Santa Puppy by Lynn Cahoon Series: Tourist Trap Mysteries #9.75
Published by Lyrical Press on Nov. 6, 2018
Genres: Cozy Mystery
Pages: 121
Format: eARC
Source: the publisher
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Audible
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Also in this series: Guidebook to Murder, Mission to Murder, If the Shoe Kills, Dressed To Kill, Killer Run, Murder on Wheels, Tea Cups and Carnage, Hospitality and Homicide, Killer Party, Rockets' Dead Glare, Memories and Murder
Also by this author: Guidebook to Murder, Mission to Murder, If the Shoe Kills, Dressed To Kill, Killer Run, Murder on Wheels, Tea Cups and Carnage, A Story to Kill, Hospitality and Homicide, Killer Party, Of Murder and Men, Rockets' Dead Glare, Memories and Murder
’Twas the season of Christmas, and all through South Cove, California, Santa is working overtime to deliver a special gift . . .
Jill Gardner has volunteered her Coffee, Books, and More to host a Christmas adopt-a-pet party. Among the potential forever friends is a male terrier named Baby, whose owner died of a heart attack. With few clues to go on, even finding the name of Baby’s human is a daunting task. But there’s no challenge too big for Jill this holiday season.
Playing Santa’s Little Helper, Jill is determined to find out what happened —and to fulfill a long-time coming Christmas wish . .
Review
A short, cute holiday tale, Santa Puppy finds Jill and Greg trying to identify a homeless man who died leaving only a dog and a safe deposit key… while simultaneously running an event to aid a local animal shelter and getting ready for Christmas. Despite the book’s series number (9.75), the story is set somewhere between books 4 and 6, since Sasha is working at the bookstore but not yet dating Toby.
While the novella is pleasant overall, there’s not a lot for Jill to get her teeth into here. The solution to the puzzle surrounding the man and his long-lost love was pretty clear to me early on; the ending comes quickly and feels a bit anticlimactic. A mysterious Santa-like character appears occasionally, making cryptic remarks; he is never explained or identified, leaving the reader to wonder if he’s intended to be the ‘real’ Santa Claus or just a figment of Jill’s imagination.
My verdict: Enjoyable for fans of the series, but not a great place to dive in if you’ve never visited South Cove before.
*****
Read for COYER Winter 2018
About Lynn Cahoon
Lynn Cahoon is the author of the NYT and USA Today bestselling Tourist Trap cozy mystery series. Guidebook to Murder, book 1 of the series, won the Reader’s Crown for Mystery Fiction in 2015. She’s also the author of the Cat Latimer series; the first book, A Story to Kill, was released in mass market paperback in September 2016. Lynn lives in a small town like the ones she loves to write about with her husband and two fur babies. Sign up for her newsletter at www.lynncahoon.com
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
- COYER Winter 2018-2019
Nicole @ BookWyrmKnits
Sounds amusing! Especially if you’re just reading it for the holiday theme and not expecting the normal level of mystery from a cozy mystery. 🙂
Nicole @ BookWyrmKnits recently posted…Top Ten Tuesday ~ Cozy/Wintry Reads
Lark_Bookwyrm
Yes, exactly.
Bookworm
The cover is so cute but it does sound like you need to read a few previous books in the series before this one. Thanks for putting this on my radar.
Bookworm recently posted…Sunday Post/Mailbox Monday 12/9/18: Books and Christmas is Coming Etc.