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Laura Fleming #3
Trouble Looking for a Place to Happen: A Laura Fleming Mystery
A killer intends to turn a Southern smalltown wedding into a wake in this cozy mystery by the New York Times-bestselling author of Dead Ringer.
Bells are ringing in Byerly, and fifth time might be the charm for Aunt Ruby Lee. Laura Fleming and her husband are back in town to celebrate Ruby Lee remarrying her ex, Roger, though the run up to the big day is fraught with complications. Aunt Nellie's triplets are all feuding over the same man. Then there's Ruby Lee and Roger's rebellious teenage daughter, Ilene, who's dating a notorious bad boy.
When Ilene runs off to take part in the neighboring town's country music Jamboree, Ruby Lee begs Laura to intervene. Before Laura can bring her errant kin home, Ilene's beau, Tom Honeywell, is found dead on a tour bus. Laura is sure that Ilene's only crime is bad taste in boyfriends, and Tom had enough enemies to fill the whole parking lot. But with Ilene in jail, Ruby Lee frantic, and the police chief sticking to his guns, it'll take quick sleuthing for Laura to shine a spotlight on the real culprit in time for Ruby Lee and Roger to say "I do" again.
Praise for Trouble Looking for a Place to Happen
"Down-home mores and country humor inform this ebullient debut. . . . A lively, lighthearted cozy." --Publishers Weekly
Bells are ringing in Byerly, and fifth time might be the charm for Aunt Ruby Lee. Laura Fleming and her husband are back in town to celebrate Ruby Lee remarrying her ex, Roger, though the run up to the big day is fraught with complications. Aunt Nellie's triplets are all feuding over the same man. Then there's Ruby Lee and Roger's rebellious teenage daughter, Ilene, who's dating a notorious bad boy.
When Ilene runs off to take part in the neighboring town's country music Jamboree, Ruby Lee begs Laura to intervene. Before Laura can bring her errant kin home, Ilene's beau, Tom Honeywell, is found dead on a tour bus. Laura is sure that Ilene's only crime is bad taste in boyfriends, and Tom had enough enemies to fill the whole parking lot. But with Ilene in jail, Ruby Lee frantic, and the police chief sticking to his guns, it'll take quick sleuthing for Laura to shine a spotlight on the real culprit in time for Ruby Lee and Roger to say "I do" again.
Praise for Trouble Looking for a Place to Happen
"Down-home mores and country humor inform this ebullient debut. . . . A lively, lighthearted cozy." --Publishers Weekly
- GenresMystery
326 pages, ebook
First published March 1, 1995
7 people are currently reading
62 people want to read
About the author
Toni L.P. Kelner
39 books71 followersToni L.P. Kelner is the author of the "Where are they now?" mysteries and the Laura Fleming mysteries. She was awarded the 2002 Mystery Series Award from Romantic Times Book Reviews Career Achievement Awards for Best Author for the Laura Fleming series and and her story "Sleeping with the Plush" won the Agatha for Best Short Story of 2006. Kelner has also been nominated for the Anthony, the Macavity, and the Derringer awards. You can find more out about her on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Toni-LP...), Twitter (@ToniLPKelner) or her official website (http://www.tonilpkelner.com/).
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
July 5, 2018
I think the strongest part of this book, and the strongest part of the series in general is the main character Laura Fleming. I like her a lot. There was lots of good family drama in this one, an amazing amount that also tied into the mystery. I pretty much guessed the murderer as soon as that person was introduced, and was able to guess the other person actually involved in the mystery as well. This was a strong addition to the series. However, I also read it from an anger-management point of view and wrote about it:
My therapist suggested I read this long boring book about anger management, which I’m more than happy to do, but it also requires doing exercises frequently. This means I actually have to sit down with a pen and piece of paper, so I can’t just read the damn book whenever I want to, I have to set aside specific reading time to deal with it. I haven’t actually done this yet, and decided instead to read the next book in the Toni L.P. Kelner Laura Fleming mystery series, which has turned out to be surprisingly relevant to what I’m supposed to be learning from the other book.
