Author: Jacqueline Frost
Publisher: Crooked Lane Books
Publication Date: October 2023
Genre: Christmas Holiday / Cozy Mystery
Buy the Book: Amazon | BN | Audible
Description: Tis the season to solve a murder—and innkeeper Holly White knows she’ll have to make her list and check it twice if she wants to catch the killer in the fourth Christmas Tree Farm mystery from bestselling author Jacqueline Frost.
For inn keeper Holly White, Christmas time in Mistletoe, Maine, is the ultimate holiday gift. Business at the Reindeer Games Inn is booming, her wedding to Sheriff Evan Gray is nearly here, and the annual parade is about to begin. The town is lucky to have another gift this year with the state’s ballet company staying for several performances of The Nutcracker. But disaster strikes when Tiffany, the lead ballerina, shows up dead on a float during the parade, the Rat King’s mask nearby. Holly will have to spruce up her sleuthing skills if she wants to catch the killer before Christmas—and her wedding day.
Immediately, Holly discovers that Tiffany had more than a few secrets. She finds out that the star of the show had a super fan that no one knows anything about. And the show’s understudy slips some other intriguing information Holly’s way: not only was Tiffany secretly seeing someone romantically, but there seems to be more than one rat in this company. When Holly discovers a secret passage leading to Tiffany’s dressing room, with footprints leading out; she wonders if this is evidence of a secret lover—or a stalking killer.
With an impending snowstorm and the ballet company on the way out of town, Holly must act quickly if she wants to find the person responsible for this terrible murder. Will she be able to save Christmas—or will her investigation turn cold like the weather?
My Thoughts: This series really hits the spot at Christmas time. With a character named Holly White, a town named Mistletoe and a business called Reindeer Games Inn, it’s just begging for a visit from the fat man in a red suit but I am beginning to suspect he’s already there.
In this installment, we find Holly busy planning her wedding (on Christmas Eve, of course!) to Sheriff Evan Gray and hosting a ballet troupe at the Inn. In Mistletoe, it wouldn’t be Christmas without the parade and the fun and frolic at Holly’s parent’s farm either, as well as murder, which seems to be an annual occurrence. As with the other stories in this series, Holly finds herself smack dab in the middle of the investigation so you know she will also be in the killer’s sights at some point. Normally, I would get annoyed at a non-law enforcement professional inserting themselves into a murder investigation but in this series, it just seems to find Holly, no matter how many snickerdoodles she is juggling on her already heaping plate.
The murder victim is the prima ballerina of the ballet company so there are a lot of suspects to choose from including all of the other dancers, the troupe’s manager and a mysterious ballet blogger who nobody has ever seen or met in person. Anybody familiar with this series already knows Christmas is a very big deal for the residents of Mistletoe and with Holly’s wedding coming up, yet another murder during the holiday season can make a Grinch out of anyone, but I really love how Holly, her friends and her family seem to take it in stride and get on with the season’s festivities.
Another wonderful thing about this series are the secondary characters that I have come to care about as much as Holly and Evan. There’s a sidebar mystery involving Evan’s sister which begins to derail her blossoming relationship with Ray and Holly’s best friend Caroline appears to have found a love interest too, so I am looking forward to the next installment to see what is going on there as well as who becomes the next dearly departed.
The author does such a wonderful job of bringing the town of Mistletoe and its residents to life, that I easily felt at home there and could be friends with everyone. I really love Holly and Evan as a couple and am looking forward to reconnecting with them again.
My Final Verdict: Overall, I highly recommend this story to readers who love Christmas themes and cozy mysteries.
Thank you to the publisher, Crooked Lane Books, who provided an advance reader copy of this book via NetGalley.
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