Publication August 26, 2025
Somehow, my rainy, cool weather seemed to indicate this would be the perfect time to curl up with three favorite authors and check out their Halloween tricks-and-treats. I won't go into great detail as I've noted others already have, but will note that while I wasn't quite in the mood for the "Yikes! Oh, no, look behind you!" flavor of Lee Hollis'"Death of a Halloween Night Stalker", it was probably the most Halloween-y of them all. Don't get me wrong, it is an excellent tale, perfect for those in the mood for serious chills and thrills and the feeling of being trapped with spooky, scary killers on the lam. I just wasn't there yet. An accident on the way home from a concert leaves Hayley, Liddy, and Mona stranded with no internet or way of contacting outside help during a spooky rainstorm in a house that sounds straight out of a gothic horror movie. The residents are, well, not someone you'd want to spend time with, especially the zombie son. Nope, not sharing any more. I'll be going back to this one, I assure you, when I'm more in the mood for having chills run up my spine. Yes, Hollis can do spooky and do it well.
The first story, Leslie Meier's "Halloween Night Murder", seems to only briefly touch on Halloween. A young, ragged looking teenager shows up at Hayley's door as the night of trick-or-treat is winding down and she spontaneously gives him all the candy she had left. The next morning she's horrified to hear that he was killed by a hit-and-run driver. That's where the story veers away from the Halloween spirit, though there are some scary things to be learned as she dives into investigating not just the social services available to the children and their seemingly abused mother, but into politics, shady dealings, and the corruption of some in positions of power over others. What she finds isn't comforting and, in fact, should probably spook us more than made-up ghosts and goblins.
The third story is the most fun of the bunch, taking us back to Christmastown. If you'd not familiar with Liz Ireland's series with April Claus' (yes, married to that certain Claus we all assume wears a red suit and is a jolly, fat ol' guy) life with talking snowman and reindeer, snow monsters, elves, flying sleighs, and some of the most fun, quirky residents you can imagine. Be prepared to suspend disbelief and simply go with the flow. Not only is Santa, aka Nick, not old, he's quite a hunk but takes his temporary status as Santa seriously while holding the position until his nephew, Christopher, reaches maturity. In this installment, we have a snowman in a coma, thought to be the victim of a just released from elf prison, caramel maker extraordinary Flake. All this in the midst of a reindeer stampede, er, race, and hotly competitive caramel baking contest that even has the elder Mrs. Claus caught up in the spirit of the competition. April's too busy snooping, er, investigating to bake although not to enjoy samples of the entries. Somehow her best friend and her boyfriend, Jake, a relative of Jack Frost, wind up going to the frozen reaches of the furthest north to convince a cranky witch to return to Christmastown with them to help remove any spell of the poor, dormant snowman but they wind up newt-sitting. Don't ask. Just suspend belief and enjoy. Who knew Santa's life was so complicated. Thanks #KensingtonPublishing for allowing me this sneak peek at these well-down stories based around the Halloween theme. Bet you never thought about Santa's elves celebrating Halloween, did you? Grin.
No comments:
Post a Comment