Book review: Murder Takes a Vacation by Laura Lippman

Murder Takes a Vacation by Laura Lippman is a delightful read and I notice the some marketing materials tag this as ‘a Mrs Blossom Mystery’ which means there may be more to come from Muriel Blossom. It must be said though readers will need to suspend their disbelief somewhat as Lippman jumps on every possible cliche she can here – presumably on purpose. Mrs Blossom is initialy portrayed as this bumbling old woman who is worried about everything and anything. Who allows a handsome stranger to take control as she navigates her first trip overseas. I shook my head as she took the offered ‘relaxant’ to help her sleep on the plane. And willingly let him change her travel plans on arrival in London before heading to Paris. I think what would have been MORE surprising was if he WASN’T playing her.

Meet Mrs Blossom...A widower who has never left the US. A grandmother with a knack for blending in. A lottery winner with an unexpected fortune. Determined to finally see the world, she's starting with a cruise along the Seine.

Just twenty-four hours into Mrs Blossom's trip, however, a man is dead, a precious artefact is missing, and a mysterious stranger is claiming her life is in danger. Surrounded by luxury food, quaint towns and people with staggeringly high net worths, she has no idea who she can trust.

But maybe blending into the background has its perks - whoever is responsible will never see this most unlikely of detectives coming.

Things turn quickly though when we discover that Muriel is a multimillionaire. Her circumstances are similar to Mary Higgins Clark’s Alvirah (and Willy) Meehan. In Muriel’s case it’s a recent thing as she literally found the winning lottery ticket on the ground. She claimed it after waiting to see if anyone else came forward. Hence her very expensive European jaunt and newfound glee in spending that money. We also learn she works for Tess Monaghan (a PI who features in Lippman’s popular series) so has experience in sneaking around and following people (and apparently appeared briefly in a previous novel). All of which seems at odds with her doddery ineptitude earlier. And it’s not like it’s a Miss Marple reveal – she looks like a wooly old woman so people judge her so, but in reality she’s shrewd and savvy. Muriel’s our narrator so she’s the one who’s been telling us how naive she is… taking her time to tell us about her ‘win’.

Having said that we come to another part of Muriel’s personality that I think will divide readers. She constantly talks about her weight. She jokes about it but internally stresses big time. I did see a review of this in which the reader commented on much it irked her… as if Lippman herself was making a statement about overweight women and how they’re perceived. As for me… I cringed as I’m conscious of many of the same thought patterns as Muriel. I blame much on my weight. And I could relate to that fear of taking up too much space (literally and therefore metaphorically), fitting into seats, fear of them breaking and the like.

Large people know a lot about shrinking. They are forced to do it all the time. Mrs Blossom could never be small, but she knew ways to seem smaller. 29%

I ran into author Amy Andrews not long after reading this and we talked about the inclusion of weight-related dialogue / thoughts in novels. I explained that I didn’t mind this because it was Muriel’s own perception of herself, her own thought patterns. I read another book a while ago that garnered a lot of criticism with which I agreed. It however features others making cracks about the character’s weight, rather than the character’s thoughts and that’s why I think this worked for me. I could certainly relate to an over-preoccupation about one’s weight. In fact (I said to Amy) I cannot even imagine what life would have been like had my own weight and body issues obsessed me for the last four-plus decades!

That said, Muriel isn’t short of admirers and though no one is supposed to know about her lottery win, I’d be suspicious of the sudden attention… just sayin! But back to the plot itself, which I enjoyed – this is akin to a cosy read and fun one at that with the crimes more about money and opportunity than ‘evil’. As well as theft, murder and fraud, Lippman throws in a couple of characters who (I suspect) could become part of the series, adding colour and contrast into Muriel’s world. All of which I’ll enjoy meeting again.

Murder Takes a Vacation by Laura Lippman was published by Faber & Faber.

I received an electronic copy of this book from the publisher for review purposes.