Trick or Treat Murder

Lucy Stone #3

by Leslie Meier

Haunted-house parties and ghostly galas…grinning pumpkins, mayhem and murder. It’s going to be one heck of a Halloween for Lucy Stone and Tinker’s Cove…

It’s October in Maine, and everyone in Tinker’s Cove is preparing for the annual Halloween festival. While Lucy Stone is whipping up orange-frosted cupcakes, recycling tutus for her daughters’ Halloween costumes, helping her son with his pre-teen rebellion, and breast-feeding her brand-new baby, an arsonist is loose in Tinker’s Cove. When the latest fire claims the life of the owner of the town’s oldest house, arson turns into murder…

While the townsfolk work to transform a dilapidated mansion into a haunted house for the All-Ghouls festival, the hunt for the culprit heats up. Trick-or-treat turns deadly as a little digging in all the wrong places puts Lucy too close to a shocking discovery that could send all her best-laid plans up in smoke…

Genres: Mystery, Cozy Mystery, Halloween, Fiction, Cozy, Holiday, Autumn

1 pages, Audio CD

First published October 1, 1996

About the author

Leslie Meier lives in Braintree and Harwich (Cape Cod), Massachusetts. She is the creator of 'Lucy Stone', a reporter and amateur sleuth in the fictional seaside village of Tinker's Cove, Maine.

Reviews

[Luffy Sempai · Rating 5 out of 5]

The reason why I like this series so much is the reason I don't watch TV anymore. The characterization of a family is a balancing act that not every mortal can display. Here the Stone family comes to life and jumps from the pages.

Trick or Treat Murder has several plot lines. The major story is that of Lucy Stone investigating a series of arson crime. I really don't know why the arsonist felt it necessary to warn Lucy to back off(via painting the message on her car), because she wasn't going anywhere with her nosiness.

Bill Stone is my favorite Stone member. Here he rescues his wife by - but no, I will not spoil the fun. I realize that this cozy is not everyone's cup of tea. But in case it clicks with you, do give it a go.

[Luffy Sempai · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful book. My tentative faith in this series lives on. This is the story of Lucy Stone loosely investigating a series of arson crimes. In the process we get to observe her daily routines. Her husband Bill gets some of the spotlight too.

It's a fascinating read as this is the type of coverage I won't get in any TV show or movie or website or comic book. The 5 star rating was clinched when Lucy had to survive being burnt, twice. No, on second thoughts I was pretty sure it would get that perfect score, but a weak finale might have ruined that likelihood. The flow of this part of the book was very nicely managed. Lucy Stone is an open minded person, and she seems to be ready for whatever happens when her kids get less younger.

She has friends without being either popular or a pariah. She is well off without being rich. She is articulate without being very well educated. She is fascinating. Bring on the rest of the books. I recommend this entire series fully, heartily.

[Kat · Rating 5 out of 5]

In TRICK OR TREAT MURDER, the 3rd book in the Lucy Stone cozy mystery series, there’s an arsonist on the loose in Tinker’s Cove, Lucy has a new baby at home, cupcakes to bake, and Halloween costumes to figure out. I always love this series for its look into life in small-town coastal Maine and everyday family life. Lots of funny town council meetings (think Gilmore Girls), exercise classes with her best friend Sue, haunted house decorating, pumpkin patches and hayrides, and Lucy tracking down trouble. And cupcakes. Oh, the cupcakes! This one was interesting as far as the murder plot and arsonist went and kept me guessing all the way to the end! 5/5 stars.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ah, success! Trick or Treat Murder is the third book in the Lucy Stone series, and after the first two went into much darker territory and had line-crossing sexual content (which is totally fine when I'm reading suspense or thriller novels... just not in what I thought was a light cozy one), this installment is within the boundaries of the sub-genre. Occasionally, there are characters who aren't very PC or a description of some private moment between a couple... nothing too strong, though. As to the mystery, it offered some interesting elements, but Lucy isn't really investigating. And the culprit became too obvious too quickly. Information just happens to fall into Lucy's lap often. I wouldn't call her an amateur sleuth. In comparison to the Joanne Fluke books where Hannah does investigate, these are different. The Lucy Stone books have the same small town and side story happenings of family life, yet they're not as well written in terms of mystery plots and character connection with all the others in the tales. But had I read this alone, I would have said the series had a lot of potential. I'm still on the fence with the series because it's not exactly what I want; it takes place in Maine and I adore the setting, which make it appealing. So I'm expanding my test to 5 books before I give up or commit.

