A Nutcracker Nightmare by Christina Romeril
By page two of this tasty holiday mystery, you’ll be running for chocolate! A Nutcracker Nightmare is the 2nd installment of Christina Romeril’s Killer Chocolate Mysteries, and like a good piece of quality chocolate, it’s truly worthy of the highest of praise!
The quaint mountain town of Harriston is nestled at the foot of the Rocky Mountains. It’s also where you can find the Murder and Mayhem Killer Chocolates and Bookstore, run by twin sisters, Hanna and Alex. The chocolates are their own creations, each chocolate named after a poison from a popular mystery novel.
The town of Harriston is all decked out for Christmas including the local high school where there’s an upcoming reunion weekend. Hanna and Alex’s shop are providing chocolate to the reunion dance and alumni dinner, with Hanna overseeing the food and Alex keeping it all organized.
But when the party gets started, Hanna finds herself, once again, dodging the obnoxious Kyle Allerton, who not only has eyes on Hanna, but has quickly become a scary stalker. Kyle “used” to be a star athlete in his high school days. There’s nothing worse than someone who has become a washed-up-has-been and doesn’t know it – yup – he still thinks he’s God’s gift to women!
Kyle doesn’t have many (if any) friends. He’s mean, condescending and irritating, He also has a way of bullying just about everyone and anyone to get what he wants. So it’s no surprise that Kyle has become a murder victim in a bizarre crime.
The death of Kyle is no “spoiler.” The minute you begin reading the story you know exactly who’s gonna wind up dead. And frankly, this guy is so darn despicable, you’ll be glad he got whacked!
Needless to say, when Hanna was fending off Kyle’s lecherous advances, she slapped him – in front of witnesses – darn! The fact that her fingerprints were found on the murder weapon (darn again), leaves the police no choice but to suspect her of this brutal crime.
But the twins are inseparable and it doesn’t take long for them to team up to search for the real killer. They discover Kyle had enough enemies to fill Santa’s sleigh – and plenty of motives to fill a holiday stocking. Kyle was just plain “bad to the bone.”
This is such a fun and festive holiday cozy mystery…one of my favorites. The characters are endearing,
the plot is as rich as the shop’s strychnine strawberry chocolate delights – and just when you might think you have the killer cornered, well, your suspect might just wind up dead!
This is the 2nd book in the Killer Chocolate Mystery Series and just like the lst book (A Christmas Candy Killing), it’s a winner. A Nutcracker Nightmare by Christina Romeril is a murder mystery skillfully blended with romance and plenty of chocolate.
A copy of this book and cover photo were provided by Crooked Lane Books.