“When murder follows a stranger to Dickens Junction and threatens to destroy Christmas and maybe everything the town stands for, bookstore owner and town patriarch Simon Alastair must venture out of the stacks and into the story. And this one’s a tough for him to summarize, as nobody seems to know just how it started or even who the main characters might be. As to how it will end, well those pages have yet to be written.
Lord has written a smart NW cozy that’s gay-friendly, full of dry wit (Simon’s cheeky best friend, George, is brilliant) andrich in literary nods. There’s even an Agatha Christie-style gathering of the suspects in the bookstore, where Simon arranges the chairs “just as he would for an author reading.”
The Christmas Carol Murders is fireside holiday fun, and I look forward to the bookseller sleuth’s further adventures, in whatever season mystery may visit The Junction.”—Brian Juenemann, Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association