Christmas comes to Zinnia, Mississippi--Sarah Booth Delaney must solve a case as the holiday approaches, in this new cozy mystery from Carolyn Haines. Christmas is just around the corner and Sarah Booth and Tinkie are preparing for a festive holiday season. After a turbulent season of solving cases, they're ready for some holiday cheer. Sarah Booth and Sheriff Coleman Peters have finally gotten together, and this is the first holiday they're celebrating as a couple. Sarah Booth busies herself with decking the halls and daydreaming about romantic Christmas nights with Coleman. Then her friend Cece Dee Falcon shows up needing Sarah Booth's help--right now. She shows Sarah Booth a box that was delivered by courier and left at Cece's front porch. It contains a lock of hair, a photograph of a pretty young woman, very pregnant, and a note demanding ransom for the return of the teen. Cece reveals that this is her cousin's daughter, Eve Falcon, and that she'd lost touch with this part of her family years ago. Eve and Cece had been close, until the family had a terrible falling out, and banished Cece from their lives. The countdown begins as the kidnapper pushes for payment--or else, he threatens, Eve will meet her maker. It's up to Sarah Booth and her friends to find the girl before something terrible happens on what should be the merriest day of the year. Carolyn Haines's trademark humor and lovable characters are back, in a heartwarming Christmas story that will enchant and delight readers looking for a suspenseful mystery wrapped in joyful holiday merriment.
My first Christmas mystery of the season, and it's from one of my favorite series. It was pretty good.
My personal observation about long-lasting series is that authors have a tendency to go bigger and bigger with each book. Usually it's the plots that try to outdo each other, but sometimes, as in this case, it's a certain theme, or themes. The Sarah Booth Delaney series has a very strong underlying theme centered on the power of love, family and friendship, and these themes have become more ... urgent? as the series has progressed.
I'm not complaining - I love this series - but while I enjoyed the book thoroughly as I was reading it, it felt a tiny bit saccharide afterwards.
Oh, and in this one the plot was definitely out there. And way too overly labyrinthine. I'm not sure it really worked, to be honest.
But I love the characters whole heartedly, and Zinnia Mississippi comes alive. It might have been a 3.5 star read, but I've been quietly stewing for years about the Coleman story line, and it's finally come good in this book - that bumped it 1/2 star. Overall, a solid read, that went by fast.
Reading updates
-
Started reading
-
12 December, 2018:
Finished reading
-
12 December, 2018:
Reviewed