Murder Takes a Vacation by Laura Lippman

Muriel Blossom is a character from the Tess Monaghan series by Laura Lippman, which I have not read. But I thoroughly enjoyed this mostly stand-alone story. 

Muriel is a widow from Baltimore who moved to Arizona to help take care of her grandkids. But when her son in law is offered a job in Tokyo, she is not invited along. Her feelings are kind of hurt, but because of a stroke of good luck (finding a winning lottery ticket), she has the means to start a new life. So she moves back to Baltimore (her hometown) and signs up for a French river cruise with her best friend Elinor, whom she is scheduled to meet in Paris.

Traveling alone to Europe has Muriel a little flustered so when a handsome man offers to help her at the airport, she says yes. Then he is glued to her side when her travel plans get disrupted and she ends up spending the day and night in London, and the two make dinner plans for when they're back in Baltimore. Sadly, he turns up dead shortly afterward and Muriel finds herself caught up in a mystery. And she's not sure why.

Good read for the end of summer.