In the New England town of Frog’s Ledge, the Holiday Light Festival is a Christmas tradition. Killing Santa is not. To bring joy back to the season, organic pet patisserie owner Kristan “Stan” Connor will have to find another Santa before it’s too late . . .
To the townspeople’s delight, the annual lighting of the tree is a spectacular success. Unfortunately, Santa pulled up in his sleigh, DOA. At first Stan is sure it’s Seamus, her boyfriend’s uncle, inside the red suit. But the victim turns out to be an employee from the town’s Christmas tree farm. Rumor has it the deceased was a mean drunk with a soft spot for feral cats. Stan has no idea why he was dressed as St. Nick—or why he’s dead.
Meanwhile, Seamus, a jolly Irishman who comes to America every December to visit his pub-owner nephew, is nowhere to be found. Could he just be off on a Boston bar crawl? Or is something more sinister under the tree? Seamus was supposed to be dressing up and posing for pet pictures with Santa at the shop, but the dogs and cats might have to find another lap to curl up in if Stan doesn’t solve two mysteries soon. Or murder might be the only thing under the mistletoe this holiday . . .
Cute and festive cover on this one. Great use of graphics that represent the story well. Good composition and OK title work.
The first 50% or so of this one was really good. Then certain characters started to grate on my last nerve. Jake became a huge jerk. Jessie became an even BIGGER b!tch, and Stan turned into a self-righteous know it all. How this woman even ran a business is beyond me since she basically would only spend like five minutes at a time there before she was off sticking her nose into someone else's business again.
On the positive side of things, I thought the book was well written and paced. The mystery kept me turning the pages and guessing right up until the end. I loved the festive small town feel (finally a Christmas themed mystery that is actually Christmassy.) There were a lot of interesting secondary characters. So many in fact that I felt a bit lost at times about who was connected to who. But that is probably more because I haven't read any of the other books in this series.
So ya, a little bit of a mixed bag with this one. But overall it was an enjoyable way to spend an afternoon.