[Ali · Rating 1 out of 5]

OK, I can't even really speak to the story, which became obvious near the end, because I was so frustrated with the author that I could barely concentrate on it. Clearly the author is a LLL psycho who only wrote in the new baby to have the opportunity to preach about breast feeding every other paragraph. It distracted from the story, and I was really put off by the constant talk of tingly boobs, milk being let down, and lifting up one's shirt to give a snack. Enough already. We get it. You're an aging hippie. But it has nothing to do with the story at hand, and it was just really obnoxious. Even if the story was great, which it wasn't, I wouldn't be able to get past this aspect of the book to give it a higher rating. The next book in the series supposedly takes place 2 years later...so if she's still nursing a toddler and yammering on about it, I'm done.

[Katie T · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dnf 80%

I didn't realize how bad this was immediately, but I don't need to finish this. I can't handle the mention of breast feeding one more freaking time. This book is boring and terrible and barely about a mystery or murder, and the actual mystery sucks. This is just about a random mom running errands and going to Halloween parties with her kids and breast feeding. It wasn't even fun or festive for the Halloween season. I don't need to know how it ends to know my rating, I've listened to enough.

[Anita · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was looking for books with a Halloween/Fall theme that weren't horror and came across this one. I have book friends who just love Leslie Meier, but I've never read any Lucy Stone books. The series is long running at over 30-years-old and 30+ books. I was delighted with this cozy mystery and loved that the author just seems to drop into Lucy's life and the community of Tinker's Cove without rehashing the previous plots. Although at times it seems somewhat dated, the book was written in 1996, that did not distract from a great plot and wonderful characters.

Lucy Stone is a stay-at-home mother to four children with baby Zoe at just six weeks old. Her husband, Bill, is a contractor/carpenter who specializes in historical properties. His first contracting job was the Hampsted House over 10 years ago and both Lucy and Bill got close to the owner, Monica Mayes. When Hampsted House burns down, Lucy is devastated to learn that Monica died in the fire. Since this was the latest in a string of arson fires in the small community, Lucy is determined to find the arsonist before more historic properties are destroyed.

[Ashley · Rating 1 out of 5]

The message in this book is clear: all women are meddlesome stay-at-home moms who should mind their own business because they're not intelligent enough to fully form a thought, let alone solve a crime! Ladies, you are only as good as your milk.
Furthermore, the husband is always right (figuring out the case long before you will), and will always jump in to save the day. Boo.

[Mandy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eh. It was ok. Wanted more of a mystery. I felt like it started strong and then fell apart in the end.

[VJ · Rating 2 out of 5]

I believe this is my last Lucy Stone mystery. I just don't like the characters! Lucy is nosy, stupid, immature, has no self esteem and "no" doesn't seem to be in her vocabulary. Her husband is manic depressive and borders on abusive when in the depressive state. Her kids are sullen and whiney. The "mystery" is never really the focus of these books.

The writing style reminds me of young adult books but the subject matter is very grown up. With hundreds of other books available, I just can't see wasting any more time on these boring, annoying characters.

[Shannon · Rating 1 out of 5]

Absolute shit. I couldn't get beyond the pro-bullying/anti-fat/anti-different-than-everyone-else stance this bullshit book took. I've never read anything that seemed to condone bullying since really it's the kids fault for being different. And the judgment, that how dare the main character, 6 weeks after delivering a baby, not be in complete hot pre-baby shape!? Her own best friend commented regularly or her need to lose weight. What the actual fuck!? And the excuses made for the hoity toity, older than Methuselah, racist, crochety, Republican lady who clearly needed to be fucking committed were inexcusable. This book pissed me off. Obviously. Besides all that though, what kind of horse shit small town is just gonna give case details to some random nosy community member lady? So it's a small town, ok. But not even in a small town is a police station that's actively investigating arson and murder going to go to some nobody stay at mom's house and discuss case details over fucking coffee and cupcakes. Just pure ridiculousness. Not a bit believable, not a bit handled well.

