Murder Takes a Vacation was an interesting summer mystery. Reading Lippman's acknowledgements was insightful to the character of Mrs. Blossom and her focus on her weight. However, it felt extremely distracting to the plot and frustrating that she didn't love herself. Her interaction with Allan was the best part, so that's very frustrating (without spoiling anything). Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to review this book. As a fan of Sunburn, I was hoping for a bit more darkness or intrigue for this story.

So Mrs Blossom from Baltimore arranges to go on a cruise trip from Paris with her friend, Elinor.

Mrs Blossom is a widow in her late 60's, and, to put a not too fine a point on it, fat. She also seems to have lived à somewhat sheltered life, but did come into money after being lucky with a found lottery ticket. And Mrs Blossom seems to attract attention. There is the gallant silver fox who fusses over her on her flight to Paris, helping her with her luggage, even watching over her as she sleeps in her hotel room. Romance appears to be in the stars until news comes in that he hasunaccountably dies.... ...

Enter abrasive Danny., who also seems unable to leave Mrs Blossom to her own devices. .Ny now Mrs Blossom is beginning to suspect that she is being followed, her hotel room whilst Danny suspects that she may be embroiled in danger. Has she had something planted on her? And is Danny telling her the whole truth about his search for a stolen artifact?

The action then follows Mrs Blossom onto the cruise ship that sails out from Paris, and she and her friend find themselves surrounded by a new circle of friends and acquaintances.

Mrs Blossom's eyes are opened to a new world of fashion and more possible romance - only this time, she finds herself playing gooseberry to her friend. But danger is still around her, and she must get to apply her analytical skills to the max, to find out where the true villains are, and what they are really after.

This does work as an old-fashioned whodunnit, and may appeal to those who have already enjoyed such tales. Mrs Blossom is an unlikely heroine, as as a sleuth she can be quite unworldy. No doubt her character arc will take her into new adventures to come too.

An Acerbic Bite..
A cosy mystery with a sharp acerbic bite in the first of the Mrs Blossom series of mysteries in which she takes a vacation. Determined to see the world she embarks upon a cruise down the Seine - whilst this sounds like a most serene and idyllic way to pass the time, this trip is nothing less than eventful. With one man dead, a precious artefact missing and a complete stranger advising her that her very life is in danger, who on earth can she trust? Perhaps it’s time to trust herself - after all, she’s one investigator that no one will notice coming. Well crafted with a delicious protagonist, a cast of eclectic characters and a frothy plot.

First of all thank you for approving my request!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! The authors writing style had me hooked throughout this book.

I didn't want it to end, a book I really couldn't put down.

Laura Lippman, Murder Takes a Vacation,
A Mrs Blossom Mystery, Faber and Faber Ltd, August 2025.

Thank you, NetGalley, for providing me with this uncorrected proof for review.

Mrs Blossom holds the fears of many whose route to the back of a plane is accompanied by the overwhelming feeling that they will not be welcome in the tiny space to be shared with other passengers. On this occasion, arriving early at check in as usual, she is rewarded with an upgrade. Her unfamiliar feeling of wellbeing on a plane is enhanced by her meeting with handsome and caring fellow passenger. However, this will be the last time she is afforded such a comfortable state of mind. The flight lands in Heathrow too late for her to make her connection to a Paris where she is to join her friend to cruise through France.

Muriel Blossom is a wonderful character with her amalgam of fears about her appearance and age, her robust willingness to put her detection skills to use and her interactions with the people she meets. At times she inclined to think the worst of them; at others she is keen to befriend a fellow traveller. At the same time as she is interacting with new acquaintances, her friendship with the multiple marrying Elinor is joyful, accepting and warm, painting this relationship as ideal, depicting everything a woman’s friendship should be.

There is enough ‘bite’ in this novel to avoid it being a ‘cozy’ mystery. Laura Lippman has brought Mrs Blossom, female friendships, humour, detection and intrigue together to make an extremely satisfying read. As in Dream Girl (2021) Lipmann’s Tess Monaghan takes second place to a new character and story line. Murder Takes a Vacation poses a successful interaction with Lippman’s famous character and a secondary character from Another Thing to Fall (2008). Lippmann’s ability to deliver a plot that, while providing only glimpses of Tess Monaghan, is again triumphant.

I was really disappointed with this, having always enjoyed Laura Lippman before, I found this book to be very twee and slow. It felt like a chore finishing it.

Cozy mystery. Perfect for picking up and putting down over the summer months. Older protagonist. If you liked the authors previous works you will like this.

Mrs Blossom's lottery win has taken her to unexpected places. Or rather, it is perfectly reasonable for her to be spending some of her wins on a luxury cruise but she encounters during that time is decidedly unexpected.

Travelling down the Seine, you're pretty much guaranteed great food and charming spots to visit, but you probably would not expect to come across artefact theft or imminent danger.

Luckily, Mrs Blossom isn't just a nice lady who happens to be a grandmother. She also has a sharp mind and an ability to blend into the background that can prove very useful indeed on occasions such as this...

Murder Takes a Vacation is something of a departure from Laura Lippman's useful dark, mysterious thrillers, but it will certainly appeal to aficionados of cosy crime. My reading preferences fit better into the first category, but this was an enjoyable read, and gets 3.5 stars.

I suppose you could say that Murder Takes A Vacation fits into the genre of senior-led, cosy crime that is so popular at the moment, so it behoves me to say that far from being a craven example of jumping on a bandwagon, Mrs Blossom has been around since Laura Lippman's 2008 novel, Another Thing To Fall. Lippman is always a must-read for me, and her Tess Monaghan series is one I return to time and again, so I was delighted to learn that her new book featured Mrs Blossom, one of my favourite minor characters from that series.

Murder Takes A Vacation is certainly a departure (no pun intended) from Lippman's usual books, most obviously in the choice of setting, as although Baltimore features briefly at the very start and end of the novel, most of the action takes place in France, with a short diversion to London on the way. The tone maintains the touches of humour found in the Monaghan series, but Muriel Blossom is a less cynical character than Tess (although woe betide anyone who assumes that because Mrs Blossom is (by her own description) fat and old, that she is also simple minded or incompetent).

I absolutely loved the book, and think it will appeal to fans of Richard Osman, Robert Thorogood and Deanna Raybourn's Killers of a Certain Age. Meanwhile, I'm holding out hope that, with Mrs Blossom firmly back in Baltimore and multiple mentions of Tess, that the next Lippman might finally be another Tess Monaghan book - perhaps a two-hander with Mrs Blossom as co-investigator?

Murder takes a Vacation is centred around a 60 something Mrs Blossom, who throughout the whole book moans about her weight and age (way too much). She comes into fortune and takes a cruise with her friend.

Unfortunately this was a 2 star for me, I didn’t really get on with the writing style and wasn’t overall interested in the plot because it was too slow paced for me personally. I didn’t enough how centred it was around being overweight, although the character did find peace with this topic in the end.