cozy crimes at christmastime

Library director Lindsey Norris and her fellow librarians are ready for the holidays. The children’s librarian is going to have the kids make snowflakes to put in the windows. The afternoon crafternoon group, a group of local women who get together once a week for a book club/craft session, are making bookish ornaments that can decorate the library. The library even has a float in the Christmas Eve parade.

But Lindsey gets nothing but a cold shoulder when she tries to get their writer in residence involved in the festivities. Helen Monroe wrote the popular Mallory Quest thrillers before she tired of them and killed her protagonist, much to the chagrin of her fans. She accepted the chance to write in the library to work on a new series. And while the writer shows up every day to work and conducts a weekly writing seminar, she’s distinctly anti-social otherwise.

So when another woman shows up at the library, calling herself Jackie and explaining that she is an old friend of Helen’s, and Lindsey immediately gets a bad feeling in her gut, she struggles with whether or not to tell Helen. Lindsey takes the question to the crafternooners, and she about half saying to tell her and the other half saying to leave it alone. Lindsey has no evidence of wrongdoing, just a bad feeling, and she doesn’t know where Helen is staying in town, since it was the Friends of the Library who had taken care of those details. So she comes up with a new idea.

When Jackie had stopped by the library, she had let them know that she was staying at a local bed and breakfast, so Lindsey came up with a reason to go there and get more information about the potential stalker. As it turns out, Jackie Lewis is also a writer. And she’s planning on going to the ugly Christmas sweater contest that the Friends of the Library is having. The one were Helen will be one of the judges. And when she does show up and makes a scene, Helen admits that they used to be friends. Now, she accuses Helen of stealing her ideas for her popular series before the sheriff escorts her from the party

But when Jackie is found later, apparently electrocuted by Christmas lights in the city’s gazebo, Helen is the primary suspect. And Lindsey wants to step in to help clear her, as Helen is their first writer in residence, and she wants there to be more. But as more suspects come are uncovered, it seems that Jackie’s death may have been an accident. It may have been Helen who was the original target for the killer, so Lindsey needs to work even faster to uncover the truth before they succeed at killing off the author.

A Merry Little Murder Plot is book 15 in Jenn McKinlay’s popular Library Lover’s Mystery Series. The small town of Briar Creek, Connecticut comes to life in these books, as the librarians and its patrons uncover secrets and lies, stalkers and killers. Filled with lots of book talk and the warmth of family and good friends, these mysteries also feature humor, small town camaraderie, and some fun surprises. This one also includes a Christmas ornament craft, a couple of recipes, including Fruitcake Cookies, and discussion questions for the Christmas book the crafternooners read, Truman Capote’s A Christmas Memory.

I really enjoyed A Merry Little Murder Plot. Lindsey’s friend Robbie brought extra humor to the story, and I loved the writer in residence story line. I also appreciated the way the librarians handled the woman who was talking about banning books at the public library as well as the high school library, as that is a timely and important topic. I thought author Jenn McKinlay had her characters handle that with grace and strength, and it added an interesting texture to the mystery. I like McKinlay’s mysteries a lot. My only real grievance with this one is that it is not very inclusive. It’s for those who celebrate Christmas and doesn’t mention any alternate holidays, but if you are a Christmas person (which I am), then this fun, book-filled holiday murder mystery is a gift.

Egalleys for A Merry Little Murder Plot were provided by Berkley through NetGalley, with many thanks.