In Case of the Holiday Hijinks by Jeffrey M. Poole, Zack Anderson is approaching his first Christmas in Pomme Valley, and he is facing pressure from his parents to return to Phoenix for the holiday. But the widower doesn’t want to face the city where his wife was killed a year earlier, so he resists them. Besides, he has recently started a new relationship with a widow, Jillian, and he wants to spend Christmas with her. So Zack’s parents decide to spend Christmas with him instead and surprise him by showing up in Pomme Valley early to do a surprise inspection of his new life.
In the meantime, Zack’s police officer friend Vince asks for the help of Zack’s corgi Sherlock, who has a gift for sniffing out clues, in a case that is stumping the police. Someone has broken into the house of a low-income family and stolen all the presents from under their Christmas tree and nothing else. The only thing Sherlock seems to pay attention to is the Christmas tree itself, but that tells Zack and Vince nothing. As the break-ins continue, with only Christmas presents getting stolen, they become further puzzled, and one case turns violent. So Zack and Vince must hurry to find the culprit.
Case of the Holiday Hijinks was an interesting, well- written book. It has a good plot and creative characters that you want to get to know. I particularly liked the way that the book introduced the back story with Zack’s telling his story to a friend instead of making the details seem like a back story. I do recommend that you read the first two books in the Corgi Case Files series before this third book, which gives away some details of the previous books that you might prefer to wait to learn while reading those books. However, you can easily read this book without the prior two and not feel at all lost.
Bob Johnson performs the audio edition of this book. With Zack’s serving as the book’s narrator, Johnson portrays the writer and amateur detective realistically and effectively. I felt that I could picture Zack clearly while listening to the book. With strong expression, Johnson balances the strength of this book by providing an excellent performance.
Case of the Holiday Hijinks was a fun book to listen to and has some creative elements. I appreciated the development in the relationship between Zack and his parents and the development of Zack’s character as we see him bond further with his adopted town and show real generosity to those in need. I give this book five stars!
Disclaimer: I received this book for free for review purposes, but that had no effect on the content of my review.
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