Title: Having a Fudgy Christmas Time
By: Nancy CoCo
ASIN: B0C4C79KSZ
Website: goodreads.com/nancycoco
Brought to you by OBS reviewer Andra
Summary:
’TIS THE SEASON FOR FUDGE—AND SLEUTHING
Carol is looking forward to finishing plans for the Mackinac Island Senior Center Christmas Ball. But when she arrives at the center, she finds the door jimmied open and a dead man inside. The victim is a local senior who seems to have been sleeping in the center at night—but why? Although she promises Officer Rex Manning not to involve her book club in solving the mystery, Carol finds a way to fudge around that. Rallying her troop of silver-haired sleuths—and with some support from Ally in between her batches of Christmas fudge — Carol sets out to discover which grinch tried to steal this Christmas. All she wants from Santa is to get this case wrapped up with a bow! (Goodreads)
Review:
Having a Fudgy Christmas Time by Nancy CoCo is a Christmas Themed cozy mystery novella. This particular story has Carol as the main sleuth and what a journey the reader is taken on.
Just before the big holiday ball is to occur, Carol Tunisian (who is in her early 70’s) stumbles across a body in the Senior’s Center. At first, thinking it is just a break in, she proceeds to enter the building only to discover a body. She then calls 9-1-1. Turns out the body is actually a local senior named Martin Oxford. Given that Carol has previously assisted Ally, the main sleuth in the Candy-Coated Mystery Series, Carol proceeds to “help” the local police in trying to find out the truth as to what and why this happened.
Carol enlists the help of fellow book club members in the sleuthing. I found the characters quite the group! But then, I usually enjoy senior citizen sleuths as they seem to be fearless in their pursuit of justice. And their sense of humor is certainly to be enjoyed.
The story overall was a fun, quick read. Unfortunately, I found the brevity of this particular book distracting and I really was looking for more depth as Carol took over the lead “sleuth” role. It seemed that the development of each theory as to who the culprit might be or the possible motive was quickly proven incorrect and promptly dismissed. I guess the depth I was hoping for was missing (even novella’s can have depth).
While I was a wee bit disappointed in the depth of the novella, I did find the read enjoyable (as I do with this author). If you are looking for a quick cozy mystery and you know the character from reading the Candy-Coated Mystery series, then this just might be the holiday themed story for you.