For those of you unfamiliar, the Laura Fleming mystery series of the mid-90’s begins with Down Home Murder, and its about a young woman from the South who moved to Boston and became a computer programmer. Laura is married to a Shakespeare professor named Richard. They often visit her extensive family in North Carolina, and always become embroiled in the family drama and inevitably a murder mystery. Kelner is a wonderful author, and these books are sadly out of print, so I’ve been having to hunt them down in used book stores and find them on paperbackswap.com. I just got the third book in the series, Trouble Looking for a Place to Happen, from paperbackswap.com.
The first thing I noticed about Laura is that she can observe negative behaviors and personalities in others without condemning them. Her cousin Vasti is very pushy and self-involved. This is something Laura can observe and accept without judgement. She still interacts with Vasti and helps her in her pursuits, she also knows she has personality flaws. She accepts her the way she is.
Laura is also good about thinking before reacting. She doesn’t just go around reacting to everything, she thinks about things first. When she is made angry, she counts to ten. Sometimes she counts to ten, then counts to ten in binary. She doesn’t just explode with reaction.
Later in the book, Laura is very upset with the chief of police in the neighboring town. She feels he is completely unreasonable and too ‘by the book.’ She gets some information about him though that tells her why the police chief is like this, what he’s dealt with in his past, and gave her some perspective on his character. This helped her understand him, and she was no longer angry with him. She understood him, and understood how making uninformed judgements about people fueled her anger.
Laura Fleming keeps a cool head, and is very thoughtful about people and situations. She considers all the aspects. This not only makes her a good mystery-solver, but makes her a better and smarter person. She had several conversations with her husband about whether or not she had done the right thing. She also routinely learns more about people and their situations, like she did with the police chief, that gives her better understanding of them and their situation. She could have just written her cousin Ilene off as another annoying awful teenager, but Ilene had some real issues related to her parents that she was struggling with that were making her lash out against people and Laura got to the bottom of this.
I think Laura Fleming is an excellent role model for anger management and I look forward to reading more about her adventures.
My therapist suggested I read this long boring book about anger management, which I’m more than happy to do, but it also requires doing exercises frequently. This means I actually have to sit down with a pen and piece of paper, so I can’t just read the damn book whenever I want to, I have to set aside specific reading time to deal with it. I haven’t actually done this yet, and decided instead to read the next book in the Toni L.P. Kelner Laura Fleming mystery series, which has turned out to be surprisingly relevant to what I’m supposed to be learning from the other book.
For those of you unfamiliar, the Laura Fleming mystery series of the mid-90’s begins with Down Home Murder, and its about a young woman from the South who moved to Boston and became a computer programmer. Laura is married to a Shakespeare professor named Richard. They often visit her extensive family in North Carolina, and always become embroiled in the family drama and inevitably a murder mystery. Kelner is a wonderful author, and these books are sadly out of print, so I’ve been having to hunt them down in used book stores and find them on paperbackswap.com. I just got the third book in the series, Trouble Looking for a Place to Happen, from paperbackswap.com.
The first thing I noticed about Laura is that she can observe negative behaviors and personalities in others without condemning them. Her cousin Vasti is very pushy and self-involved. This is something Laura can observe and accept without judgement. She still interacts with Vasti and helps her in her pursuits, she also knows she has personality flaws. She accepts her the way she is.
Laura is also good about thinking before reacting. She doesn’t just go around reacting to everything, she thinks about things first. When she is made angry, she counts to ten. Sometimes she counts to ten, then counts to ten in binary. She doesn’t just explode with reaction.
Later in the book, Laura is very upset with the chief of police in the neighboring town. She feels he is completely unreasonable and too ‘by the book.’ She gets some information about him though that tells her why the police chief is like this, what he’s dealt with in his past, and gave her some perspective on his character. This helped her understand him, and she was no longer angry with him. She understood him, and understood how making uninformed judgements about people fueled her anger.