I will never read anything by this author. I can only assume she's as pretentious and judgmental and shallow as the characters in this book. If there were negative stars, this would get em.

[Teddi · Rating 2 out of 5]

A quick read and the first book in the series that i've read. I usually like small town quirky series but this one was quite repetitive, especially regarding the main character and her baby. I thought if she wrote about her breastfeeding one more time, i'd scream! Not much of a mystery either in that our amateur sleuth didnt do much detecting and she did do that nosy woman bit that annoys me.
Will try the next one i've got and see if it gets any better.

[zainab · Rating 2 out of 5]

this is the kind of book you gift someone on their baby shower because it tells more on how to take care of an infant and breastfeeding than the actual mystery.

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always try to give a series two (and sometimes three) bad books in a row before I quit it, because even though one book may be a dud, it doesn't mean the entire series is. After receiving the 22nd book from Kensington and Netgalley as an ARC, and reading the 1st and 2nd books and having neither of them pop out at me, I was wary of this book, but I decided to plunge ahead and read it. I can say that I am pleased that I did!

I really like Lucy, and perhaps that's why I read this one so soon after reading the second one. She's strong, smart, and not afraid to work, all of which make her an admirable character. Her family is also wonderful; Bill can be annoying at times, but I'm very pleased to say that in this book he was tolerable!

The setting is so beautiful, and I wish I could find a town like Tinker's Cove to live in. The mystery was well put together, though I did figure out the killer, the mystery still had tons of plot twists and turns and overall was just a good base.

Overall a good book, if the rest of the series stays like this, then I'll stay with it! A perfect beach read.

[Celia · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I read Eggnog Murder, a murder happening at Christmas time, I vowed to read another Meier book.

This time it is Halloween and the book is good but not as good as the first Meier I read. (This one is #3 in the series, the first one I read is #23.5. Meier must be improving with experience!!)

This particular story centers on arson. In at least one of the fires, someone dies. There is also planning for a Halloween Party in an historic Tinker Cove (Maine) home. As usual, Lucy Stone tries to figure out what is going on.

I was somewhat disappointed, as the main event and why it happened was left unresolved.
This is supposed to be a murder mystery. But if Monica Mayes was murdered, the motive was not identified. I know who set the fire, but did he know Monica was inside. If he didn't know she was inside, was it murder?

3 stars

[Anastasia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Trick or Treat Murder by Leslie Meier is the 3rd book in the Lucy Stone Mystery series. An arsonist is targetting historical buildings in Tinker's Cove in Maine while prepaerations are underway for Halloween. An interesting mystery with Lucy nurding her fourth bsby while assisting with party preperations and looking into the arson after one of her friends is killed in one of the fires. I like that she is always ready to help out despite having her hands full. A charming and enjoyable cozy mystery.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good read.. Only strange thing was that I read the Back to School first because it seemed like more logical order so when I read this one, I wondered why the baby was a newborn.

The mystery was very well plotted. I won't be a spoiler--you'll just have to read it for yourself! Taking a short break to read some more recent releases but already have the Thanksgiving book borrowed from the library.. Highly recommend this series to all cozy readers..

[Karelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bon, ben je lui ai laissé sa chance à cette autrice, et ça reste incroyablement médiocre. C'est même pas un bon cosy mystery d'automne, on passe trop de temps à la suivre faire sa routine d'épicerie (encore) et de changements de couches de bébé, à cuisiner ses douze douzaines de cupcakes, à déprécier son corps et finalement à joindre un gym, le tout en posant ici et là des questions inintéressantes à des "suspects". C'tait poche. Un peu un terrible whodunit.

[Jo Anne · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was an okay murder mystery; not really worth writing a review, but I had to warn people--BEWARE if you don't like babies or breastfeeding women. I don't like either and I had to squirm through several passages where the author describes the main character nursing her baby. I don't want to read about nipples spraying milk, or milk dropping down or babies...period.

