Tippy Toe Murder

When Lucy Stone's neighbor, Caro Binney, a retired dance teacher, disappears, and Morrill Slack is killed with a video camera, Lucy sets out to track down Caro, who could be linked to Morrill's murder.From Publishers WeeklyPreparations for a ballet school recital in Tinker's Cove, Mass., provide the setting for this second, determinedly domestic, Lucy Stone adventure, after Mail-Order Murder. Lucy, in her sixth month of pregnancy, is fully enmeshed in family life with her husband and three youngsters when her neighbor Caroline Hutton, mentor to ballet instructor Tatiana, disappears. The police say the 70-year-old former dancer has simply gone on vacation without telling anyone. Lucy and Tatiana aren't so sure, but Tatiana's recital preparations and Lucy's domestic demands preclude further investigation. Lucy lends her video camera to her friend Franny, who has been falsely accused of stealing from the hardware store where she works. The owner finds the recorder, confiscates it and sacks Franny, but when Lucy goes to the store to demand its return, she finds that the owner has been bludgeoned to death with the camera. When Franny is arrested for murder, Lucy resolves to save her. Meier links the missing neighbor and the murdered hardware store owner in this quirky, low-key puzzle, which is packed with the details of small-town, family life. Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Kirkus ReviewsA second visit to Maine's Tinker's Cove and homemaker-sleuth Lucy Stone (Mail Order Murder, 1991), pregnant again (her fourth) and at the center of village activities. The disappearance of retired dance teacher Caro Binney and the murder of nasty old hardware-store owner Morrill Slack have Lucy running in all directions, eventually tracking Caro, unmasking a slick lawyer in the process, and giving staunch support to wrongly accused Franny Small, Slack's longtime employee--all this sandwiched between school taxiing, Little League, ballet lessons, and helpful chats with women friends. An easygoing style, a few chuckles, but too heavy on cozy details, too lightweight in plotting and detection. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Lucy Stone of Tinker's Cove is taking time off from work to organize her three children, give birth to a fourth, and solve a series of curious mysteries plaguing her beloved town.From Publishers WeeklyPreparations for a ballet school recital in Tinker's Cove, Mass., provide the setting for this second, determinedly domestic, Lucy Stone adventure, after Mail-Order Murder. Lucy, in her sixth month of pregnancy, is fully enmeshed in family life with her husband and three youngsters when her neighbor Caroline Hutton, mentor to ballet instructor Tatiana, disappears. The police say the 70-year-old former dancer has simply gone on vacation without telling anyone. Lucy and Tatiana aren't so sure, but Tatiana's recital preparations and Lucy's domestic demands preclude further investigation. Lucy lends her video camera to her friend Franny, who has been falsely accused of stealing from the hardware store where she works. The owner finds the recorder, confiscates it and sacks Franny, but when Lucy goes to the store to demand its return, she finds that the owner has been bludgeoned to death with the camera. When Franny is arrested for murder, Lucy resolves to save her. Meier links the missing neighbor and the murdered hardware store owner in this quirky, low-key puzzle, which is packed with the details of small-town, family life. Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Kirkus ReviewsA second visit to Maine's Tinker's Cove and homemaker-sleuth Lucy Stone (Mail Order Murder, 1991), pregnant again (her fourth) and at the center of village activities. The disappearance of retired dance teacher Caro Binney and the murder of nasty old hardware-store owner Morrill Slack have Lucy running in all directions, eventually tracking Caro, unmasking a slick lawyer in the process, and giving staunch support to wrongly accused Franny Small, Slack's longtime employee--all this sandwiched between school taxiing, Little League, ballet lessons, and helpful chats with women friends. An easygoing style, a few chuckles, but too heavy on cozy details, too lightweight in plotting and detection. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.