Twelve Slays of Christmas: A Christmas Tree Farm Mystery
Series: A Christmas Tree Farm Mystery Series, Book 1
By: Jacqueline Frost / Narrated By: Allyson Ryan
Length: 8 hrs and 16 mins
All Cozy Mysteries should have cats in ‘em
One o’ the worst things about Holiday/Season-based titled books is that often, when you get right down to it, the Holiday/Season is just in the title and not really a theme written into the story. The author is usually just doing a Cozy or a Romance with a brief mention of the weather or something like that, and I wind up finishing up the Listen vaaaaastly disappointed. Or, like, A Merry Little Christmas, the story has not a thing except whimsical names for the characters (And don’t EVEN get me started on what a depLORably horror of a story THAT particular audiobook was… >shudder< …!)
Twelve Slays of Christmas had me groaning just a tad at the very beginning cuz our heroine Holly White (>groan<) lives in Mistletoe, Maine (>double groan<). I had SUCH low expectations for this one. But then we see that Christmas is around the corner, so it’s BOUND to get festive, right? And it did. PHEW!
A Christmas wedding has been canceled since fiancé Ben has been a toad (No offense to toads) and called off his and Holly’s wedding cuz he decided a hot yoga instructor was more his style. Heartbroken and bereft, Holly has come back to Mistletoe to lick her wounds in the bosom of her family, and the tight-knit community during the holiday, along with her ever-loving parents, are just what she needed to heal.
Oh, and yeah. She has a cat, a rescue: author Jacqueline Frost (Pen name) is quick to tell us, so I was all happy and all a dither over that, agitated that something bad was going to happen to it. Murder happens, but it’s only a human, so PHEW! again.
You see, Margaret Fenwick of the Mistletoe Historical Society has been mixing it up with the residents, demanding that this that the other be changed so as to adhere to Historical Society status. Paint this, she yaps. Cut two feet of your fence, she barks… at Holly’s dad, Bud, who does NOT take it kindly. So pretty much everyone in Mistletoe is fed up with her. Alas, Holly, on her way elsewhere, discovers Margaret’s corpse (Oh hey, I’m not keeping with Cozy language… her BODY…) in a sleigh, snow falling and a bloody wooden stake found near the scene. As this stake was one of the ones Bud used at the family’s tree farm, and as he reeeeeally didn’t take her demands well and tangled with her, he’s the main suspect of Sheriff Evan Gray.
Did I mention how handsome Gray is?
FORTUNATELY, that handsome bearing of his does NOT become a focus of the story… jeez, like, PHEW again! Rather, Holly, tho’ she keeps winding up crossing paths with Gray, keeps exasperating him, is NOT all bowled over by his gorgeous presence, thus upending standard All Things Lead to Romance storylines so common in Cozies.
Yeh, as the above states, Holly is bootin’ and scootin’ and asking questions looking for the murderer—ANYthing to draw suspicion away from her dear old dad. Unfortunately, her prying is getting the real murderer, or someone, all peeved with her, and she receives many a threat and a warning. More occasions for Gray to ride in and play detective/possible Hero.
This is a really sweet and charming Cozy, and I did soooo appreciate that tho the murder and investigation were in the forefront, Christmas itself isn’t edged to the side. No, the community is reveling in the season, and the farm’s Reindeer Games for tourists are fun and creative. And it all builds toward the denouement. Even a rather mundane Bingo game with peppermints for tokens becomes something more when Holly is doing some sleuthing.
Speaking of… One of the things about Cozies is HOW on earth does the protagonist, ostensibly your ordinary run of the mill Joe Schmo, manage to wander into them? With Holly, I actually bought that she, yeh yeh yeh, was looking to cast blame elsewhere, but also that she’s just a bit curious. Even she knows she’s pushing the boundaries and steps back from totally crossing the line, and at no point does the handsome Sheriff say to her: Awww, that’s so sweet how you keep doing that. So yay!
Allyson Ryan is a new narrator for me, and at first I was wondering if I was going to like her. I can’t figure out a way to describe her voice other than it’s a trifle sharp and cutting. But that actually worked to the story’s favor in that Ryan’s inflections rather nicely conveyed a curious mind who knoooows she shouldn’t but really can’t help herself. Brava, plus? She didn’t make Sheriff Gray sound like a heartthrob or like a growling dog. So yay again.
Dunno how on earth Holly is going to stumble upon a corpse, excuse me, BODY again next year in tiny Mistletoe, Maine, but if Frost can manage it? I do believe I’ll be checking out the next in the series.
Dude! Ho Ho Ho!!! And bring back the cat(s)!
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