The Chocolate Snowman Murders: A Chocoholic Mystery

by: Joanna Carl

Published by: Obsidian (imprint of New American Library)

Reviewed by Jan Johnson

I love Christmas murder mysteries. I’m not sure why I love them so much. Perhaps it is because the mysteries I tend to read are of the cozy/amateur sleuth type and they make me feel warm and cozy. Not sure what that says about me. But it is my reality and Joanna Carl has added to my Christmas happiness with The Chocolate Snowman Murders. I haven’t read her books before, but will be searching them out now that I’ve read this one.

Lee McKinney Woodyard doesn’t really want to serve on the Warner Pier Winter Arts Festival committee, but she agreed and it is a commitment she must keep. Besides she is the owner of TenHuis Chocolade and dedicated to her business and community. And she loves living in a ‘happening’ place, even if she has to help make things happen.

The Arts Festival is proving to be difficult. There are egos, changes to the schedule, time commitments that go awry, and then there’s Fletcher Mendenhall, the arts festival juror who shows up in town drunk. Lee takes things in stride and leaves him to sleep off his ‘drunk’. Lee doesn’t give him another thought until her husband, Joe tells her that the juror is a corpse, as in dead. This is a case of death by desk lamp.

Since Lee was one of the last people to see the victim alive, she’s in a predicament. Then another body turns up (murder by snowman) and the situation becomes dire. Lee must solve the case before more bodies turn up.

The Chocolate Snowman Murders is perfect for your Christmas mystery reading. You’ll smile. You really will. And you’ll be glad you sat down and read it. Then you’ll want another of Carl’s books.

Armchair Interviews says: A good holiday read.

Author’s Web site: http://www.JoannaCarl.com