Slashing Through the Snow by Jacqueline Frost

A Christmas Tree Farm Mystery 3 Slashing Through the Snow by Jacqueline Frost

Holly and her friends return for another Christmas mystery in Mistletoe. Three books ago, it had been forty years since there had been a murder in this town. Now it’s an annual event—almost, dare I say it, a rather perverse Christmas tradition. And like that first season of the classic cartoon, Scooby Doo, we now know exactly how the mystery will unfold. Someone hated by a huge number of people will be murdered. Someone close to Holly will be suspected of the crime. Holly will decide (against the pleading of her boyfriend the super competent sheriff who had been a top Boston Homicide Detective) to investigate. The killer will not like this and instead of simply killing Holly, will decide to leave several warning notes of various types which serve to prove that the wrong person is under suspicion (often already locked up) for the crime. Friends, family, and the sheriff will plead with Holly to stop investigating. She will ignore them—repeatedly. The villain will finally decide that Holly has to be permanently removed leading to a tense and violent ending.

 

So, heavily formulaic, but it works. The mysteries are pretty mysterious. And the growing cast of characters is very likeable. I suspect that if I had read these over three Christmases rather than one after the other, the formulaic nature would have been more like coming home to familiar surroundings than a cookie cutter mystery plot. Despite the formula, this one does have a surprise at the end, but I can’t reveal it without spoiling the novel.