REVIEW: Twas the Knife Before Christmas

Twas the Knife Before Christmas
Author: Jacqueline Frost

It's Christmastime in Mistletoe, Maine once again. Holly White is gearing up for all the holiday festivities and helping out with the family business, Reindeer Games Christmas Tree Farm. They are renovating and expanding to add an Inn for guests, but construction is way behind schedule. She's also trying to cheer up a friend who just had a really bad experience at a benefit dinner. Her date, the son of a local judge, behaved badly...and they had a fight. To kick off the holiday season, everyone goes to the town's tree lighting ceremony. What should be a fun holiday gimmick -- guessing the number of holiday mints in a giant glass bowl -- turns for the worst when Caroline's handsy date is found dead inside the glass bowl, covered in Christmas candy. Not only is that a terrible waste of lovely mint candy.....but Caroline is a murder suspect. A knife from her cupcake business emblazoned with Caroline's initials is the murder weapon. It might just take a Christmas miracle to prove that Caroline didn't stab Derek.....

This cute, enjoyable holiday cozy mystery got me in the mood for the Christmas season. :) I love the background theme of a Christmas tree farm...especially in a small town named Mistletoe. :) Finding the murder victim in a huge dish of candy was also a nice touch. I wanted the killer arrested not only for killing Derek the Handsy Jerk, but also for ruining the lighting ceremony and huge glass container of candy gimmick. I just kept imagining how pretty that big glass bowl filled with peppermints under all the lights would have been....until a body was stuffed into it. What sort of grinch does something like that?  All is revealed by the end of the book! The mints however were a lost cause....

I enjoy this series. The characters are fun...from Holly White the main character clear down to Theodore the pet goat. I'm always a sucker for holiday themed cozy mysteries...and this series never fails to entertain me. The mystery is nicely paced....it's just Christmas-y enough to be fun....and there are enough twists and turns to keep the plot interesting. And, a couple special Christmas miracles are thrown in for good measure. All in all, an enjoyable holiday cozy with lots of feel-good moments. I will definitely continue reading this series!

Ho, ho, ho....Merry Christmas! :)

**I voluntarily read an advanced readers copy of this book from Crooked Lane via NetGalley. All opinions expressed are entirely my own. My guess....there were 20,947 candies in the giant bowl before the addition of a Dead Derek.**