There’s an arsonist on the loose in Tinker’s Cove, Lucy has a new baby at home, cupcakes to bake, and Halloween costumes to figure out. I always love this series for its look into life in small-town coastal Maine and everyday family life. Lots of funny town council meetings (think Gilmore Girls), exercise classes, haunted house decorating, pumpkin patches and hayrides, and Lucy tracking down trouble. And cupcakes. Oh, the cupcakes! This one was interesting as far as the murder plot went and kept me guessing all the way to the end!

Please excuse typos/name misspellings. Entered on screen reader.
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Lucy is juggling too many balls, and one - or more - is sure to come crashing down on her. Author Leslie Meier does a great job of depicting the life of a new mom who also has three older children. Since her husband is busy with his own work, the brunt of the household chores falls on her. And she also has a hard time saying no when it comes to volunteering her time and efforts for her community. It’s almost Hallowe’en, and an arsonist is loose, plying his tricks around the town. And he seems to have Lucy in his crosshairs. The mystery is a good one, but much of the interest in the story comes from watching Lucy cope with the struggles life presents her. It’s a dangerous time for the town generally, and for Lucy specifically. This book is early in the series, and the books just keep getting better as they go on. It’s best to read them in order and watch the kids grow up. ( )

In all fairness, I don't tend to like cozy mysteries. Usually, though, they don't go so far as to bug me. This one was pretty irritating. Not only was the MC's casual sleuthing completely unbelievable, but most of the characters were borderline annoying. The writing hasn't aged well, either. ( )

October in Tinkers Cove, Maine isn’t just fall colours. For Lucy Stone it means getting things ready for her kids’ trick or treating and the big Halloween party at the Ezekiel Hallet house. It also becomes a time of arson in a small town of old historic buildings.

Someone is setting fire to some of the old historic buildings. They may be vacant and in bad shape, but that is no reason to destroy them in a community that values their history and has laws regarding the preservation of the properties. Or is it?

Lucy can’t avoid a mystery, even if she is toting Zoe, her offspring, pretty much wherever she goes. There is the frequent need of diaper changes and nursing that can’t be ignored, even when Lucy is sleuthing.

This cozy series is fun to read in small doses, for me. A quick read, and good break, if I am reading a more complicated book. That comment doesn’t mean that there is a lack of puzzlement of figuring out who-dunnit. ( )

Please see all of my reviews on my blog at www.robinlovesreading.blogspot.com.

As this story opens, there has just been what appears to be cases of arson, and far more than the loss of property has occurred. A body has been found at one of the fires, and said arsonist has now become a murderer. Amateur detective Lucy Stone, a new mom for the fourth time, decides to investigate these arson cases.

Meanwhile, Lucy remains quite busy, especially as she is helping to prepare a Halloween party, and her role as a wife and mother are naturally quite demanding. Bill is finally becoming a favorite character to me. He has always been a devoted husband and father and a hard worker. Now his role has expanded, and he is reluctantly serving on the historical society.

As with the first two books in this addicting series that I have had the pleasure of reading, the story is quite fast-paced with the just the right touch of mystery, and as mom of six grown kids myself, I enjoyed Lucy's interactions with her family. After being forced to only give the previous title 4 stars due to a particularly disturbing scene, I am pleased to say that nothing of the sort happened like that in this book. That, along with the fact that I was kept guessing until almost the very end, went a long way into me rating this book 5 stars.

One thing that I really love about reading connected series is the continuity of characters. We have Barney, Sue and even the cranky Ms. Tilley. There is definitely a feeling of coming home again when reading Leslie Meier's books. I have already downloaded the first eight books in the series, with every intent on inhaling every title as this series is produced.

Kensington Books has made a smart move by releasing two omnibus's of these Leslie Meier's books. In so doing, I was alerted to this long-standing series, and am thus reading and reviewing Trick-or-Treat. I will make a rather bad confession here. I love that these titles are shorter, one-sitting reads. This is because I only just found them and knew from the very first book that I would need to make time to read each one in quick succession. ( )