'Tis the season for trimming the tree, caroling, baking cookies, and curling up by the Vfire waiting for Santa to drop down the chimney. But in this festive collection of holiday whodunits, murder is also paying a visit.
"Candy Cane Murder" by JOANNE FLUKE
Bakery owner Hannah Swensen feels a little stuffed in her elf costume-,but it's too late to count calories. Lake Eden's annual Christmas gala is upon her and eager children are waiting. Wayne Bergstrom, owner of Bergstrom's Department Store, happily ho-ho-hos his way through the festivities in his Santa suit. But when a trail of candy canes leads to his corpse in a snow bank, Hannah must find Kris Kringle's killer.
"The Dangers of Candy Canes" by LAURA LEVINE
When a wealthy suburbanite takes a lethal tumble off his roof while installing a giant candy cane, the roofing contractor being held responsible for murder asks freelance writer Jaine Austen to investigate. But solving this untimely holiday death means delving into the cutthroat Christmas decorating wars among scheming neighbors with dirty secrets in their stocking. It takes a fruitcake hiding a weapon and a stunning confrontation to expose the mastermind of this holiday murder.
"Candy Canes of Christmas Past" by LESLIE MEIER
Twenty-some years ago, Lucy Stone arrived in Tinker's Cove, Maine, and discovered her knack for solving mysteries when she met Miss Tilley, the town librarian, whose mother took a fatal fall down the basement stairs one Christmas Eve. The "accident" left a cloud of suspicion on Miss Tilley's father and a slew of other suspects. The only clue was a glass candy cane found crushed to bits by the victim's body. Now Lucy will learn the mystery of the glass candy cane as she unlocks the doors of Christmas past, exposing secrets, scandal, and a killer who got away with murder.
