Murder Takes a Vacation

A supporting character in Lippman’s Tess Monaghan books, Muriel Blossom takes on real main-character energy in this stand-alone cozy mystery (following the harder-edged Prom Mom). This is as much a study of a woman discovering herself at midlife as it is a story of possible murder, stolen art, and people being not what—or who—they seem to be. Like Miranda July’s All Fours, the novel tackles women’s changing bodies with a combination of humor, grim realism, and expansiveness, as Muriel acknowledges her internalized fatphobia and begins to recognize her beauty not despite but because of her shape. Plus, there’s a plot twist that involves a bottle of melatonin—what could be more midlife than that?—and commentary on how women of a certain age make good investigators because they are socially invisible. Witty and propulsive without ever sacrificing its character-driven exploration of women’s identities in relationships and with themselves, this could blossom into a series.