BOOK REVIEW: Candy Corn Murder by Leslie Meier

Candy Corn Murder

(Lucy Stone Mystery #22)

By Leslie Meier

3 Stars

This is the first book I have read in the series. Based on that, I think this book could have used a bit more of a character recap. Who is Lucy? Who are the important players? Why is she always involved in the mystery? I know that I personally would have enjoyed knowing these things up front.  But maybe faithful readers have had enough recap and this factor is just a reflection of that. 

I am the type of mystery reader that likes the actual murder to happen within the first two or three chapters. The murder in this novel happened at coincidently 50% through according to my Amazon kindle device. I figured at 20% I must have missed the murder and went back to the beginning and reread back to the point where I had stopped.

Some of the flashbacks seemed awkward and oddly placed in the book. I think maybe a prologue with a an overarching flashback would have been enough for me or maybe someone from the past who could have related the info about Tom's past. I hate to say this but those flashbacks seemed a bit of the lazy way out. 

Also the Pennysaver blurbs at the beginnings of chapters seemed to err on the side of only the happy positive facts and none of the hard hitting news.  How about a little objectivity? Town news is town news. 

I am usually a lot more impressed with Kensington Publishing titles. I believe I will choose another book in this series since some series truly need to be read in chronological order. I am not saying this book was horrible. It wasn't. It's decent. The mystery was complete and red herrings placed appropriately. I guess it just lacked a bit of flair and personality. All in all it was just okay for me. I don't give too many 3 stars. 

The one thing I didn't understand was the title of the book. Yes, there was a candy corn bottle in the book but it had nothing to do with the murder. I think a more appropriate title would have been something pumpkin related considering the murder disrupted the Pumpkin Festival. 

Like I said, I will definitely give another book in this series a try since nearly every Kensington book I have read has been awesome. 

I received this as an ARC (Advanced Readers Copy) from Net Galley in return for an honest review. I thank Net Galley, the publisher and the author for allowing me to read this title.