A Wonderful Christmas Crime by Jacqueline Frost

I couldn’t find a better Christmas-themed cozy series than Jacqueline Frost’s Christmas Tree Farm Mysteries. A Wonderful Christmas Crime is her latest – and just like her others, a guarantee to put cozy mystery lovers in the holiday spirit!

It’s the holiday season in Mistletoe, Maine. Holly White is super busy and doing double duty at their family tree farm. The tourists are out in droves, quadrupling the population during the Christmas season! And that includes a lot of upscale collectors who are also in town for the antiques show.

Unfortunately, the Christmas spirit can also bring Christmas crime.  While Holly and her hubby, Sheriff Evan Gray, are celebrating the season at a town-wide dinner, a thief tries to steal an heirloom from the dinner’s holiday display!

But Holly’s friend, Alice, is a not one to tangle with – she catches the thief in the act, knocks her down and saves the heirloom. But the perpetrator manages to get away. Later that evening, Holly spots a lifeless body out in the cold – it’s the thief – and it’s not death by natural causes!

Holly and Evan are stunned that another holiday homicide has landed in their quaint little town. But Holly’s even more stunned when her friend, Alice, who was seen wrestling with the thief, becomes the number one suspect.

As the investigation begins, it turns out the heirloom was much more valuable than anyone imagined. Highly sought after and rare – this antique is clearly a motive for murder, but who aced the thief and why? Was the thief part of a ring? Did she have a partner?

With plenty of other collectors and event planners in town, there’s more than enough suspects to go around.  Sheriff Gray wants desperately to wrap this up before Christmas.  But much to his dismay, his wife, Holly, can’t help but get involved.  She desperately wants her friend’s name permanently crossed off the suspect list.

A Wonderful Christmas Crime gives you double the fun – a solid mystery plot with a truly unique setting. It’s so over-the-top Christmas in such a fantastic way, I’m not sure which I enjoyed more – the “mystery” or the “holiday events and good cheer!”

Jacqueline Frost makes me want to visit Mistletoe, Maine and participate in the Reindeer Games and all the other detailed glorious events at the Christmas Tree Farm! I want to be blindfolded and decorate a gingerbread house! I want to enter the snowman contest, drink the hot coco, savor the gourmet treats — all so perfectly detailed! The buttery cookie dough almost oozes from the pages!

Ms. Frost is at the top of her game when it comes to giving readers an exceptionally creative Christmas town and compelling characters. If this book doesn’t put YOU in the holiday spirit, then nothing will!

A Wonderful Christmas Crime by Jacqueline Frost lives up to it’s name: it really is “a wonderful Christmas crime!”

A copy of this book and cover photo were provided by Crooked Lane Books.