Murder Takes a Vacation (2025) is super popular right now.

It’s an easy read murder mystery with a charming protagonist.

“She was a large woman,” Lippman writes. “OK, fine. She was fat.” But Mrs. Blossom is comfortable with her body although she occasionally feels self-conscious when she senses others are judging her.

She is in her late 60s now, widowed and a grandmother, but thanks to a winning lottery ticket she found in a parking lot, she has money for the first time in her life. One of the things she does with it is take her first trip to Europe.

On the cross-Atlantic flight, and again when she reaches Paris, younger men begin showing Mrs. Blossom a great deal of attention. She rather likes this, although she wonders if they might be after her money. But soon, after she boards the cruise ship to tour the Seine, she becomes aware that she is being followed. Eventually her stateroom is ransacked and a stranger tries to mug her. …

Book Review: An aging widow’s European river cruise turns deadly in ‘Murder Takes a Vacation’