In Death of a Santa by Kaufman, Rachel Stowe goes to a Christmas wreath- making party in her new hometown of Juniper Grove, Colorado. While making the wreaths, the women are visited by the town’s renowned Christmas carolers that call themselves the Four Santas and invite the cold men in for coffee and cookies. Micah Schultz, one of the Santas, pulls Rachel aside and asks her to investigate threatening phone calls his niece, Sonia Quinn, has been receiving. Then, within a couple minutes, Micah falls over and dies. As Chief James Gilman gets involved and discovers that this was murder, Rachel does her own investigating, leading to all kinds of conflict both personal and criminal.
Death of a Santa continues with the previous books in the Juniper Grove Cozy Mystery series in being delightful and creative. The book has a strong mystery plot and characters we become invested in. Further, it is clean of bad language, sex, and violence, ideal for giving to a child who is ready to graduate from Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys.
Becky Doughty performs the audiobook edition of this book and takes on the personality of Rachel, who narrates the book. We become quickly convinced that we are listening to Rachel herself, as Doughty acts the role of the character effectively.
I thoroughly enjoyed listening to Death of a Santa. The book was clever, fun, and clean. It’s also a short listen, a mere four hours, so someone who goes through audiobooks more slowly than I do might appreciate the shorter length. I give this book five stars.
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