Candy Corn Murder by Leslie Meier

Lucy Stone Mystery #23

Genre: Cozy Mystery
Rating: *** (3 of 5 stars)

Description from Goodreads: Halloween is coming to Tinker’s Cove, Maine, and local reporter Lucy Stone is covering the town’s annual Giant Pumpkin Fest for the Pennysaver. There’s the pumpkin-boat regatta, the children’s Halloween party, the pumpkin weigh-in…even a contest where home-built catapults hurl pumpkins at an old Dodge! But not everything goes quite as planned…

This is the 23rd Lucy Stone mystery, but it works fine as a standalone story. You don’t need to have read any of the previous books to enjoy this one.

For the first 2/3 of this novel, I thought the whole mystery was the identity of the individual who was sabotaging the pumpkin festival. This didn’t seem like much of a crime for a mystery novel, but the real thing comes along later in the story. Most of the action happens in the last quarter of the book, but I never felt like the story was dragging. The beginning has enough conflict  and backstory to keep it moving along.

Lucy is a very down-to-earth sort of character, and she is easy to like and commiserate with. She has her hands full at home with her catapult-building husband, two daughters, and a grandson who is temporarily living in her home while his parents are out of the country. On top of this, she has her full time job as a reporter with the local paper. It’s that job that gives her an excuse to get close to people who may have something to hide, and helps her track down a killer in the end.

If you are looking for a quick read to get you in the mood for fall and all things pumpkin, then give Candy Corn Murder a try!