel Blossom is a simple woman, but when she accidentally (yes, accidentally) wins the lottery, she decides to take a dream trip to Paris with a cruise up the Seine. At the airport, she meets an (overly) accommodating fellow passenger who helps her navigate her first international travel, including an unplanned overnight layover in London. But when police arrive at her Paris hotel, she finds out he has died. Can Muriel unravel the truth behind his death (and why she's being followed)?

While I wanted to enjoy this cozy mystery, I found Muriel’s character somewhat contradictory. On one hand, she likes punk music and abstract expressionism, and has worked for a private investigator. On the other hand, she comes across as surprisingly naive and unworldly—such as when she accepts a gummy from a virtual stranger on the plane. I struggled to reconcile these conflicting traits, which distracted me and ultimately kept me from fully immersing myself in the story.

A cozy departure for my favorite author! This book is a delight, and celebrates the joy and freedom of being an age that can often mean invisibility.

Enjoyed this book very much. It was light and fun.. The main setting, France, was beautiful and as I have family connections to Baltimore, I liked the references to that city, too.

I would classify this as a cozy little mystery. I loved the characters: quirky and sweet. This is one of those books that's not a thriller, but a mystery with a little romance. A very mild and tame mystery story that would be great for those that like a little who done it, but not thrillers.

I found this a fun and enjoyable mystery starring Mrs Blossom, a sixty-eight year old widow on a big vacation. She gets pulled into an international art theft in France and is unsure who she can trust. Fun summer read.

This is a cozy mystery following an older American woman on vacation in Europe. It was fun, but not particularly memorable.
I’ve read a lot of Laura Lippman and this is a lot lighter and cozier than her normal style. Totally enjoyable and well-crafted.

Oof. This book was not my cup of tea.

The absolute fixation on Mrs. Blossom's weight honestly made me cringe so many times and her absolute obsession with pages upon pages of side thoughts that were absolutely not relevant to the story made me skim the rest of the book just so I could get to the ending. As much as Mrs. Blossom claimed to be very good at her surveillance PI work, she sure did seem to be taken in by absolutely everyone. Even I knew who was the villain as soon as they stepped onto the page...

Mrs. Muriel Blossom of Baltimore found a lottery ticket in a parking lot and became an instant millionaire. Widowed ten years, Mrs. Blossom decides to take a river cruise with her oldest friend Elinor. But first she spends several days on her own in Paris, where she meets Allan Turner, who shows a good deal of interest in her, much to her surprise. Mrs. Blossom, as she is known throughout the book, is what might be called “zaftig,” and her size is something of an issue several times in the course of events. Before she can make it to meet her friend and get on the boat, she’s met another man, one Danny Johnson, who may or may not be gay, may or may not be an FBI agent, and may or may not be after her money. The police show up at Mrs. Blossom’s hotel to tell her that the man she’d recently been kissing in her hotel room was dead, having fallen from his hotel balcony in Paris. She learns that somehow she is involved in the theft of a missing statue, and that her deceased friend Allan and her unwelcome acquaintance Danny are involved. She and Elinor make it to the boat, where Mrs. Blossom’s sightseeing plans are somewhat altered by Elinor’s new love interest, Marko. But she carries on and ends up meeting a charming and even wealthier than she is older woman named Pat, who is traveling with her brother. All these loose ends come together on the balcony of Mrs. Blossom’s stateroom one night, where she learns the true provenance of the statue, her part in it, and the identities of her traveling companions. This was a very entertaining departure from Laura Lippman’s Tess Monaghan series. Tess makes a few brief appearances here, but Mrs. Blossom, her goodness, and her loyalty carry the day. A very good read.

Murder Takes A Vacation is a wonderful combination of Agatha Christie and Jessica Fletcher from the Murder She Wrote series. It's an enjoyable who-done-it with wonderful locations and tempting cuisine. But there is so much more to this mystery as our heroine, an older woman who is a widow now at a crossroads in her life with some regrets to come to terms with. Yet who would ever imagine that a murder could be so much fun!

Muriel Blossom is a senior whose husband passed away a decade ago. She lives for her daughter and grandchildren. But, through no luck of her own she won the lottery! Which should be great news but unfortunately, she has just found out her daughter and her family are moving to Japan! And she was not invited to go with them.

So, Muriel and her best friend Elinor decide to go on a European cruise! This should take her mind off of her sorrows...or so she thinks. Muriel used to work for a detective agency many years ago and looks at life and the world a bit differently than others. So, when she meets a charming man, Allan at the airport well, she is suddenly smitten, yet a bit reserved. Why on earth would he be interested in a frumpy old woman?

But she begins to see him differently and as they make their way to Paris where they will separate, Muriel decides to take a risk. Something she has never done since her husband's untimely death years ago. And she finds she's enjoying the attention. But as luck would have it once they arrive in Paris and go their separate ways Muriel discovers Allan has died. Muriel's radar begins to see something is not right, but alas she will be leaving on the cruise in a few days.

Suddenly she meets another stranger named Danny who decides Muriel needs a makeover and talks her into buying herself a new wardrobe. But again, Muriel feels in her gut something is not right. When she discovers Danny is on the same cruise, well she firmly believes something is going on. But what?

What she discovers is there is a missing statue, a Pakastani jewel encrusted one. And now she believes Allan had something to do with its high jacking! So, Muriel begins to investigate onboard the ship and discovers no one is who they say they are, except for her best friend Elinor of course!

Was Allan killed? But why? And who is Danny? Why won't he leave her alone?

Murder Takes A Vacation is an exciting mysterious read, with clues galore. You will fall in love with Mrs. Blossom for not only her way of thinking, but all the lessens she will learn as well as secrets she's been holding on to for years which will change her life forever!

Thank you #NetGalley #WilliamMorrow #LauraLippman #MurderTakesAVacation for the advanced copy.

I struggled to get into this book and ultimately had to DNF about 3 chapters in. Hoping to give it another try soon