Mistletoe Murder is the first in the Lucy Stone mystery series. It was renamed when a new publisher picked up the series quite a few years ago to give all the book titles a holiday theme. Personally, I think the original title, Mail Order Murder, is more appropriate since mistletoe isn't mentioned once in the entire book.

Even though this is the first in the series, it is my second visit with Lucy. She had a short story in the anthology Candy Cane Murder that came out earlier this year. I enjoyed that story enough to pick up this book. I immediately found some differences in the character's back story, however. Continuity errors. Gotta love them. They annoyed me for a few pages, but I set that aside and judged this book on its own merits.

Christmas is drawing close, and Lucy Stone has plenty on her plate. Not only does she have presents to buy and make, kids to care for, and visiting relatives coming soon, but she works part time for Country Cousins, the mail order company located in the small town of Tinker's Cover, Maine.

One night, she takes a break from her job and steps outside for a little fresh air. When she does, she discovers Country Cousins President Sam Miller dead in the employee parking lot.

While the scene was staged to look like an accident, the police quickly rule it a murder. Lucy's curiosity is certainly aroused. And when she starts hearing clues in the small town's grape vine, her list of suspects grows. But will she learn enough to find the killer?

On the whole, I found this book only mediocre. The plot moves very slowly in the first half. Instead of searching out clues and suspects, Lucy spends time shopping and getting ready for Christmas. There are some important events, but much of the first half could have been cut.

Things get better in the second half as Lucy begins to focus more on the murder. And, while the end was logical, some of Lucy's deductions were a huge leap and the climax was weak.

The characters helped the book. Lucy, her husband Bill, and their three kids are all real people. Even the visiting grandparents are interesting. While one of them introduced a sub-plot that seemed better suited to a later book in the series, I grew to care about the outcome by the end.

The writing was only adequate. Maybe it's because I'm used to friendly first person narrators, but I found the third person narration left me a little cold and distant. The bigger problem was poor editing in two spots. Best I can tell, a deceased character is given two names on one page. On another page, a character was given two different ages. Now I freely admit I could have misread something. But I read over those pages twice trying to make sense of it. Either way, better editing should have solved the problem.

Mistletoe Murder isn't a bad debut. But it isn't a good one, either. I know many readers love this series, but I think I will pass on Lucy's further adventures.

Recommended: Yes