September 2023

I’m back! Did you miss me? Did you notice I’ve been gone?

After a short hiatus the Year-Round Christmas series is back and I’m thrilled. Once again, it’s the holiday season in Rudolph, New York, and Christmas is fast approaching. Not that Christmas is ever truly absent in Rudolph. We are, after all, your Year-Round Christmas destination.

Although we might celebrate the season all year, it really is a special time of year in our town when December finally rolls around. We delight in all the festivities: a huge Santa Claus parade, a children’s party, skating on the town rink, lights and decorations everywhere, Carolers in Victorian attire going from shop to shop along Jingle Bell Lane. Including in my own store, Mrs. Claus’s Treasures. Victoria’s Bake Shoppe, owned by my closest friend Vicky Casey, bakes tons of their special gingerbread, mince tarts, and decorated cookies. Santa Claus (who just happens to be my own dad) and his head toymaker (who just happens to be my boyfriend, Alan) take gift requests from children, and the occasional delighted adult.

This year, as an extra special treat, the town’s amateur theatrical group is putting on a musical production of A Christmas Carol. My own mother, former Metropolitan Opera diva, Aline Steiner, has a starring role and is also the vocal coach for the production.

I get all my acting and musical talent from my father, meaning I have none, so I have no role to play in the show. (Thank goodness). But I helped Vicky cater the cast and crew pre-show winter picnic in the park, and I had to drop off something for Mom at rehearsals, so I have had a peek at what’s going on.

It’s not pretty. I suppose tensions and rivalries are often high in show business, even a small town amateur production like this one. But everyone seems to bicker about everything. The prominence of their role, who should have the biggest part and the best costume, where members of the chorus should stand. On top of all that, they’re bickering about who’s really in charge. The long-time director of the theatrical society, or the new-to-town artistic director, who is also the person financing the whole thing after last year’s flop.

Never mind. I’m sure they’ll get over it and the show will be a huge success. After all, what can go wrong with a stage play?

Have Yourself a Deadly Little Christmas, A Year-Round Christmas Mystery Book #6
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Release: September 2023
Format: Print, Digital
Purchase Link

It’s beginning to look a lot like murder in the sixth installment of this charming cozy mystery series, perfect for fans of Donna Andrews and Jacqueline Frost.

It’s the beginning of December in Rudolph, New York, America’s Christmas Town, and business is brisk at Mrs. Claus’s Treasures, a gift and décor shop owned by Merry Wilkinson. The local amateur dramatic society is intensely preparing a special musical production of A Christmas Carol. But it’s not a happy set, as rivalries between cast and crew threaten the production.

Tensions come to a head when a member of the group is found dead shortly after a shopping excursion to Mrs. Claus’s Treasures. Was someone looking to cut out the competition? Everyone in the cast and crew is a potential suspect, including Aline, Merry’s mother, and Merry’s shop assistant Jackie O’Reilly, who was desperate for a starring role.

It could be curtains for Christmas—and for Merry—unless the killer can be ferreted out of the wings.

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 fifty books: clever cozies to Gothic thrillers to gritty police procedurals, to historical fiction and novellas for adult literacy. She is currently writing the Tea by the Sea mysteries, the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop series, the Year-Round Christmas mysteries, and the Lighthouse Library series (as Eva Gates).

Vicki is a past chair of the Crime Writers of Canada and co-founder and organizer of the Women Killing It Crime Writing Festival. Her work has been nominated for the Derringer, the Bony Blithe, the Ontario Library Association Golden Oak, and the Arthur Ellis Awards. Vicki is the recipient of the 2019 Derrick Murdoch Award for contributions to Canadian crime writing. She lives in Prince Edward County, Ontario.

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