Name: New Year's Eve Murder
ISBN: 9780758207005

Leslie Meier

Winning mother/daughter makeovers in Manhattan from Jolie magazine, Lucy Stone and her daughter Elizabeth, immersed in the glamour of haute couture, witness a murder that casts a negative light on several high-style fashionistas and places Elizabeth's life in danger. Reprint.

New Year's Eve Murder

Sarah Sammis

I prefer the ones where she's traveling. Lucy's always more interesting when she's away from her family. That said, the obvious villains were obvious.

Although this is the fourth book in the series published post 9/11, this book is the first one to mention it, or draw inspiration from it. Of course with a trip to Manhattan it would be hard not to. Lucy and Elizabeth comment on how the rules around flying have changed, including the exclusion of liquids in carry-on luggage. Plus Lucy ruminates over the gaping hole in the skyline where the old World Trade Center buildings were as this is before the new building and memorial was built.

http://pussreboots.com/blog/2023/comm...

I'm disappointed with this one. For starters, there are too many characters to keep straight. I couldn't tell you which random woman was which from the contest. She could have cut down the number of women and had the same effect. The mystery was pretty much second in this, with Lucy doing little to actually solve it, though she did have some issues with investigating.

I think the running issue is that, when the murder isn't in Tinker's Cove, Meier doesn't seem to know what to have Lucy do to investigate. I saw this in Father's day Murder as well. She was even more disconnected in this book and it felt like I was just watching Lucy stumble throgue without being able to get clues to the murder mystery. 

I don't mind the long wait for the mystery to start, as I do like reading about Lucy in Tinker's Cove, but this one dropped the ball.