The Last Noel

August 13, 2007
In veteran novelist Graham’s satisfying holiday latest, three jewelry store thieves stall out in a snowbank and have a disagreement that leaves only two of them standing. Meanwhile, the O’Boyle family is spending Christmas at their rural Massachusetts home, snowed in and bickering, until the doorbell rings. Brandishing guns, the two thieves threaten to kill Skyler, the family matriarch, who hopes that Kat, her college-aged daughter who has remained hidden upstairs, will figure something out. As the O’Boyles struggle to survive their horrific ordeal, they soon discover the strength of their family bonds in the face of despair.

October 1, 2007
On Christmas Eve, three burglars are on the run after killing a jewelry store owner in a botched robbery. In the middle of a treacherous snowstorm, two of them end up at the O'Boyle winter cabin, where the family has just sat down to dinner. The thieves don't know that daughter Kat has escaped into the blizzard to find helpbut whom she finds out in the storm is almost as shocking as the uninvited guests. This high-tension suspense story is a good break from cozy holiday tales. For all fiction collections.

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