Mrs. Claus and the Evil Elves
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4.5 • 2 Ratings
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Jessica Fletcher meets Tim Burton in this creative and witty cozy mystery series from Liz Ireland, filled with unconventional characters, year-round Christmas cheer, and a unique heroine who’s married to the real-life Santa Claus!
April Claus has grown to love her new North Pole home almost as much as she loves her husband, Nick—Santa himself. But even in Christmastown, the holidays can be murder . . .
April Claus is getting an early gift for her second Christmas in Santaland. Her dear friend, Claire, is visiting from Oregon, and April hopes to show off her adoptive country at its cozy, glittering best. But when the annual ice sculpture contest is derailed by a kamikaze drone-deer, it’s just the first in a series of un-festive events . . .
Drone-deer, created by inventor elf Blinky Brightlow, are none too popular with the genuine, flesh-and-hoof kind, who are currently on strike. With no reindeer games to keep them in shape, Nick worries they may get too chunky to pull his sleigh come Christmas. Now Blinky is missing, his girlfriend, Juniper, is under suspicion, and between rogue reindeer and conniving elves, all of Santaland seems to have gone sugarplum-crazy. Add a dash of murder to the mix, and suddenly April is battling not just to clear Juniper’s name, but to save herself from being put on ice—permanently . . .
Praise for Mrs. Claus and the Halloween Homicide
“Fans of offbeat, humorous cozies will clamor for more.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Multiple plot twists, quirky, characters, plenty of humor, and the lovingly described, magical Santaland distinguish this entertaining cozy.”
—Booklist
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Ireland's funny, well-paced third Mrs. Claus's mystery (after 2021's Mrs. Claus and the Halloween Homicide) finds Santa's wife, April, excited that her best friend from Oregon, Claire Emerson, will be visiting Santaland. April, Santa, and Claire travel from Fairbanks, Alaska, to Santaland in a flying sleigh pulled by a scab reindeer, since most reindeer have walked off the job to protest the introduction of drone-deer, which they fear "would prove the final nail in the coffin of reindeer usefulness." Tensions ratchet up when a deer-drone bearing the message "THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING!" crashes into a display at an ice-sculpting contest. April, who's tasked with investigating the incident, hopes to exonerate the obvious suspects for sabotaging the drone—the striking reindeer. When a Santaland resident is beaten to death with a poker, the plot takes a darker turn. Ireland's bizarre series conceit works, a tribute to her deft juggling of sleuthing and satire. Fans of Leigh Perry's Family Skeleton mysteries will be tickled.
