Silent Night, Deadly Night by Vicki Delany – Guest Post & Giveaway

Synopsis:

Residents of Rudolph keep the spirit of Christmas alive year-round—but their joy is threatened when a group of grinches visits the town, in the charming fourth installment of the Year-Round Christmas series.

It’s the week before Thanksgiving, and Merry Wilkinson, owner of Mrs. Claus’s Treasures, is preparing for a weekend reunion of her mother’s college friends. But when the group of women comes into Merry’s shop, Merry is met with frosty attitudes and cold hearts.

The women argue amongst themselves constantly, and the bickering only intensifies after one of the friends is poisoned. With her father’s role as Santa in danger due to his proximity to the crime, Merry will need to use all of her investigative gifts to wrap this mystery up and save Santa and her favorite holiday.

Merry’s mother has organized a reunion for several of her old college friends. Things don’t go as smoothly as planned, however, and when one of the guests is murdered, Merry gets involved to help find the culprit. There are an abundance of suspects for Merry to check up on, but of course, she figures out who is to blame, with a little help from her good friend Vicky.

I always enjoy a holiday-themed mystery – it makes for a nice (although temporary) escape from the August heat. Silent Night, Deadly Night has that Christmas feel even though it’s not quite Thanksgiving at the time the story takes place. The Christmas themed town sounds so quaint and inviting, I would love to visit Rudolph for a little shopping and dinner.

Silent Night, Deadly Night is the 4th book in the Year-Round Christmas Mystery series, but can easily be read as a standalone.

Please join me in welcoming Vicki Delany to The Book’s the Thing today!

Christmas Town and the Essence of a Cozy Mystery

By Vicki Delany

July 2019

The essence of a cozy mystery, as I see it, is real life, with some components stretched and exaggerated for effect.

Cozy writers take the things we love – families, friends, hobbies, crafts, even places – and write them with a loving hand to be slightly larger than life. And then, we thrust murder and sometimes mayhem into the mix.

When it comes to real life, is there anything we love more than Christmas?

The food, the decorations, the lights, the gifts, maybe even the weather. Above all the love of family and friends, and the enjoyment of celebrating with them.

In Rudolph, New York, they love Christmas so much they celebrate it all year round. And no one loves the holiday more than Merry Wilkinson, owner of Mrs. Claus’s Treasures, on Rudolph’s main street, Jingle Bell Lane. Merry’s father, Noel, is the town’s Santa Claus. Merry knows her dad isn’t really Santa, but sometimes she does wonder how he knows what people want before they so much as say so.

Another element of the cozy is often ambition or competition out of control (or perhaps just more out in the open than it is in real life). And Rudolph, New York, is determined to beat out Snowflake, Arizona or North Pole, Alaska to be officially known as America’s Christmas Town.

In the latest book in the Year Round Christmas series, Silent Night Deadly Night it’s the weekend before Thanksgiving and Merry Wilkinson is taking one last deep breath before the rush of the holiday season begins, looking forward to joining her family for the full, traditional Thanksgiving dinner.

But it wouldn’t be a cozy without a murder. And it wouldn’t be Thanksgiving in Christmas Town without a mysterious unclaimed dish served at a pot luck to a group of old friends pretending to be having a good time and an amateur sleuth determined to see that the right person ends up on Santa’s naughty list.

Real life, writ large, with a touch of murder thrown in.

About the Author

Vicki Delany is one of Canada’s most prolific and varied crime writers and a national bestseller in the U.S. She has written more than thirty books: clever cozies to Gothic thrillers to gritty police procedurals, to historical fiction and novellas for adult literacy. She is currently writing four cozy mystery series: the Tea By The Sea mysteries, the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop series, the Year Round Christmas mysteries and, as Eva Gates, the Lighthouse Library series.

Author Links

Website – www.vickidelany.com

Facebook – www.facebook.com/evagatesauthor;

Twitter: @vickidelany and@evagatesauthor

Instagram: vickidelany

Purchase Links – Amazon – B&N – Kobo – Google Play – IndieBound