Murder At The Mistletoe Ball

Alberta is delighted that her estranged daughter has arrived in Tranquility, even if Lisa Marie has an ulterior motive. Her son, Alberta’s twenty-one-year-old grandson, Sergio, hasn’t been heard from in six months, shortly after taking up with a woman named Natalie. Maybe Alberta and her crime-reporting partner-in-sleuthing granddaughter, Jinx, can track him down before Christmas?

After some fruitless searching, the Ferraras take a break to attend the mistletoe ball, a fundraiser for the local hospital. But the night takes a chilling turn when a snowman decoration splits open, revealing a body. Lisa Marie screams that it’s Natalie and screams again when she sees a man emerge from behind some Christmas trees. The good news is they’ve found Sergio. The bad news: he’s a prime suspect for murder.

It seems Sergio’s former squeeze had some shady secrets. And with more than one family member’s future at stake, Alberta and Lisa Marie will have to put their past behind them and work together, or it’ll be a blue, blue Christmas.

The Details
Series: A Ferrara Family Mystery – Book #6
Author: J.D. Griffo
Genre/Category: Cozy – Amateur Sleuth/Holiday
Publisher: Kensington Cozies
ISBN: 1496730976
Page Count: 416
Rating:

The Review
Murder At The Mistletoe Ball will keep readers guessing and fill the holidays with mystery and fun. You just have to love Alberta. She is a delightful, funny, straight forward no-nonsense kind of lady, except when it comes to her daughter or a murder investigation. Jinx, Alberta’s granddaughter, and sidekick is becoming more like her every day, something that may not please Jinx’s mother. When the holidays come around, and the ball preparations are in full swing, an unexpected visitor shows up in Tranquility, Lisa Marie, Alberta’s estranged daughter.

The characters in this series remind me of my own family. Sometimes we get along; sometimes, we don’t talk to each other for years. But Alberta and Lisa Marie soon realize that they have to deal with the past and move beyond the hurt and grief. Jinx tries her best not to take sides, but with her brother missing and everyone on pins and needles with the upcoming holiday festivities in Tranquility, and the tension between Alberta and Lisa Marie, it isn’t easy to keep her mouth shut and let them handle things in their own way.

When Sergio’s girlfriend, and the reason for his disappearance from his parent’s life, and their sudden appearance in Alberta’s life, is found murdered, she, Jinx, and Lisa Marie set out to prove that he isn’t the killer. It’s not easy, the victim had a lot of enemies, and those she called friends aren’t as innocent as they try to appear. It looks like several people in and around the town of Tranquility have secrets and motives. Even Sergio and his parents are suspects. Things turn dark when the victim’s past comes to light and her secrets are unraveled. It takes everything Alberta, Jinx, and Lisa Marie have to find the killer, escape the clutches of death, save Sergio, and have a merry holiday.

Tranquility is a lovely setting for Murder At The Mistletoe Ball. It is described in loving detail without too many mundane explanations. Alberta, Jinx, and Lisa Marie keep readers smiling and filled with a true sense of the holiday season. The mystery is well written, the suspects believable, and the evidence abundant. The pleasure readers derive from the mother-daughter reunion, and the book’s ending will stay with them long after they turn the last page. I am happy to know that Alberta will finally find peace with the past and looks forward to the future.

The Author
J.D. Griffo is the award-winning author of the Ferrara Family Mysteries, several screenplays, and a number of YA novels written under the name Michael Griffo. A graduate of New York University, he has studied at Playwrights Horizons and Gotham Writers workshop. Like his series protagonist, Jinx Ferrara, he’s from a large Italian-American family and grew up in New Jersey, where he currently resides.