Mail Order Murder (Lucy Stone Mysteries, No. 1) [Hardcover]

Leslie Meier (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1991

While working the night shift at a famous Maine mail-order company called Country Cousins, Lucy Stone discovers the dead body of Sam Miller, the company's founder, and she sets out to find the truth about Sam's murder. Reprint. AB.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Although its language is frequently sophomoric, this debut mystery introducing sleuth Lucy Stone does feature some nice plot twists. At the height of the Christmas season, Stone, an employee of Maine mail-order house Country Cousins, finds her wealthy boss, Sam Miller III, dead inside his car in the company parking lot. The police quickly determine that the popular Miller was murdered. His beautiful wife is initially a suspect, but she had neither motive nor opportunity. When two other suspects are also cleared, Stone convinces officer Barney Culpepper to help her spring a trap to flush out the killer. Soon after, she discovers a genuine suicide and Culpepper suffers a near-fatal traffic accident. Stone concludes that the two events are related to the Miller slaying and executes a plan to catch the murderer in another homicide attempt. Neither particularly readable nor particularly plausible, the novel deserves some credit for an interesting cast of characters.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Back in Maine, three-time mother and part-time mail-order business employee Lucy Stone discovers the apparent suicide of her boss one cold night during her break. Things begin to change at work and Lucy grows suspicious, despite the demands of the Christmas season: perhaps someone murdered Sam Miller in order to take over his successful business. Lucy contributes a bit of sleuthing, but domesticity sidetracks her life and this plot. Those in search of a mystery to solve will not find it here.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 198 pages
• Publisher: Viking; First Edition edition (1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670841110
• ISBN-13: 978-0670841110
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #878,562 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I started writing in the late '80s when I was attending graduate classes at Bridgewater State College. I wanted to become certified to teach high school English and one of the required courses was Writing and the Teaching of Writing. My professor suggested that one of the papers I wrote for that course was good enough to be published and I sent it off to Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine's Department of First Stories. I got $100 for the story and I've been writing ever since. The teaching, however, didn't work out.

My books draw heavily on my experience as a mother of three and my work as a reporter for various weekly newspspers on Cape Cod. My heroine, Lucy Stone, is a reporter in the fictional town of Tinker's Cove, Maine, where she lives in an old farmhouse (quite similar to mine on Cape Cod!) with her restoration carpenter husband Bill and four children. As the series has progressed the kids have grown older, roughly paralleling my own family. We seem to have reached a point beyond which Lucy cannot age -- my editor seems to want her to remain forty-something forever -- though I have to admit I am dying to write "Menopause is Murder"!

I usually write one Lucy Stone mystery every year and "Wicked Witch Murder" came out in August, 2010. I fell in love with one character, a four-year-old boy named Nemo, and he makes a second appearance in a Christmas novella included in "Gingerbread Cookie Murder," which also features tales by Laura Levine and Joanne Fluke, due to be published in October, 2010. I've just finished "English Tea Murder" in which Lucy and her friends visit England, coming out sometime in 2011. My books are classified as cozies but a good friend insists they are really "comedies of manners" and I do enjoy expressing my view of contemporary American life.

Now that the kids are grown -- I now have two grandchildren -- my husband and I are enjoying our empty nest on Cape Cod which we share with our adorable Brittany, Sylvie.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars retitle of earlier work!, July 18, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Mistletoe Murder (Lucy Stone Mysteries, No. 1) (Paperback)

This book, ISBN #1575663708, published in 1998, is a retitle of the first Lucy Stone mystery, "Mail-Order Murder" published in 1991 with an ISBN # of 0670841110. I made the miistake of purchasing the 1998 book thinking it was a NEW work, but it turned out to be only a new TITLE!

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of my favorite holiday mysteries, February 12, 2002

By 

Erika Sorocco (Southern California, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mistletoe Murder (Lucy Stone Mysteries, No. 1) (Paperback)

Lucy Stone is completely busy with the holidays. From baking cookies to knitting sweaters. If you name it, she's doing it. But her holiday preparations come to a halt when she finds Sam Miller, the founder of the mail-order company Country Cousins dead in his car. The police are calling it a suicide, but Lucy knows that that's not the case. Now she's got to find the killer before she's the next one dead.

This was my first and favorite Lucy Stone Mystery. This book will get you hooked on the series before you can say Merry Christmas.

28 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Holiday Mystery!, December 3, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Mistletoe Murder (Lucy Stone Mysteries, No. 1) (Paperback)

This is the first Lucy Stone mystery and in my opinion, one of the best. Who cares if the title was changed? As a mystery reader, when I find a series I like, I want to read ALL the books in that series, especially the first one. Obviously the previous publisher didn't know what they were doing, otherwise the book still would have been in print. This is a really good mystery, with a great cover and title. If you like good mysteries, happen to be a fan of Leslie Meier and Lucy Stone, AND you HAVE TO start a myster series from the first book, do yourself a favor and buy this book today!