Tippy Toe Murder (Lucy Stone Series #2) » (~)

Leslie Meier is the acclaimed author of thirteen Lucy Stone mysteries and has also written for Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. She lives in Providence, Rhode Island, where she is currently at work on the next Lucy Stone mystery.

With three kids underfoot, a fourth on the way, and an oppressive heat wave bearing down, homemaker Lucy Stone is hardly enjoying an idyllic summer. But her preoccupation with swelling ankles, Bavarian creme doughnut cravings, and sewing endless sequins on ballet recital tutus gives way to dread when Lucy learns that her waistline isn't the only thing that's recently vanished from Tinker's Cove...

The strange disappearance of a retired dance instructor has the tiny coastal town in a tizzy that turns to terror when a notoriously cantankerous shopkeeper is slain right on Main Street. Now Lucy's up to her bulging belly in local suspects and red herrings. Eluded by a cold-blooded killer, with her due-date looming and the thermometer soaring, Lucy figures something has to break soon. With any luck, it won't be her water...

Publishers Weekly

Preparations for a ballet school recital in Tinker's Cove, Mass., provide the setting for this second, determinedly domestic, Lucy Stone adventure, after Mail-Order Murder. Lucy, in her sixth month of pregnancy, is fully enmeshed in family life with her husband and three youngsters when her neighbor Caroline Hutton, mentor to ballet instructor Tatiana, disappears. The police say the 70-year-old former dancer has simply gone on vacation without telling anyone. Lucy and Tatiana aren't so sure, but Tatiana's recital preparations and Lucy's domestic demands preclude further investigation. Lucy lends her video camera to her friend Franny, who has been falsely accused of stealing from the hardware store where she works. The owner finds the recorder, confiscates it and sacks Franny, but when Lucy goes to the store to demand its return, she finds that the owner has been bludgeoned to death with the camera. When Franny is arrested for murder, Lucy resolves to save her. Meier links the missing neighbor and the murdered hardware store owner in this quirky, low-key puzzle, which is packed with the details of small-town, family life. (Mar.)