Back to School Murder

Lucy Stone of Tinker's Cover, Maine, is temping in the office of the small town's newspaper in this lively follow-up to Trick or Treat Murder (1996). The police report of a bomb scare sends the mother of four right to the elementary school where she observes the new assistant principal, Carol Crane, evacuate a disabled student moments before the blast. Police and FBI agents investigate the explosion but arrive at no solution to the crime before Crane is found murdered in her apartment. After the high school's chemistry teacher is arrested, Lucy, who is also taking a literature course at a nearby college, helps the newspaper's lone reporter investigate and learns that the dead woman, in league with a fundamentalist school board member, was forcing the suspension of the chemistry teacher, whom she accused of being the bomber. Unable to believe the charges, Lucy determines to find both the bomber and the murderer. But it isn't until she has some frank talks with her handsome English instructor, who has been making passes at her, that the engaging Lucy is able to nail the culprit and restore harmony to her family and community. (Oct.)