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Ten Lords A-Leaping (Father Christmas Mystery, #3)

C.C. Benison

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Jan 15, 2025 Theresa rated it really liked it

Shelves: contemporary-mystery, dragons-spotted-in-the-wild, cozy-mysteries, pop-sugar-2025-reading-challenge, england, aty-2025, play-harder

At the end of Eleven Pipers Piping, Vicar Tom Christmas and the Thornfeld Parish Council were preparing for an upcoming charitable event to raise monies to fix the church roof: a group styling themselves The Leaping Lords would put on an event part of which had Tom and others makinge their first parachute jump onto the lawns of Eggscombe Manor in Abbotswicke, followed by a sychronized parachute jumb by the Leaping Lords (who indeed numbered ten). This book starts with Tom making his first jump a At the end of Eleven Pipers Piping, Vicar Tom Christmas and the Thornfeld Parish Council were preparing for an upcoming charitable event to raise monies to fix the church roof: a group styling themselves The Leaping Lords would put on an event part of which had Tom and others makinge their first parachute jump onto the lawns of Eggscombe Manor in Abbotswicke, followed by a sychronized parachute jumb by the Leaping Lords (who indeed numbered ten). This book starts with Tom making his first jump and managing to sprain his ankle badly on landing, thus setting it up for him to have to stay as a guest at Eggscombe Manor rather than head off on vacation with his daughter. It thus made him present when one of the Leaping Lord's is done in just before dawn the next day in the Eggscombe Labyrinth (think hedge maze). Eggscombe is locked down by our favorite police Blessing and Bliss, leaving Tom to start unravelling the complicated realtionships of the hosts and the extended family (It's quite the challenging family tree), as he investigates the murder and ultimately reveals many dark doings, scandalous secrets, and skulduggery. As always, there are letters from his cook Madrun to her mother to provide a 2nd (and very amusing) POV to the events, as Madrun is also on vacation, visiting the housekeeper at Eggscombe who is a friend from Culinary School.

This was a bit more complicated than the first couple in the series but still hones to the traditions of the classic Golden Age Detective stories while giving them a distinctly modern touch. The author really writes mysteries - plot, setting, characters - reminiscent of Agatha Christie. Unfortunately, his publisher decided to drop this series and there will be no more featuring Father Christmas. However, a character in this one who helps out with solving the murder apparently has her own series set among the British royals. I will hunt that down - it's an older series so may have me heading to the used bookstores.

Happily though the Leaping Lords event did raise a significant amount for the church roof if not enough to set the cardboard red thermometer ablaze (Tom's wish above all) that sits on the church lawn. ...more

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