Leslie Meier

In a delicious new installment of Meier's much-loved cozy mystery series, Lucy Stone--part-time reporter, mother of four, and amateur sleuth--discovers that love is not the only thing in the air this Valentine's Day. Murder is, too.

Chocolate Covered Murder

Briar's Reviews

Chocolate Covered Murder by Leslie Meier is the 18th book in the Lucy Stone Mystery series.

I've been picking up the books in this series whenever I can, and reading a Valentine's Day one close to Valentine's Day felt natural (okay, it was a little late... but it was still fun and felt in the spirit). 

In this small town of Tinkers Cove, a new chocolateer (totally a real word) popped up. They sell super expensive chocolates and compete against the small town's original shoppe. This brings initial stress, but then when a local, kind man is found murdered... and then a woman who was flirting it up with her... Things get rough real fast. Throw in the tease of small-town drug use, potential infidelity with a new town flirt, and Lucy's sudden obsession with her own weight... a lot is going on.

I'll be honest, I HATED that Lucy mentions her weight almost every other page. Seriously, why did this have to be a major plot point? It felt so concerning because it didn't really have any affect on the plot. It just felt kind of fatphobic. It didn't really need to be in there at all.

The murder mystery itself was a fun read though! There's a lot of suspicion around who could do it, and the book sets itself up to keep you thinking.

Overall, the book was okay... But I have to give it two stars because of the horrible weight watching plot line.

Two out of five stars.

This got two stars because a lot of the plot points didn't work well together. For instance, there is a side plot with an older couple, which was put to get wayside until the very end, but then seemed unresolved. I think it fit the overall theme, but it added little to the plot and did nothing to develop the murder mystery aspect. There's also a drug abuse side plot, which does tie into the murder but I think it could have been hinted at more, perhaps cutting the couple in favor of one of Lucy's kids having a drug problem or having a friend with a drug problem or something alongood those lines. 

I think Meier is having a tougher time blending Lucy's life into the murder mystery again, because she wants to tell us a story about Lucy and I want to hear it, but then she almost forgets that there is a mystery to be solved. I'm not going to lie, about forgot about the first murder until Lucy asked a detective about it.

I'm starting to wonder if some of these are more rushed in creation than others, because it seems like those mysteries without an epilogue tend to be less polished than those that received one. I don't know how Meier is contracted for the series but either she is being forcedar to meet a page count or have X amounts of murders/twists that hinder her greater writing process. I'very read every book up until this point and can say that she makes a great series, but you can see where her individual books don't hold up without knowing the history and gradual build of characterization.