Book 119, 2025

[chez_jae]

Death at the Mistletoe Market: A Cozy Christmas Murder Mystery (Christmas Cozy Mysteries by Rebecca Brody

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


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Finished an ebook: Death at the Mistletoe Market by Rebecca Brody. Not sure why that was the title; the market was called the Pinewood Hollow Christmas Market. Eh.

Emma Hartley is a local crafter, knitting scarves, mittens, etc and selling them at the local Christmas market. She loves everything about the market, from her fellow vendors to the seasonal music and the cheerful customers. Emma’s tranquility is broken when Gerald, the manager of the market, announces that he is considering selling it to an outside company known for snapping up small, local markets and turning them into cookie cutter markets that lose their local flair. When Gerald is found murdered in the market’s storage shed, one of the vendors who had argued with him is arrested for the crime. Emma is certain Frank is innocent, and she begins to question others with ties to the market to see if anyone else had a motive. She is aided by her BFF, Lily, and Mark, a man Emma thought was a new vendor only to learn he’s a PI who was hired by the woman who still owns a 20% share in the market. When Emma’s prying leads to her being threatened, everyone warns her to back off. Emma, however, won’t rest until she clears Frank’s name and finds out who really killed Gerald.

Characterizations were okay. The story started out decent and kept it up until late, when it seemed the author lost the plot. Towards the end, when Emma and a few others were checking out the storage shed where Gerald was killed, she got a text from one of the suspects, asking her to meet at the market office in half an hour. Emma agreed (letting the others know) and drove there. But, if they were at the storage shed, they were already at the market! Oof. Finally, the last chapter kept blathering about so-and-so going to prison for the crime, but the person named REPEATEDLY in that last chapter, was not the killer! I wanted to contact the author and ask if she forgot who the killer was.


Favorite lines: Sometimes you had to take risks.

Started out as a four-star, dropped to three, but after that ending, I can’t justify scoring this higher than a two.

Comments

[felaine]

Wow, that's bad if the author can't remember, truly forgettable.
Cute title though.