Rudolph Day, August 2021

"Rudolph Day" is a way of keeping the Christmas spirit alive all year long. You can read a Christmas book, work on a Christmas craft project, listen to Christmas music or watch a Christmas movie.

 

Slashing Through the Snow, Jacqueline Frost

This is the third—and possibly last—book in Frost's "Christmas Tree Farm" mystery series taking place in Mistletoe, Maine, following 'Twas the Knife Before Christmas and The Twelve Slays of Christmas (although there's at least one unresolved plot line when the book ends). It's been a year since the inn at Reindeer Games, the Christmas tree farm run by the White family, opened, run by Holly White, who returned to her home town two years earlier. This year, Holly is trying to show a good time to Karen Moody, a persnickety reviewer for "New England Magazine," but Karen, whose annoying personality proceeds her, is all about complaining about the smallest thing. But it's no joke when Karen is found bludgeoned to death on the front porch of the Inn, her body in a collection bag meant for toys, and the murder weapon is the Christmas gift just given to Holly by her oldest (literally) and dearest friend, Delores "Cookie" Cutter, a metal nutcracker. Cookie's are the only fingerprints found on the nutcracker, and she had been heard by a guest making a bad joke about murdering Karen earlier in the day. So Sheriff Evan Gray must consider her the prime suspect, even if Holly won't stand for it. She determines she doesn't want to put herself in danger as in the previous two Christmases when first her dad and then her best friend were accused of murder, but she must clear Cookie somehow.

 

Due to Karen's personality, there are several suspects to zero in on, but I started looking at one person partway through the book and it turned out I was almost right. My big problem with this book is that other stuff was so predictable. For instance, Evan Gray and Holly are a couple, and when he says he's going to surprise her with something special for Christmas, I knew immediately what it was. Everybody else knows what it is, too, and I can't believe Holly didn't figure it out! Also, in the original synopsis the magazine critic was named Cleo. While that name seems to be overused in mystery fic these days, "Karen Moody" strikes me as such a pat, stereotypical name that it's annoying: "Karen" for the pushy privileged white woman who calls out people of color, and "Moody" describing her choleric personality. If you were going to peg anyone as being a pain in the ass, wouldn't you immediately think "Karen Moody"?

 

Once again with this series, I love the idea of the Christmas town, the great tree farm with its yummy coffee shop, and most of the supporting characters. But I would have preferred fewer stereotypes. And as for that surprise...Holly, dear, you are dense!

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Is it Christmas yet? Nope, still 120 days away! But here are some sites to get you in the mood:

* Northpole

* Smithsonian Magazine Christmas Articles

* My Merry Christmas

 

* Old-Fashioned Victorian Christmas

* Why Christmas?