There is one part, near the end of the book, where I have to call BS. The main character is in the hospital. She is NURSING, as we already know. Point 1, where is her family? Why is the phone at her house busy? Shouldn't the family be with her AT THE HOSPITAL, especially since there is a BABY who needs milk? Ok, I realize this is to build suspense--WHERE is her family? But it's such an obvious WHA? that it pulled me out of the story. And it's lazy writing.

No more Leslie Meier for me.

[Tina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this one. It's been a while but if memory serves me, it has much Halloween spirit with a fairly decent mystery attached. I love Ms. Meier's books but lately she's gotten too political and social issue leaning in her cozies. I get that from other sources and look to my mysteries to escape not run into more.

[Toni · Rating 4 out of 5]

.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Halloween is approaching and the town of Tinker’s Cove is getting ready. Everyone is busy with parties, pumpkin patches, cupcakes and the All-Ghouls festival. The holiday mood turns sours when old houses start burning to the ground and the owner of one dies in the fire. Lucy has a new baby and knows she stay out of it, but she can’t help but ask questions and soon finds herself in the middle of the flames.

These books are so delightful. I love the small town feel and the long term friendships. Lucy’s inquisitive nature is a lot like mine and I like how she nonchalantly asks questions as she investigates each crime. She knows she should keep her nose out of it, everyone tells her, but she can’t help it.
There as a couple of pretty intense moments toward the end of the story and the ending is shocking. The arsonist is no who I was expecting. Lucy was shocked as well. Well played Ms. Meier.

[☼♎ Carmen the Bootyshaker Temptress ☼♎ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good cozy

Rating 3.5 stars
This was a first for me with this author and I enjoyed Lucy and her family. She may have baby brain in this story but she will get it together. I may want to tart with the first book so I can enjoy all the other fun characters and get to know them more especially Ms. Tilley. Hahaha

[Christy Parker · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was disappointed by this book. First, Lucy and Bill's marriage has become more and more unpleasant in each book of the series. That's OK, if part of your storyline is the main character's troubled marriage, but the author treats this marriage as a healthy, loving one, when it is clearly not healthy, they could use abbot of help.

Second, I am pro-breastfeeding, but I felt that the book was a bit heavy on it. There's hardly a page in the book where Lucy isn't breastfeeding, thinking about breastfeeding, or has just finished breastfeeding. It's a bit much.

Finally, this book is super body-shaming. For a series that is so pro-woman as to feature breastfeeding so prominently, it's certainly anti-fat-woman. Lucy still hasn't gotten off her pregnancy pounds, and it's such an issue that her best friend, Sue, actually tricks her into exercising by telling Lucy that she wants a "workout buddy," then bailing on Lucy after Lucy joins the gym and telling Lucy that Sue feels Lucy needs the exercise while Sue does not. (Lucy's friends even disapprove when Lucy wants a second cookie at tea, because she needs to lose weight). We later find out that "fat" Lucy is still small enough to to fit into her preteen son's baseball uniform. How fat can she be if she can fit into the pants of an 11 year old boy.

And Lucy is "shocked" that the social worker is fat, I guess that she feels that an educated woman should know better than to get fat. Lucy is so bothered by the social worker's weight that she is "shocked and relieved" that a chair didn't shatter into splinters under the social worker's bulk. Lucy also feels "claustrophobic" from being in a hallway with the woman. Lucy is so bothered by fat people that she becomes claustrophobic just from being too close to them?

Frankly, I was a bit disgusted by the book. I'm not quite sure that I'm not done with Lucy Stone. The first book in the series was good, the second was unsettling (not because of the crimes or mystery, but because of the marriage problems), and this one is actually offensive. I try to give a series a second chance, but I wasn't over the moon about the second book, and I was fairly unhappy with this one.

