This Halloween, the Tricks are Murder, Which is a Treat for Us
Kensington is back with another novella collection. They’re returning to Halloween for Halloween Night Murder, which features stories by Leslie Meier, Lee Hollis, and Liz Ireland. All three stories will put you in the Halloween mood.
Up first is the title story, featuring Leslie’s Lucy Stone. Since Lucy and her husband, Bill, live outside their small village of Tinker’s Cove, Maine, they don’t get a lot of Trick or Treaters. So Lucy is a bit surprised when they get a teen out by himself at the end of the evening. She doesn’t think much more of it until she learns the teen was killed by a hit and run driver after leaving her front door. When the police find the victim’s family, Lucy learns they are staying in the abandoned farm house across the street. Will Lucy find a way to help them? And who committed the hit and run?
As usual with the novellas I read featuring Lucy, I found it lacking. It was trying to include too much in a novella length story. We focus more on the victim’s family than we do on the mystery, which is under developed as a result. We also get a few scenes just there to include the author’s politics. I do like Lucy and Bill, and I appreciated that some of the family drama I’ve read about in past novellas was absent here. I think I’d like some of the other regulars in the series if they had more than a cameo. And there was a pretty bad timeline issue as well. What we were left with wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t all that good either.
The middle story is “Death of a Halloween Night Stalker,” which features characters from Lee Hollis’s Hayley Powell series. Hayley and her best friends, Liddy and Mona, are on the road home from a concert in Boston. However, an accident has closed the main highway home, and the weather is so bad, they wind up in an accident themselves off the side road they have taken. The only place they can find to get help is a cabin in the woods. It looks creepy, but what other choice do they have? Besides, the things you see in a horror movie are fiction, right? Right?
Yes, this novella does incorporate some of the tropes of a horror story. But don’t let that concern you, this story never goes too far. Other than a few mild four-letter words, this is still very much a cozy, just with more of a suspense edge to it. And I loved it. Yes, it took me a few pages to see where the story was actually going, but once I did, I was hooked, and I had to see how things would end. Outside of Hayley’s columns (we get three of them with recipes), we don’t get to see much of the other characters in the series, but that also works well for this story. Plan some time when you start this one because you won’t want to put it down.
Rounding out the collection is the reason I picked it up – “Mrs. Claus and the Wily Witch” by Liz Ireland. Yes, our main character is the current Mrs. Claus, and we are heading to the North Pole. With Halloween just a few days away, April Claus was expecting to be helping prepare Castle Kringle for its stop in the Sugarplum Spooky Sleigh Ride. Instead, she gets involved when an elf who has just returned from exile, Flake, is accused of doing…something…to a snowman. When another elf dies, things look even worse for Flake. Can April clear his name?
It’s no secret to anyone who follows my reviews that I love this series. This novella was a great quick visit with these characters. Even with this short page count, we got to see all the regulars and get some set up for the next novel in the series. All the charm and cozy is present as well. The mystery is strong and kept me guessing until the end, which, as always, turns into a delightful action scene. These stories are not to be missed.
Each story is roughly 100 pages, so combined, you get a full-length book. But it’s a fun way to either sample a new series or visit old friends.
The book’s coming out this month, so you can get ready for October. Whether you read it now or save it for Halloween night, you’ll enjoy these bite sized Halloween Night Murder.
Do check out the rest of the Mrs. Claus Mysteries.
NOTE: I received an ARC of this book.
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