Dashing Through the Snow

October 27, 2008
The festive fifth holiday mystery from the bestselling mother-daughter Clarks (after 2006’s Santa Cruise
) focuses on a wish-fulfillment theme many Americans dream about—winning a fortune in the lottery. As Christmas approaches, the folks of Branscombe, N.H., are celebrating their first “Festival of Joy.” Visiting from New York City are novelist Nora Regan Reilly and her PI daughter, Regan Reilly, and their close friends Alvirah and Will Meehan, who won $40 million in the lottery a few years earlier. When four employees of Conklin’s Market win $160 million using numbers supplied by their associate Duncan Graham, they decide to share their winnings with Duncan. Duncan, alas, has vanished. The Reillys and Meehans soon get on a trail of intrigue involving an abduction, thieves, con men and a second winning lottery ticket. Though the plotting and the characterization can be as thin as early winter ice, this trifle still rates a cheerful ho ho ho.

November 15, 2008
In the fifth Christmas mystery by the real-life mother-daughter team (Mary and Carol), the fictional mother-daughter team (Nora and Regan)is on the way toBranscombe, New Hampshire, for an old-fashioned, small-town Christmas festival. With the carefully orchestrated festival only days away, the workers at Conklins market, which is set to cater the affair, are disgruntled by unfair treatment from Old Man Conklins newest wife, especially when shedenies them their expected bonuses. But whenfour of the workers realize that they hold a winninglottery ticket worth $160 million, theygladly snub Conklin and his wife, leaving them shorthanded with the festivities approaching. The group is concerned, though, when a fifth worker, Duncan, who hasbeen part of their lottery-buying co-op for years but had opted out this time, cannot be found, asthey planned to share the winningswith him anyway. Duncan had been cutting back on useless expenses, based on the dubious advice of scam-artist investors, and now he finds himself holding secrets that put him in serious danger. The amiable cast of charactersfrom the townsfolk to thetwo bumbling crooks toRegan and Noras group of friendsgives this pleasant holiday diversion a light charm that would be welcomeany time of the year.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)