[Kimberly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very well written, not even half way through, I decided that I had to get all of the books in this series. For such a small book, 256 pages, it packed a punch that left me feeling as though Id read a 400 pager.
This was a real page turner and its been a while since I said that. Written back in 1997, I felt this author was way ahead of her time. It felt modern somehow.
There was only one small thing that got on my nerves. It was the repeated mention of breast feeding. A lot of detail was put into "nursing" as opposed to any other subject (except for the mystery itself). As each chapter arrived, here would come the boob again. Pulled her boob out here, there and everywhere and descriptions about it. I was like, "Come on already, why do we need to know this each time in such a detailed way"?
I do recommend this book, just skim the milk boobie talk.

[Becky · Rating 2 out of 5]

Entertaining, but not a good book. I know that statment is at odds with itself, but here me out. The supposed amateur detective Lucy Stone did not do very much detecting. The only reason she discovered the culprit was because he tried to kill her... twice! But I found the atempted murder odd because she really had no clue what was going on...none!

People really like this series, so I might try another one. I liked the setting, atmosphere and characters enough to give the series one more attempt.

[Sydney · Rating 1 out of 5]

I thought I’d read these mysteries on the holidays just for fun. I wasn’t expecting such intense pro-bullying and fat phobic content. It was also verrrrrry dull.

[Rachaelbookhunter · Rating 2 out of 5]

Trick or Treat Murder was published in 1996 and is only the 3rd book in the series so I'm sure a lot has changed since then. This is the first full length Lucy Stone mystery I've read. Previously I had just read a few novellas in the Kensington collections.

This series reminds me or makes me think of watching a weekly family drama show. Each book is like an episode where the reader follows the characters along in their daily lives. Murder is included of course but it doesn't get in the way of other problems like misbehaving children and an unhelpful husband. It's more of a side note, at least in this one. Lucy doesn't investigate and she makes a lot of bad guesses and decisions. She's also kind of bad at other things in her life too.

There are some things that made me uncomfortable regarding bullying and Lucy's attitude about it. She also has mean thoughts about peoples' body weight although that might make sense since people bug her about losing weight after having a baby. And why her best friend would ask her to make 12 dozen cupcakes with a 6 week old baby to take care of I don't know. Especially since Lucy proceeds to use a box mix and make some batches several days ahead.

Also, the title is misleading as there is no trick or treating involved. At least not for Lucy's family! Nor do we get enough answers to the murder. All that being said I kind of liked it? It's almost like I enjoyed cringing or criticizing everyone. I can see why people like this series. It is a little different!

2.5 stars

[David Caldwell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Halloween is coming to Tinker's Cove, Maine. Lucy Stone is running around trying to get her family ready for the holiday. But when an arsonist starts burning old houses in town, Lucy can't help but get involved in the investigation.

Lucy is always a fairly dependable read. I enjoy the holiday themed stories. The stories are easy and fast reads. The characters are quirky but still believable for the most part.

There are two small problems for me. The first is that Lucy really needs to take a time management class it seems. She complains about never having enough time in every single book, although she did seem to complain a little less than usual in this story. The other is that Lucy frequently does very little sleuthing. She will ask a question or two, maybe look something up, and then suddenly the killer tries to kill her. This is especially true in this book. The killer really seemed to overestimate what Lucy knew. In fact, the killer could have probably gotten away if not for attempting to kill Lucy. I would definitely rather the person solve the crime by investing than by being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Still, the story isn't bad, just weak as a mystery. Fans of cozy mysteries shouls enjoy this Halloween themed story.

[Connie N. · Rating 4 out of 5]

#3 in the Lucy Stone Mystery series

I really like Lucy Stone. She's the mother of four, happily married, living in a normal small-town home. She doesn't really put herself into danger, although she certainly gets involved in dangerous situations, usually through no fault of her own. She's intelligent, but I was a little annoyed with her in this book because she immediately jumped to conclusions about the identity of the arsonist in the neighborhood. I suppose that's pretty common, but her suspicions seemed a little obvious and naive. However, I liked that she simply went about her business, asking questions along the way, interspersed with the ordinary duties of life. This book included a fun Halloween party hosted by her friend Sue, and it was nice to see her family have so much fun, especially Bill who dressed up as a bumblebee, of all things. I will definitely continue with this series. I can really relate to Lucy and look forward to seeing what will happen next in their small Maine town. Very quick and easy read.