'Twas the Knife Before Christmas

Jacqueline Frost has quickly become an auto read as her stories are all top notch. This one starts with Holly's friend Caroline being manipulated by her parents into having dinner with Derek. Derek gets handsy and Caroline jumps up and makes a bit of a scene.

It quickly makes the news, but when Derek ends up dead, Caroline becomes a prime suspect and Holly gets involved trying to clear her friend's name.

The Reindeer Games are always fun and I love the small town characters and the Christmas atmosphere. The murder is always well thought out and it's just amazing writing.

This was offered on Audible for free and happened to be the follow up to my last read, so I gave it a go. It’s easy to follow, seasonal and semi-cozy, and Allyson Ryan is such an easy narrator to follow.

Unfortunately, it’s a year later for Holly, and things haven’t been great between her and the Bostonian sheriff. He’s distant, and she doesn’t know why. With Christmas looming, she’s gearing up for another busy week of reindeer games at the family tree farm in Mistletoe, Maine. The construction of an inn on the family property is going well, and the man in charge looks and sounds just a bit like Santa.

Over the last year of being home, Holly has become best friends with Caroline, near inseparable, but after a fight with a man got out of hand and filmed, it ended up on the news…only making things worse when he was found dead the next day. The clues all seemingly point to Caroline, so it’s up to Holly to once again ask around, to infuriate the sheriff, and to draw unwanted attention to herself, perhaps at a large personal cost. Will Caroline be proved innocent? Can Holly and the sheriff reconcile?

While this one still featured a romance subplot, the mystery was far better established in my opinion. With actual red herrings, misdirects, and some well thought out investigation. For me, that was quite the build off the last one, and not for nothing, this one’s a bit darker too, and chillier too, given the season. Not quite so cozy, however the author continues to offer up seasonal cheer and sugar comas galore. And I really love that it took most of book two for someone to finally label Holly as an amateur sleuth, cause really she’s just being nosy. Sadly, the others aren’t included, and I don’t have credits.