It’s been a busy year for Alice Carroll, with her Curiosity Shop opening for business, and not one but two murders shaking things up in her quaint Cotswold village.
She’s looking forward to her first
countryside Christmas, complete with traditional Christmas Fair and Santa Run.
But her hopes for innocent festive fun are thwarted when one of the Santa Runners steals something from her mum’s knitting stall. His festive outfit makes him hard to spot, until he’s found fatally injured outside the village hall with the stolen item.
Despite what the police say, Alice suspects there’s more to his murder than meets the eye. She’s determined to solve the mystery – including why, once more, a stranger thought something from her Curiosity Shop was worth killing for.
With the help of her charming neighbour Robert Praed, can Alice find the killer before the bells ring out this Christmas?
Debbie Young is the much-loved author of the Sophie Sayers and St Brides cosy crime mysteries. She lives in a Cotswold village, where she runs the local literary festival, and has worked at Westonbirt School, both of which provide inspiration for her writing.
Facebook: @DebbieYoungAuthor
Twitter: @DebbieYoungBN
Instagram: @debbieyoungauthor
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My thoughts: It sometimes feels a bit funny reading Christmas books in a heatwave, and all the talk of jumpers and scarves in this did make me feel a bit warm, but thankfully there’s murder and a missing little bear to find.
It’s all a bit odd as a man steals a five pound knitted scarf from Alice’s mum’s stall (I love that little Laila calls her “Alice’s mummy”) with a curious bear shaped button attached. He then promptly gets strangled with said scarf and the bear vanishes. Only all is not what it seems and the little bear turns out to be far more valuable and important to the case than anyone realises.
Both victim and whoever killed him were dressed as Santa, so that’s really helpful in soliciting possible witnesses. But on checking the register of Santa Run runners, Alice spots that the victim and the most likely suspect didn’t use their real names…conspiracy!
It’s a really fun read, and funny, I enjoy this series, although, I too miss the donkeys from the first book, and I did enjoy how Wendy, Alice’s mum, manages to get to know more about the villagers in a few hours than Alice has ever managed in almost a year. Right, off to sort through the button box in case there’s something priceless lurking in there…
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
ramblingmads 