Laura Fleming keeps a cool head, and is very thoughtful about people and situations. She considers all the aspects. This not only makes her a good mystery-solver, but makes her a better and smarter person. She had several conversations with her husband about whether or not she had done the right thing. She also routinely learns more about people and their situations, like she did with the police chief, that gives her better understanding of them and their situation. She could have just written her cousin Ilene off as another annoying awful teenager, but Ilene had some real issues related to her parents that she was struggling with that were making her lash out against people and Laura got to the bottom of this.
I think Laura Fleming is an excellent role model for anger management and I look forward to reading more about her adventures.
July 7, 2024
I continue to like Kelner's characterization and worldbuilding here. The town feels cozy despite all the family quarrels and buried secrets, and Laura our detective herself feels realistically conflicted to be digging them up. I'm also glad that some of the family members who've been painted one-dimensionally in previous books are starting to be forced into character development here.
After three examples, I feel confident enough to say that Kelner isn't even trying for fair-play mysteries... but her strengths lie elsewhere, and she's playing to them.
After three examples, I feel confident enough to say that Kelner isn't even trying for fair-play mysteries... but her strengths lie elsewhere, and she's playing to them.
October 7, 2022
Alton Brown
July 15, 2014
Boston computer programmer Laura and her husband, Richard, visit Byerly, N.C., to see Laura's Aunt Ruby Lee remarry Roger, a country musician. The young people arrive in the midst of a family brouhaha centering around Ruby Lee and Roger's teenage daughter, Ilene, who has announced her plan to enter the novice-performer contest at the Rocky Shoals Memorial Country Music Jamboree, much against Roger's wishes. Ilene is also keeping company with Tom Honeywell, the local bad boy with a behavior problem. Later, after Roger makes a scene during her performance, Ilene argues with Tom and runs away. When Tom's body is discovered on the bus belonging to Roger and his band, Ilene is arrested for the murder, and the family prevails upon levelheaded Laura to prove the girl's innocence. With stalwart, Shakespeare-quoting Richard in tow, Laura delves into Tom's past to come up with the killer. It ends up being not what you think. The writer daoes a great job and holds you through the end. Worth your time to read.
May 17, 2012
I couldn't find a copy of the second book in this series for less than $10, so I skipped to the third. Each book is standalone, so I wasn't confused, nor were there any spoilers as to what really happened in the second book, so that was nice.
This one was a little slow-going, as far as the mystery plot went, but all the Burnette family drama was in full force, so it never felt like the book was sluggish or lagging in anyway. I enjoyed Laura and Richard's Shakespeare vs. Southernism contest, even though I felt like the Southernism won out every time. I liked the way the current mystery tied into a cold-case mystery, and felt that had I been paying attention more, I would have figured out who did it without just guessing.
Looking forward to the next one!
This one was a little slow-going, as far as the mystery plot went, but all the Burnette family drama was in full force, so it never felt like the book was sluggish or lagging in anyway. I enjoyed Laura and Richard's Shakespeare vs. Southernism contest, even though I felt like the Southernism won out every time. I liked the way the current mystery tied into a cold-case mystery, and felt that had I been paying attention more, I would have figured out who did it without just guessing.
Looking forward to the next one!
May 18, 2015
This was an enjoyable mystery read! Well plotted, enjoyed the characters (especially how the main character and her husband worked so well together) –such a large family often had me chuckling. Liked the small town atmosphere – just enjoyed the whole series and was surprised as to who the murderer was! Good read!
March 2, 2010
Laura solves another murder while visiting her relatives in N.C.
Read
August 3, 2011Story was good but it got a bit tiresome with all the "Bard" quotes
June 8, 2013
Another great cosy Whodunit with Laura and her fab extended family. Thought I'd got it all worked out, then, around the middle, Laura blows the mystery wide open! Brilliant!
January 1, 2016
Enjoyed. Must go back and read the first two.
January 22, 2016
Good mystery
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews