Laura Lippman’s fixation with weight is in full effect in Murder Takes a Vacation. It was brought up so many times. It was a major feature of her Tess Monaghan books as well but it seems to have escalated. Who talks about their weight that much to strangers? And friends? She had virtually no other topic of conversation. I feel like she was trying to be sensitive and Blossom was not on some weight loss journey and was happy but who talks about it and fixates on it so much? It was distracting.

Speaking of Tess Monaghan, it was fun to “see” her again but why is she acting like 65 is old or that she herself is young? Tess was 30 in 1999, we can do that math! She is closer to Blossom’s 68 than she is 30.

The mystery was a bit silly and convoluted but I enjoyed the setting.

Lippman is an auto-read for me but there a few books I haven’t enjoyed. This one is almost at that point. I think she was trying to do a cozy but it’s not what she is most comfortable with.