Christmas Card Murder
Christmas Card Murder
In the midst of holiday home renovations, Lucy Stone accidentally unwraps a murder mystery decades in the making when she discovers an old Christmas card with a nasty message belonging to one of her farmhouse’s previous residents. The case may be colder than a New England Christmas, but Lucy’s determined to sort it out before Santa comes to town.
Death of a Christmas Carol
The Island Times Christmas soiree gets off to a scroogey start when Hayley Powell, Mona Barnes, and Rosana Moretti receive a Christmas card from the town flirt, Carol Waterman, who threatens to run off with one of their husbands! The ladies chalk it up to an imprudent prank…until they find Carol mistletoe-up under her tree.
Death of a Christmas Card Crafter
Slay bells ring when the body of Arborville High School’s beloved art teacher (and annual Christmas card designer), Karma Karling, is discovered on the first day of the Holiday Craft Fair. Now, Pamela Paterson and the Knit and Nibble crew must swap swatching for sleuthing in order to put a Christmas killer on ice.
Author(s): Lee Hollis, Peggy Ehrhart, Leslie Meier
Genre: Cozy Mystery/Holiday/Short Stories
Publisher: Kensington Books
Page Count: 352
Rating: 
Each of the short stories in Christmas Card Murder is written well, easy to follow, and filled with holiday cheer. Or as cheery as you can get with a killer running around. I would love to receive a Christmas card from any of these characters or spend a few hours with them during the holidays. This collection of original holiday-inspired stories will have readers biting their nails, trying to figure out who the villain is and when they will be caught.
In the first story, Christmas Card Murder, Lucy is still renovating her old house, and of course, even doing this, she winds up finding a mystery. The only clue she has is an old Christmas card that had been hidden in a wall. Even when there is no dead body, Lucy manages to find a murder that only she can solve. It takes some time and many questions, but she gets to the center of the issue and solves the case.
Death of a Christmas Carol, the second story, is filled with gossip, innuendo, and small-town ethics. This short story takes readers to highs and lows and everything in between. There are worried women, straying husbands, and little festivities when three women received a Christmas card from the town’s biggest flirt. The card they received makes all three women question their relationships. When they find the flirts body, they are more than a little worried that one of their men has committed murder. Will they protect them if they find out one of them is a killer, or will they turn him over to the police? In the end, they find the truth and have their faith restored.
The knit and nibble crew are at it again in Death of a Christmas Card Crafter. After a beloved teacher is found dead, Pamala finds herself involved once again in soling a murder. This time, however, it’s personal. The teacher was her daughter’s idol. It doesn’t take long to find suspects or motives, or for Pamala to find herself in trouble once again. After a fair amount of sleuthing and sticking her nose into other people’s business, she finds the killer and helps put the culprit behind bars.
Christmas Card Murder collection is lovely stories, filled with twists and turns. Great descriptions and characters worth remembering. I am intrigued by the use of something as unprovocative as a Christmas card as the theme for murder and love the idea of how something so innocuous could cause so much trouble. These are three great stories, and I know readers will enjoy spending a few hours with these classic characters.
Another fun and intriguing holiday short-story collection readers will enjoy this Christmas is Holiday Collection from Kensington Books “Christmas Cocoa Murder” written by authors Carlene O’Connor, Maddie Day, and Alex Erickson.
About the Author(s):
Lee Hollis
Lee Hollis is the pen name for a brother and sister writing team. Rick Copp is a veteran film and television writer/producer and the author of two other mystery novel series. He lives in Palm Springs, California. Holly Simason is an award-winning food and cocktails columnist for the Mount Desert Islander newspaper in Bar Harbor, Maine, where she resides.
Contact Lee and Holly: hsimason@ec.rr.com
Leslie Meier
Leslie’s books draw heavily on her experience as a mother of three and her work as a reporter for various weekly newspapers on Cape Cod. Her heroine, Lucy Stone, is a reporter in the fictional town of Tinker’s Cove, Maine, where she lives in an old farmhouse (quite similar to Leslie’s on Cape Cod!) with her restoration carpenter husband Bill and four children. As the series has progressed, the kids have grown older, roughly paralleling Leslie’s own family. They seem to have reached a point beyond which Lucy cannot age–Leslie’s editor seems to want her to remain forty-something forever, though Leslie has to admit she personally is dying to write “Menopause is Murder!”
Contact Leslie: lsmeier@comcast.net
Peggy Ehrhart
Peggy Ehrhart is a former English professor who writes mysteries and plays blues guitar. She holds a doctorate in Medieval Literature, and her publications include a prize-winning book dealing with classical mythology in the Middle Ages. Peggy is a member of Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime. She plays guitar with the Still Standing Band.
Contact Peggy: http://peggyehrhart.com/
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