Review by Booklist Review
With themes reminiscent of both The Maltese Falcon and Charade, widow Muriel Blossom, the assistant to Lippman's star sleuth Tess Monaghan, now has a case of her own. It all starts when Mrs. Blossom, as she prefers to be called, finds a winning lottery ticket. She decides to spend some of the money on something extravagant and books a luxurious vacation in France on a river cruise. En route, she is romanced by a charming older gentleman named Allan Turner, but after he falls "accidentally" from his hotel balcony, she meets a younger man named Danny Johnson, who attaches himself to her. It turns out that he is after a stolen antiquity that Turner was transporting and might have passed on to Mrs. B., who suddenly finds herself in a dangerous situation. A convoluted story unfolds, amidst some excellent misdirection. The challenge is to keep up as the characters day-trip their way down the Seine. This is being marketed as a beach read, but readers need to expect more noir than cozy, despite the inviting cover.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Leave it to perennially popular Lippman to combine a French river cruise and an unlikely investigator with a dark, international mystery.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Lippman (Prom Mom) triumphs with this charming mystery featuring Muriel Blossom, a Baltimore widow--and former assistant to PI Tess Monaghan, star of another Lippman series--who finds an $8 million lottery ticket abandoned in a parking lot. In the decade since Muriel's husband died, she's carved out a pleasant but bland existence with her daughter's family. After she hits the jackpot, she makes arrangements for a cruise in France with her best friend, Elinor. On the flight over, Muriel meets the charming Allan, who takes her to dinner after they land in Paris. When Allan suspiciously dies the next day, the police question Muriel, since she was in one of the most recent photos on Allan's phone. Enter American stranger Danny Johnson, who ingratiates himself with Muriel and warns her she might be in danger. After her and Elinor's ship leaves port, Muriel's stateroom is ransacked, a man attempts to mug her, and she learns Danny is lying about his identity. Lippman fans will be delighted by the appearance of Tess, who enlivens the plot after Muriel calls her for advice. By the time the clever conclusion rolls around, readers will be sad to see this trip come to an end. Agent: Vicky Bijur, Vicky Bijur Literary. (June)
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Review by Library Journal Review
A supporting character in Lippman's Tess Monaghan books, Muriel Blossom takes on real main-character energy in this stand-alone cozy mystery (following the harder-edged Prom Mom). This is as much a study of a woman discovering herself at midlife as it is a story of possible murder, stolen art, and people being not what--or who--they seem to be. Like Miranda July's All Fours, the novel tackles women's changing bodies with a combination of humor, grim realism, and expansiveness, as Muriel acknowledges her internalized fatphobia and begins to recognize her beauty not despite but because of her shape. Plus, there's a plot twist that involves a bottle of melatonin--what could be more midlife than that?--and commentary on how women of a certain age make good investigators because they are socially invisible. Witty and propulsive without ever sacrificing its character-driven exploration of women's identities in relationships and with themselves, this could blossom into a series. VERDICT Like the novel's lottery-winning protagonist, Lippman's fans will feel like they hit the jackpot with this warm and cozy romp through a Paris vacation and cruise, without too many lives lost along the way.--Emily Bowles
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
An ordinary woman finds extraordinary adventures on a river cruise on the Seine. Muriel Blossom acknowledges that she's a "no-frills" person, a trait that served her well when doing surveillance for Baltimore PI Tess Monaghan. When she gets an unexpected upgrade on her British Airways flight to Paris, she finds herself not only in business class, but on the other side of the looking glass. Allan Turner, a handsome stranger, befriends her in the Chesapeake Lounge, which her upgrade allows her to access. She misses her connection at Heathrow because of the weather, so he invites her to share his luxurious suite in a London hotel, paid for, he insists, by his firm. Then he sends her off on the Eurostar train to reach Paris via the Chunnel in time for her ship's departure. Once in Paris, she meets another stranger, younger but equally attentive. Danny Johnson takes her to a friend's atelier in the Marais where the plus-sized Muriel can find the fashionable clothing she deserves. A mysterious man in a bellman uniform knocks on her hotel-room door and invites her to leave her luggage in the hallway so it can be transferred overnight to her ship, but of course she realizes that's nonsense. She also receives the news that Allan died in a fall from his balcony the night after she left London. When Danny turns up on her cruise, she knows something's off, but she can't put together the pieces. That's because Lippman is unrivaled in her ability to lay out clues in a way that makes them seem not only mysterious, but downright surreal. Only at the end does everything fit together so naturally that it all seems blazingly obvious. Like Muriel, who's patient and sensible to the end, you'll just have to wait. Another gem from Lippman, with a heroine who elevates being ordinary to an art form. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
