CANDY CORN MURDER - Lucy Meier

Halloween is fast approaching, and the good folks of Tinker's Cove, Maine have gone a little batty with preparations for the upcoming Giant Pumpkin Fest, which will include jack-o-lantern and pumpkin diorama contests, a boat regatta on the cove where all the boats are made of hollowed out pumpkins ... and the event reporter Lucy Stone's husband has been working on for months: a giant pumpkin catapult, adapted right from the Middle Ages, that Bill and his ne'er-do-well buddy, local yokel Evan Wickes, are sure will win the contest.  Lucy has no use for Evan - "Ev" - whom she feels is pretty much around to drink Bill's beer and be a bad influence on her visiting grandson ... but when she finds Ev's body in the trunk of a car, head bashed in, and Bill becomes the #1 suspect, it's up to Lucy to set things - and the state cops - straight.  This was my first Lucy Stone novel, even though it's 22nd in the series; I have book one on my Kindle but it's on a very long TBR list, and when I realized this edition hearkened back in time to reference the murder in book one, I was worried author Meier might reveal spoilers here.  Thankfully not; I finished Candy Corn Murder in a sickbed that felt more like a deathbed, and even though the murder didn't occur unto over halfway in the book (a BIG no-no for me, normally), I enjoyed Lucy (so nice to find an amateur sleuth in a cozy who's a grandma!) and her family and the very real feeling of Tinker's Cover and its citizens.  It's a well-constructed mystery that keeps you reading, and though I guessed a few things early on it was refreshing to find I wasn't totally right in my assumptions, after all.  Great fun from Ms. Meier, now more than ever anxious to revert back to book one and start from the beginning.  ****1/2

Note: I received a free ARC of this title via NetGalley and the publisher, in exchange for an honest review.