Deck the Hallways
(A Fixer-Upper Mystery)
Cozy Mystery
4th in Series
Setting – California
A Berkley Prime Crime Mystery (November 1, 2016)
An Imprint of Penguin Random House LLC
Mass Market Paperback: 304 pages
ISBN-13: 978-0451488220
E-Book ASIN: B01COJUH7K
Someone’s been slayed! If contractor Shannon Hammer can’t nail the real culprit in the St. Nick of time, her dad will wind up in the clink…
Even at Christmastime, Shannon is more spackle than sparkle, which is why she leaps at the chance to transform a grand old Victorian mansion into ten charming apartments for homeless families. Filled with the spirit of the season, all of Lighthouse Cove turns out to help—including her best friends, a troupe of far-from-angelic Santa Claus impersonators, and her father, Jack.
But their merriment is soon dashed by a heated scuffle between Jack and the miserly president of the bank who’s backing the project. When the man is murdered, all eyes are on Jack, and visions of prison time dance in Shannon’s head. Now, she needs to pull off a crime-solving miracle, before her father’s Christmas goose is cooked…
Dollycas’s Thoughts
After recently reading and reviewing, Crowned and Moldering, I couldn’t wait to dive right into this story. I was taken aback when I heard Mac was off on a promotional trip and had not even picked up the phone to contact Shannon for over 40 days. What the heck happened between stories? Wait I am getting ahead of myself.
It is the holiday season in Lighthouse Cove and Shannon has taken the lead on a huge charity project. An old Victorian mansion is being transformed into housing for the homeless. Contractors and volunteers join together to get the project completed by Christmas Eve. A group of Santa’s helpers complete with the black boots, beards and red suits even show up to help. The president of the bank managing the funding seems to always be underfoot and soon after the project starts he and Shannon’s father, Jack get into a bit of a fight. When the president is found dead Jack finds himself in the hot-seat as there were plenty of witnesses to their argument. Shannon is on the case to clear her dad of the crime and unwrap the true killer before it is time to jingle those bells.
So you see Shannon has plenty on her plate but she can’t stop thinking about Mac and why he hasn’t called or texted. I thought their relationship was starting to move forward so this kind of distracted me a little bit from the mystery at first. I don’t want to spoil anything so I will leave this topic alone for this story.
Setting the romance aside, there were several new characters introduced. Mr. Potter, the bank president, until he met his untimely demise. He was a character that was very easy to dislike. Several volunteers including one who didn’t really seem to fit in and who kept disappearing. Several “Santas”, who truly helped on the project. All of our favorites from previous stories return too, well with the exception of Mac who finally arrived near the end of the story. Man, I just can’t seem to let that drop.
I do love the setting, another grand Victorian with all the grandeur waiting to be restored and a few secrets that houses like it always seem to have. I would love to have one of my own. We were close to owning one early in the 80’s. I wish we would have made the major purchase but it needed more work that be were ready to take on at the time.
Ms. Carlisle gave us another challenging mystery to solve with plenty of red herrings, twists and turns. I figured it out right along with Shannon.
I did love this story with that little exception I mentioned earlier. Yes, I really missed Mac, darn it, I did 🙂 I won’t deduct a star for my distraction, but I hope the next installment starts out a little better on the romantic front. 🙂 This is another captivating cozy from Kate Carlisle, all kidding aside, I recommend it and the whole series very highly.
Read more about Kate and the Fixer-Upper Mysteries at www.KateCarlisle.com!
Also by Kate Carlisle
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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of this book. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
I read this book recently and devoured it! I can’t wait for the next in the series – whoever wins this will be very lucky 😀 (I don’t enter a) because I have it and b) I am not in the US!)
Gosh, I love this series. As a matter of fact, I’ve loved everything I’ve read by Kate.
Kate Carlisle’s books are always a great read for those of us who enjoy cozies. It would be great to win a copy since I don’t have one and it’s that time of year. robeader53(at)yahoo(dot)com
Sounds like a great cozy. I love the cover.
Love all her books
“Someone’s been slayed!”
Really? “slayed”, not “slain”?
Super series – love to win!
New to me author