If fiction is to be believed, coastal Maine has a very high homicide rate.
Which brings us to Leslie Meier, who's Lucy stone seems to stumble into a murder on almost every holiday.
In this case, Easter.
Easter Bunny Murder is the 21st book in the rather long lived cozy mystery series. Lucy, her husband, and 2 of their 4 children live in the same house in the outskirts of Tinker's Cove, Maine, that they lived in way back in Mistletoe Murder. (One child now lives with his wife in a subdivision not far from Lucy, the other child not at home lives in Florida.)As we open on the week before Easter, Lucy is taking her grandson to the annual Easter Egg hunt at the Pine Point Estate. Only to watch the Easter bunny come out, fall down, and die in front of all the children.
What follows is a really ugly story of elder abuse (already covered once in an earlier book, but here warned about in terms of identity thieves posing as lost heirs [and no, that has nothing to do with the plot. Due to the central abuse going on, Lucy ends up discussing other forms of abuse]), families squabbling over inheritance, and two accidents that Lucy are convinced are homicides.
As in most of these Holiday murder books, the plot is fairly straightforward, with a look at a particular social issue tucked in with the older reader in mind. (I'm under the impression that a 30something gay man is NOT the target audience. I am, however, a sucker for a decent mystery, and I've held on for 21 of these bloody things.) And, really, after 21 mysteries with only one really going well far afield (New Year's Eve Murder, in which we wound up with Jessica Fletcher meets Phillip K. Dick), it's not a bad way to spend a few hours. Lucy's fairly likable, and several of the books include recipes for the holiday involved. (I do not recommend the one for the cookies made with Cool Whip, though.)
Oh yes. Tune in Wednesday for a special event as Bob from Candy-coated Razor Blades and I do a trope crossover.
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