Reviewed by Jeanne
April Claus is trying to stay calm, but when your husband is
out making stops all over the world in an aging sleigh pulled by reindeer it’s
a little hard. The sleigh doesn’t even
have seatbelts. Although everyone tells
her not to worry, that Santa always comes back, she’s still very tense. She’s trying to immerse herself in the
welcome back preparations, but then there’s a Situation.
Three humans have been found near Santaland, all injured from
an apparent plane crash. They can’t just
be left to die, so they are transported to Christmastown where they’ll have to
kept isolated and unaware of where they are.
There’s a complication, though:
one of the men has been stabbed—with a reindeer antler.
When the man dies, the ante is upped: not only does April have to find a murderer,
but she also has to keep the survivors convinced that they’re in Canada, that
reindeer and snowmen don’t talk, that the elves are just somewhat short humans,
and that all the Christmas stuff is just seasonal decorations and not a way of
life.
Okay, so when I first heard about this series I thought it
sounded way too cutesy for my taste.
Maybe even silly. Then a reviewer
whose opinion I respect gave it a very good review and I decided to give it a
try. I first read a novella set in this
world, and found it to be delightful so I moved on to a full length book.
I’ll admit that it does require a certain suspension of
disbelief, what with talking reindeer, elves, snow monsters, and such, but then
again so do books in which the local pastry chef solves murders and doles out
recipes with equal aplomb. Most of all,
I found this book to be fun and imaginative.
Since April is still an outsider in some ways, having been a human
innkeeper in Oregon before meeting Nick, she’s a good guide to the intricacies
of Santaland living. There’s a good bit
of world-building and some wonderful characters. Some of the reindeer were my favorites—oh,
not the celebrity reindeer, but the off-beat ones like Wobbler and Quasar. The
elves’ efforts to pretend to be Canadian were as humorous as they were earnest,
and while I wouldn’t classify this as a fair play mystery, I had such fun
reading it that I didn’t care.
While this may not be everyone’s cup of Christmas cheer, I
found it was definitely mine. I’m looking forward to reading more in this
series.
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