I found myself laughing out loud at this very well done mystery. Annike is the widow of the late Sheriff and a CPA, and she really has no intention of involving herself in the murder investigation or any of the holiday madness, but has it all thrust upon her. The local service club sees her as a victim to replace a lazy event chair, and the new Sheriff Sarkisian needs her help with the locals and with the local distillery’s books, despite resenting being compared to Annike’s late husband, who apparently was a local and very good at his job. For a small town, Upper River Gulch really has more than it’s share of bizarre characters and I loved Annike’s frustration with TDB the turkey taking up residence in her vintage Mustang. The SCOURGE’s and their dedication to founding more and more traditions as long as someone else did the work was really funny. Brody’s family, sister and wife are both very unpleasant. The local neo-hippie has more going on than his non-existent real estate business. Owen Sarkisian is a great character, he is trying to get a feel for his new job, and is very good at it, but he feels like he has to live up to Annike’s late husband, possibly not just as the Sheriff. Annike’s relationship with the new Sheriff just starts to get interesting at the end of the book and should make future books even more worth reading. The mystery aspect is the best part. There are so many suspects that I wanted them all to be guilty, none of them are particularly likeable, but I was surprised at who really did it. This is a very well done mystery.

Overall rating:
Sensuality rating: Sweet

Reviewer: Maura Frankman
November 20, 2006