I started reading Leslie Meier's Christmas Carol Murder (#361) on Twelfth Night, so technically I did get in this last Christmas book during the holiday period!
In this latest Lucy Stone outing, the small Maine coastal town of Tinker's Cove provides an admirable stand-in for Dicken's London in terms of the problems the residents there are facing. Student activists at the local college, including Lucy's own daughter Sara, are demanding redress for the 99%, the town is facing severe budget shortages, and as a result is busy eliminating jobs and cutting back hours and benefits for the remaining town employees. Foreclosures are way up, but sales are way down at all the local shops, and one family in town may not be able to afford medical care for a chronically ill child. Not a pleasant prospect for the holidays, but everyone makes an effort to do what they can to make the holidays bright, including a community theater production of A Christmas Carol. But the season starts off with a bang when Jake Marlow, one of the miserly partners of Downeast Mortgage, is killed by a mail bomb disguised as a Christmas package.
Lucy Stone, in her position as a reporter for the local paper (and budding thespian Mrs. Cratchit) is itching to find out who's behind the bombing. Someone is out for revenge, and his main target seems to be Ben Scribner, the equally miserly surviving partner of Downeast Mortgage, or anyone close to him. There are suspects aplenty, but can Lucy figure out who is behind the mistletoe mayhem before someone else dies?
Lots of very cute (and astute!) references to Dicken's original work here, with the most relevant of present day social issues building to a plausible explosion of feelings, emotions and actions in Christmas Carol Murder. If you're a fan of the original Christmas Carol, you'll enjoy this modern day take on it, and the ending won't disappoint.
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