Bells, Spells, and Murders, Carol J. Perry
Scheduled this seventh "Witch City mystery" for reading just in time, as it's December first, Lee Barrett's first day on the job as a field reporter for WICH-TV, and she's interviewing Albert Eldridge, a philanthropist and historian who funds many good causes. Or she was intending to interview him, until she discovered him dead in his office chair under the unsuspecting nose of his efficient secretary.
Perry jumps right into this one with both feet as Lee (neè Maralee Kowalski, journalism graduate, young widow of a race car driver, and now back living upstairs at the home of her librarian aunt Isobel [Ibby], who raised her) discovers the body right at the end of chapter one. All the clues are in place from the first, and if you read Agatha Christie you may have a "leg up" on the crime, as Hickory Dickory Dock is referenced several times. You'll probably suspect one or two people from the start, and you might be right, yet at the same time this is a quick-moving plot that gets tangled in numerous side stories. Of course, O'Ryan, the inscrutable marmalade cat, gives out a couple of clues, and Lee has a couple of her inexplicable visions that always grow clearer as the mystery is cleared up, although this time around River North, Lee's witch friend, doesn't give her a tarot reading per usual.
The best thing about this book is that it exudes Christmas spirit right along with the mystery. Decorations abound, carols in the street, a dancing traffic officer like they used to have in Providence every Christmas, Christmas lights everywhere, and Lee describing events as diverse as dollhouses decorated for the holidays, a battered women's shelter getting needed donations along with Christmas cheer, chocolate shop specialties, and even a yacht regatta with over-the-top Yule decorations. There's even a bell-ringing concert that lively Aunt Ibby is to appear in and a possible Christmas snowstorm. If it wasn't for the murder, the whole thing would be "kringly" to the max.
Got a little tired in this entry of Lee talking about shoes and shoe brands, otherwise a delight from beginning to end. Lee even mentions Route 128 and North Shore Mall (formerly Northshore Shopping Center when I was a kid), which gave me the warm and fuzzies for the rest of the night.
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