Novella Review: Christmas Cocoa Murder by Carlene O’Connor (Irish Village Mysteries #3.5)

Stars: 5 out of 5

Pros: Good characters and creative story

Cons: A few references will be confusing for new readers

The Bottom Line:

Dead in chocolate

Creative Christmas story

With seasonal cheer

Drowning in Hot Chocolate

I had never read anything from Carlene O’Connor until her novella “Christmas Cocoa Murder” was the opening story in a novella collection a few years ago.  It was a fun and creative introduction to her characters.

This story finds Siobhan O’Sullivan, the main character in the popular Irish Village Mysteries, a few weeks from joining the local police department in her small Irish village.  Even though she’s not supposed to officially join until after the first of the year, she finds herself getting involved in a case just before Christmas.  First, her family’s dog goes missing.  Then the intermission entertainment at the holiday panto goes horribly wrong.  Paddy O’Shea, the village Santa, has been obsessed over how to top the Santa from the neighboring village, and he’s come up with what he thinks is the perfect way.  He’s had a custom-built dunk tank made, and he’s going to challenge people to dunk him in hot chocolate.  However, before the show is over, Paddy is found floating face down in the hot chocolate.  Who killed Santa?

As I said, this was my introduction to the characters, and I did struggle a bit keeping Siobhan’s family straight, and there are some references to things going on in her personal life that I didn’t get.  However, these were very minor issues in an overall fun story and easy enough to ignore.  As you might have guessed from the description of the story, there is some humor involved in the events, but it does have plenty of serious moments as well.  These were balanced perfectly.  I really enjoyed getting to know Siobhan and the suspects were all strong enough to be believable as the killer.  The plot kept me engaged until we reached the great climax.

Overall, this story is about 100 pages, so it makes it easy to slip in during Christmas.  And there is plenty of Christmas cheer to enjoy.

If you’ve already read the anthology, there’s no reason to get this story.  But if you’ve missed “Christmas Cocoa Murder,” you’ll enjoy this Christmas visit to Ireland.