Heather
Hit-and-miss start to a surprisingly long series.
The first book in the Lucy Stone series does a good job of introducing the characters and setting of small town Tinker's Cove and it's primary employer - Country Cousins, a mail-order company with a popular catalog. Lucy and several others work the call center night shift, receiving and placing orders, until one night Lucy takes her break... and discovers the company's owner dead in his car.
As a Cozy Mystery, I found this book great at one half and lacking in the other. The best sections of this book are definitely the cozy, comforting family and Christmas scenes, which I found lovely, and the subplot with Lucy's mother is particularly rewarding. But the mystery itself leaves a lot to be desired. Avalanches of information that may or may not be relevant bog the story down, and rather than feeling like we're following a trail of bread crumbs, it feels like a drunken stumble down a rocky hillside in the wrong direction, until the answer is dropped in our laps in the second-to-last chapter.
Later books seem to have higher ratings, so I might continue the series, but for anyone looking to pick up the series or character for the first time, it could be worth it to start later in the series, or you may give up before you start.
Hit-and-miss start to a surprisingly long series.
The first book in the Lucy Stone series does a good job of introducing the characters and setting of small town Tinker's Cove and it's primary employer - Country Cousins, a mail-order company with a popular catalog. Lucy and several others work the call center night shift, receiving and placing orders, until one night Lucy takes her break... and discovers the company's owner dead in his car.
As a Cozy Mystery, I found this book great at one half and lacking in the other. The best sections of this book are definitely the cozy, comforting family and Christmas scenes, which I found lovely, and the subplot with Lucy's mother is particularly rewarding. But the mystery itself leaves a lot to be desired. Avalanches of information that may or may not be relevant bog the story down, and rather than feeling like we're following a trail of bread crumbs, it feels like a drunken stumble down a rocky hillside in the wrong direction, until the answer is dropped in our laps in the second-to-last chapter.
Later books seem to have higher ratings, so I might continue the series, but for anyone looking to pick up the series or character for the first time, it could be worth it to start later in the series, or you may give up before you start.