Back to School Murder

Back to School Murder

by Leslie Meier

It's the first day of school in a peaceful little Maine town. For Lucy Stone, this means a few childless hours to work at the local newspaper and contemplate night classes. However, when she gets reports of a bomb in her children's school, Lucy starts to wonder who put it there. When her prime suspect ends up dead and an innocent man is arrested, Lucy becomes determined to clear his name and discover the truth.

This book jumped out of me because Lucy Stone is a mother of four--three girls and a boy, just like me--who lives in a small New England town. I really wanted to like this book and, although it was a little dated, I must say, I did enjoy it.

This is an older story, written in an era before 9-11 and the Columbine school shootings. The story opens with a bomb in the elementary school. In case readers find such a scenario disturbing, I will put this spoiler: No one is killed in the explosion and there is only one minor injury. While I understand how this topic may be a difficult subject for some readers, I think the author handles it tactfully.

This story takes place in the late 1990s and one of the influential characters in the book holds some very dated, sexist ideas. Lucy struggles to find balance as a new working mother while her husband expects her to "handle the children" and have dinner on the table when he gets home. Though some of the views do feel a little dated (yet relevant to that time period), I feel this is an issue with which many families still struggle and I could sympathize, even empathize, with her plight.

My only real complaint about this story was that there was a fair amount of head-hopping. Although the story is primarily in Lucy's point of view, it occasionally changes to other characters for only part of a scene. I would have liked to have seen a little more consistency there.

Otherwise, this book was very engaging. There was no shortage of suspects. While I figured out early who was responsible for the school bomb, and even knew why long before Lucy did, I was unable to solve the overall mystery before it was revealed.

Overall, I enjoyed reading this book and look forward to reading more in this series. I would rate this story five quills and place it on my top shelf.