Hard Christmas
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- $2.99
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- $2.99
Publisher Description
Journalist-turned-sleuth Cat Marsala knows there's no such thing as easy money. But a feature story on Christmas tree farming does sound relaxing. And once she arrives at the DeGraaf farm, Cat finds a friendly, colorful family whose hard work spans generations. Then Cat learns about the mysterious death of Henry DeGraaf, Sr., the previous spring, and a palpable tension replaces the cheery air. Could the DeGraaf family closet be rife with skeletons?
When a fresh corpse turns up, she's sure of it.
Praise for the Cat Marsala Mysteries
"D'Amato's novel is her best and most ambitious."
—Chicago Sun-Times (Hard Christmas)
"D'Amato's fine writing, clever plot twists, and quick wit, her nicely understated but telling comments on the vagaries of human nature, and most of all, her appealing heroine make this book a perfect holiday read."
—Booklist (Hard Christmas)
"Fascinating...truly a holiday treat...D'Amato's richly textured characters are enveloped in a gorgeous and unusual setting."
—Mostly Murder (Hard Christmas)
"This effort rides far on the pleasures of Cat's company—and on her appealing, often funny, first-person voice."
—Publishers Weekly (Hard Christmas)
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Chicago freelance reporter Cat Marsala (last seen in Hard Case) pilots her old Bronco up into rural Michigan and finds murder among the family about whom she'd chosen to write a wholesome puff piece about Christmas-tree farming. She spends Thanksgiving weekend with the DeGraafs, a clan whose patriarch crossed the ocean in 1847 and cleared his own fields. Anthony Award-winner D'Amato's gift is description--not just her evocation of the heady scents of trees and lakes, or the savory accounts of hearty Dutch meals, but also precise explanations of harvesting procedures and machinery, including the mechanical tree baler into which somebody feeds the farm's foreman, killing him. The DeGraafs, it turns out, have secrets to protect, and suddenly Cat's looking into events more tangled than spruce roots. Although all the clues are meticulously in place, the crimes seem basically inconsistent with the murderer's character as it has been developed. Despite its disappointing ending, however, this effort rides far on the pleasures of Cat's company--and on her appealing, often funny, first-person voice.
