Summary
Rudolph, New York is Christmas Town. And in the weeks leading up to Christmas, the holiday spirit is growing. But a rude business man, called in to help in a family emergency, is ruining the Christmas Spirit as he talks of selling out to a big box store or a chain hotel, destroying the Christmas theme the town has worked so hard to develop.
So there is no shortage of possible culprits when the man is found dead. It could be his wife who was eager to throw around blame on others but didn’t shed a tear at the loss. It could be the chef he threatened to fire or the baker he cut out of a large contract. But the police department’s favorite suspect is the town’s Santa Clause – Merry’s dad. There’s no way Merry is going to let her dad’s reputation – and her town’s future – be smeared by this murder! If the police won’t find the real killer, maybe Merry will.
Review
This is the second book in the Year Round Christmas mystery series starring Merry Wilkinson. As this particular story happens at Christmas time, there’s extra Christmas fun to enjoy. Rudolph sounds like a delightful town. If it were real, I would totally want to visit!
The mystery was a puzzle all the way to the end. It was obvious to me that most of the suspects weren’t strong candidates. One possibility was eliminated by Merry in the story, so I had only one guess left. But then new information surfaced near the end of the story to wrap things up.
There were a couple moments when the writing stopped the flow of the reading for me. Some words that seemed out of place. They may have only been regional word choices that were jarring for me, but not for readers from other locales. And there were a couple spots where things were restated that had been covered earlier in the story. I mention these things because they momentarily stalled the flow of the story for me, but I was able to get right back in and enjoy the rest of the tale.