The Christmas lights twinkle in the town square as merry carolers bring good tidings. But when a festive feud turns fatal, Sarah Vane is on the case!

While snowflakes fall outside, Sarah Vane cosies up in her cottage with a book when a leaflet for the Christmas choir flutters through her letterbox. Keen to sign up, she pays a visit to choir master Daffyd Jones. But her festive cheer crumbles like a mince pie when she finds him dead in his office. With just a week to go until Christmas, Sarah has a festive case to solve.

As Sarah talks to the devastated choir members, she soon discovers many had a reason to dislike Daffyd. Was it the soprano who was humiliated by him in front of the choir for missing her high note? His long-suffering wife suspected an affair – are her floods of tears fake? And why was his picture-perfect forever home put on the market just days before his death?

But with her tinsel in a tangle, another body is found, this time on the beach. The police think the poor lad had one too many at a Christmas party and fell off the pier, but when Sarah looks closely, she sees a clear link to Daffyd. Can Sarah catch the culprit among the carollers, or will she be dashing through the snow to her demise this Christmas?

A delightfully cozy, utterly compulsive, and gripping murder mystery, perfect for fans of Faith Martin, J.R. Ellis, and Clare Chase who are looking for their next addictive read.

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

‘Daffyd’s bark is worse than his bite.’ ‘Is it?’ said Sarah doubtfully. Both seemed to warrant a hefty rabies injection, from what she’d seen.

Privacy was a scarce resource in Merstairs, where the slightest bit of gossip gave you a brief edge over almost everybody, and flapping ears were an epidemic disease the likes of which she had rarely seen.

He was the most god-awful, jumped up little squit.

My Review:

 

I adore Alice Castle’s captivating cozy mysteries. She includes a healthy dose of amusing humor with her brain-teasing murders, which appear to happen more than expected for a small and quirky coastal village. And I scored a new entry for my Brit words and phrases list with squit, which Mr. Google informed is a dialectical British slang term for an insignificant person or for nonsense/rubbish. What fun!