Book Summary and Reviews of Murder Takes a Vacation by Laura Lippman

Murder Takes a Vacation by Laura Lippman

Murder Takes a Vacation

A Riveting Mystery of Deception, Art Theft, and Unexpected Romance on a Parisian Cruise?Perfect for Summer Reading

by Laura Lippman

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  • Published:
  • Jun 2025, 272 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

Highly acclaimed New York Times bestselling author Laura Lippman returns with an irresistible mystery featuring Muriel Blossom, a former private investigator and middle-aged widow whose vacation on a Parisian river cruise turns into a deadly international case…that only she can solve.

Mrs. Blossom has a knack for blending into the background, which was an asset during her days assisting private investigator Tess Monaghan. But when she finds a winning lottery ticket in a parking lot, everything changes. She is determined to see the world that she sometimes feels is passing her by.

When Mrs. Blossom booked her cruise through France on the MS Solitaire, she did not expect to meet Allan on her transatlantic flight. He is the first man who's sparked something inside her since her beloved husband passed.

She also didn't expect Allan to be found, dead, twenty-four hours later in Paris, a city he wasn't supposed to be in.

Now Mrs. Blossom doesn't know who to trust on board the ship, especially when a mystifying man, Danny, keeps popping up around every corner, always present when things go awry. He is convinced that Allan was transporting a stolen piece of art, and Mrs. Blossom knows more than she lets on, regarding both the artifact and Allan's death.

Mrs. Blossom's questions only increase as the cruise sails down the Seine. Why does it feel like she is being followed? Who was Allan, and why was he killed? Most alarmingly, why do these mysterious men keep flirting with her?

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Another gem from Lippman, with a heroine who elevates being ordinary to an art form." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"Lippman triumphs with this charming mystery…. By the time the clever conclusion rolls around, readers will be sad to see this trip come to an end." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Witty and propulsive. Lippman's fans will feel like they hit the jackpot with this warm and cozy romp." —Library Journal (starred review)

This information about Murder Takes a Vacation was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

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More Information

Since Laura Lippman's debut, she has been recognized as a distinctive voice in mystery fiction and named one of the "essential" crime writers of the last 100 years. Stephen King called her "special, even extraordinary," and Gillian Flynn wrote, "She is simply a brilliant novelist." Her books have won most of the major awards in her field and been translated into more than twenty-five languages. She lives in Baltimore and New Orleans with her teenager.

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