Publication Dec. 5, 2023
This is a collection of three stories with different vibes all centered around St. Patrick's Day. The blurb does an excellent job introducing the stories, all by authors I'm familiar with. O'Conner's story was probably the darker toned of the three. That's odd because the characters are coming together to celebrate an upcoming wedding. Bride-to-be Tara isn't enthusiastic about the idea of a hen party, but agrees to go along with the idea. Good thing as everything has already been set up, including the tour boat to take them to a more isolated area. There's a storm coming, too. See where this one's going? Needless to say, things go wrong. A man, a twin Irish dancer, dies after drinking a special holiday milkshake. The guest are already rather, uh, tipsy. The boat captain goes missing, and they spend a great deal of time trudging through mud while getting drenched and blown about. I didn't have a clue who did it, to be honest, and found myself rather lost in the festivities, I guess, as this entry didn't quite grab my interest. That said, I did grin at the reference to television's "Dancing With the Stars".
The second story felt like I was back on solid, familiar turf, however. Peggy Ehrhart's knitting mysteries were one of my introductions to cozy mysteries, so I'm always glad to spend time hanging out with Pamela and her far more flashy reporter friend Bettina. In this case, they've stopped for something to eat when they experience, one, a sheep parade down the street past the restaurant, and, two, seeing a man at a nearby table die after drinking a green milkshake. Bettina takes the lead in their follow-up investigation but we get the cozy size of the mystery, too, as they knit, chat, and visit friends. And, regular readers, you'll be happy to see Pamela's romance is moving along nicely and it's always fun to imagine the fiber related articles she's okaying and editing. In any case, their lives are endangered, that's the nature of cozy mystery amateur sleuths, but, hey, there's a knitting pattern and recipes included with this one. This is the more leisurely of the trio of stories, so relax, have a snack (or shake) handy, and enjoy as they try to sort out who the murderer is and make all the seemingly unconnected clues some together.
Quite frankly, as a fan of Liz Ireland's Mrs. Claus series, I honestly think I asked to review this book solely because I wanted to read Ireland's "Mrs. Claus and the Luckless Leprechaun". It's a fun, whimsical story that somehow manages to make talking reindeer, competitive elves, iceball season, building ice houses for living snowmen, ballooning, Santa Claus, and more seem to make perfect sense. It's spring, so the elves have more downtime and that seems to bring out the competitive, nasty side in some. An iceball (the elf version of hockey?) superstar is sidelined by an injury and winds up being conked in the head by an iceball. April Claus, Santa's wife, is determined that justice be done, all while dealing with an overly officious flying reindeer who also suffers panic attacks, playing in the Santaland band, and trying to find a way to help a quite unlikable elf be successful. Somehow I never quite envisioned Santa's homeland being so complicated but it's a heap of fun to drop in every time to see what's going on there.
Thanks #NetGalley and #KensingtonBooks - #KensingtonCozies for allowing me to spend some time getting my Irish on in three very different locations. I mean, I never quite expected to be virtually eating green ice cream in Santaland. Grin.
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