We Wish You a Murderous Christmas by Vicki Delany

It's been three years since I read the first book in Vicki Delany's Year-Round Christmas Mystery series, Rest Ye Murdered Gentlemen. A really good indication of this being a really great series? Three years later I was able to pick up the next installment, We Wish You A Murderous Christmas, and all of the characters and love of the first book were still fresh in my mind. With as much as I read (which, I know, hasn't seemed like a lot this year), one would think that a fictional town full of people would get lost in the shuffle and pushed back into the far recesses of my brain after a few months much less a few years. There's just something special about Rudolph.

From the first few pages my love for the series, the town and the most of the characters was rekindled as though I had read the first book three days ago rather than three years ago. Yes, I still wish Rudolph, New York was a real place within easy traveling distance from my own. Yes, I still adore Merry and her parents and best friend and dog and still so do not adore her business "competition" Betty, her employee Jackie and Jackie's boyfriend Kyle. And speaking of boyfriends, I am most definitely Team Alan. By the end of the book all of these held true... and then some.

 As for the story itself? Well, Delany definitely knows how to keep the pace steady and keep me guessing. It took me just under two days to finish -- including time spent sleeping, eating, working, and celebrating Christmas a few days early with my boy. I hadn't figured out "whodunnit" until Merry had which is always a pleasure. I get a bit aggravated at times when I figure something out early and have to spend pages and pages waiting for the book to catch up! Now? My only aggravation is that Rudolph still isn't real.

Elementary, She Read by Vicki Delany (Tuesday Intros & Teaser Tuesday)

I took the majority of this most recent weekend "off" from reading. There were basketball games to be watched, a Wing Walk to go on with my son, bookshelves to work on rearranging, and lots of television to be caught up on thanks to my recent renewal of my Acorn.tv account. 
I started Vicki Delany's Elementary, She Read on the bus trip in to work Sunday night and by the time my shift was over I was more than half-way finished. (Had I not had to also actually work I may have finished it!)

When I saw the description on NetGalley I knew that it would be one I would need to request:

Gemma Doyle, a transplanted Englishwoman, has returned to the quaint town of West London on Cape Cod to manage her Great Uncle Arthur's Sherlock Holmes Bookshop and Emporium. The shop--located at 222 Baker Street--specializes in the Holmes canon and pastiche, and is also the home of Moriarty the cat. When Gemma finds a rare and potentially valuable magazine containing the first Sherlock Homes story hidden in the bookshop, she and her friend Jayne (who runs the adjoining Mrs. Hudson's Tea Room) set off to find the owner, only to stumble upon a dead body. 
The highly perceptive Gemma is the police’s first suspect, so she puts her consummate powers of deduction to work to clear her name, investigating a handsome rare books expert, the dead woman's suspiciously unmoved son, and a whole family of greedy characters desperate to cash in on their inheritance. But when Gemma and Jayne accidentally place themselves at a second murder scene, it's a race to uncover the truth before the detectives lock them up for good.
Fans of Sherlock Holmes will delight in the sleuthing duo of Gemma and Jayne in Elementary, She Read, the clever and captivating series debut by nationally bestselling author Vicki Delany.

See, for as long as I can remember I have adored Sherlock Holmes and stories inspired by Doyle and his beloved duo. I even got craftastic enough to make myself Holmes & Watson dolls for the Sherlockian part of my bookshelves!

I have read some rather awful Holmes & Watson-related stories over the years. This is definitely not one of them. Even without the fact that the main character pretty much has my dream job of a bookshop and cafe, there's an abundance of humor and sass and Gemma is very Holmes-esque in how she sees and relates to the world around her. It's a great book to curl up with in your favorite easy chair (or bus seat ... or rolling computer desk chair ...) and lose yourself in for a handful of hours. It was fun to keep flip-flopping over who I was certain was the guilty party and I eagerly await more visits to West London!

"First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros" is from the first paragraph or two of a book being read now (or in the future) and is hosted by Bibliophile by the Sea. "Teaser Tuesday" at The Purple Booker asks for a random line or two from anywhere in the book currently being read.

Elementary, She Read is being released on March 14th. Once I can get my hands on the paperback it will definitely be added to my Sherlock shelf!

Rest Ye Murdered Gentlemen by Vicki Delany

The beginning of a new cozy mystery series set in a town that celebrates Christmas all year AND that town is in my dear New York State?!? Yeah, I was in love with this book before I even hit the "Buy Now" button on Amazon.

Vicki Delany's Rest Ye Murdered Gentlemen takes place in the fictional town of Rudolph, New York on the southern shores of Lake Ontario. Not familiar with New York geography? Here's some help:

(original map found here)

Oh how I wish it WAS a real place because see that little heart in the center(ish) of the state? Yeah ... that's home. It would take a couple of hours TOPS to go and indulge in the yums from Victoria's Bake Shoppe and pick up some locally crafted gifts at Mrs Claus's Treasures. Of course, with how much I love all things Christmasy we'd probably end up having a day trip turn into an overnight and we'd hole up at The Yuletide Inn  (if they had vacancies, of course) after some dinner at the Touch of Holly Restaurant (and some dessert from North Pole Ice Cream). Alas, all I can do is read about it all.

Now, Rudolph didn't start out being all festive. The town was named after its founder whose last name was Rudolph and he was thought to be a hero of sorts during the War of 1812. When it was discovered that he was, in fact, a spy .... well .... the focus switched to the reindeer that shares the name and ever since it's been Fa La La and Ho Ho Ho and Jingle All The Way. On the day of the big Christmas parade there was even an English reporter from an international travel magazine in town chatting folks up and taking pictures for a story highlighting Rudolph as "America's Christmas Town." 

Oh, yeah. That's where the book opens. At the beginning of the parade. See? I knew I was supposed to be rambling about a book and not just obsessing over someplace I can never go. (Watch. Next someone will tell me that Hogwarts doesn't exist, either. Bah.)

Merry Wilkinson is our main character and the owner of Mrs. Claus's Treasures. She has a rambunctious Saint Bernard puppy named Matterhorn (Mattie, for short), her best friend owns the Bake Shoppe, and her nemesis since youth is now a local police officer. At the parade after-party Vicky treated everyone in town to amazing gingerbread including one specially made to look like Charles Dickens for the magazine guy that Merry got to serve since she was dressed as Mrs. Claus. After the party, Merry takes her pup for a much-needed walk in the park and Mattie finds said magazine guy laying in the snow. 

Dead. 

Of course.

The murder weapon? A poisoned gingerbread cookie.

The two people who had the most recent contact with the last cookie he was known to have eaten (and, therefore, the main suspects from the get-go)? 

Merry and Vicky.

Of course.

Christmas just wouldn't be Christmas without murder and mayhem, would it?

Have I mentioned yet that I love this book? Oh. Yeah. I think I have. 

Even though Rudolph only exists on the pages it feels real. You know these people. You love some. You dislike some. You want to hit some over the head with a candy cane. You want this nasty murder business solved and out of the way for Vicky and Merry and the entire town because, really, murder in "America's Christmas Town" would not be good for tourism. You know, for the town that no one can really get to anyway.

*sniffle*

#TeaserTuesday # 40 - Rest Ye Murdered Gentlemen by Vicki Delany

The Book & The Tease

Rest Ye Murdered Gentlemen by Vicki Delany

The Meme